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Article Excerpt
THE FRANCOPHONIE COMMUNITY SEEKS SOLIDARITY THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES OF SPORTS AND ARTS
This paper explores transnational and local cultural, political, and economic dimensions of the 5th Jeux de la Francophonie ("Francophonie Games" or "Francophonie Sports and Arts Festival") held in Niamey, Niger in December 2005.[1] Approximately 2,500 athletes and artists, and hundreds of their coaches representing 44 member nations of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) competed in seven sports (track and field, basketball, boxing, soccer, judo, African wrestling, and table tennis) and seven arts (singing, oral storytelling, literature, dancing, painting, photography, and sculpture). While all participants in the Jeux reside in member nations of the OIF, choices of athletes and artists were based on the excellence of their performance and not on French literacy. Roughly 2,000 foreign nationals also attended as supporters.
The Jeux produced collective exhilaration. This extravagant spectacle of global Francophonie, Nigerien nationalism, and ethnic diversity enabled participants to celebrate and examine their fluid transnational, national, and local identities. In this time of culture wars, misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians, growing divisions within France (exposed dramatically in the massive protests staged largely by African immigrants in fall 2005), hot wars, and the so-called "global war on terror," the Jeux offers a fantastic idea: we can work toward peace, unity, and global understanding through sports and the arts--"the two universal languages" (CIJF 2006). Several important sub-themes were also expressed throughout the Jeux, namely: a vision of universal humanity with generous hospitality offered equally to all people, the creative blending of tradition and modernity, and gender equity. These ideals were expressed through sports, but even more directly through the arts and grand spectacles. Indeed, the inclusion of arts and sports in equal measure distinguishes the Jeux from analogous events such as the Olympics and the British Commonwealth Games.
The core agenda of building Francophonie solidarity through sports and the arts created a distinctive ethos for the Jeux. Planners, participants, and audiences sought creative synergy between competition and cultural exchange. While world-class athletes vied for hundreds of gold, silver, and bronze medals and were monitored by anti-doping officials, winning was not everything. For example, as the two leading women in the marathon--Celine Comerais and Elena Fetizon, both of France--ran down the home stretch, they locked arms to cross the finish line simultaneously. Furthermore, although some artists were "in it to win it," the arts lend themselves better to cultural dialogue than to competition and ranking. Many artists avidly discussed their work with each other. Audiences appreciated non-medal winners' talents as much as--and in many cases more than--medal winners' skills.
This paper focuses on the kinds of discourses that were represented and celebrated in the social and political arena of the Jeux. It aims to contribute to the discussion of (1) the politics of Francophonie concept, (2) the negotiation of local and global politics in the context of major sports and arts events, and (3) the representation of local, national, and global politics in public ceremonies. Some consider Francophonie as an exemplary form of solidarity; others see it as a symbol of conscious or unconscious neocolonialism. This paper analyzes how President Mamadou Tandja and political leaders in Niger used the Jeux to define Niger as a pillar of global Francophonie and also to represent and reinvent a Nigerien national identity of pride that would contrast with images of Niger as a country of underdevelopment and famine. The ways by which the Nigerien state incorporated and transformed different local traditions in the opening and closing ceremonies as well as in the introduction of West African wrestling--Niger's national sport--offer the most revealing examples of how the central themes of the Jeux were negotiated through global, national, and local articulations. The paper also highlights the diverse ways that Nigerien citizens defined, presented, and perceived themselves vis-a-vis the strategic aims of international Francophonie and the Nigerien state.
The paper draws primarily from 137 structured interviews--98 in Hausa and 39 in French--including 127 with Nigeriens and ten with foreigners of six nations, conducted during two visits to Niamey: one of six weeks from May to July 2005 investigating preparations, and one of four weeks in December 2005 and January 2006 attending the 12-day Jeux and considering its immediate aftermath. Although I did not use random sampling techniques, several periods of fieldwork in Niamey since 1988 informed my decisions and allowed me to select a reasonably representative sample. The paper also relies on long discussions with the leading organizers, informal conversations with dozens of international visitors, and participant observation in six street corner conversation groups--the most important institution of public culture in Niamey (Youngstedt 2004). In addition, I monitored state and private media coverage before, during, and after the Jeux.
THE AFRICAN IMPETUS FOR GLOBAL FRANCOPHONIE
In an unusual twist reflecting the unpredictability of flows of culture in modernity, Presidents Hamani Diori of Niger, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, and Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, acting together in 1960, were the first to propose the establishment of a formal institution to consolidate and promote international Francophonie cultural and linguistic identity, solidarity, dialogue, and cooperation among newly independent nations wishing to pursue continuing relations with France. The Francophonie movement was formally institutionalized by 21 signatory nations who established the Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique (ACCT) at a meeting held in March 1970 in Niamey led by Diori, Bourguiba, Senghor, and Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Kampuchea. In 1998, the organization adopted the name Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), and the motto "Egalite, Complementarite, Solidarite." Today the 56 member nations of the OIF pursue four key objectives: "(1) the promotion of the French language and cultural and linguistic diversity [including 'the elimination of illiteracy in national languages']; (2) the promotion of peace, democracy, and human rights; (3) the support of education, training, higher education, and research; and (4) the development of co-operation to the service of durable development and solidarity" (OIF 2006).
The Comite International des Jeux de la Francophonie (CIJF) is charged to address each of these missions through organizing the Jeux every four years in collaboration with the host nation. The CIJF is explicitly devoted to building a "multilateral and interdependent Francophonie" emphasizing "North-South cooperation" (CIJF 2006). It has committed to holding at least every other Jeux in the "South" in order to show that poor countries can organize "an event of scale whereas the near total of the international competitions proceed in the affluent countries" and to allow "participants to discover ways of life distant from their own culture" (CIJF 2006). Through five specific objectives, the CIJF hopes to leave a legacy of sustainable development through sports and arts for the organizing country--especially its youth--by working: "(1) to better structure national federations with the support of international federations ... (2) to carry out synergies in cultural networks, (3) to [deliver] equipment for the elite, but also for the greatest number, (4) to allow the country to acquire a know-how usable for other national and international objectives, and (5) to [ensure] that the population is identified with the event" (CIJF 2006).
THE POLITICS OF FRANCOPHONIE
Francophonie offers the image of a geopolitical community that extends over five continents. The Francophonie concept has inspired diverse interpretations and lively debates around the world, particularly since the 1990s.[2] The Jeux offered the Nigerien state and citizens an arena consider its relationship with and the value of Francophonie.
The Francophonie concept is polysemic and can be divisive despite its imagined community ideals. Scholars typically emphasize that it can be defined in three ways: "by the use of the French language; by membership of a formal, organized community of nations; or by the acceptance and promotion of a set of values and beliefs" (Ager 1996:xi). The third definition is the most complex and nebulous since is it involves "not exclusively a geographic nor even linguistic, but cultural approach--an attitude, a belief in a spirit, an ideology and a way of doing things, inspired by French history, language and culture but not necessarily using French, aware of and responsive to the nature of the modern world" (Ager 1996:1). Emily Apter argues that Francophonie also means a "planetary cartography, a postcolonial ontology, a linguistic platform not a place ... a multiplicity of linguistic life-forms ... a condition of untranslatability ... [and] a new comparative literature," among other things (2005:297). Ager reviews the central problems facing Francophonie, including "the identity and culture associated with the French, threats from English and other languages, the opinion of many that France's [meddling in the affairs of former colonies and] continuing overseas possessions are little more than the world's last colonies, [and] the disparity between North and South in economic terms" (1996:IX).
By the time Niger had secured the right to host the Jeux in 2000, the Nigerien state had promoted the Francophonie concept for 40 years. Nevertheless, most Nigeriens held only vague notions of the idea if any at all. A massive public advertising campaign over five years inspired much discourse among Nigeriens. Many people wondered what Francophonie community or identity could possibly mean for Niger since only 20% of Nigeriens speak French. One woman outlined the contours of the reservations about Francophonie shared by many Nigeriens:
The Francophonie could not represent an identity for us Africans from the moment when the French language was forced upon us while not spoken by the majority of our population. In fact, for me, it is nothing but a continuation of colonialism, this time linguistically ... The Jeux is not bad, it is even interesting, but may we insist less on the language as a sort of union and more on the cultural diversity and exchange that constitute an advantage for the country's youth.
Diverse views among Nigeriens sometimes correlate and sometimes do not correlate with linguistic aptitude. As indicated through interviews, Frenchspeaking Nigeriens generally approved of and appreciated the Jeux more than non-French speaking Nigeriens. However, Francophone Nigeriens were among the most vocal opponents of the Jeux, including a local French language teacher who declared, "The Francophone world is, in my view,...
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