HISTORICALSTUDY OF THE DIFFUSION OFFRENCH IN SENEGAL

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This study intended to investigate why the diffusion of French, the only official language of the country, is very limited in Senegal even today by studying the history of the French colonial policy and of its educational policy, and by interviewing Senegalese individuals of various generations and social classes.The results obtained through this project are summarized as follows:1. In the colonial period, the French administration had no intention of diffusing French to the whole colony despite its famous "assimilationist" colonial policy. Even in the, "four communes" where the French citizenship was, granted to all the population, French was understood only by a small fraction of the population.2. After, independence, in 1960 also, the diffusion of French was not considered by the new government leaders as a crucial necessity for the nation building. Consequently, the education in French did not spread as it was expected, and after the 1970's, it stagnated visibly. And even for those who went to French schools, in many cases, the knowledge of French remained very limited.This study demonstrated the fact that, neither the French "assimilationist" colonial policy nor the "pro-France" policy of the independent government did not succeed in diffusing French in Senegal, and that, they rather divided the population by the language barrier into two groups : French speaking elite and the rest of the population.