Leïla Slimani at the 'Maghreb des Livres', February 7 - 8, 2015. Wikicommons/ Indif. Some rights reserved. When France's president Emmanuel Macron appointed prominent, Morocco-born author Leïla Slimani as his personal representative with a wide remit as Francophone affairs minister last November, perhaps he didn't initially grasp the full extent of his own linguistic proposal.
His campaign to revive Molière's language – and open up France to writers who use French worldwide – has unwittingly triggered an ongoing cultural war. Consider: more people speak French in Kinshasa, Congo's capital city, than in Paris. By 2050, Africa will be home to 85% of all French-speakers. Consider: more people speak French in Kinshasa, Congo's capital city, than in Paris.
Touring the world
Macron has been promoting his language on travels to Asia, the Middle East, Ghana (English-speaking but surrounded by French) and Tunisia, where he said he would like to see twice as many people learn French by 2020.
