Emmanuel Macron arrives in New Orleans this Friday, the culmination and closure of his US state visit that began three days earlier. The day should be dedicated to culture and Francophonie, with the formalization of the creation of a Fund for the French language, which means promoting its teaching in the United States.
It must be said that, French for two centuries, marked on the corners of the streets by names with hexagonal accents, Louisiana seems like a bastion of Francophilia in Anglo-Saxon lands. As if a privileged bond united France and its former colony 7,000 kilometers away forever.
Emmanuel Macron is d’ailleurs the three president of the Republic à se rendre sur place, after the general De Gaulle in 1960 and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1976. BFMTV.com fait le point sur l’histoire et la réalité de cette relation long distance.
looking back
Their common past goes back to 1682, when French expeditionaries took possession of the region. They give him the name of the king of the moment. In fact, Louisiana refers to Louis XIV. When the new capital of the territory was founded in 1718, it was still inspired by the politicians of the metropolis. New Orleans echoes then the regency of Philippe, Duke of Orleans.
If Louisiana will never be a major settlement, it nevertheless welcomed 6,000 Frenchmen in the mid-18th century. On the spot, we hope to enrich ourselves through an industry articulated around indigo, tobacco… and slavery.
However, the story could have been shortened. In 1763, France, defeated at the end of the Seven Years’ War, lost “its” Louisiana to the Spanish and English. He finds it again at the dawn of the 19th century, but the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, immediately resells it, in 1803.
But it’s mostly a novel that the future emperor sells to the Americans – for $15 million at the time anyway – France, which has no real control over this vast strip of land that runs from the Great Lakes to ‘in the mouth of the Mississippi.
“Louisiana is a poignant reality. In principle, this sale doubles the American area, but almost all this territory is under the control of the Native Americans”, repositions the historian Gilles Havard, co-author of theHistory of French America with his colleague, Cécile Vidal, and a specialist in the interactions between European settlers and Amerindians.
Game over for France in Louisiana? Not at all. French emigration survived colonization, initially, it is true, encouraged by the possibility of practicing slavery there. “Between 1791 and 1809 settlers from Saint-Domingue arrived, but also free people of color and their slaves. This is what explains why New Orleans remained predominantly French-speaking until the mid-19th century”, illustrates Gilles Havard, also CNRS research director.
25% Louisiana of French ancestry
Fortunately, it is rather the culture that today unites the ocean. First, 25% of current Louisianans are of French descent.
“Furthermore, the very numerous French surnames, even if they are pronounced in the American way, testify to this importance”, summarizes Gilles Havard.
In addition to local toponymy, French has also been maintained among the population. However, in modest proportions: according to Gilles Havard, the State now has 7% Francophones.
Without benefiting from any official role, French can also claim special status. Since 1968, a “Council for the Development of French in Louisiana” must ensure its future. In 2018, the State even joined the International Organization of la Francophonie, discreetly, as an observing member.
One of these remanences can be read even in the legal field: “It is one of the only States that does not have the common law!” comments Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, historian and author of a History of the United States – From 1492 to the present. This Louisiana Civil Code remains edited in its original versionthat is to say in French.
In French in the text? Yes, but the “Cajun”
Still, the French spoken by this 7% of Louisianans is very specific. “The French we speak there is Cajun,” Christophe Deroubaix, US correspondent and journalist specializing in the United States for Humanityauthor among others of The coming America.
“Cajun”: from the name of this Acadian-descended population (in Canada) in the midst of the unrest of the seven-year Franco-English war, which became “Cadiens” and then “Cajuns” in their new installation. “It’s incomprehensible French to us,” adds Bertrand Van Ruymbeke: “It’s Acadian mixed with a southern accent.”
Gilles Havard adds: “The only community in the United States whose first language is French are the Houmas, Louisiana Indians, who number about 20,000 and many of whom speak French.” Because, for the rest, he admits the historian: “The French language declines rather in Louisiana.”
Remoteness and “the bad French”
A long estrangement of more than two centuries, a unique French of its kind and above all belonging to the protected linguistic species… The famous privileged relationship between France and Louisiana seems at this point a mirage or a bit dreamy or backward folklore. .
French heads of state, however, seem to want to keep it. Emmanuel Macron is not the only one nor the first to undertake this undertaking. On April 29, 1960, as shown in the report below, General de Gaulle discovered new orleans at night before flying to Guyana.
And in May 1976, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing strolls through the same streets of New Orleans, to the sound of brass bands. bands locals, highlighting the “close ties” between his current resort and his country. Ironically, the Old Square then visited by “VGE” can pass for the “French quarter” of the city, it is almost nothing.
“Basically, apart from a few buildings, it is mostly a Spanish neighborhood”, sweeps Bertrand Van Ruymbeke.
The journalist Christophe Deroubaix goes further. For him, the break is now almost complete between France and Louisiana, as between the Francophonie and the American State: “It is bad French to think that because a territory has been French, it is forever. Louisiana is the southernmost state in the United States due to its sociopolitical characteristics”. And the reporter to cite, in particular, the importance of its prison population.
Therefore, it could be concluded that there is pretense. “We shouldn’t have any illusions. There is certainly a memory to keep, but this link has been greatly relaxed”, reinforces Gilles Havard who recalls:
“There are memories of French origins, like when after Hurricane Katrina (in 2005, editor’s note), protesters marched with signs: ‘Buy us, Chirac!’, but they are mostly winks.”
A very American double personality
For Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, “it depends on what we are looking for”. “If we talk about the Francophonie, about a State that still has a very strong link with France, in fact, it is no longer like that. Today, we will hear more French in San Francisco than in New Orleans.”
However, you still perceive the echoes of French culture in the region and this, at the very heart of the daily life of the locals. “Louisianans eat fried apple donuts, which are not donutsand they are real traces of the French presence”. A persistent influence that his compatriots are not unaware of, according to the academic: “For the Americans themselves, it is the place identified as French.”
Here, it is less the French identity that matters than a deep feature of the political culture of the United States. “There is a tension in the United States between the idea of ’manifest destiny’ very much from the 19th century -according to which the Anglo-Saxon population has the vocation of dominating the American territory- and the cult of precedence, that is to say, the cult of the foundation history and the founding fathers. So, let’s not completely forget the French founders”, describes Gilles Havard.
An image of Epinal?
In other words, the strength of the Franco-Louisiana link should not be exaggerated or undermined. This subsists as a backdrop for an America aware of coming from elsewhere. Likewise, Bertrand Van Ruymbeke believes that Emmanuel Macron’s trip to New Orleans and his desire to explore the issue of la Francophonie there are wise.
“It is a good idea to go to a place that is a former French colony and where he knows that if the Francophonie has a card to play, it is there”, judges the professor of Civilization and American History at the University of Paris-8.
Christophe Deroubaix’s opinion is different. The journalist thinks rather that “Emmanuel Macron plays with the image of Epinal”, addressing rather a French public that still feeds a “very strong imagination” around this Louisiana. According to him, the framework of New Orleans has, however, a practical interest when it comes to raising the issue of the French language, an always delicate problem in the former colonies: “Doing it in New Orleans is less dangerous politically, not even for free.”
The long time of history can, on occasions, be combined with the most immediate considerations.
Source: BFM TV
