@Random, I agree with your comment except the part about the government elite speaking English. Without exception, everyone I’ve met speaks good French. I’d say that perhaps 20% have good English and another 30%-40% have some English. But about half have no English at all. Even at the highest levels, French still dominates.

Laws, BTW are debated in Kinyarwanda with occasional excursions into French, but written in French. Official government publications are a mixture — public proclamations are usually in Kinya, for instance, but the Official Gazette is French. Laws are definitely not translated into English — this was a big problem for us!

cheers,

Doug M.

As far as the language thing, Kinyarwanda is the main everyday one and has been forever. It probably got a boost in the official sphere since 2002 but I don’t think the fact that the law is written in it and then translated in French and English changed anything about how it’s debated in the parliament or drafted in the ministries.

About French and English, my understanding is that there’s 2 dynamics. On one hand, the pre-existing intellectual infrastructure was Francophone. The teachers, most of the public servants, etc.. So most schools have curriculum in French with some intensive English classes. And Public service is probably the same. But on the other hand, the rulers, the top elite are english-speakers who learned French. So English is probably used at the top level of government and gains ground from there.

I don’t know if English is taking over from French but French is definetly loosing ground slowly, where it matter: in government.
Among the people, Kinyarwanda has always been the default and it’s probably regaining some ground too. We shouldn’t forget that Swahili is widely spoken too.

I don’t think anyone in France is reconsidering anything. I don’t see anyone arresting an official of a Security Council Permanent Member because of some support they gave to horrible people.

That said, yes, of course, Rwanda has the best evidence, even if it probably doesn’t cancel out some of the French accusations. (of course, the stupidest French accusation is to link Kagame to the genocide by accusing him of shooting down whatshisname’s plane. that’s a serious case of blaming the victim).

Also, what is the practical effect on the ground of the claim and counterclaim of genocide and murder between France and Rwanda? (Rwanda seems to have the best of it so far by the available evidence.) Is anyone in France reconsidering their travel plans?

- Rwanda adopted English as an official language in addition to French and Kinyarwanda. Yes, it’s partially a payback to France but also influenced by the fact that most of the government grew up in Uganda.

- In Senegal, 80% of the population is fluent in Wolof and the rest probably speak it too. So it doesn’t fit next to Kenya and Nigeria.

- The French “engagement” is complicated. There are business interests, local ones which happen to be very good at manipulating the local embassies which in turn influence Paris. Add to that personnal freidnships here and there and of course the Grand Policy of mantaining French prestige and you get that result.