Is Algeria getting rid of French cultural imperialism?

In a move that reflects how North African countries are working to get rid of the legacy of France’s colonialism in the region, Algerian authorities have decided to abandon the French language in its private schools.

The Algerian Ministry of Education banned teaching the French language in more than 500 private schools, vowing to refer the violators of this decision to trial.

The Ministry of Education also ordered inspection committees to be sent to schools to check if the decision is being applied at the schools or not. 

The decision was reported on September 26 by the French newspaper Le Figaro, which claimed that the decision negatively affects the future of students in private schools, as they depend on their studies in the French language.

In 2022, the Algerian Ministry of Culture decided to stop using the French language in all its activities and events.

About 15 million Algerians speak the French language, followed by Moroccans with more than 13 million. Meanwhile, Tunisia has 6.3 million French speakers, according to a report by the International Organization of Francophonie in 2022.

The report was prepared by the organization's French Language Observatory. It revealed that 84% of those who are aged 15 years and above in Algeria speak French and that 68% of them study and speak it.

Was the French language replaced by English?

Teaching the English language was introduced into Algeria’s public schools and the state’s administrations in 2019, Europe 1 reported on September 27.

“Teaching English is a strategic choice in the country’s new education policy,” Education Minister Abdelkrim Belabed was quoted as saying by AP in September.

Is the decision political?

Former Algerian lawmaker Abdel-Karim Al Qurashy told Jusoor Post that the Algerian authorities introduced the English language into the curricula due to “the dominance of the English language in the scientific and technical aspects, and the inability of the French language to keep pace with that.” 

The decision to remove the French language is not “political," he added, clarifying that during the French colonization that lasted more than 130 years, France tried to eradicate all the features of Algerian culture with its diversity by introducing the French language into the society. 

“It can be said that France was largely able to remove the Algerian culture if it were not for the role of the religious and Quranic schools that preserved many of the characteristics of Algerian society, especially its language and religion,” he added.

Qurashy noted that although Algeria inherited the French program and all its schools, that did not last long, as Algeria began its educational reforms at the beginning of the 1970s. “Algeria restructured the education [system] by introducing the Arabic language in primary education in 1976 […] as well as strengthening the teaching of specializations in the Arabic language,” he said.

He clarified that the Arabic and French languages are being taught in the third grade of primary school, while the study of English starts in the third grade of intermediary education.

Qurashy added that learning the English language is a popular demand, as some Algerians called for replacing the French language with English in order to get rid of the impacts of colonialism that was brought upon the citizens, like torture and ignorance.

In comments to Jusoor Post, Amena Khalifa, a professor of interdisciplinary studies in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at Al-Azhar University sees that the Algerian decision is a political one because the French culture had been imposed on Algerian society as a way to control them. So, after the end of the French occupation, Algeria saw it was better to end the effects of “this imperialist culture.”

She added that the major powers are applying the Darwinian doctrine of “survival of the fittest” as they impose their language to guarantee their dominance and control to steal people's wealth and cultures.

In Morocco, Algeria’s neighbor, the authorities also took the same approach. In April 2023, Morocco announced officially that it gave up using the French language amid a political disagreement between Paris and Rabat, Sawt Marco reported.

It was clear when Moroccan Minister of Industry Riyad Mansour refused to speak in French in response to a French journalist, saying that he prefers to speak in Spanish or English.

🚨🇲🇦#رياض_مزور وزير الصناعة المغربي يُظهر رفضه للحديث باللغة الفرنسية رداً على صحفي فرنسي، مؤكداً أنه يُفضل التحدث بالإنجليزية، الإسبانية، والعربية فقط🫡
🇫🇷❌#اللغه_الفرنسيه #القوه_الضاربه #Algeria #اسراييل #Morocco #Maroc #المغرب_أولا pic.twitter.com/gv44EX2kpe

— 🎙عاجل🇲🇦 (@llyasluci) September 29, 2023

Some media reports attributed the reason for abandoning the French language to the ongoing political crisis between Rabat and Paris over several files like illegal migration and the issue of the Pegasus software (which Morocco was accused of using to spy on French President Emmanuel Macron). Hespress reported that Morocco has renewed demands to abandon the French language, “as it is a declining language at the global level,” and to adopt the English language instead.