Frenchsplainer – un geste politique | Frenchsplaining – a geste politique
Chronique inaugurale pour ONFR+ | Inaugural column for ONFR+
À lire dans ONFR+ | Read in ONFR+
Frenchsplainer – un geste politique
« Revendiquer le français en Ontario est un geste politique – mais raconter l’Ontario français en anglais l’est aussi. Pour assurer l’immortalité du français en Ontario, il faut Frenchsplainer. Il nous faut dire la Franco-Ontarie. Partager nos récits, nos réalités, nos luttes, nos rêves. Dans notre langue – et celle de la majorité.»
Avec des commentaires des illustres Serge Miville, Mimi O’Bonsawin, Kyla Heyming et Alex Tétreault. Merci aussi à Lila Mouch-Essers, Sébastien Pierroz et Rudy Chabannes de m’avoir permis cette belle prise de parole.
PLEIN TEXTE EN FRANÇAIS SUR ONFR+
Frenchsplaining – a political act
“Speaking French in Ontario is a political act – but so is telling stories from l’Ontario français in English. To ensure the immortality of French in Ontario, Frenchsplaining is necessary. We must give words to la Franco-Ontarie. We must share our stories, our realities, our struggles, our dreams. In our tongue – and that of the majority.”
My inaugural column for ONFR+, in which I chat with the illustrious Serge Miville, Mimi O’Bonsawin, Kyla Heyming, and Alex Tétreault. Thank you as well to Lila Mouch-Essers, Sébastien Pierroz, and Rudy Chabannes for allowing me this prise de parole.
Frenchsplaining – a geste politique
Speaking French in Ontario is a political act.
French is the heartfelt cry of a people who love the magnificent poetry of this language, which speaks our passion, our freedom and our hope in a part of the country where speaking it requires a daily lutte.
But if speaking French in Ontario is a political act, so is telling stories from l’Ontario français in English.
As a common practice among Franco-Sudburians, Frenchsplaining is the art of sharing la Francophonie to an anglophone audience, often in bilinguish, a language punctuated by French and English.
It is an art I have practised since the Résistance of 2018, having delivered my first prises de paroles as a Franco-Ontarian in a language shared with Rupi Kaur, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, and Joshua Whitehead. No regrets.
But this is not a strategy that everyone agrees on.
Maligned by Franco purists, by those who wish to speak "the language of Molière", that immutable tongue, manifestations of Frenchsplaining are rarely tolerated – either they are denounced or they are “anglosplained,” prefaced with apologies for the English fact. But, as Franco-Sudburian artist Alex Tétreault points out, “purists miss a lot of beautiful things by denouncing the use of English.”
A political imperative, Frenchsplaining is survivance – after all, Franco-Ontarians are those whom '“English Canada forgot”. “Un peuple vivant oublié – ignoré.” “Invisibles” who live in the shadow of the anglophone conscience of this vast province. Communities that are easy to cut from a budget with the stroke of the pen when times are tough.
“We live in community with the majority society and have daily connections with them,” says Serge Miville, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sudbury. A researcher in Franco-Ontarian history, Mr. Miville embodies the ambitions of a Franco-Ontarian university in the north through universal essays, seeking to forge links with the Anglophone majority.
“Activism and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin, and that’s how, for example, Règlement 17 was overturned,” he continues. “Sharing our culture, our aspirations, and our vision of the world not only raises awareness about our realities and our goals, but also allows us to contribute to the realisation of our social projects.'
According to Kyla Heyming, the seventh poet laureate of Greater Sudbury, who practices her art in both languages, reaching an English-speaking audience also gives us broader horizons.
“I started writing in bilingual for some of my poems. These have become my favourite poems – Francophones love to be able to follow the entire poem, and Anglophones enjoy learning about a new culture.”
It would be a mistake to believe that Frenchsplaining is only focused on the seduction of Ontario and Canadian Anglophony. It is also a strategy that reminds l’Ontario français of those francophones who, for a number of reasons, no longer speak French or suffer from overwhelming linguistic insecurity. “Lost Francos” who, despite bearing the linguistic wounds of their parents and grandparents, still proudly claim their roots: “I’m not French – but my grandmother was.”
To do this, we must speak their language – either English or Bilinguish (commonly known as franglais or Frenglish), a key mechanism of Frenchsplaining. Alienated by their linguistic insecurity and the alleged imperfection of their language, these Franco-Ontarians are sometimes even the target of lateral contempt on the part of those who demand a mastery of French that is often unattainable.
This is a reality that poet Kyla Heyming had to face.
“I worked hard to become proud of MY French, to develop a linguistic security for my accent and my expressions instead of an insecurity in relation to “good” French,” she explains. “This is one of the reasons why I didn’t often write in French in my early days as a poet. I wrote as I spoke, inserting English words here and there when my brain was not as fast as my mouth, using familiar expressions created in my family, writing in my accent.”
For artist Mimi O'Bonsawin, Frenglish is a source of authenticity, a articulation of her unique culture, both as a Franco-Ontarian and an Abenaki, as evidenced by her album Elle danse, as well as her album Willow, which is due to be released in 2023.
“For me, the francophonie is a little different. I always spoke Frenglish in our house. We mix words... we say English words with a French accent. It’s really my culture and my family,” she says. “When it comes to my music, I found it easier for me to express myself in English... until now. I now live in both worlds and write Frenglish songs – an authentic reflection of my culture and community.”
An actor, Alex Tétreault understands this scorned tongue well – and defends it.
“I sometimes write in English or French because that’s how people around me talk, that’s how I talk,” explains the author of the recent epic Nickel City Fifs, a love letter written in Franco-Sudburian to the queer and francophone communities in the north.
“Normative French does not reflect my reality so I do not want to limit myself to its use in my practice. So why dilute my language, my accent and my culture to fit into a framework of “good French,” a prescriptive and rigid French that does not sound like me? The two languages can coexist peacefully in my mouth, one not taking anything away from the other, but rather creating something new.”
This creation of something new is this imaginary tongue, raw and fine, spoken by storytellers who seek to highlight their communities. Frenchsplaining and bilinguish is about giving French-speaking Ontario the tools to influence our destiny, to call back to our flock those who have lost the language, or those who have it dans leurs poches, to speak ourselves and our tongue, to carve out a place for itself in Ontario’s grand mosaic.
To ensure the immortality of French in Ontario, Frenchsplaining is necessary. We must share our stories, our realities, our struggles, our dreams.
In our tongue – and that of the majority.