“’Petit-nègre’ French, a construction of the French colonial army.”
Two years ago in a history class, I learned that the French military made up a version of French that they taught exclusively to their Black soldiers, especially in the time leading up to, and during, World War I. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
During the war, France was totally dependent on these soldiers that were (forcibly) recruited from the colonies, because the French population had been declining for some time and there weren’t enough young men who could fight in the war. The colonial soldiers were referred to as “tirailleurs sénégalais” (Senegalese tirailleurs) because soldiers were initially drafted from Senegal, although they were drafted from all the colonies eventually.
The version of French that was spoken by these soldiers (and their white French commanders) was referred to as ‘petit-nègre’ (it literally translates to ‘little negro’) or ‘français tirailleur’ (tirailleur French). The thing is, it wasn’t some pidgin language that developed naturally as a result of several language populations intermingling. Instead, it was basically constructed by the French military specifically to be taught to soldiers from the African colonies as they were going through their military training. Why? Essentially, the language was a heavily simplified version of French with really basic grammar, and it created a power imbalance, by humiliating the colonial soldiers and making them seem stupid. The plan was probably also propelled by ideas of the superiority of the French language, and the wish to keep it separate and “untainted” by the “lesser” Black people.
Upon finding out the truth of what they’d been taught, many of the soldiers strove to learn proper French, but the idea of “the stupid Black subject” had already become widespread in French society and was near-impossible to shake off. Many of the racist stereotypes born during the French colonial era lingered in the shared French cultural consciousness for a long time, and some still do. One of the most well-known examples is probably the advertisement for the chocolate drink Banania, which had the slogan “Y a bon…” (It’s good) and looked like this:
The current design has ditched the racist slogan, but the image of a “happy, but stupid” colonial soldier (complete with the red soldier’s cap) is still present:
I just… reading about this infuriates me. It sadly does not surprise me, though. I tried to find sources in English, but everything I found was either in French or part of the history course where I learnt it in the first place. If you can understand French, though, I recommend reading the article that I linked at the top, which explains the history of it quite well and refers to some further sources as well.
Feel free to correct any factual errors or other mistakes that I might have made. I’d also be interested in learning more, if anyone knows more about this and wants to have a chat (or can direct me to any good sources).
