On y parle toujours français aujourd'hui? Je ne savais pas!
S'il fallait croire ce que l'on lit dans les magazines, guides touristique et sur les sites internet, l'histoire francophone de Louisiane commencerait avec la déportation des Acadiens de leur foyer en Nouvelle-Écosse vers 1753. L'impression que l'on donne en Louisiane, et ailleurs, c'est que les seuls francophones dans l'Etat aujourd'hui, c'est les "descendants" de ces Acadiens, appelés communément, les Cadiens*. Pourtant, ce n'est guerre le cas.
Regardons un peu l'histoire de la Louisiane.Fondée en 1699 par les Français, la colonie de Louisiane comprenait l'embouchure du fleuve Méchassébé (Mississippi), jusqu'à la frontière de la Nouvelle-France (le Canada). Bien que la colonie couvrait un gigantesque territoire, la population coloniale se concentra là où le Méchassébé se jete dans le Golfe du Mexique, avec des petites communautés (notamment des districts militaires) à Petit-Rocher aux Arcs (Arkansas), au Fort Sainte-Geneviève aux Illinois et à Saint-Louis aux Missouri.
Sa population coloniale aurait connu de longues années précaires face au développement de la colonie. Les guerres avec les autochtones, les pandémies menaçant la survie de la colonie, une chaleur étouffante, les maringouins (moustiques) tueurs, et les invasions des Anglais ont fait de la colonie de Louisiane, une région à éviter à tout prix pour beaucoup d'Européens. Malgré cela, de multiples groupes ont été attirés aux bayous de Louisiane, notamment dans le cadre de l'élevage de canne-à-sucre, de l'indigo et du riz. Ils sont venus (le plus souvent contre son gré) de l'Alsace, de la Nouvelle-France (Québec), de Suisse, de Wallonie en Belgique, de toutes les régions du royaume français, des Caraïbes et de la Sénégambie, l'ancienne circonscription administative française dans l'Afrique de l'ouest. En à peine soixante ans - cela fait à peine deux générations d'habitants - cette colonie est devenue un véritable creuset de cultures, ayant une version de la langue française en partage. Cette population est devenue la population créole (nés dans la colonie de parents d'ailleurs).
Entre 1764 et 1788, trois mille refugiés sont venus frapper à la porte de la colonie espagnole de Louisiane. Sachant qu'ils avaient besoin d'auguementer la population dans l'extrême sud de la colonie, et que le succès de leur territoire dépendait d'une auguementation nette d'habitants, et que les Acadiens étaient des experts en construction de levées de terre/digues et l'élevage d'animaux et de plantes, les gouverneurs-généraux espagnols (de Ulloa, O'Reilley, Unzaga y Amezaga, de Gálvez) ont accepté l'asile des Acadiens. Ils les ont envoyés s'installer aux marécages et sur les terres les moins fertiles et développées où ils sont devenus les voisins des Créoles qui y étaient depuis longtemps déjà fixés.
Le contact entre les Acadiens, récemment venus, les Créoles**, les autochtones, les esclaves africains, afro-créoles et les Espagnols, Anglais, Irlandais, Allemands, Caribéens, Italiens, entre autres, a forgé la naissance d'une nouvelle culture hybride. Pour le résumer si bien dans les mots du regretté Richard Guidry : l'Acadie a connu le Grand Dérangement, en Louisiane, c'était Le grand Mélangement!
Entre 1800 et 2010, les francophones n'ont pas cessé de venir s'installer parmi nous. On y compte les refugiés de la révolution et des insurrections de Saint-Domingue (aujourd'hui Haïti), les refugiés des guerres napoléoniques, ensuite les refugiés des guerres ethniques en Syrie et au Liban, les refugiés de l'Indochine suite à la guerre de Viêt-Nam, les épouses des soldats francophones de Louisiane de la Première et Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, bref la Louisiane fut peuplé de refugiés francophones! Vous y rajoutez encore les enseignants francophones des quatre coins de la Francophonie pour enseigner dans les écoles publiques de langue française, les francophones venus travailler dans les industries louisianaises ainsi que les curieux qui viennent et qui restent, et vous tomber sur un bol du célèbre gombo (culturel et culinaire) de la Louisiane. A ne pas manquer.
La Louisiane est le berceau d'une culture francophone internationale.
*Le/la/les Cadien(ne)(s) (n.), c'est un de deux groupes principaux, ethniquement latins, qui sont natifs de la Louisiane du sud. Les uns parlant le français, les autres le créole louisianais. Souvent aux États-Unis, on suppose que les Cadiens sont les descendants directs des Acadiens, vue le rapport linguistique entre Cadien et Acadien. Fausse idée et simplification hâtive! En Outre, il existe une tendance apparement "naturelle" après la chutte de la Ségrégation et le mouvement radical des Afrocentristes américains des années 1970 de racialiser (c'est-à-dire, assigner une race humaine) les Cadiens. La culture n'a pas de limites physique! La culture est poreuse, elle accepte celui/celle désirant en faire partie de façon intégrale. Si l'on adopte les traditions, épouse un/e Cadien/ne, on peut devenir Cadien, quelque soit son origine ancestrale, culturelle ou nationale.
**Les Créoles, comme leurs cousins, les Cadiens, représente un des deux groupes principaux de type latin en Louisiane. Or, les Créoles descendent de premiers habitants nés dans la colonie de parents d'ailleurs. Les créoles sont souvent bilingue francophone et créolophone. Mais pas forcément. La culture créole de la Louisiane a été renforcée par de vagues successives d'immigrants des Caraïbes francophones, créolophones et hispanophones ; du Mexique, des îles Canaries, de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et de la France. Dificile d'identifier un trait du visage créole! La population créole s'est transformée en une force à ne pas sous-estimer. Ils ont perturbé l'administration espagnole et américaine suite au transfer de la Louisiane à ceux-ci. Les Anglo-Américains, quant à eux, avaient deux objectifs pour la Louisiane : américaniser et "racialiser" la population louisianaise. Et les Créoles ont battu jusqu'à la fin pour préserver leur identité et traditions culturelles. Étant donné la longue histoire de racialisation aux États vis-à-vis des groupes "de couleur," (déjà, nous avons tous de la couleur, qu'elle soit bleue, rose, chocolat, cuivre), et les batailles entre les Créoles et les lois de racialisation et ségrégation aux États-Unis, il est donc très difficile de ne pas racialiser ceux-ci. Beaucoup de créoles descendants des combattants contre les idées de races humaines, sont les mêmes qui au fil des siècles ont internalisé l'oppression qu'eux et leurs ancêtres se seraient battus à faire démanteler. Toutefois une culture n'a pas de barrières, et l'identification physique des Créoles comme pour d'autres êtres humains basée sur sa "race" n'a pas marché avant, et ne marche toujours pas aujourd'hui.
Copyright © 2010 Christophe Landry
http://www.francolouisiane.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=56&lang=fr
In 2010, Louisiana has been the site of an explosive cultural renaissance. However, it is not simply just any old renaissance, but one that dates some fifty years, back to the 1960s, and has been propelled by the French language.
Whoa! Wait a second. You mean, French is still spoken in Louisiana today? I had no idea!
If one had to believe the innumerable magazine articles, tourist guides, and websites, the history of Francophone (French-speaking) Louisiana began with the Deportation of the Acadians by the British from their homeland in Nova Scotia around 1753. The impression one offers in Louisiana, is that the only remaining speakers of Louisiana French in Louisiana are the "descendants" of these Acadians, known today as the Cajuns. Allow me to briefly illustrate why this is far from the mark.
Founded in 1699 by the French, the colony of Louisiana included the mouth of the Mississippi River and as far north as the border with New France in Canada. An immense territory, the populations grouped most numerously in the extreme south where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. However there were numerous additional communities north of the Mississippi delta, including Little Rock (Petit-Rocher), Arkansas, Ste Geneviève, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.
This colonial population apparently experience long, arduous years in the development of the colony during those first generations. From strife over land, politics and resources with Amerindians, to pandemics crippling the survival of the colony, blistering heat, killer mosquitoes and to the encroaching of colonial powers like the British. Louisiana became the place to avoid by most Europeans.
Despite these uncertainties, a multitude of francophone ethnic groups were lured to Louisiana, most notably to embark on agricultural development. Alsatians, Quebecers, Swiss, Walloons from Belgium, from across the French Kingdom, the Caribbean and Senegambians (from an old French governmental circumscription in West Africa) made Louisiana their home, most often against free will. Within sixty years-that's only two generations-the colony became home to a melting pots of cultures all unified by the French language. This population became known as Creoles (born in the colony of old world parents).
Between 1764 and 1788, three thousand Acadian refugees knocked at the doors of the Spanish government in New Orleans, pleading for asylum from their deportation by the British. Knowing that there was a need for development of the southern region of the colony, and that the Acadians were expert planters and levée architects, and that the success on the colony depended heavily on the development of the southwest, asylum was granted. The Acadians were sent to settle along the bayous, swamp and marshlands of the southwest region, where they became neighbors of Creoles who had been established in those parts for some time.
That contact between recently arrivals from Acadie, Creoles, Amerindians, African and Afro-Creole slaves, Spaniards, British, Irish, Germans, Caribbeans, Italians, among others, forged the creation of a new hybrid sub-culture in Southwest Louisiana. One big cultural gumbo. And in the words of the late Richard Guidry: Acadia experienced the Great Expulsion (le Grand Dérangement), Louisiana experienced the Great Melting Pot (le Grand Mélangement).
Between 1800 and 2010, Francophones have not ceased to settle amongst us in South Louisiana. Refugees from Saint-Domingue (today, Haiti), Napoleonic war refugees, victims of the ethnic wars in Syria and Lebanon, refugees from French Indochina following the Vietnam War, War brides from World Wars One and Two all seasoned the blend of our francophone heritage. Louisiana has always been the refuge for victims of persecution!
Then, when we add teachers from the French-speaking world who sign up to teach in Louisiana's French-language public schools and Francophones coming to work in Louisiana industries and remaining; we've the Holy Trinity, principle ingredients for our world-famous (cultural and culinary) gumbo. Too tasty to pass up!
Louisiana is the cradle of a Francophone melting pot.
*Cajuns (noun) are one of two latin ethnic groups in South Louisiana. French is the primary language of Cajuns, some speak Louisiana Creole. The assumption is that Cajuns descend from Acadians. Major misconception and oversimplification of cultural development. There are many who have no Acadian ancestry at all. There are others who can count the Acadians ancestors on one hand. There has been a growing tendency, in post-segregation and re-racialization America, to assign skin color and phenotype to Cajuns. Like all cultures, Louisiana's cultures have no boundaries, are porous, and anyone moving in, marrying in and adopting the ways of the region, can become Cajun, as is common today.
**Creoles, like their cousins, the Cajuns, are a latin ethnic group in South Louisiana. Creoles descend from the culture of the original inhabitants and first generation of new comers in colonial Louisiana. Creoles speak both French and Louisiana Creole. Creole culture in Louisiana has been compounded by successive waves of Caribbeans (hispanic, francophone and creolophone), Mexicans, Canary Islanders, West Africans, and French. This local population poised itself as a force to be reckoned with, and took on Spaniards and Americans, with hostile force, when Louisiana changed hands. Following the official statehood of Louisiana in 1812, Anglo-Americans strived to collapse the local Latin cultural head. Language was one objective. "Race," was another. Because of Creoles' long history of fighting against Anglo-racialization, it is difficult to not racialize Creoles, as many have inadvertently internalized the very oppression they and their ancestors fought to escape. However in the case of all cultures, "race"-based criteria for the identification if Creoles simply did not work then, and does not work now.
Copyright (c) 2010 Christophe Landry
Whoa! Wait a second. You mean, French is still spoken in Louisiana today? I had no idea!
If one had to believe the innumerable magazine articles, tourist guides, and websites, the history of Francophone (French-speaking) Louisiana began with the Deportation of the Acadians by the British from their homeland in Nova Scotia around 1753. The impression one offers in Louisiana, is that the only remaining speakers of Louisiana French in Louisiana are the "descendants" of these Acadians, known today as the Cajuns. Allow me to briefly illustrate why this is far from the mark.
Founded in 1699 by the French, the colony of Louisiana included the mouth of the Mississippi River and as far north as the border with New France in Canada. An immense territory, the populations grouped most numerously in the extreme south where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. However there were numerous additional communities north of the Mississippi delta, including Little Rock (Petit-Rocher), Arkansas, Ste Geneviève, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.
This colonial population apparently experience long, arduous years in the development of the colony during those first generations. From strife over land, politics and resources with Amerindians, to pandemics crippling the survival of the colony, blistering heat, killer mosquitoes and to the encroaching of colonial powers like the British. Louisiana became the place to avoid by most Europeans.
Despite these uncertainties, a multitude of francophone ethnic groups were lured to Louisiana, most notably to embark on agricultural development. Alsatians, Quebecers, Swiss, Walloons from Belgium, from across the French Kingdom, the Caribbean and Senegambians (from an old French governmental circumscription in West Africa) made Louisiana their home, most often against free will. Within sixty years-that's only two generations-the colony became home to a melting pots of cultures all unified by the French language. This population became known as Creoles (born in the colony of old world parents).
Between 1764 and 1788, three thousand Acadian refugees knocked at the doors of the Spanish government in New Orleans, pleading for asylum from their deportation by the British. Knowing that there was a need for development of the southern region of the colony, and that the Acadians were expert planters and levée architects, and that the success on the colony depended heavily on the development of the southwest, asylum was granted. The Acadians were sent to settle along the bayous, swamp and marshlands of the southwest region, where they became neighbors of Creoles who had been established in those parts for some time.
That contact between recently arrivals from Acadie, Creoles, Amerindians, African and Afro-Creole slaves, Spaniards, British, Irish, Germans, Caribbeans, Italians, among others, forged the creation of a new hybrid sub-culture in Southwest Louisiana. One big cultural gumbo. And in the words of the late Richard Guidry: Acadia experienced the Great Expulsion (le Grand Dérangement), Louisiana experienced the Great Melting Pot (le Grand Mélangement).
Between 1800 and 2010, Francophones have not ceased to settle amongst us in South Louisiana. Refugees from Saint-Domingue (today, Haiti), Napoleonic war refugees, victims of the ethnic wars in Syria and Lebanon, refugees from French Indochina following the Vietnam War, War brides from World Wars One and Two all seasoned the blend of our francophone heritage. Louisiana has always been the refuge for victims of persecution!
Then, when we add teachers from the French-speaking world who sign up to teach in Louisiana's French-language public schools and Francophones coming to work in Louisiana industries and remaining; we've the Holy Trinity, principle ingredients for our world-famous (cultural and culinary) gumbo. Too tasty to pass up!
Louisiana is the cradle of a Francophone melting pot.
*Cajuns (noun) are one of two latin ethnic groups in South Louisiana. French is the primary language of Cajuns, some speak Louisiana Creole. The assumption is that Cajuns descend from Acadians. Major misconception and oversimplification of cultural development. There are many who have no Acadian ancestry at all. There are others who can count the Acadians ancestors on one hand. There has been a growing tendency, in post-segregation and re-racialization America, to assign skin color and phenotype to Cajuns. Like all cultures, Louisiana's cultures have no boundaries, are porous, and anyone moving in, marrying in and adopting the ways of the region, can become Cajun, as is common today.
**Creoles, like their cousins, the Cajuns, are a latin ethnic group in South Louisiana. Creoles descend from the culture of the original inhabitants and first generation of new comers in colonial Louisiana. Creoles speak both French and Louisiana Creole. Creole culture in Louisiana has been compounded by successive waves of Caribbeans (hispanic, francophone and creolophone), Mexicans, Canary Islanders, West Africans, and French. This local population poised itself as a force to be reckoned with, and took on Spaniards and Americans, with hostile force, when Louisiana changed hands. Following the official statehood of Louisiana in 1812, Anglo-Americans strived to collapse the local Latin cultural head. Language was one objective. "Race," was another. Because of Creoles' long history of fighting against Anglo-racialization, it is difficult to not racialize Creoles, as many have inadvertently internalized the very oppression they and their ancestors fought to escape. However in the case of all cultures, "race"-based criteria for the identification if Creoles simply did not work then, and does not work now.
Copyright (c) 2010 Christophe Landry
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