In my last post, I wrote about the importance of presenting French as a world language to our students—and, in particular, of giving Francophone Africa a more prominent place in our curricula.
The latest report from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie makes the reason clear. The OIF estimates that there were approximately 396 million French speakers worldwide in 2025, nearly 65% of whom lived in Africa. Even more strikingly, Africa accounted for an estimated 92% of the worldwide growth in the number of French speakers between 2010 and 2025. The future of the French language is inseparable from the demographic growth, educational systems and cultural creativity of the African continent.
Our students need to see French as a useful, vibrant and relevant language spoken across many countries—not simply as the language of France. When classroom materials focus overwhelmingly on Paris and metropolitan France, students receive an incomplete and increasingly outdated picture of the Francophone world. They may learn to identify the Eiffel Tower or order a croissant, yet finish several years of French without encountering the voices of people in Dakar, Abidjan, Kinshasa, Cotonou, Yaoundé, Rabat or Antananarivo.
Expanding our focus does not mean replacing one narrow picture of French with another. French is used in more than a dozen African countries, but “Francophone Africa” is not a single culture or a uniform linguistic region. It encompasses an enormous and extraordinarily diverse part of the continent.
By a broad measure, more than 5.4 million square miles of Africa lie within countries where French is widely used in government, education, media or business. Countries where French has official or co-official status account for more than 2.7 million square miles. This Francophone space stretches from the Atlantic coast of West Africa across the Sahel and Central Africa, reaches east toward Djibouti, Rwanda and Burundi, and extends into the Indian Ocean.
While these countries may have the French language in common, we can’t ignore the different histories, languages, religions, political systems and cultural traditions found within them. The culture of Togo is not interchangeable with that of Algeria or Madagascar. Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo cannot be treated as variations on the same theme simply because French is used in both places. Each country—and each community within it—has its own stories, concerns, humor, music, vocabulary and relationship with the French language.
It is also important for students to understand that French in Africa usually exists alongside other languages. Depending on the country and the speaker, it may be a home language, a second language, a language of education, a lingua franca or a language used mainly in professional and official settings. A Senegalese speaker might move between French and Wolof; a Moroccan speaker among French, Arabic and Amazigh; and a Malagasy speaker between French and Malagasy. These multilingual realities aren’t just side notes to the Francophone world. – they are central to understanding how French is actually used in these countries.
This diversity gives us an opportunity to move beyond flags, festivals and isolated cultural facts. Through authentic websites and videos, students can encounter African Francophone perspectives on everyday life, sports, entertainment, science, fashion, food, environmental issues, entrepreneurship and current events. Even brief, carefully chosen resources can help students hear different accents, notice regional expressions and recognize French as a language used by real people to discuss contemporary life.
Of course, the sheer number of countries and resources can make it difficult to know where to begin. We cannot represent an entire continent in one unit—or even in one course. But we can make intentional choices that broaden the range of voices our students encounter over time. This can be a little bit scary for many current French teachers (including myself) – we were educated by teachers who focused on Metropolitan France, and most of our personal experience tends to be from interacting with France.
To help with that, I have gathered a list of websites and YouTube channels from several parts of Francophone Africa. These resources offer a starting point for introducing students to different varieties of French and, more importantly, to the people and perspectives behind them. Some will work well as sources for listening activities or interpretive reading. Others can provide cultural context, inspiration for student choice projects or simply a regular “window” into another part of the French-speaking world.
The goal is not to teach students everything about Francophone Africa, but to help them understand from the beginning that there is no single Francophone African experience—and that the French-speaking world is far larger, more varied and more dynamic than any one country.
YouTube channels from Francophone Africa
NCI – Nouvelle Chaîne Ivoirienne — entertainment, talk shows, news, and locally produced programs. NCI’s official channel has a particularly large following for a Francophone African broadcaster.
Life TV Côte d’Ivoire — talk shows, entertainment, celebrity culture, and current affairs.
Seneweb TV — Senegalese news, interviews, debates, and popular culture.
Marodi TV Sénégal — hugely popular Senegalese drama series; dialogue often mixes French and Wolof. This could be fun for newer French learners getting used to the sounds of the language – can they detect when characters are speaking French?
Canal 2 International — Cameroonian news, debates, music, and entertainment.
Investir au Pays — entrepreneurship, investment, and economic opportunities in Africa.
L’Orient-Le Jour — Lebanese news, interviews, and analysis. Lot of short interviews and news stories.
Websites from Francophone Africa
If you’d rather find reading material, here are some local news sources that could come in handy. An interesting activity might be to read about a current event from several sources to see how it is viewed in different countries.
TelQuel — Moroccan politics, economics, and society.
Le360 — popular Moroccan current-affairs site.
Hespress Français — French edition of a major Moroccan digital outlet.
TSA Algérie — Algerian news and politics.
El Watan — established Algerian newspaper.
Nawaat — independent Tunisian journalism; French and Arabic.
Business News — Tunisian politics and business.
Jeune Afrique — continent-wide politics, business, and culture; headquartered outside France.
Seneweb — one of Senegal’s biggest news portals.
Le Soleil — major Senegalese newspaper.
Abidjan.net — widely used Ivorian news portal.
FratMat — Côte d’Ivoire’s Fraternité Matin.
Actu Cameroun — popular Cameroonian news site.
Actualite.cd — major digital outlet in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
7sur7.cd — Congolese current affairs and politics.
Maliweb — Malian news portal.
L’Économiste du Faso — Burkina Faso business and public affairs.
Lesson Plans about Francophone Africa
If you would rather have a ready-made lesson plan to start your African lessons, here are some Frenchified activities your students might find intersting.
