Incidence de l’enseignement d’un cours de littératures francophones de l’Afrique sub-saharienne et des Antilles dans une classe multiraciale

Abstract

This text is about a personal experience of teaching Francophone literatures of sub-Saharan Africa and the Antilles to a multiracial class at the third-year university level. In it, I show how over the last decade (2013-2021)2, the attitude of the students who took my course on that literature has changed considerably. This was even more remarkable in 2021; year in which its evaluation by learners fell to an alarming level, hence the decision to carry out research on the teaching of said literatures. Between 2013 and 2021, I was able to see that among the students who take this course, there are on the one hand, those who appreciate being embarked on the meanders of the history of black peoples as well as works written by French-speaking Black African authors from Africa and the West Indies, and on the other, those who show a defensive and/or offensive attitude towards them. I noticed empathy in the former and antipathy/denial in the latter. So, what has happened in recent years, especially between 2019 and 2021, in our societies to contribute to such a change in attitude on the part of learners of French-speaking literatures from sub-Saharan Africa and the Antilles? Is it the way of teaching or the subject taught / or both, which is/are the cause? What solutions can be proposed to bring this course back to the good appreciation it had before 2021 and what pedagogical approach should be used to promote a unifying and inclusive teaching? These are some of the questions I have tried to answer based on my personal experience and supported by texts written by researchers / professors in this field.