Abu Dhabi: The French Alliance, an organisation formed to promote French language and culture, celebrates the 40th anniversary of its presence in Abu Dhabi.
Dr Zaki Nusseibeh, one of its founders, says it is a celebration of Shaikh Zayed’s love for cultural and educational ties with other peoples.
The French Alliance was established in Abu Dhabi in 1974 soon after Shaikh Zayed made his first official visit to France, as part of a young nation’s attempt to earn new friends and allies, Nusseibeh told Gulf News in an interview on Tuesday.
It was a turbulent time and the UAE needed new friends to overcome the expected difficulties of a young nation but that did not restrict Shaikh Zayed’s vision on foreign relations to economic and military relationships alone.
Nusseibeh, a multilingual who speaks French, worked as an interpreter and director of press office of Shaikh Zayed since 1968, and accompanied the leader to France in 1974.
The relationship with France was a privileged one because of the presence of French oil companies in the UAE. But Shaikh Zayed strongly believed in cultural and educational ties also, which culminated into establishing a French School and the French Alliance in Abu Dhabi in the same year he visited France, he said. It came out as a policy decision of both governments during Shaikh Zayed’s visit.
The French Alliance is the largest linguistic and cultural multinational non-governmental organisation in the world with a mission to open up the borders of French language and culture, with respect for the diversity of local cultures. It has 1,000 offices across the world including Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai.
The organisation is being run by local committees and Nusseibeh has been the president in Abu Dhabi for 37 years. He is currently a cultural advisor with the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.
More than 2000 students, of whom 30 per cent are Emiratis, learn French from the French Alliance- Abu Dhabi every year. It also organises more than 15 cross-cultural events with French and local artists every year. A media library containing 15000 (fifteen thousand) books, CDs and DVDs, in French, is accessible to the public and updated every month with the latest novelties.
The institute teaches Arabic also to the French and other expatriates.
French is one of the dominant languages in the UAE after Arabic and English, which has also contributed the country’s status as a multicultural hub, Nusseibeh said.
An estimated 400,000 French speaking people from 77 countries are living in the UAE. When a language represents so many cultures it gets richer not by lexicon meaning but by ideas, Nusseibeh said. “Many students from abroad- India, Pakistan, North Africa and many other regions- are coming to the UAE to join Paris Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.”
The increasing number of Emirati students learning French at French Alliance and Paris Sorbonne University is the example for growing influence of the language in the UAE. They get jobs in French companies in the UAE. But many of them learn new areas such as museum management and art curating etc. Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi is also part of growing French – Emiarti cultural ties, Nusseibeh said.
English still remains the language of business, science and technology. But French is the language of diplomacy, literature and culture, he said.
The French and Arabs love literature, especially poetry. The Arabic book One Thousand Arabian Nights when translated into French in 18th century made a big impact on Western Literature, Nusseibeh said. Many Arab writers are living and writing from France, who are popular among the UAE readers.
“There are many such links between both languages.”
