Discover the Francophone community
The notion of Francophonie was invented in 1880 by Onésime Reclus, a french explorator. The term never really caught on until the 1960s when Léopold Senghor, first president of Sénégal, used it consistently. Francophone is used to qualify all the countries that have counted french as a maternal or official language. Worldwide there are more than 150 million Francophones. Two of every three Francophones live outside of France, and in more than forty countries on five continents. La Francophonie "is a community, based on a common language, which believes in the unity and diversity of cultures" (Hamilton 1994, 21). It is used alongside English as a working language at the United Nations, the European Union and the Olympic Games. Every March 20th, takes place the International Day of Francophony. By 2011, the Francophone community will celebrate its 41st year of existence.
See below a list of the countries that are presumed as former and current Francophone countries.
| Albanie |  | Andorre |  | Arménie |  | Autriche |  |
| Belgique |  | Bénin |  | Bulgarie |  | Burkina Faso |  |
| Burundi |  | Cambodge |  | Cameroun |  | Canada Quebec |  |
| Cap-Vert |  | Centrafrique |  | Chypre |  | Comores |  |
| Congo |  | Côte d'Ivoire |  | Croatie |  | Djibouti |  |
| Dominique |  | Egypte |  | France |  | Gabon |  |
| Géorgie |  | Ghana |  | Grèce |  | Guinée |  |
| Guinée Bissau |  | Guinée équatoriale |  | Haïti |  | Hongrie |  |
| Laos |  | Lettonie |  | Liban |  | Lituanie |  |
| Luxembourg |  | Macedoiné |  | Madagascar |  | Mali |  |
| Maroc |  | Maurice |  | Mauritanie |  | Moldavie |  |
| Monaco |  | Mozambique |  | Niger |  | Pologne |  |
| République Tchèque |  | Roumanie |  | Rwanda |  | Sainte-Lucie |  |
| Sao Tomé et Principe |  | Sénégal |  | Serbie |  | Seychelles |  |
| Slovaquie |  | Slovénie |  | Suisse |  | Tchad |  |
| Thaïlande |  | Togo |  | Tunisie |  | Ukraine |  |
| Vanuatu |  | Vietnam |