32

African families in France,between the will to fit in and loyalty to the native tongue Families coming to France from Black Africa must compromise between their primary linguistic identity and their desire to fit into French society. The will of most Sahelian families to preserve the ties that bind their child to his/her cultural group in Africa is obvious in the language strategies they implement to transmit the language of their ethnic group to the children. On the other hand, people from the large cities of Central Africa or the Gulf of Guinea, often give preference to their francophone identity when communicating with their children. But beyond certain differences in the linguistic choices they make, migrant families are places where learning is reciprocal, where everyone, according to age and competence, helps the others to master the two main languages ; the role of mothers is stressed.