Alliance Francaise gets new director

By Solomon Butandwa ALLIANCE Francaise (AF) of Kampala, the cultural centre and school of the French language in Uganda, has received a new director. Didier Martin, 45 is an educationist by training and specialised in teaching French as an international language. He has spent less than a month in Uganda and replaces Gilles Laborde, who is now the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy in Bulgaria. “I have 15 years’ experience in teaching French as an International language in Africa. I spent four years in Benin, seven years in Nigeria and five years in Ghana as a Director of Alliance Francaise” he told Education Vision. Martin said that he spent seven years in Nigeria, in which he worked as a French language Advisor in the Ministry of Education and later become the Director of AF. Before coming to Uganda, he spent four years in Ghana, also as the Director of AF. Martin’s mission is to strengthen the relationship between Uganda and France in terms of culture. “We also want to promote French language and Francophone culture in Uganda,” he said. He said that Ugandans can benefit a lot from the AF programmes through the learning of French as a means of communication. “There is need for acquiring a working knowledge of French that is definitely useful for bankers, business people and anybody in the modern Uganda,” Martin observed. “There is a large artistic, cultural and creative potential in Uganda that should be supported,” he added.