THE FRENCH Institute of South Africa (IFAS) this week launched a regular show on VowFM that will focus on French-speaking people of Johannesburg.

The show, Rendez-Vous Africa, will air every Tuesday at 7.30pm and tell stories of the daily life of the Francophone diaspora in Johannesburg.

“There is a large French expat community but then you also have Belgians, Swiss, Canadians and then you have French-speaking population from African countries,” IFAS cultural attaché Marion Claudel said.

The show is part of IFAS’ cultural programme for 2016 launched earlier this month and features a wide range of arts and cultural programmes geared towards both French-speaking people and non-French speaking people.

Claudel said the institute’s goal was to work with and for South African artists. They are currently working to send an arts collective to exhibit in Berlin.

“The aim here is really to work on the co-operation between France and South Africa in cultural and arts domains,” said Claudel.

The institute is also passionate about collaboration especially with students and the events are usually free. They have previously collaborated with the Wits Theatre and Claudel promises there will be further collaborations with Wits.

“We have a research Institute here and there’s lots of exchanges with Wits students, in human sciences, archaeology and sociology but that’s more on a project basis,” she said.

The cultural programme will run from April until December and which will feature the first Matisse exhibition on African soil in July at the Standard Bank gallery.

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