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Local France
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Local France
French Word of the Day: Une gow
Why do I need to know une gow? Because if you spend any time with French teenagers, you might hear this word. What does it mean? Une gow - roughly pronounced oon go - is a slang term you will probably only hear from French speakers under the age of 30. Also written as go, the word gow refers to a woman, specifically a young woman. It is roughly the same as meuf (the backwards slang version of femme ). Oftentimes, gow is used to refer to a girlfriend, so a young man might say je vais inviter ma gow (I am going to invite my girlfriend). Some young women also use the word to talk about their closest girlfriends. The more common term for girlfriend is copine, although older people are more likely to use petite amie . Gow has been made more popular by French rappers and pop artists, like Niska, who used the word in his song Réseaux in 2017, and Wejdene in her song Ta Gow in 2020. As for the origins of the word gow , there are a few theories. One hypothesis is that it comes from the slang used by young people in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa. In the Nouchi language, which is spoken in Côte d'Ivoire, the slang word go means girl or woman, and this was originally borrowed from the Bambara language spoken in Mali. There is also a theory that it is an abbreviation of another, older French slang term: gonzesse . Nowadays, it can generally refer to girls or women, but in the mid-20th century, it referred to a prostitute or the pimp's wife, and then went on to mean promiscuous girl. As such, gonzesse can be seen as sexist and offensive. Advertisement On the other hand, Gow (or go ) is not particularly offensive, but it is quite colloquial and primarily used amongst young people. If you're over 30, this is probably one to 'know not show', but it will help you to understand the young folk and keep up with popular culture. Use it like this J'ai croisé Kevin au restaurant, et il était avec sa gow. - I ran into Kevin at the restaurant and he was there with his girlfriend. J'vais demander à ma gow si on a qqc de prévu. - I'm gonna ask my girlfriend if we have something planned.
Al Jazeera
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Jazeera
Mali filmmaker Souleymane Cisse, ‘father of African cinema', dies at age 84
Mali's highly acclaimed director Souleymane Cisse, who is considered one of the pillars of African cinema, has died at age 84. His daughter announced that Cisse died on Wednesday, leaving a trailblazing legacy on the silver screen spanning half a century that was marked by a commitment to African storytelling, deep humanism and profound political engagement. 'Papa died today in Bamako. We are all in shock. He dedicated all his life to his country, to cinema and to art,' Mariam Cisse said. Cisse won the jury's prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for 'Yeelen' ('Brightness'), which draws on legends from west Africa's Bambara people. In 2023, Cannes honoured him again with the Carrosse d'Or, an award given to directors who have 'marked the history of cinema with their boldness, their exacting standards and their intransigence in staging'. That award was stolen from his home in 2024, before being found again. Fellow Malian director Boubacar Sidibe said in a message on Facebook that the Sahel country's film industry was in 'mourning', while Minister of Culture Mamou Daffe lamented the loss 'of this monument of African cinema'. The Film at Lincoln Center non-profit also praised Cisse as 'one of cinema's greats', citing his work, Yeelen, for 'catapulting African film to the world stage'. 'If God wills it' Cisse is one of two only filmmakers to have twice won the grand prize at Burkina Faso's Panafrican Film and Television Festival (FESPACO), among the largest and most prestigious in Africa. He was due to board a plane on Thursday to Burkina Faso capital's Ouagadougou to head the 29th edition of the festival's features jury from February 22. In his 2023 Cannes interview with the AFP news agency, he criticised the 'censorship' and 'contempt' that he said prevented African films being distributed around the world. Even on the day of his death, he urged the military leaders in Mali – which declared 2025 a year of culture – to help the country's industry catch up with its continental rivals. 'It is not enough to make cinema; the works must also be visible. May the authorities help us with the construction of cinemas,' he told a news conference on Wednesday morning. 'This is the appeal I make to them before my death, if God wills it.'
