Language Planning in Africa

The Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe

Nkonko Kamwangamalu, Richard Baldauf Jr., Robert Kaplan

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780415819657
• eBook ISBN: 9781134916955
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This volume focuses on language planning in the Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe, explaining the linguistic diversity, historical and political contexts, current language situation (including language-in-education planning), the role of the media, the role of religion and the roles of non-indigenous languages. The authors are indigenous to the situations described, and draw on their experience and extensive fieldwork there.

The extended case studies contained in this volume draw together the literature on each of the polities to present an overview of the existing research available, while also providing new research-based information. The purpose of this volume is to provide an up-to-date overview of the language situation in each polity based on a series of key questions, in the hope that this might facilitate the development of a richer theory to guide language policy and planning in other polities where similar issues may arise.

This book comprises case studies originally published in the journal Current Issues in Language Planning.

Language policy and planning in Africa: Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe

Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu^a, Richard B. Baldauf, Jr.^b and Robert B. Kaplan^c

^aHoward University, Washington, DC, USA;

^bUniversity of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; and

^cUniversity of Southern California, USA

1. Introduction

This volume covers the language situation in the Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe explaining the linguistic diversity, the historical and political contexts and the current language situation, including language-in-education planning, the role of the media, the role of religion and the roles of non-indigenous languages. The authors are indigenous to the situations described and draw on their experience and extensive fieldwork. The materials on the three polities contained in this volume draw together the literature on each of the polities to present an overview of the research available about each of them, while providing new research-based information. (See Appendix A: ‘Polity Studies Overview’ for a more general discussion of the rationale for these studies.) The purpose of the volume is to provide an up-to-date overview of the language situation in each polity based on a series of key questions (see Appendix B) in the hope that this might facilitate the development of a richer theory to guide language policy and planning in other polities where similar issues may arise. An addendum to this article updates the language planning situation in the Cameroon.

2. Cameroon

The name Cameroon derives from the Portuguese word Camaroes, meaning shrimp (www.nationsonline.gov). It is reported that a Portuguese sailor, Ferdanando Poo, arrived in the port city of Douala on the River Wouri in 1472 and discovered so many shrimps in the river that he decided to call it Rio Dos Camaroes (River of shrimps, in Portuguese). It was from this word that the territory derived its name; successive colonial powers have spelled the name in various ways: Kamerun in German, Cameroon in English, and Cameroun in French.

Located in Central Africa and covering approximately 183,569 square miles (475,937 sq. km.) in area, the Republic of Cameroon shares borders with the Gulf of Guinea in the west, and with six African countries: Equatorial Guinea in the southwest, Gabon in the south, Congo (Brazzaville) in the southeast, Central African Republic in the east, Chad in the northeast, and Nigeria in the northwest. In 2011, the United Nations estimated Cameroon’s population to be 20 million people. The original inhabitants of Cameroon were the Sudanese and the Semi-Bantu people, who inhabited the northern half of the country. Fulbe Muslims migrating from Nigeria in the eighteenth century expelled the original inhabitants. The contemporary population of Cameroon speaks some 234 languages including two official languages, French and English, and three indigenous lingua franca: Pidgin English, Fulfulde (also known as Fulani), and Beti, a cluster of mutually intelligible languages spoken both in Cameroon and in the neighboring countries of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. English and French are also the main languages of religion in Cameroon and, along with six regional indigenous languages (Basaa, Bulu, Douala, Ewondo, Fulfulde, and Mungaka), they are used mostly by Christian churches. Arabic serves as the language of Islam but only in northern Cameroon, and it has been used there by Fulbe Muslims since the fifteenth century.

French and English were introduced into Cameroon at the end of the First World War (1914–1918). Before that, since 1884, Cameroon had been a German colony. However, after the Germans were defeated in the First World War, the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) mandated the newly vacated territory to the victors, France and Britain. France took possession of East Cameroon, which represents about 80% of the country’s territory, while Britain took responsibility over West Cameroon. In 1960, French Cameroon became an independent state, and British Cameroon united with the new state a year later, in 1961. The two newly united territories became known as The Federal Republic of Cameroon, which subsequent governments renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972 and the Republic of Cameroon in 1984.

At unification in 1961, the new country adopted both French and English as co-official languages and pledged to promote French-English bilingualism in the whole country. In support of this pledge, French became a compulsory subject of study in Anglophone schools, and English a compulsory subject in Francophone schools; the Official Gazette, which records the daily activities of the State, became bilingual; French-English bilingual studies were instituted in the University of Yaounde and in the Higher Teacher Training School; a school of translators and interpreters was created; the official daily newspaper, the Cameroon Tribune, was produced in two versions, one in French and one in English; and spoken media programs in French alternated with those in English.

As during the colonial era, the indigenous languages do not play any role at all in Cameroon’s current educational system, except in some remote mostly Catholic rural primary mission schools, where they are used for initial literacy. Two educational systems operate in the country, with students in francophone schools being taught in French throughout primary (7 years) and secondary school (7 years), and anglophone pupils being taught in English at both levels. At secondary level, francophone pupils take English as a compulsory subject, while anglophone pupils take French as a compulsory subject. At tertiary level, students are free to choose English-medium or French-medium instruction since it is assumed, wrongly according to Kouega (2007), that they have been exposed to English and French long enough to be proficient in both languages. Arabic is used as the medium of instruction in some Islamic schools and in French-Arabic and English-Arabic bilingual primary schools. It is taught as a subject in francophone and anglophone secondary schools, and as an elective in some universities. The other languages taught (but only in Cameroon francophone schools) are German and Spanish, chosen apparently on the basis that they are also taught in the metropolitan French educational system.

At the end of the seventh year of primary school, francophone pupils sit for a public examination called the Certificat d’Etudes Primaires et Elémentaires (CEPE), while anglophone pupils sit for the First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC). At the end of the seventh year of secondary school, francophone pupils write an examination called the Baccalaureat, while anglophone pupils write the ‘A-Level’ examination. At the tertiary level, students opt for French- or English-medium instruction, as noted earlier, in their chosen fields of study, whether law, medicine, biology, and other disciplines.

French and English dominate the media, both written and spoken, in Cameroon. Most of the media is controlled by the state, but there are also private (local and) international radio stations, such as Radio France International, which broadcasts in French, and the British Broad casting Corporation (BBC), which broadcasts in English. The indigenous languages, which Cameroon’s Constitution refers to as ‘national languages’, are also used, but only on regional radio stations. The issue of teaching these languages was broached in 1977, and a number of language institutes were created to promote their use in the educational system. In domains other than education and the media, French seems to be the dominant language: It is used as the language of government and administration since most government services including forms, notices, permits, correspondence, etc. are delivered in French. Also, shop signs, billboards, insurance forms, bank forms and medical documents are written in French, reflecting the fact that French had a lion’s share of Cameroon’s territory during the colonial era.

Other than the afore-mentioned language practices in the media and education, there is no formal language policy and planning body nor any on-going official language planning activity in Cameroon. In other words, Cameroon’s language policy and planning is not written in any specific source publication. It is noted, however, that it can be inferred from various documents such as the Constitution, the Official Gazette, and government ministerial decrees. Although French and English are recognised as Cameroon’s official languages, it seems that French remains the medium through which administration is conceived and implemented. The author remarks that in the civil service, for instance, meetings are conducted in French even when the chairperson is English-speaking; and minutes are recorded in French.

The dominance of French in the administration and the exclusive use of this language and English in the educational system represent a challenge for indigenous language maintenance, especially in urban communities in both francophone and anglophone Cameroon. Before the two territories united in 1961, use of French in francophone Cameroon and English in anglophone Cameroon was limited to formal contexts, especially in interactions involving foreigners and strangers. Currently, however, both languages are used in the family and in other informal domains. Code-switching in English and/or French with the indigenous languages has become a common feature of language use in these domains. As a result, the competence of people in their vernacular languages seems to be dwindling. It is noted that most speakers, especially urban dwellers, find it difficult to communicate in the indigenous languages without switching to English or French. Successive Cameroon governments have ignored the plight of the indigenous languages, fearing that addressing the vernacular language issue might impact negatively on the country’s national unity. Against this background, some minority language speakers, language activists, universities, and government departments have teamed up to create associations to nurture indigenous language maintenance in the country as a whole. These associations include the National Association of Cameroonian Language Committees, The Center for Anthropological Research and Study, the Department of African Languages and Linguistics at the University of Yaounde, and The National Center for Education, to name but a few. The driving forces for indigenous language maintenance include the Bible Society of Cameroon, founded in 1843; Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy, founded in 1987; Summer Institute of Linguistics, which has been operating in the country since 1969; the Projet de Recherche Operationnelle pour l’Enseignement des Langues au Cameroun, a language teaching experiment initiated at the University of Yaounde in 1978; and the National Association of Cameroonian Languages Committees, which groups together 77 indigenous languages and aims to teach people to read in their respective vernaculars, to read and write in one of the two official languages of Cameroon, English and French, and to use the acquired literacy skills for community development.

3. Zimbabwe

A former British colony in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe was previously known as Southern Rhodesia (1890s–1969), Rhodesia (1970–1978), and Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979). When the liberation movements won the war for independence against white settlers in 1980, the name of the country was changed from Zimbabwe Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. A landlocked country covering an area of 390,757 square kilometres (150,698 sq mi), Zimbabwe is located between Victoria Falls and the Kariba Dam to the north and the Limpopo River to the south, and is surrounded by South Africa to the South, Botswana to the west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the west. In 2002, Zimbabwe had an estimated multi-ethnic and multiracial population of approximately 11,631,657 consisting of two major ethnolinguistic groups: Shona (71%), the original inhabitants and speakers of the Shona language, and Ndebele (16%), who migrated from South Africa and speak the isiNdebele language. Besides these two ethnic groups, the country also has a number of minority ethnolinguistic groups within its borders, among them Whites of British origin speaking English, and individuals speaking Tonga, Venda, Tswana, Kalanga and Kunda, to name a few.

Zimbabwe became a British colony when colonialist Cecil Rhodes, owner of the British South Africa Company, invaded the country in the early 1880s. According to Ethnologue, in 1888, Rhodes obtained a concession for mining rights from the local king in what was then known as Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Subsequently, he took advantage of those rights to wage wars from 1890–1894 against his hosts purposely to colonise their land. In 1895, Rhodes’s company, the British South Africa Company, named the country Rhodesia in his honor. When Rhodesia became independent in 1980, the country’s new government changed its name to Zimbabwe.

It is estimated that approximately 10 languages are spoken within Zimbabwe’s borders. They include the three official languages, Shona, Ndebele, and English (which Zimbabwe inherited from its former colonial master, Britain), and minority languages such as Venda, Tswana, Nsenga, Kunda and Tonga, to name a few. It is noted that the history of language policy in Zimbabwe can be traced back to the time of Rhodes — that is, to Rhodes’s colonisation of the region after the wars of 1890–1894. The focus of language policy at that time was on acquisition planning, i.e. to enable white settlers to learn the two major indigenous languages, Shona and isiNdebele, to gain control over the local population, and to facilitate interaction between them and their colonial masters. English was the sole official language used in the administration of the territory. When Zimbabwe acquired independence in 1980, however, the policy changed: English, Shona, and isiNdebele became the official languages of the state. English served — and continues to serve — as the main language of trade and commerce and the medium of instruction in schools. Shona and isiNdebele are used as the medium of instruction in early years of primary education, after which English takes over as instructional medium for the remainder of the educational system including secondary and tertiary education.

In 1987, Zimbabwe made some nominal changes to its language-in-education policy by introducing ‘The Education Act’, which stipulates that Shona, isiNdebele and English are the three main languages of Zimbabwe to be taught as follows in all primary schools starting from grade one:

1. Shona and English in all ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Language policy and planning in Africa: Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe
• 2 The Language Situation in Cameroon
• 3 The sociolinguistics of nationalism in the Sudan: the politicisation of Arabic and the Arabicisation of politics
• 4 A very ‘oily’ sociolinguistics of the ‘new’ Sudan: old wine in new bottles
• 5 Zimbabwe Colonial and Post-Colonial Language Policy and Planning Practices
• 6 A critical analysis of the historical and contemporary status of minority languages in Zimbabwe
• Index