Battling Language Rights Governance in Africa

120 pages

English

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Mwanaka Media and Publishing - Ateh-Afac Fossungu

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120 pages

English

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This book seeks to use the burning issue of multiculturalism (bilingualism particularly) to offer an appreciation of the roots and dynamics of the Ambazonia-Cameroun war, which has been raging for the past five years and counting. An understanding of Cameroon's language management and national unity policies is provided here through a comparative survey of the language politics of four other countries: two of them European (Belgium and Switzerland), one North American (Canada), and the other Third World and Asian (Indonesia). The author argues better language governance policies that gainfully protect minorities, as well as fostering the goals of national and continental unity and development, Cameroon (and, by extension, the anticipated UDA) must emulate from European countries like Belgium and Switzerland rather than from Canada which is traditionally regarded as 'the Cameroon of North America'.

Chapter 1: A Survey of Language Politics around the World with Quebec and Canada in the Witness-Box

Chapter 2: Scrutinizing and Contextualizing Cameroon's Language Policy

Chapter 3: The Secret Agreements and Effective Bilingualism in Cameroon?

Language Lessons of Globavillagism and Closing Remarks

Sujets

African Studies

Ethnic Studies

Political Science

Camerún Meridional

Ambazonia

Social sciences

History of Africa

Asian

World

Informations

Publié par	Mwanaka Media and Publishing
Date de parution	17 septembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781779272720
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

for the past îve years and counting. An understanding of Cameroon’s language management and national unity policies is provided here through a comparative survey of the language politics of four other

(Indonesia). The author argues better language governance policies

national and continental unity and development, Cameroon (and,

which is traditionally regarded as ‘the Cameroon of North America’.

Universite de Montreal, two Master’s degrees in Law from McGill University and University of Alberta. He has taught law at the Universite de Yaounde and Buea university in Cameroon. Dr Fossungu has published extensively on various aspects of society and life in Cameroon, Africa and Canada. He is currently a researcher in Montreal, Canada.

Battling Language Rights Governance in Africa Battling Language Rights Governance in Africa Swisselgianism, Ubackism, and the Ambazonia-Cameroun War

PETER ATEH-AFAC FOSSUNGU

- PETER ATEH-AFAC FOSSUNGU -

BATTLING LANGUAGE RIGHTS GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA: Swisselgianism, Ubackism, And The Ambazonia-Cameroun War

PETER ATEH-AFAC FOSSUNGU

Edited by Tendai Rinos Mwanaka

Mwanaka Media and Publishing Pvt Ltd, Chitungwiza Zimbabwe * Creativity, Wisdom and Beauty

Publisher:MmapMwanaka Media and Publishing Pvt Ltd 24 Svosve Road, Zengeza 1 Chitungwiza Zimbabwe mwanaka@yahoo.com mwanaka13@gmail.com https://www.mmapublishing.orgwww.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/mwanaka-media-and-publishing https://facebook.com/MwanakaMediaAndPublishing/

Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective orders@africanbookscollective.comwww.africanbookscollective.comISBN: 978-1-77925-588-4 EAN: 9781779255884 ©Peter Ateh-Afac Fossungu2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher DISCLAIMER All views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views ofMmap.

Dedicated To Ambazonia And All Defenders Of Human Rights

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Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………vi

Chapter 1:A Survey of Language Politics around the World with Quebec and Canada in the Witness-Box…………………………………………………………………2

Quebec’s Language Politics: Upside-down or Standing Upright?........................................................................................6

Canada and United Afrika: Go for Swisselgianism Rather than for Cameroon’s War-Instigating Stupidity………………………………………..………………10

Chapter 2:Scrutinizing and Contextualizing Cameroon’s Language Policy…………........................................................21

Stop the Babbling on Cameroon’s Language History and Go for Indonesianism…………………………………………………..23

Cameroon and United Afrika, Indonesianism Is Saying Goodbye to Onesidetakism…………................................................................27

Going for Enthusiasm and Foresight and Dropping the Dependency Syndrome……………..............................................32

Debating without Understanding Debates and the African Virus of Biggytitlemania…………….……………………………………40

Patriotically Embracing the God-given Blessings: The Nobisooh Health Centre Speech…………....................................................50

Chapter 3:The Secret Agreements and Effective Bilingualism in Cameroon?.............................................................................60

Cursing Cameroon’s Multifaceted Blessings for Leading Africa?………………………….……………………………….61

Pre-1996 Bilingualism: The Authenticity of English and Ngoalingualism………………………….....................................70

Post-1996 Bilingualism: Rejecting Swisselgianism and Promotion of Indigenous Languages…….…………………………………….76

The Great Language Puzzle and Nwangong-Zoomitionism: What is Continental in the Definition of Continent?………………………………………………………76

Language Lessons of Globavillagismand Closing Remarks…………………………………....................................88

References……………………………………………………..94

Mmap Nonfiction and Academic books…………………....105

INTRODUCTION In relation to the United States of Africa that is being recommended as the sane means for Getting Africa into Africa for Africans, I am here strongly suggesting that it be styled United Democratic Afrika (UDA) – or simply United Afrika (UA) – to keep it apart from and unconfused with the USA that the Americans already firmly have in their keeping. With the prevailing and unsettling human rights situation in African countries like Cameroon, people are entitled to understand what the problem 1 actually is and what needs to be done to permanently redress it. This book in essence seeks to use the burning issue of multiculturalism (bilingualism particularly) to offer an improved grasping and appreciation of the roots and dynamics of the Ambazonia-Cameroun war that has been raging on for the past five years and still counting. Cameroon’s language politics is also gainfully employed to address that of a possible UDA in the book, a contribution that is also a “revised and updated version ofsome portions of my close to 500-page 1999 doctoral dissertation at the 2 Université de Montréal.” It comes to contribute toward such

1 Peter Ateh-Afac Fossungu,Getting Africa Out of the Dungeon: Human Rights, Federalism, and Judicial Politics in Cameroon(Masvingo, Zimbabwe: Africa Talent Publishers, 2019). 2 Id., at ix (original emphasis). Also constituting parts of said doctoral research and being a significant blueprint to grasping the soul of the war in question is Peter Ateh-Afac Fossungu, Understanding Confusion in Africa: The Politics of Multiculturalism and Nation-building in Cameroon(Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG, 2013).

knowledge and diagnosis (if anything short of complete independence can now even make any sense to Ambazonians), in view of further providing valuable lessons in the concerned domains to United Afrika. Of course, the book’s focus is on Africa’s famously infamous bilingual state called Cameroon. But the enhanced comprehension of Cameroon’s language management and national unity policies that it aims at furnishing is better achieved here through a comparative survey of the language politics of four other countries: two of them European (Belgium and Switzerland), one North American (Canada), and the other Third World and Asian (Indonesia). Language politics in Cameroon obviously cannot fail to also attract attention to what prevails especially in Canada, a country from which the experts largely expect Cameroon to heavily draw and thereby begin climbing “the same flight of stairs toward the destinies reserved for us [Cameroonians and Canadians] in the 3 world.” This standpoint appears to stem from the fact that Cameroon and Canada are officially plural societies linguistically, with European imperialism having enormously contributed to this state of affairs. This critique, however, argues essentially that, for a better language governance technique that gainfully protects minorities as well as fostering the goals of national and continental unity and development, Cameroon (and, by extension, the anticipated UDA) must emulate from European countries like Belgium and Switzerland rather than from Canada which is traditionally regarded as ‘the Cameroon of North America’. That the Canadian model of 3 Anne F. Bayefsky,Canada's Constitution Act 1982 and AmendmentsVol. 1 (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989) at 441.

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‘uniform bilingualism across the country’ (orUbackism) is not very much different from what is currently in operation in Cameroon and instead provoking and sustaining the ongoing war of independence. That the Swiss and Belgian formulae (styled Swisselgianism) do furnish better means of comfortably retaining the breaking-away Ambazonia (West Cameroon) in Cameroon as well as advancing other national-continental integration goals, not leaving out the general respect for human rights. Still in this language management domain, Indonesia is also recommended as an astute teacher in the domain of the adoption of a common African national language in Cameroon and the UDA. There is little doubt that the “Anglophone Problem” is at the centre of state disintegration in Cameroon. A review of the 4 mushrooming literature relating to this “Anglophone Problem” 4 See, for example, Fossungu,supra, note 2; Mufor Atanga,The Anglophone Cameroon Predicament(Bamenda Langaa RPCIG, 2011); Susan Dicklitch,“The Southern Cameroons and Minority Rights in Cameroon”29(1)Journal of Contemporary African Studies(2011), 49-62; Emmanuel Anyefru,“Paradoxes of Internationalization of the Anglophone Problem in Cameroon”28(1) Journal of Contemporary African Studies(2010), 85-101; S.E. Ebai, “The Right to Self-Determination and the Anglophone Cameroon Situation”13(5)The International Journal of Human Rights(2009), 631-53; Lyonga Eko,“The English-Language Press and the ‘Anglophone Problem’ in Cameroon: Group Identity, Culture, and the Politics of Nostalgia”20(1)Journal of Third World Studies(2003), 79-102; Piet Konings,“The Anglophone Struggle for Federalism in Cameroon”L.R. Basita and J. Ibrahim (eds.),, in Federalism and Decentralization in Africa: The Multiethnic Challenge(Fribourg Institut du Fédéralisme, 1999), 289-325; and Piet Konings and Francis B. Nyamnjoh.“The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon”35(2)The Journal of Modern African Studies(1997), 207-29.

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duly exposes the burning twin issues of bijuralism (or legal dualism) and bilingualism to be stiffly responsible for the current human rights crisis and national disunity in Cameroon. Since I have already incisively and critically examined bijuralism in Cameroon 5 elsewhere, only bilingualism is specifically handled in this report 6 that does not intend to theorize about legal bilingualism. Neither does it intend to get deeply into the semantics of legal bilingualism, 7 nor purport to be providing an epistemology of bilingualism. The volume principally seeks to demonstrate the importance of a sane language policy in Africa, using Cameroon, in the protection of human rights and the promotion of national-continental unity. In the case of uniting the mini-states of Africa into a formidable political entity, official language(s) would obviously be firmly tied to ethnic/cultural origin; a plain fact that cannot be ignored in any sane language policy that has an eye fixed on national-continental unity and development. “Although the term: Language Policy is new”, William F. Mackay is said to have observed, “the practice is of great

5 See Peter Ateh-Afac Fossungu,“Political Naivety, Corruption, and Poverty Promotion in Africa:Riding the ‘Poorest-ugliest French’ Bijuralism Horse from Cameroon to Canada via Britain”, inMunyaradzi Mawere (ed.),The Political Economy ofPoverty, Vulnerability and Disaster Risk Management: Building Bridges of st Resilience, Entrepreneurshipand Development in Africa’s 21Century(Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG, 2018), 123-73. 6 As to which, instead see Roderick A. Macdonald,“Legal Bilingualism”42McGill Law Journal(1997), 119-67 at 146-57. 7 Id.at 130-40 & 140-46, respectively.