The Africa Report — July-August 2017

I speak

English

Before the bus arrives, a woman who

worksinthetourismindustryinDouala,

whoisreturningtoBamendaforafuneral

ceremony, offers some advice: “Do not

take any photos when you see soldiers

or government buildings.” She warns

that travellers might need to stay until

midweek because of the ghost town.

As the bus descends the hills that sur-

round Bamenda, another woman chats

animatedly about the discrimination

anglophones in Cameroon are subject

to: “If you cannot express yourself in

French, you will be crushed. When you

speakEnglishinahospital,theytellyouto

wait foryour ‘Bamenda brother’. Wejust

wanttoberespectedforwhatweare,our

culture, our language. We simply want

improvements to our living conditions.”

TOTAL MISMANAGEMENT

Welcome to Cameroon’s ‘anglophone

crisis’. It flared up late last year when

teachers and lawyers went on strike. In

big, violently represse§d street demon-

strations, they protested the neglect of

the anglophone education system and

British-inspired common law practised

in South West and North West regions

under the Cameroonian constitution.

“It is a case of total mismanagement,”

saysPaulin*,asecondaryschoolteacher.

“Theyaresendinganglophoneteachersto

francophoneschoolsandviceversa.They

are messing up the children’s futures.”

Fortheirpart,lawyersarefuriousabout

Yaoundéappointingjudgeswithlittleor

notrainingincommonlaw

tojudgecases.Cameroon’s

history as separate ter-

ritories once ruled by the

British and French means

the constitution upholds

legal and educational sys-

tems inspired by the two

different colonial legacies.

Butthebilingualheritage

has been a difficult one for

thegovernmenttomanage.

LawyerBernardMunasays

francophone judges are

sent to Bamenda because

“Cameroon is a corrupt

country”, and because of bribes at the

magistrates’school.PresidentPaulBiya’s

government may sport an anglophone

prime minister, Philémon Yang, but his

presencedoeslittletoaddresstheevery-

day concerns of anglophones.

There are no official statistics avail-

able on how many Cameroonians are

functionally bilingual. Roger, a native of

a small town near Bamenda who works

for a non-governmental organisation

in Yaoundé, says that in practice anglo-

phones are the ones who have to make

the effort and speak French, and that

his colleagues speak little English and

do not see much reason to try. James, a

taxidriverwhogrewupinBamendabut

did some of his schooling in Yaoundé

and drove a taxi there too,

says:“Ineverreallylearned

French.Ijustspoketaxilan-

guagetogetby.Ilivedwith

anglophones too, so did

not have the opportunity

for much French.”

Thelate2016protestsled

to negotiations between

civil society groups and

the central government in

Yaoundé. Opinion varies

throughouttheanglophone

regions–andalsointheac-

tivediaspora–overthebest

solutiontomaintainingthe

region’slinguisticandculturalidentities.

Variousgroupsarecallingfordialogue

and negotiation over improving condi-

tions, while others say that Cameroon

should be a federal state with more

powers devolved to the regions and

more radical groups like the Southern

Cameroons National Council seeking

independence.Whileitisunclearwhich

idea commands the most support, per-

haps a political solution is not the most

pressing issue. Many people said there

would be no protests if the government

improvedpeople’sdailyliveswithbetter

hospitals, more reliable electricity and

steps to reduce the marginalisation ex-

perienced by anglophones, a minority

estimated at about 20% of Cameroon’s

23 million people.

A HEAVY HAND

Complicating the anglophone cause is

thefactthatitisfragileandlooselyorgan-

ised. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil

SocietyConsortium,teachers’unionsand

lawyers’groupswereinitiallyinvolvedin

negotiationswiththegovernmentabout

theproblemsinthelegalandeducational

systems.Buttalkseventuallybrokedown

after the government arrested anglo-

phone leaders and put them on trial in

Yaoundé (see box on page 48).

That move has crystallised the con-

flict, which shows no signs of nearing

a resolution. In December, President

PaulBiyaspokeaboutthetroubles,

saying: “Problems must be fixed within

the framework of the law and by dia-

logue.” A member of the religion-run

education system in Bamenda says in

return: “There is no dialogue.”

The government does not want to

be seen as appeasing protesters and

REINNIER KAZÉ FOR TAR

SOURCE: CAMEROON INTELLIGENCE REPORT

20%

The English-speaking

minority make

up about one-fifth

of Cameroon’s

23 million people

46 COUNTRY FOCUS| CAMEROON