Cultural Assimilation: Deliberate Attempt to Kill Off the English Language in Cameroon?

"Are there no English words for "Entretien", "Boutique" and "Vidange"?... Asking that all public notices and directives must be made in both English and French, at least in the predominantly English speaking section of Cameroon, is definitely not asking too much, even be it from a French company like this Total petrol and gas production and distribution, retail entity.... When will all this nonsense of majority complex stop?" Patrick Sianne (Originally posted on Facebook)

 
Total petrol station in Mamfe, in the heart of English-speaking Cameroon, with French-only signs. (c) Patrick Sianne

Comments

[John Dinga]

Quite an interesting proposition in view of the fact that English dominates the world in virtually every domain. Of course such a challenge can only be perpetrated in little pockets and niches where the locals lack the spine to exert themselves.

[Bandeko]

The frogs think they are now going in for the kill with the assimilation exercise. Good luck to them.

[Diaspora]

That station should be attacked and brought down.That is unacceptable.Why has
France bewitched the world? When France does something,everyone follows along.Had this been attempted by the UK or US in a country that is not English-speaking,there would have been loud outcries.Remember Quebec and the French conspiracy there?

[Diaspora]

This takeover of Cameroon in its entirety is probably due to the weakening global/European position of the UK. Britain has proven to be a much more weaker player in Europe in the past 20 years and France,a traditional rival was quick to jump in to fill the idle vacuum.

We are all now at the mercy of these bull frogs.God help us.But let's not rest on this.We should fight for the English language in Cameroon just like the Quebecois fought for the French language in Canada.

[BAH ACHO]

the slave psychology many africans inherited from 700 years of ruthless aryan inslavement and occupation has transformed us to our worste enemies.instead of looking for ways to reinstall our own languages as instrument for aquiring knowledge,doing busines and research.we choes to continue behaving like infiriors defending imperialistic languages imposed on us through violence by european thugs.this is noting but mental slavery because we continue to consider ourselves as the property of british and french people.incapable of questioning the logic imposed on us.and taking radical action to correct the wrongs of history in oder to build and advance on our own foundation.who says cultural imperialism says economic imperialism.so distroying the foundation of the first is contributing in exterminating the second.the way many of us remain sentimentally attached to slavery european nations makes it impossible for us to detache from thier system of domination,yet it is indespensible.some of us even bear thier names,dress,act and treat others like them.india china and indonesia distroyed occupation languages.then replace this languages with thiers cementing the cultural lines withen thier people.today we all see the results.while we africans continue worshiping our oppressors like internal slaves.in a free africa with mentally indepedent people.polimics like this are simply impossible.maybe this will happen in the next generation because we are lost.

[BAH ACHO]

sorry for the mistakes pls

[Bandeko]

You see, Bah Acho. We should be left alone to see how to come to terms with one colonial legacy and not have a second one imposed on us. It is legitimate to oppose this imposition.

[BAH ACHO]

BANDEKO...i do not think it is right to take sides with occupation forces.we need to clean africa of anything connecting us to occupation.is it not possible to use an african language for science and business?

[manawa]

Bah Acho, while waiting to clean Africa of all vestiges of colonialism, we have to deal with today's reality; the reality is that the taxi driver in Mamfe with only a rudimentary mastery of French, if at all, will have a hard time negotiating this petrol station. African languages are good and dandy but until we completely wipe them out, all we are asking is that there be equality for the two official languages imposed upon us. To this end, let the Cameroonian in Anglophone Cameroon be communicated with in the official language that he knows best, same with those in Francophone Cameroon. Short of this, we will eventually end up with a situation where when we kick out European languages, we will start seeing signs in Ewondo and Fulfude in the heart of Bamenda and Buea. And it will be the same story all over again. So let's keep Africanity aside for one moment and address the story of discrimination and indifference that these signs in Mamfe tell us. That, my friend, is a very African problem indeed...

[BAH ACHO]

MANAWA are we not participating in distroying ourselves by fighting over imposed languages?why not invest this energy in a more constructive way?concentrating on how to replace french and english language with an african one?why keep africanity aside when we are africans?one has the impression we have been miseducated to become our worste enemy?we even fight and kill each other to defend the inslavers language and culture over ours.discrimination discrimination on what grounds?occupation grounds?are we slaves who can not think for themselves?how long shall we continue to act like victims of history without correcting evil imposed on us?

[ba ba black sheep]

you talk only of boutiques and entretien and co, havnt you taken note that all the sales persons in these stations are french speakers without the slightest knowledge of English...

[louis nji]

For true, this are things we really need to question. Even our famous mtn and orange send nearly all there messages in French. Do we all speak and understand french?

[OLD SOUTHERN CAMEROONIAN]

It is recolonization plain and simple. When will we push back? We must back those who are pushing back.

[OLD SOUTHERN CAMEROONIAN]

Bah Acho, tell me Paa which African language to adopt that will be acceptable to all Southern Cameroonians or will each village speak its own little language as its lingua franca. I do not think you are considering how hard that will be to do.