8 • the local individual and institutional interests involved in maintenance of the mother
tongue, and particularly promotion of its written form; • the current roles and uses of the written mother tongue in the Bafut, Kom and Nso
communities; • the language choices being made in the local primary school classrooms, and the interests
of the various primary school stakeholders in those choices. Chapters three through six of this study examine my findings on these four aspects.
To provide a framework for the study, a discussion of the theoretical discourse and research design followed is presented in chapter two. Finally, chapter seven consists of conclusions
which arise from the study.
1.4. The limits of the subject
It must be recognised from the start that the phenomena studied here are occurring within a fairly circumscribed demographic context, in which both the breadth and the
sustainability of the mother tongue promotion initiatives depend on a fairly fragile geographical and social environment. Not only so, but the overall educational context in
which these phenomena are taking place puts limitations on their impact as well. 1.4.1. The demographic environment
Even though they are the largest minority language communities in the Province, the Bafut, Kom and Nso communities are largely semi-rural or rural in nature. Owing to
economic limitations and the difficulties of attaining social mobility outside the homeland, the communities are characterised by a striking degree of social and linguistic continuity. In a
sense, this continuity is a fragile one; any significant change in the economic conditions of the region - such as mass industrialisation or even an increased ability to market produce on a
large scale - could affect the stability of the population, destabilising the social, demographic and economic conditions which have up until now been so conducive to the development of
the local language. It must be said however that little likelihood of such economic change is on the
horizon at this time. Indeed, if anything the economic prospects and educational opportunities which draw young people away from the homeland community are weaker now than they
have been in decades past. Even though the sociocultural ground on which these mother tongue initiatives rest is not invulnerable to change, it appears fairly stable for the foreseeable
future.
9 To what extent are the Bafut, Kom and Nso communities - and more specifically,
their languages - threatened by urbanisation? And to what extent might this crucial demographic environment, so characteristic of the Bafut, Kom and Nso communities, be
common across Africa? Urbanisation figures available permit two ways to answer those questions.
First, urbanisation figures for Cameroon and for the African continent indicate the prevalence of what are termed semi-rural and rural environments, which are so crucial to
the maintenance of the minority language communities studied here. The urbanisation figures for Cameroon and other selected countries in Africa as of 2003, according to the Population
Reference Bureau,
8
are listed in Figure 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1. Urbanisation of selected African countries, 2003 from Population Reference Bureau, 2004
Countryregion Percent of population that
is urban
Benin 40 Botswana 54
Burkina Faso 15
Cameroon 48 Central African
Republic 39
DR Congo 29
Côte dIvoire 46
Gabon 73 Ghana 37
Kenya 20 Mali 26
Nigeria 36 South Africa
53 Tanzania 22
Togo 31 Africa 33
8
http:www.prb.orgdatafind, accessed 19 July 2004.
10 This data shows that rural and semi-rural environments are still home to more than
half of the Cameroonian population, and to two-thirds of Africans in general. Such environments are not at all atypical of African nations; indeed, urbanisation appears to be
generally even less prevalent across Africa as a whole than it is in Cameroon. Furthermore, Amins study of urbanisation in the various provinces of Cameroon 1999:45 reports that
Northwest Cameroons urbanisation rate is close to the African continent average given by Population Reference Bureau. Urbanisation in Northwest Province is lower than the national
average; 31.1 of the population in Northwest Province was classified as urban as of 1998, compared to Amins figure of 48.5 for the entire country.
Second, the definition of urban used in this data calls into question the purported negative impact of urbanisation on the use of local languages. Urban is defined by the
Population Reference Bureau as having a population of 2,000 people or more
9.
Definitions used by other sources of census statistics give similar figures for the term urban.
10
Thus, urbanisation as measured by national statistics-gathering bodies by implies neither large
urban centres nor the concomitant linguistic heterogeneity which is assumed. Indeed, several of the towns located in the linguistically homogeneous Bafut, Kom and Nso regions have
populations larger than 2,000. So it seems that what is considered urbanisation in African or other national contexts does not always indicate linguistic heterogeneity. Certainly the larger
provincial centres of Cameroon feature multi-ethnic populations, with the consequent prevalence of trade languages e.g. Pidgin and official languages English and French; see
Jikong and Koenig 1983. But urbanisation figures themselves do not reliably indicate this phenomenon. Thus, urbanisation as defined by national statistics is not necessarily co-
occurrent with linguistic heterogeneity. 1.4.2. The educational environment
In this study, the local-language promotion initiatives targeting formal education are limited almost entirely to the primary school; indeed, the principal focus is the lower primary
grades. At this level, curriculum is still open to local interpretation and language medium is
9
Quote from PRB website: Urban: Percentage of the total population living in areas termed urban by that country. Typically, the population living in towns of 2,000 or more or in national and provincial capitals is
classified urban. The Population Reference Bureau derives its figures from sources including United Nation statistics, the Council of Europe, the U.S. Census Bureau, demographic and health surveys, the World Bank and
research findings. See http:www.prb.org.
10
The 1990 U.S. Census Bureau considers urban to mean a population of 2,500 people or more. See http:www.census.govpopulationcensusdataurdef.txt. The 2001 Census Dictionary of the government of
Canada Statistics Canada 2003:262 defines urban as having a population of at least 1,000.
11 still negotiable. Higher education, however, is much less open to such negotiations of
curriculum and medium of instruction. The language of higher education in Northwest Province is incontrovertibly English, and the curriculum followed is aligned closely with
English-language national examinations. It is important to understand this limitation on mother-tongue promotion through the
formal school system. Languages with populations of a few hundred thousand, such Bafut, Kom and Nso, stand very little chance of insertion into the Cameroonian national higher
education system; the commitment to English- or French-language curriculum at that level is too strong.
Given this limitation, is it still worthwhile to develop these smaller languages for use in primary schools? This study will show that those groups of community members who
promote local language use believe strongly that it is indeed worthwhile, regardless of the dominance of international languages in secondary and higher education.
1.5. Personal motivations for the investigation
