111 Baptist and Catholic mission schools
108
. Teacher training is now offered in all three subdivisions of Kom.
Nineteen years after the inception of PROPELCA in Kom, community attitudes towards the programme seem generally positive. The inspectors and school managers are
generally cooperative about sending teachers for training and then keeping those teachers in the class they have been trained for. Parents also demonstrate willingness to send their
children to PROPELCA classes. The loss of support by Catholic diocesan authorities which so devastated the Nso PROPELCA programme in the 1990s did not occur in Kom. The
mission schools, particularly the Catholic schools, continue to be highly supportive of PROPELCA, and there is evidence that, as in Nso, the government schools are becoming
increasingly involved in the programme OI: Kain 16 July 03. Hon. Albert Waingeh, the KLDC chairman, has stated that the future is bright OI: Waingeh 14 March 03
3.2.5. Language development in Bafut
Bafut is the smallest of the three language communities in this study, and the closest to the provincial capital of Bamenda
109
. The earliest titles in Bafut were published in the late 1970s, consisting of elementary linguistic descriptions of the language, word lists, stories and
a collection of proverbs. Currently there are roughly 20 titles in Bafut language; these include PROPELCA texts, diaries and the entire New Testament, most of them priced to cover
production costs. The Bafut New Testament, published in 2000, was primarily the work of Dr. Joseph Mfonyam, a Bafut linguist and author who is a member of SIL.
The Bafut Language Committee BLC was created in the late 1970s to promote written Bafut language Fon Abumbi II 2001:3. In 2001 this committee was reorganised to
form the Bafut Language Association BALA, of which H.M. Fon Abumbi II of Bafut is the honorary president. The 15-member BLC became the executive committee of BALA, which
itself has perhaps 80 members. BALA membership includes traditional authorities, school teachers, PROPELCA supervisors, and others interested in promoting the Bafut language in
written form.
108
There are few Presbyterian mission schools in Kom, because during colonial times the Basel Mission and the Baptist Mission had agreed to divide the area between them so as to reduce competition and overlap of the
missions efforts. The Basel Mission, later the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, concentrated their efforts in the Bafut area; the Baptists concentrated theirs in the Kom area. The Catholic mission was notably absent from
this Protestant dividing up of the territory.
109
Bamenda is the largest city in Northwest Province, with a population of approximately 298,000 2004 figures, taken from http:world-gazeteer.comcc_cm.htm.
112 The PROPELCA programme began in Bafut schools in the early 1990s OI:
Mfonyam 27 Nov 03; the first PROPELCA training seminar in the Bafut area was held in 1993 OI: Ambe 4 March 03. At first only mission teachers from Catholic and Presbyterian
schools were interested, but around 1996 interest in the programme began to accelerate. Now there are 39 PROPELCA teachers posted to primary schools, ten of them in government
schools. Twenty seven primary schools currently use PROPELCA, although in 24 of them it is the informal version whereby Bafut literacy is taught as a subject in grades 5-7 OI: Ambe
3 Feb 03; as noted above, this use of informal PROPELCA is intended to gain community acceptance and support for the use of Bafut language in the primary schools.
Community attitudes towards PROPELCA have been a challenge for BALA, reflecting in part a wavering interest in Bafut language in the language community. Children
are still monolingual in Bafut when they begin school, but the communitys attitude about their language has been affected by the proximity of English-speaking Bamenda town and
national culture. A certain amount of mixing of Bafut with English and French takes place among adults. Still, John Ambe, the Bafut literacy supervisor, has noted that by and large,
people are pleased with the results they see in their children who attend PROPELCA classes OI: Ambe 12 March 03, such results including improved school examination performance
and stronger Bafut language skills. Though the Bafut language is encountering pressure as described above from English, Pidgin and French, the language is still vital and widely
spoken in the Bafut area. There is however a certain sense of urgency about BALAs efforts to promote written use of the language; as Samuel Mfonyam, BALA chairman, stated: if
Bafut is not written now, it will die OI: Mfonyam 26 March 03. 3.2.6. Similarities between the three language development programmes
This study examines language and education choices among three language communities, not those of just one. As has been mentioned in section 2.5.2, it is expected that
a broader understanding of the research question may be attained in this way, as well as avoiding results which may be dependent on some characteristic unique to one group alone.
At the same time, the linguistic and cultural similarity among the three facilitates comparison across the groups. Therefore the three language communities described in the study - Nso,
Kom and Bafut - were chosen because they share some important characteristics. Culturally, geographically and historically these three groups are very similar Chilver
and Kaberry 1968. The majority of the language communities populations live in rural or semi-rural areas, and in each the homeland is key to their identity. The traditional social
113 structure of each is highly developed and is maintained to this day, and the traditional
authority structure remains strong. Language use patterns among the three are also comparable: nearly all the children in the homelands of these three communities are
monolingual when they begin primary school, and community members of all ages readily use the local language both within and outside the homeland area. The history of education is
also similar; the influence of Christian missions and the British government on the development of formal education in the three areas was comparable, as were the local
interpretations of and responses to such education. In all three language communities the language of schooling and government is English. Religious traditions among the three are
also similar, consisting principally of the African traditional and Christian religions.
110
In terms of language development, the three are also in comparable positions. Unlike the less developed languages of Cameroon, Bafut, Kom and Lamnso have been written
languages for at least two decades. Linguistic study has been done in each of the three languages, and writing systems standardised
111
. The PROPELCA programme has been active for at least 13 years in each, and the series of PROPELCA mother-tongue textbooks is either
complete or in process. Other written materials, both religious and cultural, are also available in these languages.
The three language communities also feature a high degree of cultural and linguistic homogeneity, at least within the homeland regions. This homogeneity has meant that the
community culture continues to be mediated primarily through the mother tongue, and also that local language promotion is relevant in towns and villages across the entire homeland.
These two phenomena have been very important to the effectiveness of language development work.
Most immediately salient to this present study is the fact that the language committees in all three language communities are actively engaged in initiatives to promote use of the
written mother tongue: mother education programmes, adult literacy programmes and publications in the local language. These committees are made up of experienced teachers
and trainers in the mother-tongue education programme, linguists, authors and local traditional and church leaders. All are based in the language community and operate under
the leadership of community leaders.
110
Nso is the only language community of the three which has a notable number of Muslims among the homeland population, The Nso Muslims are ethnically Nso, not immigrants from elsewhere. However they are
a small group in proportion to the entire Nso population.
111
See Appendix 14 for a list of the linguistic studies done of Bafut, Kom and Nso.
114 The literacy and education initiatives in each language community are structurally
very similar, having been set up with similar consultant input from linguistics and education specialists in NACALCO and SIL International sections 3.2.1-2; section 4.6.1. The mother-
tongue literacy and education programmes in these language communities share implementation characteristics such as regular teacher training and supervision, use of the
same primer methods, and support from NACALCO. These three programmes also share similar financial challenges, as they face similar community responses and attitudes towards
local ownership. The language communities of Bafut, Kom and Nso have had the particular support of
SIL personnel for language development over the last 15-30 years
112
. SILs involvement with these three language communities has been based on the following activities:
• facilitation of the initial formation of the language committees; • provision of expatriate field linguists who worked on the early analysis of the languages;
• provision of translation personnel and consultants for the life of the New Testament
translation process a process that takes at least 5-10 years; • initial training of teachers and materials writers for adult and childrens MT literacy and
education; • funding for training events and the publication of texts related to the above initiatives.
There can be no doubt that the involvement of SIL personnel in these language communities has had significant impact on how the mother tongue is viewed and used.
However it is also important to recognise that the scope of a language development project is so broad that it is impossible to implement without a team of people. In the cases of these
three language communities, language development has been implemented by committees of native speakers who focus on the promotion of the written mother tongue andor Scripture
translation. In each language community, one or two expatriates have played an important but necessarily limited role. The expatriates energy has typically been focused on initial
linguistic analysis, Scripture exegesis and translation with some involvement in the early
112
From the early 1970s, Nso has had a team of two SIL workers Karl and Winnie Grebe and family. Bafut has had expatriate David Crozier and Bafut Joseph and Becky Mfonyam SIL personnel involved in language
development there, beginning in the 1970s. In Kom, two SIL teams George and Valerie Shultz and family from 1989 until the mid-1990s, and Randy and Cheri Jones and family since 1991 have been involved. Grebes,
Mfonyams and Jones continue involvement in the Nso, Bafut and Kom language communities respectively.
At the national level, SIL personnel were involved in teaching applied linguistics at the University of Yaoundé in the early 1980s, and SIL education specialists helped to frame PROPELCA instructional materials and
methods through the 1980s.
115 aspects of mother-tongue literacy work. This is generally the extent of SIL personnel
involvement, none of which is done by the expatriate alone.
3.2.7. Differences between the three language development programmes
