128 traditional knowledge and the maintenance of the authority of traditional leaders.
Furthermore, in each example the benefits of using the written mother tongue have become clear to these leaders.
The dual roles which traditional leaders play in society indicate the local limits of their authority. For example, two of the language committee officers I met had honorific
traditional titles; yet neither of them holds a position of authority outside the traditional realm: one of them is a teacher by profession, and the other a carpenter. This ability to
reconcile these two social domains - the traditional domain and the wider domain of national society - is mirrored in the compliance of Bafut, Kom and Nso community members with the
rule of traditional authorities as well as the laws of the nation. The two domains together thus form the unique sociopolitical environment of these language communities.
So it is evident that the traditional leadership of today have a significant role in the social and political life of the language communities of Bafut, Kom and Nso, and that these
leaders rely on the mother tongue for the execution of their roles and duties. As has been mentioned above, the rules and rites so essential to the role of the traditional authorities are
articulated and performed in the local language. While many though not all of these leaders are well able to speak English, by preference and by custom they use the mother tongue for
matters pertaining to the language community.
125
The mother tongue embodies their identity as traditional leaders.
These traditional leaders also demonstrate their awareness of the potential benefits of mother-tongue literacy for reinforcing their authority and supporting the effective enactment
of their roles. It is no surprise then that the Fon of Bafut is the honorary president of BALA, that the Fon of Kom is one of the KLDCs patrons, nor that the NLOs organisational chart
places the Fon at the top as its supreme leader OI: Suuyren 29 March 03.
4.2. Government authorities
The role and interests of the traditional authorities where local languages are concerned may be contrasted with those of the government that represents the nation-state.
The jurisdictions of the government entities of the region are geographically, not ethnically defined: province, divisions and sub-divisions do not correspond to homeland boundaries see
125
However this is not just a matter of using the mother tongue for traditional ritual functions and English for more modern functions. The use of the mother tongue is far more broad than that. Indeed, the low levels of
fluency in English which I observed in the homelands demonstrated that it would be impossible for most who live there to function in English on a daily basis. See section 5.5.
129 the political and language maps of Northwest Province, section 3.2. This political structuring
along geographical lines makes it difficult to estimate the populations of the Bafut, Kom and Nso peoples, since the national census data available is by political entity, not by language
community. The political structure of Cameroon is a centralised one. The Constitution of 1972,
modified by 1996 reforms, provides for a strongly centralised government in which the President is empowered to name and dismiss most government officials. All local
government officials are in fact employees of the central government, whence they obtain their budgets.
126
The highest provincial authority - the provincial governor - is described as the guardian of the authority of the State within the province, and is accountable to the
President of the Republic.
127
The divisional authorities are also named by the President, though they operate under the authority of the provincial governor.
128
The administrative structure of the government of Cameroon may be seen in Appendix 15.
This generally centralised structure means that national-level decisions about language use in education such as the Constitution of 1996 and the Law on Education of
1998 are mandated for local implementation. However it is also the case that the authority structures of province, division and sub-division express their own perspectives on national
directives by means of the extent to which they facilitate or obstruct their implementation of those directives. Examples of this are seen in chapter six.
4.3. Education authorities: government and denominational
