155 Given the small size of minority languages in the Northwest Province of Cameroon,
the influence of English-language schooling and the pull of urbanised life for the regions young people, it would be reasonable to expect that these languages would be on the decline.
For Bafut, Kom and Lamnso, however, that does not seem to be the case. Instead, use of the mother tongue, particularly the written mother tongue, appears to be increasing in these
language communities. The details of, and reasons for, this unexpected sociolinguistic phenomenon are explored in this chapter.
5.1. Social domains for English and mother tongue in the language community: an overview
A general background understanding of the social domains of English and the mother tongue in the language communities was gained in this study, from informal observation and
inquiry rather than from any specific data-gathering tool. The pattern observed in these communities was that the spoken mother tongue was used for oral communication in home
and local community. This was true for bilingual as well as monolingual people. The choice to speak English or Pidgin was associated with the presence of a non-speaker of the mother
tongue. Particular topics, such as technology or development-related concepts, called for the use of specific words or phrases borrowed from English OI: Yuh 26 Nov 02. Additionally,
it was observed that certain local institutions, primarily school, mandate spoken English regardless of the language proficiency of the participants. In others, such as local government
and commercial institutions, language choice once again depended on the presence or absence of a non-speaker of the mother tongue. Thus, informal observation and reported
behaviours indicated that the default mode of communication in daily life is the spoken mother tongue.
For written text, English was observed to be the default language. English was the medium for all the signs, advertisements, and other instances of non-book written text
observed except for one series of two AIDS posters observed in the Kom homeland, written in Pidgin. This was also the case in the primary schools observed, where all posters,
blackboard writing and exercise books which were observed featured English writing. The exceptions to this rule were the PROPELCA classrooms, in which written mother tongue
occupied a portion of the blackboard that portion used for the subject of mother-tongue literacy, a corresponding portion of the teachers notes and the students exercise books, and -
156 in the case of Kom - sometimes a large Kom alphabet chart mounted on the wall CO: CS
Balikumato class 1, 6 Feb 03. This divide between oral mother tongue and written English - particularly with the
dominance of English in the educational setting - is well known in post-colonial Africa. As Korang and Slemon 1997 note, African nations today comprise peoples speaking many
languages, and the question of which group will control the means for representing a people to itself has been settled largely with the uncritical acceptance of English and French as the
inevitable medium for educated African writing p.252. In Northwest Cameroon, the use of English as written medium has been uncritically accepted in this way. Korang and Slemon
observe that the question of writing is already positioned within larger debates about the
politics of language use p.250; emphasis in the original. Indeed, the fact that most African languages have remained unwritten for so long itself the result of a series of political
decisions has meant that the alternative of written mother tongue often does not exist. In the case of Bafut, Kom and Lamnso, viable written forms of the language were not available
until after 1979 section 3.2.1; written English, meanwhile, has been part of the formal school curriculum since at least 1922.
Not only is the identification of English and French with writing evident in national- level education policy and implementation Ministry of National Education 1998, 2000, but
the place given to written English in the language communities themselves is evidence of what Griffiths calls the impact of concepts of the modern Griffiths 1997:140. English
writing is identified with the modern world, and so is privileged over other kinds of inscription, including written mother tongue.
Thus, the uses of written mother tongue in the language communities of Bafut, Kom and Nso take place in a context in which the mother tongue dominates oral communication
and English dominates written text. Instances of written mother tongue use are therefore significant in that they run counter to the norms of language choice. The uses of written
mother tongue are discussed in detail in section 5.4.
5.2. Acquiring literacy in the mother tongue
