capec protecting of children - success story e-magazine · del montel cmr (he was my boss), and...

CAPEC

About Talented Cameroonians at Home and Abroad

N° 011 JULY 2008

Protect ing Th e

Ri ghts of

Chi ldren

CIANET Seminar on Access To Potable Water

Sir Johnny

Mor

EduArt Literar y Awards

Lady Kate Vis i ts Cameroon

George Echu Aunt y Kate

Hello I would like to say congratulations on “THE SUCCESS

STORY E-MAGAZINE”. It is a brilliant idea and it allows those of us who are currently out of the Country to

connect with it. The monthly issues are informative and even though I don’t know most of the people represented

in the magazine, I enjoy reading about them and I’m happy you bring out the positives in the people. ...There are so many people who don’t feel that

Cameroon is for them anymore, I believe in Cameroon and I know it has so much to offer. We need to find ways to attract people and your magazine is a good medium for this. We need to show case our communities and the

good things about it. Having the magazine on line is a great idea because you reach many people at any time... If you make it a static

or dynamic webpage instead of attachments like the .pdf files, it would save you time and the images

would even be better. I applaud you for making the production of the

Magazine consistent and timely. I will love to continue reading this magazine and I look forward to celebrating

many more years. Thanks,

By Alice Nako

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Kudos to the team. Pretty good and broad spectrum read. Amazing profiles of our

compatriots holding their own in their various trades and abodes. This is certainly a spur to

our youth as they trudge along the road to success. Such efforts need to be encouraged,

emulated and sustained.

By Emmanuel Ashu

Hi! all, I'm indeed highly impressed with

your initiative. I've worked with Dr. G.E. Fonsah while with

Del Montel CMR (he was my boss), and I've great admiration for Dr. Fonsah's determination and integrity. He's indeed, a talented Cameroonian.

A job well done. Many thanks

By Gabby Nkwelle

This is a real success! keep Up Salut je suis emerveillée de voir avec quelle justesse vous

arrivez à elaborer un tel journal; La musique est la référence de la culture d'un pays et par cette édition de Success Story retrouver tous ces artistes camerounais

même ceux déjà oubliés, savoir à quel prix on peut louer un véhicule sans se sentir complexé d'avoir à se présenter

chez un autorent et enfin savoir où manger des délices africains quand on est Cameroun sans avoir à refléchir,

ça il faut le faire. Success Story Magazine is about the world at our feet.

Congrats

Ruth-Nadine Yaoundé

Team, Good work! Great!

I love music and it was the mainstay of my life for the years I worked as a radio personality for music and commercial stations in Cameroon. I enjoyed the stories in this edition.

I would have wished that a few bits be added or taken out here or there. For instance, the author of the article on K-Tino did not go into detail on how her orchestration is different and this is a huge reason for her success

and the basis of the rhythmic success of Lady Ponce and the other youngster. But who's perfect on earth? It is a resource that would prove useful to up and coming English speaking radio announcers and disc-jockeys

in Cameroon. They often lack background material to spice their shows. Those of us who were able to have such information rose to heights of glory in Cameroon. I am happy that others through your work will have the ammunition to succeed. This also goes for those who have to write

cover music or culture news in Cameroon. Upon reading the colourful 28 pages, I felt like running into an FM 94 or Mount Cameroon FM Studio again.

That is surely not for soon - it is more likely to hear me on the netwaves on talk radio now. Good Work!

George Esunge Fominyem

I came upon the website when I visited the Buea library website and was interested to know that there are many Cameroonians in the Diaspora achieving great success. This

endeavor is an inspiration to many especially the youth.

Keep up the good work!

By Forsack Kwameh Fonkeng

Greetings from Bamenda. Just to say I love your Magazine. It’s pretty rich and

I think it’s inspirational too. Keep it up and Good Luck.

Esmeralda Hongla

W e start this Issue by thanking you for appreciating this Magazine and for making useful suggestions to our team. We promise to put the best of our abilities and resources to keep this publication educative and enjoyable. We welcome your intellectual contributions whenever you feel inspired.

The Civil Society in Cameroon is growing and making meaningful contributions to the well being of Cameroonians. Children, most especially, are receiving greater attention from some civil society organizations. One of such organizations that have been very active on the field, is the Camer-oon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC) whose Executive Director, Miss Ajomuzu Collette Bekaku, is mobilizing the best of the resources she can to ‘put smiles on the faces of children’ To encourage greater production in Cameroon Literature in English, the US-based EduArt Inc. recently rewarded talented writers during the inau-gural Literary Awards Night that was organised in the mountainside city of Buea. We take you to this colourful event that mobilized so many crea-tive minds who have sustained Cameroonian Literature in English under the inspired leadership of EduArt’s CEO Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang. We en-courage you to take a ride to www.palapalamagazine.info to read the works of most of these contemporary writers. The President and CEO of the African Women’s Development Foundation (AWDF) Lady Kate Atabong Njeuma was visiting state, media and medi-cal institutions in Cameroon to discuss and share the vision of her organization in promoting the well being of Cameroonians. Our team in Yaounde was delighted to meet with this very dynamic lady whose quest for the welfare of her fellow countrymen received our encouragements. During the CIANET Seminar on Access to Potable Water that was organised on July 9th and 10th in Yaounde, we were alarmed to learn that more than one third of the world’s population would not have access to potable water by 2025, However, we are hoping that the involvement of the civil society in the fight for more access to potable water will create awareness in social and government circles for urgent action. Cameroon is blessed with so many indigenous languages that coexist with the two official languages: English and French. Could this Multilingual-ism be a Resource to Development? Our scholar, George Echu, attempts to answer this question in a brilliant study that we spread out in this Issue. You will be impressed by the depth of his findings.

Many generations of English speaking Cameroonian women will fondly remember the Home Economics or Cookery “Bible” AUNTIE KATE’S COOKERY BOOK, that prepared many to manage their kitchens and homes. With nostalgia, we take you to the fa-

mous 89 years old author, AUNTIE KATE, to learn who exactly she is. You would agree, that through her famous Book and initia-tives, she has been the ‘Mother” of many generations of Cameroonian women. Then, we visit Sir JOHNNY MOR, another talented Cameroonian who is actively spreading his top quality management skills in different areas of activity. His patriotic principles and belief in the greatness of Cameroon did attract our attention and earned our praise.

At the end, we take a ride to the Mbonge Council Chambers to cheer Elisabeth and Martin as they seal their promise to be become one for the rest of their lives. Like other newly wedded couples, this couple will certainly use the five love languages to

make their relationship a Success Story. Enjoy Your Reading! 3

Tonge B. Ebai

About Cameroonians at Home and Abroad

A jomuzu Colette Bekaku is Founder and Executive Director of Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC).

Ms. Ajomuzu has extensive experience in social work and human rights. With a Post-Graduate Degree from the University of Yaoundé II Soa, she started her non-profit association and targeted orphans and underprivileged children in Cameroon. Prior to creating CAPEC, she had worked for the British Council Cameroon and was a pioneer member of the InterAction Leadership Programme, a high profile transformation leadership program in sub-Sahara Africa, spon-sored by the British Council, LEAD International and delivered by UK and Pan African experts. Ms. Ajomuzu’s passion for childcare is the sole motivation behind her very active work in CAPEC. A careful observer of the soci-ety, she observed with sympathy how children were increasingly be-coming victims of human rights violations like child abuse, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, child labour, child trafficking and poor access to healthcare, education, food, clothing and educative entertainment, especially in the rural areas. She created CAPEC in 2002 with the vision of promoting the welfare of children so that they could grasp opportunities to attain their full potentials in societies

where their rights and dignity are respected.

CAPEC set out to achieve the following objectives: To make known the rights of the child and protect them through

education as prescribed by UNICEF and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; To assist the needy child irrespective of his/her tribe, origin, sex,

religion, in the domain of social welfare; To prevent child labour and eliminate the sexual exploitation of chil-

dren; To assist children confined in prisons and rehabilitation institutions; To monitor different forms of human rights abuse against the child

CAPEC has worked with and for children and youths in more than thirty (30) villages in Cameroon, to identify the needs and meet the aspirations of the rural youth and the underprivileged. Visits have been made to community centers, social centers, health centers and hospitals to assist the needy child. CAPEC has organised symposiums, workshops and education campaigns via the media (radio, television, newspaper) and orally in rural areas where Chiefs and Elites were invited to promote the welfare of the child and combat juvenile delinquency. CAPEC has devised campaigns, in collaboration with other associations to protect the rights of children. CAPEC has set up different programmes to educate children as well as provide assistance to child prisoners, orphans, street children and child workers.

4 About Cameroonians at Home and Abroad

Hello Kids M s. Ajomuzu Colette Bekaku is also the brain behind Hello Kids, a sum-

mer program for orphans and underprivileged children that creates the best environment for children to spend their holiday wisely playing while learning.

Hello Kids offers to them the opportunities to develop their capacities through learning new skills and improving on already existing ones.

U nder CAPEC, Ms. Ajomuzu Collette Bekaku runs a volun-teer programme under which she mobilises more than 30 international volunteers per year and places them in local projects in Cameroon. Her past and present volunteers

have contribute in building of schools, providing toilets to communities as well as providing food, medication and other materials to orphan-ages and handicapped centers in Cameroon. Volunteers from abroad also use their stay in Cameroon to visit the vast variety of touristic sites in Cameroon.

Volunteering in CAPEC

M s. Ajomuzu Collette Bekaku organizes annual Youth Lead-ership Forums that bring together young leaders from the 10 provinces in Cameroon to talk on youth issues. She has also attended several Conferences in Sweden, Spain,

Italy and Austria where she met and dined with leaders of other organiza-tions in the World. CAPEC’s projects and ideas are supported by CIDA, British Council, Fred Foundation, Netherlands, MIVA Netherlands, Princeton Global Housing USA, and several other funding organizations. As a success story, she advises young Cameroonians to go after their dreams “if you can Think it, you can do it,” she says. To her, Self Em-ployment remains the best option.

Youth Leadership Forums

T he winner of the 2008 Tchicaya Utamsi Award (Africa’s highest Award for Poetry) Professor Niyi Osundare arrived Cameroon on Wednesday 16th of July to attend the first EduArt Literary Awards Ceremony or-ganised in Buea by EduArt, a US-based non-profit organization managed by Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang. During his five-days stay, Professor Osundare met with writers, academicians, university students, media

men and lovers of literature to exchange on experiences, projects and achievements in the domain of Literature On July 18th he was guest to the EduArt Literary Awards Night where he paid tribute to Late Bate Besong during the launch of Their Champagne Party will End: Poems in honor of Bate Besong and also gave a toast to celebrate 50 years of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in the presence of Dr. Kenneth Nsor, the Consul General of Nigeria in-charge of the North West and South West Provinces. Professor Niyi Osundare is a distinguished Professor of Litera-ture at the University of New Orleans, USA.

T he inaugural EduArt Literary Awards Night took place at Capi-tol Hotel in Buea, Cameroon on July 18, 2008 under the aus-pices of Professor Niyi Osundare, award-winning Nigerian poet and distinguished professor of Literature at the University of

New Orleans, USA. The evening consisted of a keynote address on the state of Anglo-phone Cameroon literature, the EduArt awards, the launching of Their Champagne Party Will End: Poems in Honor of Bate Besong edited by Joyce Ashuntantang and Dibussi Tande, a dramatic performance from Musinga drama group, and the celebration of fifty years of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The evening was spiced up with music legend Misse Ngoh Francois. Guests to the inaugural awards ceremony were greeted at the en-trance of the hall with an exhibition of Anglophone Cameroon literature organized by Presbook Cameroon, in addition to books from Anglophone Cameroon writers in the Diaspora. The number of books and variety in terms of genre signaled that Anglophone Cameroon Literature had come of age. Speakers of the evening included Hon. Peter Abety, Chairperson of the event and Chairman of the Cameroon G.C.E Board, Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, the founder and CEO of EduArt Inc USA, and the key-note address by Prof. Shadrack Ambanasom, leading critic on Anglophone Cameroon literature. Ambanasom’s paper titled “Half a Century of Anglo-phone Cameroon Literature” gave a snapshot of Anglophone Cameroon litera-ture from its inception in 1959 to present day. He explained that “1959, the year Sankie Maimo’s play, I Am Vindicated, was published by Ibadan University Press, marked the birth of Anglophone Cameroon literature. But six years earlier, in 1953, still in Nigeria, another Cameroo-

nian, Bernard Fonlon, had written but not yet published, a major essay ‘As I See It’, a treatise on the future and welfare of Cameroon and the role of the clergy in the building of the nation, intended to memorialize his

approaching ordination as a Catholic priest. Now, from 1959 to 2008 is close to 50 years, or half a century. Fifty years in the life of many individuals, couples, institutions or organizations is a time for reflection, a time for

stock taking, a period for counting their blessings or celebrating their achievements.” Also present at the awards night were some of Anglophone Cam-eroon’s finest scholars and writers – Prof. Bole Butake, playwright and Professor of Theater Arts at the University of Yaounde I; Prof Samson Abangma, Registrar University of Buea; Prof. George Nyamdi, novelist, Head of the Department of English at the University of Buea and former presidential candidate; Prof. Shadrack Ambanasom, writer and critic, Head of Department, Ecole Normale Superieur, Bambili Annexe; Prof. B’abila Mutia, poet and Professor of Literature, University of Yaounde 1; Dr. Mrs. Roselyn Mutia; Prof. Alobwede D’Epie, novelist and Head of Eng-lish Department, University of Yaounde I; Prof. Joyce Endeley, Head of Department, Women and Gender Studies, University of Buea; Prof. Theo-dosia Macmoli, retired Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea; Mr. Azong Wara, pioneer Registrar of the GCE Board, Buea. Members of the media were also present. Notable among them was Kange Williams Wasaloko, Publisher of Summit Magazine, Samuel Bokuba, Deputy Station Manager of the CRTV Southwest provincial radio station, Charlie Ndichia, Editor-in-Chief of The Post newspaper, and Robert Abunaw, veteran journalist.

J ohn Ngong Kum’s literary work Walls of Agony won the Bate Besong Award for Poetry, a cash prize of half a million francs CFA, a trophy and a Certificate. Most of his GCE Eng-lish Literature students remember John Ngong Kum as a tal-

ented literary mind whose lectures give vivid pictures and indepth understanding of the principles guiding good literary production, appreciation and poetry. Matthew Takwi won the Second Prize with his work On Their Knees. He was followed by the Third Prize winner Mr. Kamara Kimvala. According to EduArt’s CEO, Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, the Bate Besong Award for Poetry is to honour the memory of late Dr. Bate Besong, the renown, eloquent and talented poet and play-wright who departed this world prematurely after a ghastly car accident in March 2007.

S ankie Maimo, author of the first Anglophone Cameroon pub-lished work I Am Vindicated (1959) was honoured with a Life-time Achievement Award while late Prudencia Chilla, the first Anglophone Cameroonian woman to have published in 1969,

was also honoured with an Award. Awards were also given to the promoter of Cameroon Literature in English , Bumakor, as well as to writer Comfort Ashu. Another colourful feature of the Award Cere-mony was the Award to popular musician François Misse Ngoh for 38 years of Music. Besides the Poetry Award, the organizers had scheduled the Victor Elame Musinga Award for Drama and Jane & Rufus Blanchard Award for Fiction but could not proceed because few entries were made. They are hopeing that these two Awards will be hotly contested for in the nest edition of EduArt Awards For Camer-oon Literature in English.

Palapala refers to a brand of Cameroonian traditional wrestling. However, Palapala magazine is an online pan-African journal on culture, the politics of art and the media. Palapala is part of the on-going cultural, literary and

political discourse taking place within Africa and its Diaspora. Palapala intends to become a canvass, grassroots-friendly of course, on which the fresh portraits of our experiences can be drawn. Palapala will evolve as circumstances permit but for the meantime, we shall publish six on-line

issues a year that cover a variety of subjects.

Founding Editor: Kangsen Feka Wakai

Bole Butake

Rosemary Ekosso

Dibussi Tande

Lloney Monono

Kangsen Feka Wakai

Dipita Kwa

Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Julian Nfah-Abbenyi

Kenjo Jumbam

JK Bannavati

Shadrach A. Ambanasom

Ba’bila Mutia

Peter Vakunta

Donna Forbin

Photo

by P

eter G

raha

m

T he President and CEO of the African Women’s Development Foundation (AWDF), Lady Kate Atabong Njeuma paid a work-ing visit to her country, Cameroon in July 2008. In Limbe, Lady Kate led the AWDF medical mission to the Limbe

Provincial Hospital where she held a working session with the Hospital Ad-ministrator, Dr. Kinge, before proceeding to handover donations from AWDF. These included skin preps, scrubs, skin staples, staple removal kits, gloves, sterile gowns, needles, syringes, sutures for the surgical and delivery units. Special mouth care kits were also donated individually to HIV/AIDS patients. She demonstrated the use of some of the products to the staff. These medical kits were offered by MedShare International and Cam-

eroon-Atlanta Lions Soccer Team in the USA. Lady Kate also spent nice moments in Gardens Limbe with her fellow women of the Limbe-based Nkongbong Women’s Association made up of small market traders, an affiliate of AWDF. She handed over financial contributions from AWDF to start the association’s Micro-Credit Scheme.

I n Yaounde, Lady Kate was granted audience by the dynamic Minister of Culture, Her Excellency Ama Tutu Muna, at the Ministry of Culture. Lady Kate delivered an Invi-tation to the Minister to participate as Guest of Honour at the Fourth Grand Annual Miss Africa USA Pageant scheduled for November 1st 2008 in Georgia, USA.

Lady Kate praised the Minister for her laudable efforts in promoting Cameroonian culture on the national and international scenes. Lady Kate visited the General Manager of the Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV), Honourable Amadou Vamoulke at the CRTV Head Office in Mballa II Yaoundé. She also invited CRTV to be part of the next Miss Africa USA Pageant in Georgia, USA. At the recently inaugurated ST Muna Foundation, Barrister Akere Muna took Lady Kate around the ultramodern building with conference and recording facilities and the Mu-seum. Lady Kate’s mediatised visit also took her to the President of Cameroon Union of Journalists, Charlie Ndi Chia and Press Organs like Cameroon Tribune, The Post Newspa-per, Summit Magazine and Success Story E-Magazine. She praised these Press Organs for keeping Cameroonians and friends of Cameroon informed.

T he Civil Action Network on Water and Sanitation (CIANET) organised a Seminar on 9th and 10th July 2008 to share with and mobilise the rest of the civil society, on pertinent issues related to access to potable water in Cameroon. With funding from PCPA-Cameroon, the project aimed at studying the

realities of access to potable water in nine provinces (Phase I) and mobilizing the civil society to become more involved in activities aimed at guaranteeing access to affordable potable water (Phase II). Four associations formed CIANET and carried out the field study in the Provinces. WESDE (Water, Energy and Sanitation for Development) led by Bathermy TSAFACK carried out studies in the Adamawa, North and Far North Prov-inces. The situation in the Littoral, West and North West Provinces were studied by RE-CAAD (Reflection, and Concrete Actions for African Development) led by its President, Mr. GABI Laurent. APDC (Association for the Protection of Consumers) under the stewardship of Dr. ES-SOUNGOU Ndemba carried out studies in the Centre, South and East Provinces. Through questionnaires, focus group discussions, visits to water sources and treat-

ment centres, CIANET was able to scientifically identify problems faced by the communities with regards to access to potable water. It also built up a database on factors and actors involved in the strife for more potable water in Cameroon. The study revealed that the pipe-borne potable water network coexisted with commu-nity water projects and other water sources. Problems affecting water could be related to the cost, water quality and distance of water points to households. While sharing this information with the rest of the Civil Society during the Seminar, the CIANET members invited concerted civil action to raise awareness among the population and authorities for the need to pay attention to the supply of potable water. They emphasized that the issue of access to potable water had fast become a source for concern the world over because more pollution and ef-fects of climate change were diminishing the availability of potable water. They strongly advocated for a Right to Water to be inscribed among fundamental hu-man rights. Some eloquent members of the Civil Society present also gave experiences as well as ideas to enrich a more effective plan of action by the civil society to the benefit of the population’s increased access to potable water. Dr. SENDE Pierre recalled how he had unsuccessfully initiated a bill in parliament that made the communities’ access to potable water obligatory. His project aimed at building at least one well in each of Cameroon’s 14 400 villages in 4 years at a cost of 19 bil-lion CFA per year. To him, access to potable water is important because most deaths in Cameroon are caused by water-borne diseases.


C ookery occupies an important place in schools and socio-cultural groups. It is a fundamental concern of family and everyday life and is important both at the individual, commu-nity, societal and global levels. Home Economics encom-

passes important modern themes from human development to healthy life styles, sustainable use of resources, and cultural diversity. Education on food and nutrition is one of the key strategies to address the current food crisis. It teaches households to most economi-cally prepare and consume the foods that are available. Tons of food aid have been wasted or inappropriately used due to ignorance of cultural acceptability and cooking requirements, by both the donors and recipi-ents. Attempts to alleviate the global food crisis can only succeed if what-ever foodstuffs are available locally and or provided by donor agencies are effectively used to provide adequate nutrition for households. When imported foods are introduced, it is often necessary to try out nutritious recipes uncommon to the household. In the introduction of her cookery book, Aunty Kate states: “five cooks given the same type and quantities of ingredients may produce five different specimens of the same food, each tasting and looking slightly different from the other”. Some of the factors which contribute to a successful meal may be listed as follows:- 1. A knowledge of the foods which are available; 2. The composition and values of these different foods; 3. The budgeting and planning of meals;

4. Marketing and wise purchasing; The correct method of cooking each item of food to nutritional advantage;

The Book… “Aunty Kate’s Cookery Book” is a well known and widely used cook book not only for Cameroonian recipes but also for popular and well loved dishes eaten in West and Central Africa. It celebrates the many, varied and tantalising tastes that Cameroonian and African foods offer to the connoisseur. For those who know it, it is not just a cookery book but a textbook on the science, culture and art of food and nutri-tion. As she states in the introduction: “This … book aims to be more than a mere collection of recipes. For teachers and students of Home Economics, it is in-tended to be a full, reliable textbook of cookery and nutrition. For the housewife and caterer, who may or may not have had the ad-vantage of specialist training, it is a complete education in its sub-ject”. The book is cited on the internet and excerpts are used in numer-ous publications, often without reference to either the author or the book. “Aunty Kate’s Cookery Book” contains sections on nutrition, food groups with common, generic and local names for the different foods; recipes and menus, seasonal variations in food availability during the year, examples of traditional utensils, kitchen prayers, rules, relevant proverbs etc. Terms and processes are defined and explained in very simple style for people to follow. Some “senior service” men - who bought the book for their wives - claimed that they could themselves really cook some dishes with the help of the book!

The Cook…

Mrs Kate Ebenye Idowu – Aunty Kate Diploma in Home Economics, University of Durham, UK

Diploma in Home Economics, University of Portland, Oregon. USA Retired Home Economics Teacher and Examiner

Who is Aunty Kate? Mrs. Kate Ebenye Idowu née Steane is known by family, friends, colleagues, pupils and in fact everybody as Aunty Kate. She is one of the daughters of Charles Nako and Djara Steane, both of blessed memory, and is resident in Clerks Quarters, Buea, Fako Division. She was born in September 1919 in Victoria (now Limbe) and is still going strong at the ripe age of 89 years. Aunty Kate had her primary education in the then Victoria and Kumba, and later went to the Kudeti Training Centre in Ibadan, Nigeria. She obtained the Diploma in Home Economics in the University of Durham (England) and the University of Oregon (USA). When Home Economics was included in the Cameroon GCE ordinary level subjects, Mrs. Idowu attended a short course on setting and marking the questions at the University of London. She then set up and trained the teams of Home Economics teachers who were in charge of Home Economics as one of the GCE subjects. Aunty Kate taught Domestic Science or Home Economics in Centres for school girls and women in Victoria (Limbe), Buea and Bamenda. She has trained many teachers, caterers and housewives for-mally and informally. Everyone who lived in her house learnt to cook and bake – both boys and girls. 18

“five cooks given the same type and quantities of ingredients may produce five different specimens of the same

food, each tasting and looking slightly different from the other”. Aunty Kate


For some time, Home Economics was not considered an im-portant subject and was not included in final school exams because only the girls in primary schools studied it. Later on, it was taught in secondary schools and even though included among the GCE sub-jects sat and passed, it did not count for entry into higher education or the civil service. Hence the students did not take the course seri-ously and the performance of the few who sat for the examination was low. Even though it was an official subject, a pass in Home Eco-nomics was not considered for admission into higher institutions or the public service professional examinations. For many years Aunty Kate catered for official and private parties, made cakes for special occasions and was always in charge of or in committees responsible for feeding special groups during na-tional and provincial celebrations. Most of her services were offered free of charge. Catering is now a very lucrative business because Cameroonians love good food! Cooking was not her only skill. She made different types of household decorations by knitting, crochet, tie-dye, macramé… “you name it, she could make it”. She also taught these skills to women’s groups (cultural, religious, community etc.) as well as the host of young people who grew up in her home. She was never idle – if not cooking or baking, her hands were always busy making something useful from cloth, wool, thread, ropes… She was an ardent farmer, growing vegetables, yam and fruits in her back garden and flowers around her house. Now that she is a senior citizen and cannot do much herself, she still instructs those around her on how to prepare special delica-cies like rice bread. She loves to help out in the kitchen. She makes attempts at knitting, baking and even tries to wrap cocoyam for ekwan-coco and then looks at her hands, turns them around, sighs and every-body laughs at those superskilled hands, now weak! She has always made her faith in God a priority and organized daily night prayers in her home. The cook book has prayers on sev-eral pages. As a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Great Soppo, she was active in the women’s group and insisted on being accompanied to church. Now that she is not very mobile, she is vis-ited by her pastor and the women of the church recently gave her recognition for her activities. Mrs. Kate Idowu, Aunty Kate, is a great Cameroonian woman who has trained many young girls and boys, women, to be house proud, economically viable and take good care of their families. This training has continued down the line from mothers to children and teachers to pupils. Cameroon has put special emphasis on girls’ edu-cation and trying to motivate more of them to study the sciences. Mrs. Idowu’s captivating smile, soft spoken immaculate English and her achievements went a long way to motivate girls to take their edu-cation seriously. If a woman born in 1919 can achieve so much, why cannot girls and young women in this modern age, with all the mod-ern facilities achieve greater heights in all works of life? In Aunty Kate’s Cookery Book (page 9) she writes: “Do you know that education is given not for the purpose of earning a living, but rather of learning what to do with that living after earning it? When-ever I’m in doubt, I mutter – eggs and fish, marge and butter, fruit, potatoes, carrots, greens give you all your vitamins” Despite all that is written about African “tribalism”, in Cam-eroon our integration is such that specific traditional dishes have be-come national dishes and are prepared and consumed regularly in households of different tribes (eru, foofoo, achu, ekwancoco, ndole etc).

By Gladys Ejomi Martin (MD)

Aunty Kate taught Domestic Science or Home Economics in Centers for school girls and women in Victoria (Limbe), Buea and Bamenda. She has trained

many teachers, caterers and housewives formally and informally.

The Lexica l Appropr iat ion of

Cameroon Ind igenous

Languages by Engl ish and French

By George Echu Introduction

C ameroon is a linguistic paradise comprising 247 indigenous languages, Pidgin English and two official languages (English and French). This figure, advanced by Breton and Fohtung's (1991) study, is re-echoed by Boum Ndongo-Semengue and Sadembouo (1999). Yet it appears to be

relatively conservative when one takes into consideration the recent statistics published by SIL International (2002) in Ethnologue (2002) which credits Camer-oon with 279 indigenous languages, English, French and Cameroon Pidgin Eng-lish (CPE). If we agree with Jean-Louis Roy (1993) that Africa possesses a little over 1000 indigenous languages, then Cameroon's number alone could be consid-ered really impressive, whether one goes for the older conservative figure or the most recent one. Over the years, some language scholars and political observers entertained fears that such a multilingual situation is a potential source of conflict, a factor that can bring about political disintegration. Yet, the reverse side of the coin is also true, for multilingualism constitutes an invaluable resource, a source of lin-guistic and cultural enrichment. Our study posits that the lexical appropriation of Cameroonian indigenous languages by English and French constitutes a source of lexico-semantic and cultural enrichment for the two official languages, and thus permits them to express more vividly certain realities pertaining to the Cameroo-nian context. In so doing, English and French gain in vitality and thus become the expression of our national culture and identity. Such a linguistic situation should naturally favour cultural integration and national unity, ideals that have been the preoccupation of successive governments since the independence of the country in 1960. As concerns the influence of indigenous languages on the official lan-guages, it is important to observe that the language contact situation in Cameroon has resulted in influences from various levels of linguistic structure - phonological, lexical, morphological, syntactic, etc. Our main concern in this study is relexifica-tion or lexical borrowing from the indigenous languages (donor languages) to the official languages (recipient languages). Thus, cases of lexical interference are not considered at all, given that they do not culturally affect the structure of the re-

cipient language(s) in a durable manner.

Methodological Concerns The present study is primarily based on a corpus compiled from a wide spectrum that ranges from everyday oral usage to written contexts such as news-papers, written documentation and literary works both in English and French. Apart from individual sources, our study has benefited enormously from the research findings of Cameroonian and foreign researchers working on the lexis of English and French as used in Cameroon. Some of the research works concerning lexical borrowing in English from Cameroonian indigenous languages which were beneficial to this study include Simo Bobda (1983), Kouega (1998), Ubanako (2000) and Wolf (2001). Of course we do also acknowledge having gained indirectly from collective research projects such as the Corpus of English in Cameroon (CEC), compiled by a team at the University of Yaounde I as part of the International Corpus of English (ICE) project, and the "Corpus Calixthe", compiled by Bettina Peters and Susan Navissi of Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany (cf. Wolf, 2001:243f). As far as the French language is concerned, lexical borrowing from indigenous languages has attracted more systematic attention and resulted in in-depth studies from scholars than in the English language. For instance, the IFA-CAM (Inventaire des Particularités Lexicales du Français en Afrique - Cameroun) team has been working since the late 70s on the lexical peculiarities of the French language in Cameroon. The first inventory was published in 1979 by some Cam-eroonian and foreign researchers. Research work has since continued, especially with the revival of the project under the leadership of Jean Tabi Manga. Our personal involvement in this research team since 1998 has been quite instrumen-tal in exposing us to the existing inventory and making us part of the constitu-tion of a more comprehensive inventory that will eventually lead to the publica-tion of a dictionary of Cameroon French. Researchers have therefore either benefited from this existing corpus or even contributed to its enrichment, espe-cially as far as lexical items from indigenous languages are concerned: Mendo Ze (1990), Ngo Bitchocka (1992), Ewouelle (1995), Fame Ndongo (1999), Zang Zang (1999), etc. All these existing works have proved vital to the present study. Finally, mention should equally be made of the fact that our current involve-


ment in a research project which focuses on the socio-linguistic perspectives of official language bilingualism in Cameroon has been particularly inspiring. It should be remarked that in our treatment of lexical items from indige-nous languages, items from CPE are not considered. A few reasons account for this. The first is that CPE is a contact language which itself borrows considerably from the traditional indigenous languages, a situation which makes it sometimes difficult to classify the origin of Pidgin English words. Secondly, we did recently explore some rich data on lexical borrowing from CPE in the French language in a recently accomplished research endeavour. Consequently, we did not deem it necessary to revisit issues that have been analysed exhaustively elsewhere. In exploiting the corpus, our main focus has been to bring out those recurrent lexical items found in the official languages and whose origin can be traced from the indigenous languages. These items were then analysed in the light of their lexico-semantic and cultural impact on the two official languages. But before going into the analysis per se, it will be worthwhile to attempt an over-view of Cameroon's language situation and language policy. Multilingualism and Language Policy in Cameroon Three of the four language families of Africa are represented in Camer-oon: the Afro-Asiatic, the Nilo-Saharan and the Niger-Kordofanian. In accor-dance with the latest statistics of Ethnologue (2002), languages constituting the Afro-Asiatic group are 60 in number, and they are spoken in the North of the country. The Nilo-Saharan family is made up of 2 languages, 2 other languages (Bung and Luo) are unclassified, while the Niger-Kordofanian family has 215 languages. This last group is no doubt the most highly represented in Cameroon. As for languages of wider communication, Breton and Fohtung (1991: 20) consider the following nine: Arab Choa, Basaa, CPE, Duala, Ewondo, Ful-fulde, Hausa, Kanuri and Wandala. Wolf (2001) is of the opinion that three main lingua franca zones can be observed in Cameroon, and these zones correspond to CPE, French and Fulfulde. The CPE lingua franca zone covers the North-West and South-West provinces, as well as parts of the Littoral and West prov-inces. The French lingua franca zone includes the Centre, South, East, West and Littoral provinces; whereas the Fulfulde lingua franca zone covers the three Northern provinces (Adamawa, North and Far North). However, as Wolf notes, these divisions are not rigid given that there is a lot of overlapping. In other words, these languages are spoken well beyond their respective zones. Wolf is absolutely right in mentioning French as one of the main languages of wider communication in Cameroon, although he considerably limits the overall num-ber of these languages. This can be understood since he is more interested in vehicular languages with a large number of speakers than with those having a limited number of speakers. During the colonial period, the colonial powers encouraged the use of their respective languages. Although the German colonial administration (1884-1916) encouraged the use of German, German Missionaries and the American Presbyterian Missionaries preferred indigenous languages like Basaa, Bulu, Duala, Ewondo and Mungaka for teaching and evangelisation (Mbuagbaw, 2000: 135). In the same vein, Sultan Njoya encouraged the use of Bamun in the Bamun sul-tanate, while in the Northern provinces the use of Fulfulde in Islam for evangeli-sation dates as far back as the 17th century. In all, throughout the German colo-nial period, indigenous languages continued to enjoy a somewhat comfortable position as far as linguistic communication is concerned. With the defeat of Germany in 1918 during the First World War, Camer-oon was divided between Britain and France, and administered first under the League of Nations mandate and later under the United Nations trusteeship. Lan-guage policy thus witnessed some changes with the arrival of these new colonial powers. The British practised the policy of Indirect Rule, whereby the use of indigenous languages was almost an imperative since the British administrators governed through traditional authorities. In French-speaking Cameroon, the policy of Assimilation, aimed at transforming Cameroonians into Frenchmen, gave little or no room for the use of indigenous languages. This accounts for the recurrent language conflicts between indigenous languages, on the one hand, and French, on the other, as expressed by Stumpf (1979) and Bitja'a Kody (1999). Stringent measures were taken by the French administrators to ensure the he-gemony of the French language. This notwithstanding, indigenous languages continued to be used for evangelisation. In the territory under British mandate, some indigenous languages like Bafut, Duala, Kenyang and Mungaka remained in use alongside English in schools (Bitja'a Kody, 1999: 82). When Cameroon finally became independent, French was adopted as the official language in French-speaking Cameroon, while English assumed the same status in the English-speaking sector. Then, following reunification on 1 October 1961, official bilingualism was instituted in the new federal republic. Cameroon, like many other African countries, naturally opted for the 'neutral' foreign lan-guage option as official language in order to avoid language conflict, on the one hand, and unwarranted financial and material cost, on the other. This explains why the indigenous languages were kept far away and preference given only to the languages of the former colonial masters. The fears were so great that a pro-

posal to select six indigenous languages in the mid 60s and teach them in the federal University was suppressed for fear that those Cameroonians whose lan-guages were not chosen would revolt (Chumbow, 1996: 7-8). No wonder during the meeting of the National Council for Cultural Affairs held from 18 to 22 De-cember 1974, the term 'national language' was unanimously adopted for all Cam-eroonian indigenous languages, an appeasing measure that was meant to give the indigenous languages the impression of equality in status and thus comfort their speakers. In spite of the silence on the part of the Cameroon government, different organs have been working relentlessly towards the promotion of indigenous lan-guages. This is the case of PROPELCA (Programme de Recherche Opérationnelle pour l'Enseignement des Langues au Cameroun), which has been active since 1977 as regards mother tongue education in Cameroon. Other actors include SIL-Cameroon, the Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) and the National Association of Cameroonian Language Committees (NACALCO). Equally significant is the harmonisation of the writing system of Cameroonian languages in 1979, a factor that has contributed immensely to the standardisation of some indigenous languages. Consequently, the revised Constitution of 18 Janu-ary 1996 which guarantees the pursuit of the policy of official bilingualism and the promotion of national languages only goes a long way to confirm the fact that both the official and indigenous languages all belong to the Cameroonian cultural heritage. It is therefore not exaggerated to affirm that, although the indigenous languages have always been marginalized, they have never been completely anni-hilated. Hence they continue to play an important communicational role in the socio-linguistic life of the people, since they express the indigenous culture.

Lexical Borrowing from Indigenous Languages The language contact situation in Cameroon has as one of its characteris-tics linguistic borrowing. Such borrowing is expressed in different ways: from the official languages to the indigenous languages, from the official languages to Pidgin English, from Pidgin English to the official languages, from indigenous languages to official languages, etc. The focus of this paper is lexical borrowing from indigenous languages to official languages. Lexical borrowing has always been and remains one of the main sources of enrichment for languages. This vision is contained in the definition of Michel Arrivé et al. (1986: 244-245) which states that: L'emprunt est l'un des processus par lequel s'enrichit l'inventaire des éléments (essentiellement lexicaux) d'une langue. Il consiste à faire apparaître des unités nouvelles sans recourir à des éléments lexicaux préexistants dans la langue . Thus a linguistic reality pertaining to a particular language is employed by another so as to fill a vacuum, usually of a meta-linguistic nature. More often than not, the cultural reality or idea expressed in language A is non-existent in language B, such that while speaking the latter we are bound to transfer such a reality or idea on to the recipient language. Borrowing is therefore seen as a deliberate, systematic and collective process, attested not only in bilingual and multilingual communities, but even in monolingual communities. In Cameroon, both English and French borrow extensively from indige-nous languages. Our work dwells exclusively on two main categories of lexical items: cultural-based terms and cases of derivation.

Cultural-based Terms Cultural-based terms can be grouped into the following areas: gastron-omy, traditional titles, dance/music, as well as socio-cultural institutions, prac-tices, objects and concepts. The following are some recurrent examples of indige-nous language loans as observed in English and French usage in Cameroon. a) Gastronomy achu: (Bantu grassfield languages) traditional dish composed of pounded fufu and a type of yellowish soup afofo: (Kenyang) locally brewed liquor from palmwine arki: (Ewondo) locally brewed liquor from maize, palmwine, cassava or banana bobolo: (Ewondo) traditional dish prepared from cassava ekwang: (Bakweri) traditional dish prepared from cocoyams eru: (Kenyang) local variety of vegetables (scientific name: gnetum africana) keleng keleng: (Duala) local variety of vegetables (scientific name: orchorus olitorius) koki: (Duala) a type of local cake made out of ground beans cooked with palmoil kondré: (Bantu grassfield languages of the West province) traditional dish of plantain por-ridge kpa coco: (Bakweri) traditional dish prepared from cocoyams kpwem/kpem: (Ewondo) traditional vegetable dish from cassava leaves (scientific name: manihot esculenta) matango: (Duala, Basaa) palmwine mbongo tchobi: (Basaa) sauce prepared with some exotic plants and accompanied with meat or fish mbuh: (Moghamo) wine from raffia tree miondo: (Duala) traditional dish prepared from cassava ndolé: (Duala) local variety of vegetables (scientific name: vermonia amygdalina) nkwi: (Bantu grassfield languages of the West province) traditional dish prepared with a type of sticky soup (scientific name: triumfetta pentan-


dra) sha: (Wimbum) locally brewed corn beer timambusa: (Bakweri) traditional dish prepared from cocoyams b) Traditional titles Ardo: (Fulani) traditional ruler among the Bororos Fai: (Lamso) traditional title from the Nso tribe Fon: (Bantu grassfields) traditional ruler in the grassfield region Lamido: (languages of the Northern provinces) traditional ruler in North Cameroon Mafor/Mafo: (Bantu grassfields) Queen mother Manyi/Magne: (attested in several Bantu languages in Cameroon) mother of twins Mbobog: (Basaa) traditional title of nobility Nchinda: (Bantu grassfields) spokesman of the traditional ruler Nfon: (Bafaw) traditional ruler Nfor: (Kenyang) traditional ruler Ni: (Bantu grassfield languages of North West province) traditional title used for an elderly male person to show respect Shey: (Lamso) traditional title of nobility among the Nso Sisuku: (Kenyang) title holder of Ekpe secret society among the Banyangs Tanyi/Tagne: (attested in several Bantu languages in Cameroon) father of twins c) Dance/Music ambasibé: (Duala) music and dance of the Douala people assiko: (Basaa) music and dance of the Basaa people bikutsi: (Ewondo, Bulu) music and dance from the Beti region bolobo: (Duala) traditional dance from the coastal region where dancers form a circle and execute in turns in the middle of the circle etog ebye-atu: (Ejagham) ritual dance performed during the funeral ceremony of an important dignitary or title holder among in Banyangs and Ejaghams makossa: (Duala) music and dance of Douala people mangambeu: (Bagangté) music and dance from the West province mbaya: (Wimbum) popular traditional dance of the Wimbum people in the North West province mvet: (Ewondo) traditional musical instrument used for a particular genre of music in the Centre, South and East provinces; the music itself too is called mvet njang: (Akum) dance from the North West province d) Socio-cultural Institutions, Practices, Objects and Concepts caba ngondo/caba/kaba (Duala) long ample gown worn by women ekpe: (Ejagham) traditional secret society among some Bantu tribes in the South West province esingan: (Beti-Fang) lobby group of the Betis famla: (Bantu grassfield languages from the West province) type of witchcraft that entails human sacrifice gandoura: traditional gown worn by men from North Cameroon kongossa: (Duala) practice of gossiping kwifon/kwifor: (Akum) a traditional regulatory society from the grassfield region la'akam: (Bantu grassfield languages) initiation place in Bamileke traditional society maguida: (Fulfulde, Hausa) name given to Muslims of northern origin mbengue: (Duala) France, Europe mola: (Bakweri) friend, brother nanga/nanga boko: (Duala) person without stable residence nassara: (Fulfulde) whiteman ndamba: (Eton, Ewondo, Bulu) football ngondo: (Duala) popular cultural festival of the Doualas njangui: (Duala, Basaa) social group meeting built around money contribution in which members benefit in turns nkane: (Duala) prostitute or prostitution nyango: (Duala) woman or girl friend obasinjom: (Ejagham) secret society among the Banyangs and Ejaghams samara: (Hausa) locally made leather sandals from North Cameroon sanja: (Duala) traditional loincloth attire used by people from the forest region sawa: (Duala) person of Coastal origin takumbeng: (Mankon) female secret society in some tribes of the North West province tchango: (Bantu grassfield languages) two men married to two sisters As observed from the study, borrowing is justified where the loans are related to concepts or realities that sometimes cannot be expressed other-wise in English and French. In fact, where such realities are non-existent in the foreign language civilisation, it is difficult to express them appropriately without having recourse to lexical items from indigenous languages. This explains the massive presence of terms pertaining to gastronomy such as achu, bobolo, eru, kondré, kpwem, mbongo tchobi, miondo, nkwi, etc. Of course, it also justifies the massive presence of lexical items in English and French relating to traditional titles, among which are: Ardo, Fai, Fon, Lamido, Mafor, Mbobog, Ni, Shey and Sisuku. Such titles are not translatable into English and French because of their cultural specificity. In other words, although one can refer to an Ardo, Fon or Lamido as a 'chief' or 'king', such a representation might sometimes tend to be over-simplistic and grossly erroneous in terms of the worldview of the indigenous people. Because of the nature of power involved, its conceptualisation and domain of influence, resorting to titles as used in the local setting is but indispensable. It is important here to note that by trying to avoid the indigenous language

term, language users run the risk of adopting near TL equivalents or translations like the French

'E9pinards' (for keleng keleng) or 'bâton de manioc' (for bobolo) as used in Ferdinand Oyono's Une vie de boy (1956). In fact, 'epinards' and 'keleng keleng' do not express exactly the same reality, although they all belong to the class of vegetables. The French term 'bâton de manioc' (instead of bobolo) is grossly misleading and some-times even confusing. No doubt John Reeds, the translator of Une vie de boy into English is misled into rendering 'bâton de manioc' as 'cassava stick' in his text (Houseboy, 1966: 3), a translation which is not only comic but equally out of place. Another worthwhile observation is that the lexical items of indigenous language origin cut across linguistic communities. The same word or concept is used in different languages, though with varying pronunciations and spellings. The word Fon, for instance, is generally used in the grass-field region of the North West province for 'traditional ruler'. Ebot (1995) claims that the word originated from the Mungaka root Mfon which means 'ruler'. While being plausible, such a view fails to take cognisance of the fact that there are other words in some other languages which are close to Fon: Fo in Mankon and Foh in Akum. Other Bantu languages like Kenyang and Bafaw use Nfor and Nfon respectively. It has also been observed that Nfor is used not only in Kenyang, but also in some Bantu grass-field languages like Pinyin. In the same vein, the word Mafo as used in the Bamileke region and Mafor as observed in the Bantu languages of the North West province all mean 'Queen mother'. The title given to the father of twins is Tagne in the Bamileke region and Tanyi in several other Cameroonian Bantu languages, includ-ing Kenyang. The same is true of the title used for the mother of twins: Magne in the Bamileke region and Manyi in some other Cameroonian Bantu languages. Since these words and concepts cut across several indigenous languages, they thus be-long to a set of commonly shared cultural values by Cameroonians. This makes them symbols of national identity, and thus the expression of a national culture. In other words, cultural concepts or notions are shared at the national level through the two official languages. This implies that at a given time, these concepts or notions cease to be considered simply from an ethnic perspective. They go beyond the ethnic level to represent national culture. This is the case of the different food species or dishes like mkpem, eru, ndole, achu, kpa coco, nkwi, mbongo tchopi, etc., which have come to assume the status of national dishes and are consequently not only shared by everyone, but henceforth also represent the Cameroon national culture. Imagine the various musical forms and dance types Cameroon is proud of today such as ambasibé, assiko, bikutsi, makossa, mangambeu and mbaya. They have undoubt-edly enriched the national cultural heritage and represent Cameroon cultural iden-tity. In the words of Mveng (1985: 67), they "have crossed the frontiers and en-tered into the entire African cultural heritage". Mention should also be made of the fact that because of the absence of Cameroon English and Cameroon French glossaries there is often no standardised spelling form as far as the lexical items under study are concerned. Consequently, spellings adopted by language users and researchers vary enormously not only when one goes from one language to another as seen earlier, but even within the same language. Examples are: afofo/fofo, assikô/assiko, kaba/caba, keleng keleng/kelenkelen, kwem/kpem, maguida/magida, njangui/njangi and ndjô/ndjoh/njoh. Although such differences in spelling might depend on whether the term is used in an Eng-lish or French context, others are due to the particular spelling adopted by the language user. We did observe, for instance, that while the English text adopted njangi and magida, the French text prefers njangui and maguida. Such preferences are more or less phonologically based. Some recurrent lexical items in the corpus are used as forms of address and sometimes have affective undertones. Examples are Fai, Maguida, Mola, Ni, Nyango and Tchango. When used in particular contexts, they tend to convey inti-macy or respect depending on the discourse situation. Cameroonian speakers of English and French use these forms of address in varying situations to suit various purposes. The English Sir/Madam and the French Monsieur/Madame are often too distant to be used in such contexts.


Equally pertinent is the fact that the use of lexical items of indigenous lan-guage origin in English and French add local colour to the official languages. This enables realities, be they ideas, objects or concepts, to be more vividly expressed. How else can cultural institutions like 'ekpe', 'la'akam', 'ngondo', 'obasinjom' and 'takumbeng', and socio-cultural practices like 'famla' and njangui' be better ex-pressed without the use of these terms? In the latter case, the English words 'witchcraft' (for famla) and 'contribution' (for njangui) fail to add the semantic under-tone necessary for the message to be effectively conveyed. Hence it is necessary in such instances to use the indigenous language terms. In all, the complete integration of the indigenous language item into the official language(s) can only be more meaningful where the morphological and semantic structure of the item in question is well understood. Lexical inventories and dictionaries should naturally take into account these aspects of language struc-ture. For example, it would be but normal for the user of English to know that bikutsi comes from three words: 'bi' which means 'we', 'kut' which means 'beat' and 'si' meaning 'the earth'. Thus bikutsi means 'we beat the earth' in Ewondo. By the same token, makossa means 'I dance' in Duala.

Cases of Derivation The integration of lexical items from the indigenous languages into the official languages also occurs through derivation. Local place names, names of

languages and titles were observed to sometimes undergo derivation in the receptor language(s) leading to the formation of new words. Examples: While Fondom was observed to be used exclusively in English, Basaaphone, Buluphone, Dualaphone, Ewondophone, Kenyangophone were observed to be used both in English and French. On the contrary, Kribien, Mbamois and Yaoundéen are exclusively French derived words. Although these three words generally function as nouns, they are also used as adjectives. Such derivational processes only go a long way to enrich the two official languages and ensure the complete integration of these words into the lexical struc-ture of English and French. It should however be underscored that, in the Camer-oonian context, derivational processes of this nature are more common in French than in English. This does not in any way mean that they cannot be used in Eng-lish. Conclusion From the above, it is clear that the appropriation of indigenous language lexical items by English and French stems from the desire not just to communicate particular ideas, concepts or realities but to do so more vividly. Cameroonian users of English and French unavoidably find themselves in situations where they prac-tise a type of 'textual bilingualism', the indigenous language lexical items being used side by side with those of the official language(s) in the same text. Because of the apparent difficulty of translating expressions representing ideas, objects and con-cepts from the indigenous languages into the official language(s), borrowing stands out in such cases as a ready and appropriate solution. Relexification thus contrib-utes to the indigenisation or, better still, Cameroonisation of English and French. Consequently, the official languages, duly enriched by indigenous lan-guages, constitute unifying forces necessary in the establishment of national aware-ness and re-awakening, contributing towards eventual national unity. It is therefore not uncommon to hear Cameroonians say that both French and English are Cam-eroonian languages. Researchers in the area of language have been quite vocal in this respect, to the extent of adopting terminologies like 'Cameroon English (CamE)' and 'Cameroon French (le français du Cameroun)'. Thus, far from being a source of linguistic conflict and political instability, multilingualism in Cameroon is a resource. It does not only help enrich the official languages lexically, semantically and culturally; it also plays a major role in bringing about linguistic integration and national culture and identity. It is equally worth noting that the appropriation of indigenous languages in this way by official languages only goes a long way to revalorise the former, consoli-dating their place within the global communication set up, and in so doing, forge a national culture based both on local and foreign realities. Indigenous languages thus cease to be considered as a marginalized lot constantly relegated to the background. To say the least, they are indispensable not only in the expression of local realities, but also in the conception of a national culture.

Basaa Bulu Duala

Ewondo Fon

Kenyang Kribi

Lamido Mbam

Yaoundé

-------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ----------— ————-

Basaaphone (speaker of the Basaa language) Buluphone (speaker of the Bulu language) Dualaphone (speaker of the Duala language) Ewondophone (speaker of the Ewondo language) Fondom (area of jurisdiction administered by a Fon) Kenyangophone (speaker of the Kenyang language) Kribien (native or inhabitant of kribi) Lamidat (area of jurisdiction administered by a Lamido) Mbamois (native of the Mbam region) Yaoundéen (native or inhabitant of Yaounde)


G eorge Echu is an Associate Professor and Head of the De-partment of Bilingual Studies in the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences of the University of Yaounde I. He was born on October 4 1960 at Tiko, Fako Division,

South West Province, Republic of Cameroon. He obtained primary educa-tion between 1965 and 1972, at Catholic School Eyumojock, St. Joseph’s Primary School, Mamfe and Government Primary School, Egbekaw. George Echu entered the Presbyterian Secondary School Besongabang and the Government High School Mamfe for secondary education. After obtaining his General Certificates of Education, George Echu enrolled into the University of Yaounde in 1979 and traveled to France to continue University education in Université de Grenoble III (1985-1986), Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales de Nice (1986-1987) and Université de Grenoble III (1987-1991). Over the years, George Echu has acquired a wide teaching and research experience. He served as a High School English Language Teacher in Edea (1982-1985); as Graduate Assistant in Translation Eng-lish-French in Université de Grenoble (1987-1989); as part time Lecturer at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Yaounde (1991-1992); as Lecturer in French and Linguistics at the University of Yaounde I (1992-2000); as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Buea (1994-1996); as Visiting Lec-turer University of Dschang (1998-2000). George Echu taight French as a foreign language to undergraduate students from theUniversity of Calabar, Nigeria from 1999 to 2006 and served as a Visiting Professor in Linguis-tics at Indiana University Bloomington (November 2002), Kentucky State University at Frankfort (March 2003) and Arizona State University at Tempe (April 2003). George Echu’s areas of interest in teaching cover French Linguis-tics, Sociolinguistics, General Linguistics, Semantics, Teaching of French as a Foreign Language (FLE), Comparative and Contrastive Studies in English and French and Translation (English/French). In Research, he has touched Multilingualism and Language Policy in Cameroon; Official Language Bilingualism and Bilingual Education;, Language Contact in Cameroon; Language Teaching; Translation; and Sociolinguistics. George Echu has participated in several Seminars, Workshops, Conferences and Public Lectures in Cameroon and Abroad.


M r. John Ngosong Morfaw alias “Sir Johnny Mor” hails from Fonge Village, Lebialem Division in the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa. After his primary education, he went to Our Lady Seat of

Wisdom College, Fontem (a Catholic Mission College operated by the Focolarini Movement from Italy). Here, he earned the nickname “SIR JOHNNY MOR” from his creative and other scholarly activities. He later completed high school at the Cameroon College of Arts and Sci-ences, CCAS, Kumba. After completing high school, Mr. Morfaw taught briefly at the Vocational College of Arts, Muyuka, where he was the Head of the French Department, and later at the National Comprehensive College, Limbe, before proceeding to the National School of Social Affairs, ENAAS, Yaoundé. Upon graduation in 1985, he was posted to the Dele-gation in Buea where he represented the Agency for the National Five-Year Development Plan and was a Research Officer for the National Research on the Cameroonian Family in 1987. He represented the Agency at the Provincial Radio Station in Buea as a Radio Talk Show Host in a program titled- “Social Welfare and the Society”. In 1988, Mr. Morfaw was admitted into the Pan-African Institute for Development in Buea where he proudly graduated with a Diploma in Project Planning and Management in 1989. In April 1990, he was awarded a scholarship as an Exchange Student to the USA through the Council of International Programs in Cleveland, Ohio. During the pro-gram he had orientation on American history, politics, social, cultural and academic policies at Cleveland State University. The author also took classes as a Graduate Audit Student at the Mandel School of Ap-plied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, and Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to Pennsylvania and in 1995 he obtained a Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice. He later graduated with a Masters Degree in Administration from Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Penn-sylvania. In 2005, he was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Project Man-agement from the Graduate School of Professional Studies, Penn State University- Great Valley, Malvern, Pennsylvania. Mr. John Morfaw presently works as a Program Analyst with the Mary-land State Department of Health in Baltimore. He is married to Pammy Asangong Mor, a Laboratory Scientist. They have two beautiful girls- Nkeng Mor and Muyang MOR, best known as the “THE MOR SIS-

TERS”.

Mr. Morfaw is the author of TOTAL QUALITY MANAGE-MENT: A Comprehensive Strategy Toward the Implementation of an Effective and Efficient Healthcare Delivery System in Africa (University Press of America) that was officially released on June 15th 2006. The Book has been described as a very “High Profile” and “Must Have” book for all categories of individuals, professionals and organizations- Medical and Allied health students and professionals, business administration, politicians, researchers, scholars, entrepreneurs, government minis-tries and departments, NGO’s and International Organizations. Sir Johnny Mor also holds the following positions:

Founder/CEO- Tanyimor Foundation Inc. A US-based nonprofit organization providing medical, edu-cational and social services to the handicapped and other marginalized citizens in the USA and Africa: www.sirjohnnymor.com

President/CEO, LECUDO-USA INC. A non-profit organization serving the social, economic and cultural needs of Lebang elements of Lebialem Division, Cameroon residing in the USA.

Member, African Affairs Advisory Board, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA Chair, Business Committee, Continental African Community Inc.

www.continentalafricancommunity.org Vice Chair, Institutions and Community Partnerships, African Leadership and Empowerment Council, Largo, Maryland, USA

www.africanleadershipcouncil.org Director, Strategic Management Services, Institute for Re-search in Global Business (IRGB): www.irgbusiness.com

Sir Johnny MOR was recently awarded the Ambassador For Peace Award by the International Federation for Peace based in Washington DC.

24

T anyimor Foundation is fully incorporated with the status of a tax-exempt non-stock US-based nonprofit corpora-tion operating under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service. Donations to the foundation are de-

ductible under Section 170 (c) (2) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. According to its Founder and President Mr. John Morfaw, the Tanyimor Foundation Inc was created to honor their late fa-ther, grandfather, brother, guardian and friend, Mbi Morfaw Tany-inguh of Fonge Village, Fontem, Lebialem Division, Republic of Cameroon, West Africa. He was a humanitarian, an altruist, educa-tionist, leader, traditional ruler, cultural revolutionist, a visionary, and a “Messiah” and “God-fearing” person. He left this planet on May 16th, 1986 and has since then been resting by the side of the Lord. His wife Mama Esther Nkengafac Morfaw lived the same life and had the same qualities. She joined her husband in this astral journey on January 29th, 2004. The main activities of Tanyimor Foundation include: • Community and rural Development activities, • Medical, educational and social services to the handicapped, homeless and the marginalized population in the United States and Africa, • Mentoring, Counseling and Therapeutic services to the immi-grant population to facilitate their adjustment and integration into the American Society. • Providing academic scholarships to meritorious secondary, high school and university students in Cameroon.

• Promoting Exchange Programs between Cameroonian and American academic institutions. This is achieved through community advocacy, needs assessment, problem and program evaluation, counselling, therapy, mentoring, food and clothing distribution, providing medical supplies and other activities to alleviate poverty and enhance the quality of lives of the poor. The or-ganization also performs activities such as Problem and potential analysis, Project Planning and Management (feasibility studies, design, cost-benefit analysis, monitoring and evaluation) training, research and the implemen-tation of the Total Quality Management (TQM) for effective and efficient service delivery. The Foundation consults with national and international organiza-tions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), research and academic institutions, individual and group businesses as well as personal develop-ment goals and projects. The Foundation also consults with Small and large-Scale Busi-nesses in the areas of Project proposal writing, capacity building and skills development, human resource development, and development of Market-ing and Public Relations Plans. To guide the Foundation towards its objectives, the Board of Di-rectors is made up of creative and experienced minds like Chief G.N. Fonge, Dr. Paul Fonge, Ignatius Nkwinkeh, Mafuah Bezah Nkwinkeh, Mbe Njifuah William, Nkem Thomas Folefac, Ivo L. Fonge and Barnabas A. Morfaw. Mr. John N. Morfaw heads the Executive as CEO and works closely with Pamela A. Morfaw, Lydia Z. Nkong, Peter Atemkeng, Felix N. Morfaw and Julius Nkong.

...A very “High Profile” and “Must Have” book for all

categories of individuals, professionals and organizations,

Medical and Allied health students and professionals,

business administration, politicians, researchers, scholars, entrepreneurs,

government ministries and departments, NGO’s and

International Organizations.

M arriage can be linked to a journey, an odyssey that presents many surprises; some are exquisite while others painful. But it was God plans to create man and woman. God our Father said in the beginning

that, “and a man shall leave his mother and father and be united to his wife and they shall become one flesh”. This makes it clear that marriage is sacred union. Therefore, there is need for us to express our heart felt commitment to our spouse as gently as possi-ble. Only God can help us foster this growth. As Humans, we are proud being, but God make you humble in the heart so that you can willingly submit to your spouse and make him/her happy even in testing times. These testing times usually comes as a result of financial crisis, ill-health and many others. To be able to completely express love to our spouse, these are some guides which will facilitate the success of your marriage

- Treat your marriage as sacred; - Speak respectfully to one another (As a reckless word pierce

like a sword, but the tongue of a wise brings healing.); - Cultivate kindness and compassion while showing humility; - Do not hastily take offense and know when to keep quiet; - Make a habit of expressing appreciation; - Be quick to forgive i.e. being reasonable and flexible - Self-sacrifice reinforces commitment i.e. efforts bring reward - Stay committed to your spouse and your marriage, and

above all - cling to the bible truth, this strengthens your marriage

In marriage, keeping the love tank of our spouse all the time with make the round go round as its often said “ Love makes the world go round” or “ Love is a many-splendor thing”. Looking at the bible, love is supposed to be the main characteristic that should be pre-sent in our lives all the times. Before we go into understanding the five love languages and learning to speak them, you may notice a radical change of behavior. Its worth to note that people may act differently when expressing love. . The object of love is not getting something that you want but doing something that the one you love feels loved.

Words of affirmation, as we are going to see are very important to some people than others. Infact, when we receive affirming words we are far more likely to be motivated to reciprocate. This does not suggest the use of flat-tery words to your spouse. To be able to express love to your spouse, you must be able to decode his / her love signals, in this way everybody is happy. Giving ver-bal comments is only one way of expressing affirmation. The use of encouraging words will inspire courage. We all have areas in our lives where we feel insecure, we lack courage and this hinders us from accomplishing our objectives. And within your spouse are areas of insecurity that await your encouragement. En-couragement requires empathy and seeing the world from your spouse’s perspec-tive. Learning what is important to our spouse is a major breakthrough into keeping them happy. Also, the use of kind words to communicate love verbally. The way that we speak sometimes may send the wrong signal. Sometimes our words are saying one thing but the tone of voice is saying another. This sends a double message. If we are to develop an intimate relationship, we need to know each others desires and wants. So, the use of humble words is important. This way we express our desires and wishes by requesting. As there is daylight and darkness, so is there varying ways of expressing love to the people we love. Quality time is another way of expressing love to our spouse. By this I mean giving someone your undivided attention. A central as-pect of quality time is togetherness, not proximity but focused attention on one person. This brings in quality conversation, this means sympathetic dialogue where two individual are sharing their emotions, thoughts, experiences, feeling and desires in a friendly uninterrupted context. This helps in understanding the genuine desire of your spouse’s thoughts and feeling. To achieve this, there are five points worth of note which will guide you

- maintain eye contact when your spouse is talking - do not listen to your spouse and do something else - listen for feeling - observe body language - refuse to interrupt

Quality conversion requires not only sympathetic listening but also self revela-tion that is learning to talk. Not all of us are out of touch with emotions, but when it comes to talking, all of us are affected by our personality. Some people only receiving and not sharing, this means they are perfectly happy not talking.

S ome People say marriages are made in Heaven. This age old adage marked the celebration of the union between the Mukete and Lobe families at the Mbonge Council Chambers recently.

Relatives and friends joined these two families to celebrate the marriage of Elisabeth Oyere Mukete and Martin Lobe. Prior to the signing ceremony at the Council Chambers, the cou-ple went through the traditional ritual of acceptance by the bride’s family of the marriage request made by the family of the bride-groom. The small but beautiful feasting that ensued marked a new page for the young couple called upon to live in peace and above, for better or for worse. By Ngoe Bosambe


General Supervision Mukete Tahle Itoe Coordinator George Enow Mbella-Martin Executive Editor Ngwatung Akamangwa

Editor-in-Chief Tonge Brunhilda Ebai Deputy Editor-in-Chief Mabel Alioh Etuge

Associate Editors Clementine Burnley Denis Matute Esunge

Production Editors Achu C. Eric Chimi Wambeng L.

E-mail:

[email protected]

Editorial Advisers Ntoko Ntube Jr. Nfinyo Mabu Christine Njeuma Ete Ewelisane Ekole Lety Endeley

Senior Correspondents Joyce Enjema Lefang Sambong John Conrad Daniel Augustine Eko Eric Luma Mbella-Martin Mbong Vanessa Munge Nkeng David Eko Victor Emma Yoyo Ngale

Webmaster JIMBIMEDIA


With the other personality, anything that enters the eye (or ear) gate comes out of the mouth. If your spouse is not the talking type, one way to learn is to establish a daily sharing time in which each of you will talk about three (3) things that happen to you that day and how you felt about it. There is never a lack of conversation of having a spouse who is the open type. A gift is something you can hold in your hand and say “look, he was thinking of me”. Receiving Gifts is another signal to express love. You must be thinking of somebody to be able to give them a gift. The gift itself is the symbol of that thought. It does not matter the cost, what is important is that you thought of that person. Its is not the thoughts implanted in the mind that counts but the thought expressed is actually sending the gifts as an expression of your love. Even the bible says faith without works is useless, they walk along. The visual symbol of love is more important to some people than to others. If your spouse’s primary love language is to receive gifts, you will become a proficient gift giver. Infact, it is one of the easiest love languages to learn. They must not be expensive so as to avoid financial troubles. Just a simple flower or even hand made gift send the message of love and your spouse love tank is full. Some people say I am not a gift giver person, but remember true love conquers all weakness as long as it makes the other per-son happy, then you learn to do it. The physical presences in the time of crisis is the most powerful gift you can give your spouse. In his early life, Jesus had indicated that in His Kingdom, those who would be great would be servants. The Act of Service another love signal we will share deals with that. Some people feel loved when things are done for them. Maybe doing the dishes, taking care of the children, assisting in the kitchen, cleaning the yard and so on. Anybody can partake in the house chores, being it the hus-band or the wife. Some people feel loved when they do things with their spouse. Rather making request gives directions to love but demands stops the flow of love. Sometimes before people get mar-ried, they use to do things together but after marriage things may change. Remember I started by saying that marriage can be linked to a journey - odyssey that presents many surprises. This means what was done before marriage for each other is no indication that they will be done during marriage, but in order to keep the love tank full, we should keep those things in mind that made our spouse happy during courtship. To assist you make a list of things that make your spouse happy (maybe by asking to make the job easier) and try to do them. You can also ask what your spouse will like for you to do for him/her. In this way, those whose primary love signal is act of service will feel love and hence reciprocate. We have long known that Physical Touch is a way of communi-cating emotional love. This brings us to the last of love languages. In the bible, when the apostles of Jesus refused little children to come to Him when their mothers brought them so that they could be touched by Jesus, He told the apostles to allow those children. Jesus knew how importance touch is to us. Physical touch is also a powerful vehicle for communicating marital loves. Holding hands, kissing, hugging, embracing, sexual intercourse are all ways of communicating emotional love to our spouse. Remember the old timers say “the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach”. They

did not mean physical heart but a man’s romantic center. Physical touch can make or break a relationship. It can communicate hate or love. To some people, whatever there is of them reside in their body, so to touch their body is to touch them and to withdraw from their body is to distance their your self from their emotional needs. In our societies, shaking of hands is a way of communicating openness, if somebody refuses a hand shakes then it send the message that all is not alright. If your spouse primary love signal is physical touch is more important than holding here hand when she cries and among other things. Also physical touch may include running your hand through the hair, holding hands when walking or in church during prayers or in gathering, giving a back rub, embracing, hugging, kissing, sexual intercourse – all of these things and more “love touches” are the emo-tional life line of the spouse whose primary love language is physical touch. All of these concepts maybe impossible especially putting your spouse happiness before yours at all times and cost to ensure a happy live. Depend-ing on our own abilities, we will not be able to achieve this success that we so much desire. But when we seek God who knows each of us better than we know our self, then He alone can guide us and touch the hearts of our spouses to reciprocate so that we too can feel loved. For by our natural being we are self-centered and think only about our selves, but He says in His word that all things are possible through for those who walk in His way. And we can boldly say that YES we can do all things through Him that is in us. May His grace remind with us as we seek happiness in our marriages.

Depending on our own abilities, we will not be able to achieve this success that we so much desire. But when we seek God who knows each of us better than we know our self, then He alone can guide us and touch the hearts of our

spouses to reciprocate so that we too can feel loved. For by our natural being we are self-centered and think only about

our selves, but He says in His word that all things are possible through for those who walk in His way. And we can boldly

say that YES we can do all things through Him that is in us.

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