23 April 2009
opinion
Bamenda, Cameroon - "English-speaking," I have learned, is a relative term. When we first arrived in Bamenda six days ago, I was excited to be in a region of Cameroon where language would be less of a barrier to interacting with the locals. Then we went out to Bamenda's most posh restaurant--we're still talking fluorescent lighting and 3,000 CFA ($6) entrees here--and I got a reality check. After spilling some Top Pamplemousse (Cameroon's delicious homegrown brand of grapefruit soda) on the table and floor, I went back to the bar to ask the bartender for some napkins. My initial request was met with a look of incomprehension. I gradually simplified my question to just "napkins?", but that didn't work either. I finally got the message through by miming a spilling beverage and wiping motion.
The majority of people in Anglophone Cameroon don't speak the Queen's English in their daily lives. The true lingua franca is Pidgin, a blend of English and local languages that is incomprehensible to a speaker of standard English. To give you a small taste of how different it is, prior to our mountain bike trip along the Ring Road I asked one of the local Peace Corps volunteers for a short primer on asking for directions in Pidgin. I was told that "which way to Ndu?" would be translated as "wu side Ndu de?" The word "side" does come from the English, but as you can tell, the meaning of the word is a little bit different than the sense we are used to.
That said, most of the Cameroonians I have met in this region can speak and understand English fairly well, as long as you adopt what the Peace Corps folks call "Special English." Special English entails speaking very slowly, enunciating clearly, eliminating contractions, and introducing a bit of a lilt to one's voice. It's funny, but this seems to be the one place in the world where the stereotypical "ugly American" way of speaking to the locals--i.e. speaking more slowly and loudly, as if the listener were stupid--actually works. I'm told there is one volunteer in this region who has got Special English down so well that now he can't turn it off, even when talking with other Americans. I'm pretty bad at Special English, which means that even here, Kate does most of the talking with the locals.
Some of the importations from English are downright hilarious to American ears. Whereas in the north of Cameroon I would be addressed as "nassara," here I am "white man." "White man" is a unisex and even a plural term; thus Kate is also "white man," as are the two of us together. In almost every village we biked or hiked through, children would shout to us from the roadside; at one point we got shouts of "WHITE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN" in stereo from both sides of the road, the kids apparently competing to see whose lungs could hold out the longest. Another of my favorites is "I will beat you" (that's "beat" in the sense of "smack around," not "defeat"), which seems to be the preferred idle threat among children and Peace Corps volunteers. Cats are referred to as "pussy," and a kitten is "small pickin' pussy" ("pickin" somehow means "children"). But my favorite local phrase of all is "you are welcome"--Cameroonian hospitality in action.
Written by a grad student from Cambridge University currently visiting Cameroon.
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Well, I hope you will have a nice time in Cameroon and discover more positive aspects to comment upon.
However, the premise of your argument based on the fact that a restaurant attendant doesn't know what a napkin is, is very flooded. More to that, you do not use specifics to generalize results mr. Cambridge graduate. The problem might have been your strange accent to the restaurant attendant. He might be an uneducated trying to meet ends. Nobody has a perfect mastery of the English language without prior education. That is why even in the queen's land, english is still being thought in elementary and higher levels. Most educated Cameroonians can speak the queen's english much better than many British or Americans I have met in restaurants and other public places. That does not give me enough evidence to conclude that "Britain, USA; Not the Queen's English"! Cameroon is a country with many cultures and you should not expect to see exactly what happens in Britain or the US. People from different areas have different accents.
Despite all difficulties we are going through in Cameroon, we cherish our culture and are sickened by people like you who will quickly jump to portray negatively aspects in Africa you do not understand or are different from your values and ways of doing things. Who sets the standards? Ours is ours and yours should be yours with all due respect. It might be tough to do but I think it's time we capitalize more on portraying the tiny good things in Africa and stop to relate it all the time to darkness and doom.
Notwithstanding, we are always grateful to whatever contribution you are bringing to Cameroon right now and hope you enjoy your stay.
This writer misrepresents Peace Corps Volunteers in Cameroon as well as demonstrating that he should probably never venture out of the UK or away from Oxford in the future. Peace Corps Volunteers know that Pidgin English is called just that--Special English is something entirely different. Many take the time to learn the complexities of the language in order to communicate with those who have not had a chance to get a formal education. One thing that he didn't realize is that the average Cameroonian speaks several languages, including Pidgin, at least one local dialect, and possibly English and French--and they didn't need an Oxford degree to be able to communicate. As far as trying to understand the language, he should learn that "husay" and "pikin" are words derived from European traders, based on English, French, Portugese, and even English words. This allowed two different cultures to engage in trade without having to learn another language. Had the writer taken the time to learn the Pidgin languages are found all around the globe, he might not be so condescending in his writing. The people of the North West are among the most welcoming you could find in Cameroon and elsewhere. If he spoke at any length with Peace Corps Volunteers with such an attitude, he certainly would have been avoided as being culturally insensitive. It is always disappointing when someone visits a foreign country and ends up only criticizing.
THIS 22ND CENTURY BRITON, HAVE NEVER READ THE HISTORY OF BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS, WHICH IS STILL A DEFACTOR COLONY, THIS TIME OF FRANCE AND CAMEROUN, in nigeria, sierra leone, ghana etc all speaks a tone down version of english called pidgin, that doesnt necessary syas they dont speak english, as a matter of fact, southern cameroons is a different country, culturally, historically from cameroun, and it was britain who made this foolish mistake, of allowing french cameroun to recolonise southern cameroons, by withdrawing its military from the territory in 1961. without a proper representative government of scameroons formed, the said joining , cameroun was never based on becaming a region or province of frenche cameroun, it was mutually accepted to be two seperarte countries each with its own house of parliament, manages its economy and people , but in a federation, thats why it was called federal republic , uptill 1972, there have never been any treaty uniting these two countries, the only reason, you have french cameroun runing the show in bamenda or victoria is simple , because they have AN ARMY.
SOO, BRITAIN MUST CORRECT THIS HISTORICAL MISTAKE SOO, WE 7M SOUTHERN CAMEROONIANS, CAN BUILD OUR OWN COUNTRY OUR ANGLOSAXON CULTURED WAY.
I think you (author) don't deserve all the criticisms I read on the different comments above.
I think that you are making a good contribution to the learning of local realities of "English-speaking countries". English(same for Portuguese, French, Spanish...)-graduate or natural speakers of these languages should know that when a country is called "English-speaking" countries, this does not apply to all the citizens. In Cameroon as in many places of West Africa or America, you'll find the Engligh Creole (There is Spanish creole, French creole...) which is an easy to create and communicate middle and mix-language. In Gambia (Aku), Sierra Leone (Krio), Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon, the pidgin is used by many generally as a second or third language after the mother tongue. You'll find Gullah language in South Carolina and Georgia (US) for example, which is similar in many ways to pidgin.
From wikipedia: "West African Pidgin English, also called Guinea Coast Creole English, was the lingua franca of commerce along the West African coast during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. British slave merchants and local African traders developed this language in... "
Talking of speaking Engligh in English natural places like U.K. or U.S., the Queen's English is also not spoken and understood by all the citizens. This is verified by myself in England and from reading in other listed places.
Thank you for your contribution
What an exposure of stupidity and ignorance. Mr.grad student, if you'd checked with the British Foreign service and/or the Cameroon cultural center, you would have learned something about the coutry you were about to visit. spilling your drink shows how clumsy you are. Anywhere, thanks for visiting Cameroon.
A relatively ok report but for the fact that you make it look like all Cameroonians can't understand English. Only the uneducated will find it difficult to speak or understand English. Americans, Australians, Canadians and Britons all have different accent when speaking, so too are Camerronians. There are times when a fellow Briton from Liverpool will say something and another Briton from Essex would be like..."sorry I didn't get you". Educated Camroonians will speak clear and very easy to understand Englsih, far more better than Native Speakers. Communication is all about understanding each other. Anyways, this is why Cameroon is so diversified, with more than 245 different ethnic groups each speaking a different dialect. This is so unique. Hope you had a great stay in Cameroon.