Cameroon’s Language Law: Too Little Too Late for a Country at War?
Cameroon Armed Forces Enter an English-speaking town amidst a five-year civil war.
By: John P. Kiehl ,Staff Editor
In the midst of an ongoing separatist conflict between the Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon, the officially bilingual nation’s President Paul Biya has called for the enforcement of a 2019 law calling for equality of both languages.
Last October, Cameroon’s long-serving president Paul Biya announced he would be enforcing a 2019 law calling for equality of French and English in the officially bilingual nation. The law, and proposed enforcement, come in the midst of an ongoing civil war known as the “Anglophone Crisis,” “Cameroonian Civil War,” or “Ambazonian War of Independence” that stems, in part, from the power and language structures inherited from Cameroon’s former colonial administrators. The law calls for greater equality of the two languages, but decades of imbalance and the government's violent response to Anglophone protests raise doubts as to whether the renewed calls for enforcement will do much to end the conflict.
Colonial History
Understanding the roots of the ongoing war and the significance of the law requires a brief historical overview. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, European colonial powers rushed to conquer and exploit Africa, often lumping together disparate tribes and ethnic groups into territories with little regard for historical boundaries. Colonial powers drew arbitrary borders and implemented their own methods of government, education, and language. Present-day Cameroon was once a part of the German colony “Kamerun.” However, following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the territory of present-day Cameroon became a League of Nations mandate split between the British and French. British Cameroon was a narrow region snaking along the Nigerian border from the Gulf of Guinea to Chad, while the larger, southeastern portion of the territory, was controlled by the French.
French Cameroon gained its independence in 1960 as did neighboring Nigeria shortly thereafter. It was initially as status of British Cameroon would be (there was, apparently, no discussion of British Cameroon becoming an independent nation). Eventually, the predominantly Muslim northern portion of the British mandate, became a part of Nigeria while the Southern section voted to join Cameroon. “Northwest” and “Southwest” Cameroon, the two regions previously administered by the British, united on October 1, 1961. The differing colonial legacies of the newly united Cameroon meant that a majority of the country was Francophone, while the autonomous western section, comprising approximately 20% of the population, was “Anglophone.”
The Francophone/Anglophone Divide
Article I of the Cameroonian Constitution states that the official languages of the republic are both French and English. Both languages have “the same status” and the government is to “guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country.” In addition to the two official languages, Cameroon is also home to around 280 local languages, some with official regional recognition.
Despite the Constitutional guarantee, French remains the lingua franca and continues to dominate many aspects of life in Cameroon. Over the years, Anglophone Cameroon’s autonomy waned and for years, non-Francophone Cameroonians have called out the neglect and discrimination they have faced. English speakers face significant barriers to society, particularly in access to public life. While the judiciary in Cameroon is a mixture of both common law, inherited from the British, and French civil law, many judges don’t speak English. Access to public services for non-French speakers is often difficult, if not impossible. The National Entrance Examinations for higher education are prepared by Francophone administrators and often disadvantage English speakers. It is difficult for non-Francophone Cameroonians to pursue higher education, obtain basic information about the law and obtain employment. Tensions in the Anglophone region have escalated, and in recent decades the Francophone central government has violently responded to protests in the region. Tensions escalated in 2016 when lawyers in the Anglophone regions went on strike, upset with the government appointing Francophone judges with no common law experience to their courts. Teachers in the region joined in on the strike on behalf of their students who feel they don’t have access to jobs. The government’s response was deadly and the protests soon devolved into a civil war.
2019 Language Law
Cameroon passed Law 2019/19 “Portant Promotion des Langues Officielles au Cameroon” on December 24, 2019, stating that French and English are of equal importance and that the state is to encourage the promotion of each official language. Specifically, the law seeks to guarantee the use of both languages in public services and guarantee the rights of citizens to obtain information in the language of their choice. Laws must be available in French and English, the state is required to promote the teaching of both languages in the education system, traffic signs and court decisions must be translated into both languages, and made public administration officials are responsible for ensuring they have staff trained in French and English.
The law goes beyond simply ensuring Cameroonians have access to information in both languages, but takes steps to call for equality of the language. Article 9 notes that languages are equal for administrative, economic, social, and political activity. In translated “signs, logos, placards and various notices” the two languages must have an “equality of formal presentation” such that the French and English text have the same font, the same size, and same color so as not to differentiate the two.
Biya’s opponents initially called the law “window dressing” to bolster the president’s power and the President’s renewed calls for enforcement are doubtful to change much in the region. While the law enumerates specific requirements (such as the equality of font size), Cameroon’s constitution has called for a bilingual nation for decades, yet French has continued to dominate. Even with good intentions, systemic language structures may hinder full bilingualism. Cameroon’s court system, for instance, recently implemented a Common Law Division to hear appeals from the common law courts in the Anglophone regions. However, limited resources including a lack of English-speaking judges or the dominance of the civil law system in the Francophone regions have slowed any advances for linguistic and systemic judicial reform. Similar structural impediments extend to other aspects of Cameroonian society; even if the law mandates bilingualism, and even if there is the political will to protect Anglophone interests, enforcement of the 2019 law will be difficult in the face of the systems of Francophone dominance that have existed for decades. It is in part because of this systemic imbalance that separatist Anglophone groups seek independence, citing Biya’s violent suppression and decades of neglect.
Canada’s foreign ministry announced last month that separatist groups and the government have agreed to begin a peace process. While it is unclear whether the talks will be successful, or whether the renewed calls for bilingualism in Cameroon will, in fact, be more than “window dressing,” it is evident the conflict with its roots in colonial-era languages and borders, has shaped the country, and its languages for years.
John Kiehl is a second-year student at Columbia Law School and a Staff member of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. He graduated from Fordham University in 2019.