[lg policy] A Bilingual Cameroon Teeters After English Speakers Protest Treatment

Fri Feb 10 16:04:42 UTC 2017

A Bilingual Cameroon Teeters After English Speakers Protest Treatment

By FRANCOIS ESSOMBA and DIONNE SEARCEYFEB. 9, 2017

Crowds Swell During Cameroon Protests

Large crowds gathered on the streets of Bamenda, Cameroon, on Nov. 21 as
part of mass demonstrations in English-speaking parts of the country. By
via STORYFUL on Publish Date February 7, 2017. .

BAMENDA, Cameroon — Lawyers have long put up with laws that aren’t
translated into their native English. They have endured French-speaking
judges whose English is barely passable and who aren’t familiar with their
judicial system.

Last fall, after another new law, regarding business transactions, was not
translated, the lawyers here in Bamenda, a bustling city in Cameroon’s
northwest, decided they’d had enough. They organized a demonstration to
protest a government that they believed had long slighted their
English-speaking region by failing to uphold a constitutional promise of a
bilingual nation.

The demonstrations grew, as teachers vented their frustration that the
government in Yaoundé — dominated by the French-speaking majority — sent
teachers with shoddy English skills to schools in their area. Hundreds of
citizens joined in, carrying banners and chanting against what they said
were longtime injustices against their region.

By December, the protests had turned violent. Security forces used live
ammunition to disperse demonstrations in Bamenda. At least two unarmed
protesters were killed and others were injured, according to human rights
groups. News media reports said as many as four protesters died.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    The Boy, the Ambassador and the Deadly Encounter on the Road DEC. 16,
2016
    To Aid Boko Haram Fight, Obama Orders 300 Troops to Cameroon OCT. 14,
2015

Advertisement
Continue reading the main story

As the violence and calls for secession in English-speaking areas rise, the
issue is quickly becoming a big problem for the central government. In
recent days, protest organizers have called on businesses in Anglophone
areas to stop paying taxes.

For four decades, Cameroon was split into English and French territories.
After independence in the early 1960s, the nation unified into one republic
made up mostly of French speakers and a minority who speak English and
adhere to British common law. The setup has been plagued by constitutional
disputes and complaints from English speakers who say the government gives
them fewer resources and generally fails to represent their interests.

Cameroon, a Central African nation so geographically and ethnically diverse
it is known as “all Africa in one country,” has been ruled since 1982 by
President Paul Biya, 83, who spends weeks at a time in European hotels and
is seen as increasingly out of touch with a growing population of young
people.

The nation is battling Boko Haram in its Far North region, as the war with
Islamic militants spills over from Nigeria, and wildlife trafficking
elsewhere, regularly fighting off international poachers of its ivory. Last
month, Cameroonian officials seized two shipping containers of pangolin
scales. They were being illegally smuggled to China, where the
fingernail-like scales are valued as an ingredient in medicine.

The demonstrations have spread to Buea, an English-speaking city in the
southwest, where a video circulated on social media of police officers
hovering over female students lying in the mud and of officers beating
students in their dormitories.

In recent weeks, dozens of protesters have been arrested and moved to
Yaoundé.

“We don’t call it arrested; we call it abducted,” said one government
employee who considered the detentions in a French-speaking city yet
another slight to English speakers. The worker comes from an
English-speaking area and did not want to be identified out of fear for his
safety and that of his family.

Protesters have been accused of violence, too. But the government’s
heavy-handed response has revived calls in the English-speaking area to
break away from the rest of the country, further inflaming the situation.
By CHARLES CHARLO, VIA STORYFUL 00:31
Protests Violence in Cameroon
Video
Protests Violence in Cameroon

In Cameroon, anti-government protests in the country's English-speaking
regions grew in size and frequency last fall, sometimes turning violent.
This footage from November 2016 shows protesters lighting trash bins. By
CHARLES CHARLO, VIA STORYFUL on Publish Date February 9, 2017. Photo by
Facebook/Charles Charlo.

    ShareTweet

“Cameroon is one and indivisible and shall so remain,” Issa Tchiroma
Bakary, Cameroon’s information minister, told reporters at a news
conference last month.

American diplomats have called for a peaceful resolution of the dispute.
The government and protesters have tried to negotiate.

A group of lawyers who organized the protests came up with a list of
grievances, but before they could be fully resolved, Nkongho Felix
Agbor-Balla, the president of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society
Consortium, and Fontem Neba, the group’s secretary general, were arrested.
Morning Briefing: Europe

What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox.
Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's
products and services.

    Manage Email Preferences Privacy Policy

On the same day as their arrests, Jan. 17, the government declared the
group illegal.

“Any other related groups with similar objectives,” according to a
government letter presented to the news media, “are hereby prohibited all
over the national territory.”

The jailed lawyers have been charged with inciting terrorism, a crime that
landed them before a military tribunal, raising alarms from human rights
groups. Last month, Amnesty International called for the release of Mr.
Agbor-Balla and Dr. Neba, saying their detention was unlawful.

“These two men have been arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of their
right to freedom of expression,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, a Central Africa
researcher for Amnesty. “This flagrant disregard for basic rights risks
inflaming an already tense situation in the English-speaking region of the
country and is clearly an attempt to muzzle dissent.”

With protest organizers in jail, members of the Cameroonian diaspora have
intervened, sending messages to supporters by WhatsApp and Facebook.

Government officials circulated their own warning message to WhatsApp
users, cautioning them that they risked up to two years in prison if they
spread information on social media that they could not prove.

The government has shut down the internet in English-speaking areas,
angering a population accustomed to using social media to communicate, and
internet-based cash transfers to send money for business transactions and
to relatives.

In English-speaking towns recently the population seems to disappear on
some days. The streets are quiet, shops close down and classrooms sit empty
as daily life is suspended, in a form of protest called Operation Ghost
Town, organized by English-speaking Cameroonians.

In English-speaking areas, demonstrators have turned violent against people
who have not supported the Ghost Town movement, which is hampering commerce
and keeping students from classrooms.

A few days ago, a shop in an English-speaking town that reportedly stayed
open during a Ghost Town protest day was set on fire. And a message
circulating on social media warned students at the University of Bamenda to
boycott classes or “the blood of those killed in this struggle will be on
their heads.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/world/africa/a-bilingual-cameroon-teeters-after-english-speakers-protest-treatment.html?ref=world&_r=0

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20170210/c99d4cfd/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list