Decoloniality, Language, Identity and Communication: The Case Study of Cameroonian Pidgin

Magdalene Mbong Mai; Nyasha Mboti

doi:10.34257/GJHSSGVOL21IS12PG13

Authors

Magdalene Mbong Mai
Nyasha Mboti

Keywords:

cameroon, cape town, south africa, camp, immigrant

Abstract

In this paper, the intersection between decoloniality, language, identity and communication is discussed in how they come together in the use or refusal to use Cameroon Pidgin (CamP). The paper draws on the concepts of coloniality and decoloniality and relates them to language as used by Cameroonians in South Africa. The argument is that it is surprising that many Cameroonian Pidgin speaking immigrants are choosing not to communicate in Pidgin, especially since usage of the language from the home country could become a locus of solidarity and reproduction of one aspect of the everydayness of home in a new country. This article relies on a qualitative framework comprised of openended interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation to explore the role of language, identity and decoloniality in communication. The idea is to explore how these issues and themes intersect, and what the intersections themselves tell us, firstly, about the nature of identity and, secondly, about the relationship between language and identity.

Downloads

How to Cite

Decoloniality, Language, Identity and Communication: The Case Study of Cameroonian Pidgin. (2021). Global Journal of Human-Social Science, 21(G12), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.34257/GJHSSGVOL21IS12PG13

Download Citation

References

Eric Anchimbe (2007) Chapter 1. Postcolonial linguistic voices: Stitching together identity choices and their representations. 3-22.

Miriam Ayafor (2008) Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): morphology and syntax. 4, 428-450.

Miriam Ayafor (2006) African Linguistics and the Development of African Communities.

Ayafor, Miriam (2004) Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): morphology and syntax. 2.

Chris Barnham (2015) Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Perceptual Foundations. 57(6), 837-854.

Simo Bobda (2006) Living through Languages: An African Tribute to René Dirven.

David Bellama, Solomon Nkwelle, Joseph Yudom (2006) An introduction to Cameroonian Pidgin.

David Carson, Audrey Gilmore, Chad Perry, Kjell Gronhaug (2001) Qualitative Marketing Research.

A Cesaire (1972) Unknown Title.

Dipesh Chakrabarty (2000) Provincializing Europe.

N Princeton Unknown Title.

Tande Dibussi (2006) The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon.

B Ebune, Joseph (2016) The Application of British Indirect Rule in the Kumba Division: a Decolonial Assessment 1916-1961. 4(2).

George Echu (1999) Colonialism and Linguistic Dilemmas in Africa: Cameroon as a Paragdigm (Revisited). 13(1-2), 20-29.

George Echu (2004) The Language Question in Cameroon.

Patrick Tchonang Youkap, Judith Njomgang Ngansop, Daniel Tieudjo, Lawrence Nchian Ntam (2003) Influence of Drawing and Figures on Secondary School Students' Argumentation and Proof: An investigation on Parallelogram. 12(2), 133-144.

George Echu (2003) Multilingualism as a Resource: the Lexical Appropriation of Cameroon Indigenous Languages by English and French. 17.

Frantz Fanon (1967) Unknown Title.

(1952) Brown Skin, White Masks. 24-37.

Frantz Fanon (2004) Toward a New Humanity:. 111-139.

E Finegan, N Besnier (1989) Language: Its Structure and Use.

Bernard Fonlon (1969) The Language Problem in Cameroon (An Historical Perspective). 5(1), 25-49.

Michael Foucault (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge.

T Funke, Durodola (2013) The Rising Popularity of Pidgin English Radio Stations in Nigeria: an Audience study of wazobia FM.

Mak Halliday (1978) Language as a Social Semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning.

M Mai (2016) How njangui socio-cultural houses influence students' collaboration towards boosting Africanism. 22(6), 590-601.

M Mai (2012) An Analysis of the effects of space and territoriality on language use: A sociolinguistic analysis of a multilingual population in the Diaspora.

Paula Moya (2011) Who We Are and from Where We Speak. 1(2).

C Myers-Scotton (2006) Multiple Voices: An Introduction to Bilingualism. 350.

Paul Mbangwana (2002) Invigorative and hermetic innovations in English in Yaoundé. 10(1), 53-63.

Paul Mbangwana (1999) Linguistic Deculturation of English Usage in Cameroon. 87-102.

Mbassi Manga, Francis (1973) Hammond, Prof. Paul Francis, (born 1953), Professor of Seventeenth-Century English Literature, University of Leeds, since 1996.

Mbassi Manga (1976) The state of contemporary English in Cameroon in Mbassi Manga (ed) Cameroon studies in English and French.

A Ngefack (2011) When the blind lead the blind. The fallacy of promoting standard British English accent in Cameroon. 2(1), 40-44.

Nelson. Maldonado-Torres (2011) Thinking through the Decolonial Turn: Post-continental Interventions in Theory, Philosophy, and Critique-An Introduction. 1(2).

Achille Mbembe (2001) On the Postcolony.

Walter Mignolo (2011) The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options.

D Mignolo, Walter (2009) Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom. 26(7-8), 159-181.

Gabriella Modan (2007) Turf Wars.

Aloysius Ngefac (2010) Linguistic Choices in Postcolonial Multilingual Cameroon. 19(3), 149-164.

Amiena Peck, Quentin Williams, Christopher Stroud (1996) Editorial. 2(2).

K Richards (2003) Qualitative Inquiry in TESOL.

Nkemngong Nkengasong (2013) A Grammar of Cameroonian Pidgin. 10, 1-4438.

Maurice Vambe, Khatija Khan (2008) Decolonising the 'epistemic decolonial turn' in women's fiction: Tsitsi Dangarembga'sShe No Longer Weeps(1987) and Federico Garcia Lorca'sDona Rosita the Spinister(2008). 11(3), 304-317.

Keyan Tomaselli, Lauren Dyll-Myklebust (2015) Public self-expression: Decolonising researcher-researched relationships. 41(3), 354-373.

Cecile Vigouroux (2008) "The smuggling of La Francophonie": Francophone Africans in Anglophone Cape Town (South Africa). 37(3), 415-434.

S Widdicombe (1998) Identity as an Analyst's and a Participant's Resource.