# II. # Context of the Study Many authors have described the rich cultural values embodied in CamP. (Echu 2003a, Bobda 2006, Ayafor 2006). Other have traced its historical origin (Echu 2003b, Crystal 1987) while others have continued to emphasise it communicative values in multilingual settings (Echu 2003a, 2003b, Ayafor 2006, Ngefac 2014). Other scholars also attempted to systematize the language for learning purposes (Ngefac 2014(Ngefac , 2011(Ngefac , 2009) ) and, others have gone ahead to give a descriptive and an analytic account of the syntactic, the morphological and the phonological structure of the language as independent features while arguing for the standardization of this language (Ayafor 1996, 2000, Echu 2004). Where there have been attempts at discussing CamP from a broader perspective, critical reviews of the works have not been very positive. Refusal to speak CamP, in this work is an example of how social agents allow themselves to be assimilated and in fact actively participate in their own assimilation into what they perceive to be a superior new national and local context by dissociating from their original identities, including their 'mother tongue ' Aimé Césaire (1955:28) makes precisely this point when he laments that Haitian pseudo-literature was created by "authors who allowed themselves to be assimilated". While acknowledging the violent Haitian attacks against the French presence in their country, he insists that "our first authors did not attack French cultural values with equal force. They did not proceed toward a decolonization of their consciousness". This perhaps is what Mbembe 1 III. # Coloniality and Cameroonian National Languages means when he refers to Fanon's (1952) discourse on struggles for decolonisation stating that struggles for decolonisation are "about state selfownership. They are struggles to repossess, to take back, if necessary by force that which is ours unconditionally, and as such belongs to us". One aspect this paper focuses on is the denial of CamP. Cameroonians created this language from the dense multilingual experience in Cameroon, and contacts from the Portuguese merchants and the colonial expedition. Despite this, the prohibition of the use of CamP, what I have called the attempt to "unlearn" CamP seems to be a permanent issue. Hence, it becomes interesting to explore how Cameroonians attempt to simultaneously deny and yet remain connected to CamP. Not only that, parents discourage their children from using CamP. In addition, prominent state institutions, for example, the General Certificate of Education Board (GCE) in prohibits CamP. Above all, the University of Buea (Bobda, 2006), the first and oldest English-speaking University of the country, also prohibit Camp. Obviously, this is a continuation of the colonial legacy from the Germans to the British and then the French and now, the postcolonial authorities. Dibussi (2006) warns against all these restrictions of CamP and the name giving to the speakers of this language and language itself According to Dibussi, this language should be a symbol of the Cameroonians diversity, creativity and resilience rather than a stigma and a curse. During their colonial period, the Germans took strong and systemic measures to extinguish not only the national languages but also CamP. This is visible in their burning of the printing press which Sultan Njoya of Bamoun used to promulgate the Bamoun language. But, all their efforts to reverse the linguistic structure of the country were in the end not successful (Anchimbe 2005). It is apparent that CamP was the language used throughout the German colonial period from 1884 to1916, despite all the German attempts to crush it (Echu 2003a:4). The language and other national languages survived this colonial linguist and identity conquest because it was simply a way of life, a language of inclusion and solidarity that united the multilingual and culturally diverse Cameroonian landscape. With the defeat of Germany at WW1 and the mandatory occupation of Cameroon by France and Britain as decreed by the League of Nations, (1919), French rule was introduced in East Cameroon, ruled by France and English rule was introduced Southern Cameroon, ruled by Britain. The British colonial government ruled their section of Cameroon from Nigeria in attempt to reduce administrative cost (Ebune 2016). The British at first used the national languages for primary education in the one fifth of country they ruled. Over the years, they began to place more emphasis on education in English such that that by 1958, national language education was extinct (Anchimbe 2005). This lead to increased pressure on the acquisition of English either directly or indirectly. Its use increased in all spheres of life and even the Cameroonians now began to use it among themselves for pride and status differentiation of educated and middle class from uneducated and working class (who still used CamP), thus systematically participating in colonising their own consciences. The French on the other hand, had the bigger section of the Cameroonian territory, which they administered under the assimilatory colonial policy (Anchimbe 2005). The French erased the previous linguistic influence exerted by CamP and German and the usage of these languages was banned in French Cameroon. Thus, French Cameroon was typically French in its governance. French alone became the language of primary education (Vambe and Khan 2013), thereby separating their section of Cameroon even further from its culture and communicative system. At the time of independence in 1962, British Cameroon reunited with French Cameroon which had already gained independence in 1961. English and French were constitutionally adopted as the official languages of the Federal Republic of Cameroon (Echu, 2004;Anchimbe, 2005). In the same way, English seem to dominate in the Republic of South Africa although ten other South African language were recognised in the constitution (Pluddemann, 1996). Understandably, Cameroon expatriates' wish to use more English and French. This desire to use only English or French is however only a lip service in the Cape Town Diaspora whih foregrounds the decolonial paradox where Cameroonian immigrants proclaim their French/English identity while expressing a typical CamP identity as seen further on. IV. # The Denial of CamP Despite all its advantages, (Bobda 2006) and Myers-Scotton (2006) point out that CamP is still under the spell of dehumanizing forms of thinking as it sometimes scorned in official milieu, educational institutions, and formal settings. Similarly, Dibussi (2006) assesses that several billboards discouraging the use of CamP are to be found displayed at the University of Buea campus with information thus: Succeed at university by avoiding Pidgin on campus, English, the language that guarantees upward social mobility Pidgin is like AIDS -Shun it English is the Password, not Pidgin Speak English and more English, Pidgin is taking a heavy toll on your English--shun it Commonwealth speaks English not Pidgin l'Anglais est un passeport pour le monde, le Pidgin, un ticket pour null part/English, a passport to the world, Pidgin, a ticket to nowhere/ (Dibussi 2006). From the above extract, it is obvious how English is presented as natural or divine while CamP is demonized in the neoliberal regime. Some new accounts put forth that CamP is a mean language (that is, a language for the low class), not to be used in Cameroon and claim that it is a Nigerian language suitable only for Nigerians. Others blame the Anglophone section of Cameroon for the origin and dissemination of the language. As such, CamP still faces much contempt and disdain even in the Cape Town. According to Mbangwana (2004, 23), 97.8 percent of "Anglophone" Cameroonians living in urban cities speak pidgin while 61.8 of Francophones living in urban areas speak Pidgin. For this reason, CamP is not to be perceived simply an Anglophone language. Again, it is also visible here that in terms of its function and spread, the language is competing freely with English and French as and as such, most suitable to estimate the relation between language, identity, communication and decoloniality. V. # Theoretical Framework Although this section tries to focus on Mignolo's (2009) concepts of epistemic disobedience, de-linking, decolonising of knowledge and Maldonado-Torres' (2011) concept of the decolonial turn to bring to fore other possibilities of knowledge-making processes in the postcolonial (third world) societies, many other theories are draw upon given that decoloniality is an ongoing process. Decolonising knowledge according to Ignatio (2016) is a liberation process which supports decolonisation with the colonial subject (and not the European) at the centre of knowledge and subjectivity. Because epistemic disobedience entails the knowhow of the colonial subject, the type of research done in this domain is therefore based on the arguments done by colonial subject and not simply a study as is the case with African-American studies for instance. This knowhow of the colonial subject becomes interesting in the case of South-South contact between two densely multilingual and culturally diverse nations. South Africa for instance, is often lauded for its multilingual language policies which validates the languages of its people. Like Cameroon, South African consists of an ethnically mixed population, in addition to her colonial/apartheid linguistic past, thus making the question of language more complicated (De Klerk 2002; Thorpe 2002). Many from other African countries have made South Africa their home due to economic and socio-political unrest. Among these new arrivals are Cameroonians who have also brought with them their linguistic and a 'mix' into the already densely multilingual South Africa such that some South African and as such further complicating the problem linguistic of identification. While most Cameroonians even the French-speaking Cameroonians, now prefer associate with English as it is a dominant language in South Africa, most of them continue to carry out their daily communicative practices in CamP especially during Cameroonian social gatherings. In fact, the language situation in South Africa still projects regional and ethnic affiliation to identity as laid down by the apartheid regime (Ndebele 1987), and the dominance of English as a language of status (De Klerk 1996), a situation which has led to the possibility of fitting in better if one uses English (Vigouroux 2005). As would be expected, there is a transference of preference for English and French in Cameroon to a preference for English in Cape Town. Although Cameroonians and South Africans tend to embrace English in a bit to reiterate the colonial homogenisation of knowledge and the monolingual bias of the nation-state which equates a language to a state, CamP emerges unconsciously or unconsciously among the Cameroonian immigrants as the language of communication, thus the educated, uneducated and even South Africans of all age groups and gender used CamP in a manner that projects the cultural and multilingual realities of Cameron, thereby effectively contributing to decolonisation. . For this reason, Mignolo (2009) stablishes that decoloniality is Plurivesal. This means that, it tries to avoid universalism of European nations which resulted in homogenizing knowledges. Decolonising is hence, a reflection of "pluriversality" where several worlds can coexist with two or more subjectivities (Mignolo 2009, Mbembe 2001). Similarly, Anchimbe (2007:14) talks of "postcolonial spaces" (the so-called third world societies) that is, regions that were once under colonial rule. The expression "postcolonial spaces" is used to cover all aspects of societal and individual behaviour that were restructured following colonial heritages and not to depict a field of study (Ignatio 2016, Anchimbe 2007) with aim to improve understanding of linguistic identity in postcolonial spaces. This study considers the inclusive role of many oral Cameroonian languages and ex-colonial languages in the extensive use of CamP to make a connection with communication, identity and decoloniality in postcolonial spaces. In relation to this, Maldonado-Torres' (2011) attempts to disassociate the postcolonial spaces or the third world societies from the colonial effect. The 'deconolnial turn' therefore become imperative in this article. According to Maldonado, the decolonial turn particularly foregrounds a kind skepticism, which leads to ?skepticism towards dehumanizing forms of thinking that present themselves as natural or divine-, animate new forms of theorizing based on the scandal in face of the continuity of dehumanizing practices and ideas. These dehumanizing forces, logics, and discourses hardly seem to find an end in the current neoconservative and neoliberal moment, or in the liberal and Eurocentric radical responses that it sometimes generates (Maldonado, 2011:2). Emile Benveniste damne´ (cited in Maldonado 2007) relates the above situation to damne´. Here the damne´ remains either invisible or excessively visible. This is the case of CamP which has become the damne´ of Cameroonian immigrants as the language continues to "exists in the mode of not-being there, which hints at the nearness of death [?]" Maldonado (2007: 257). Faced with such indifference, CamP tends to continuously decolonise the expatriates and, is in tend being decolonised by the expatriates. What one can gather suppose from the many diverse, yet related concepts consist of 'differences and tensions' among 'figures and movements that advance the decolonial turn'. As Maldonado rightly argues, the 'decolonial turn does not refer to a single theoretical school, but rather points to a family of diverse positions that share a view of coloniality as a fundamental problem in the modern (as well as postmodern and information) age, and of decolonization or decoloniality as a necessary task that remains unfinished' Although some critics have put forth that decoloniality is once again the colonisers' attempt for "intellectual structural adjustment programme being imposed [?] on Africa and Latin America by Western and North American intellectuals" (Vambe and Khan 2013:304), this paper argues that the third world, has reason to engage in Aimé Césaire' (1955) call for force considering emerging new forms of theorizing based the continuity of dehumanizing practices,, logics, and discourses which in this paper temper with very existence of Cameroonian immigrants through the frequent and rampant rejection of CamP. # VI. # Methodology A qualitative method aaccording to Carson et al. 2001 is more appropriate for the of explanation of behaviour and activities than specific measurements. Again, Barnham (2015:837) recommends usage of qualitative methods when a more 'in depth' understanding of attitudes, behaviour and motivations is required. # a) Research Design This qualitative inquiry draws from a sociolinguistic ethnography. It consisted of 240 interviews of at least 45minutes and 5 focus group discussions of at least 1 hour among Cameroonians in Cape Town. According to (Heller, 2008) the significance of this design is seen from its ability to render human actors in a context of their everyday lives, while bringing out the tension and rift encountered in trying to subdue divergent communities and populations. Given the linguistic structures and communicative actions explored, this qualitative research design relied on descriptive analysis using data ranging from interviews, focus groups, participant observation techniques and to field notes. # b) Sampling and Sample Selection Techniques Opportunistic samplings on the other hand, took advantage of new opportunities while in the field, most of the unexpected and unforeseen opportunities (usually emanating from informal discussions) brought about new insights even after fieldwork had begun. # c) Data Collection Sites This is a multi-sited ethnography where data were collected from all over Cape Town in the homes of participants, shops and other business places, bus terminuses, meeting houses, restaurants, libraries, soccer fields and so on. However, this paper reports specifically on participants that were involved in followup interviews to guaranteed credibility. # d) Data Collection Strategies and Ethical Procedure and Limitations Drawing from Keyan Tomaselli and Lauren Dyll-Myklebust (2015), the researched were foregrounded as Purposive and opportunistic sampling was used. Purposive sampling was necessary for its advantage to deliberately select settings, persons or events for the important information they can provide (Max-well 1997). That is, it was a multi-cited ethnography involving Cameroonian immigrants from all walks of life whether educated or not, professional or nonprofessional, student or street vendor etc, and of all age groups were interviewed all over Cape Town. the intimate others given the important role they play as "the professors, teaching clueless academics like ourselves about themselves" (2015:361). This viewpoint underscores the important role of decolonising both the researched and the researcher in attempt to makes all voices. This study started with exploratory work over three months, followed by additional fieldwork of thirteen month. One researcher participated in their leisure activities (for example, soccer matches and functions to access daily activities of the Cameroonian in Cape Town. Ten key informants were selected for interview, with each interview session lasting between 45 minutes to 1 hour. There were semi-structured in-depth and open-ended interviews, the golden-standard of qualitative methods (Modan, 2007, Richards, 2003). There were also focus group discussions lasting for at least 1 hour. Ten participant observation sessions of at least two hours each were recorded. The data were collected in restaurants, shebeen (informal drinking places), bus terminuses and in the houses of Cameroonians from all walks of life. The research participants included, students, hawkers, lecturers, medical doctors. In sum, and any willing adult Cameroonians that were living in Cape Town constituted a suitable criterion for this study. To collect and record data, the permission and the free and unforced consent of respondents was solicited. The anonymity of all participates was maintained by using pseudonyms. The advantage of this qualitative research according to (Richards, 2003) is that it is multi-method in focus and as such, involves an interpretative naturalistic approach suitable for the theme of this article. This paper however does not claim to be a complete representation of the communicative practices and identity manifestations of Cameroonian immigrants since science can strategically silence, "because of the conventions within which academics hide the subjectivity or 'humanness' of both researcher and researched" (Tomaselli and Dyll-Myklebust (2015: 360). # VII. # Data Analysis For data analysis, the systematic procedure outlined below is drawn from Taylor-Powel (2003). First the responses were grouped acceptance and refusal s of CamP. Then, these responses were organised into emergent themes (social practice, decolonial practice, mode of resistance etc.). # a) Interpretive Analysis First, participants' responses were listed and coded into two groups of; those that overtly acknowledge the use of Cape) and, those that rejected CamP overtly. A few of the respondents associated themselves with CamP whereas most of the participants verbally shunned the language. This notwithstanding, some who initially rejected CamP verbally and opted to be interviewed only in English, ironically continued interview sessions in CamP. Interestingly, most participants identified as French-speaking, refused to be interviewed be interviewed in French and preferred English stating that South Africa was an Englishspeaking country. The various themes emerging from the respondents are accompanied with some excerpts and interpreted. These excerpts provide insight into the Cameroonian immigrants' sentiments towards CamP. # VIII. # Findings The analysis showed that most Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town spoke CamP. The research participants also revealed that that they did not want to identify with CamP. That is, what participants said was contradicted by their actions in most instance. Only a few of them openly embraced CamP. # a) CamP as a Decolonial Practice CamP was developed to guarantee effective communication in trade, labour and evangelization. Over the year it resisted the central-peripheral notion which supports one language per country or ethnic group. Following only what the respondents said about CamP, one could be misguided since their utterances concerning CamP are not as important as what they do with CamP. Like other study participants who now claims Cameroonian expatriates must speak CamP, Anna had previously refused to speak CamP on the recorder and, also claimed that his son who was born and bred in South Africa cannot speak the language too. In fact, during an interview session with in the Parow market, where there are many English-speaking and Frenchspeaking inter married couples, the researcher went into a shop which was where a French-speaking lady and her English-speaking husband shared. They carried out a salon and a cell phone business, together with an international calls business section respectively. This couple each had an assistant who spoke CamP. The couple like many other research participants in this market place, and other research sites within Cape Town, preferred to be interviewed in English. However, the lady in the salon had had a colleague with whom she interacted in CamP. Also, the man and his wife were observed speaking CamP to each other and fellow colleagues even during follow-up interview sessions. Hence, it can be limiting and misleading to depend only on what the participants say. Clearly, this aspect of interviewing, observing, doing follow-up interview, focus group discussion and participants observation could also be referred to as a triangulation of the with aim to facilitate a deeper sense of understanding while pointing out the complexity involved in decolonization practices. While on the one hand, people say things about CamP which help to dehumanise them by refusing them their own language and culture, on the other hand, their actions and practice of speaking the language in spite of themselves, contradicts their internalised thoughts about CamP hence, decolonising their the people admits all odds. In fact, there is a lot of inconsistency between what people say about CamP and what they do with it. Paradoxically, Tom also claims his mother had taught him CamP as shown below. # b) CamP: The Decolonial Paradox Like in Cameroon where most urban Cameroonian children prefer to speak only English and French, Anna wants the son, to speak only English in the South African context where English is not only the dominant official language alongside 10 other languages, but, also the language of status. This is implied when Anna claims that Tom speaks only English and, downplays their hybrid sociolinguistic background. Given their linguistic repertoire, following from their sociolinguistic background from trading, colonial history and now, their diasporic encounter, it is obvious that the identities of Cameroonian immigrants are hybrid. For Cameroonian immigrants, the official languages occupy the superior and divine position (cf Pavelenko and Blckledge 2004). Like Anna and Tom above, many Cameroonian immigrants continue to deny that they do not speak CamP. This is expressed by Tom's initial silence during the interview session. Again, the indisputable status of English as superior language among Cameroonian immigrants is further demonstrated by meeting members in a social gathering. Communicative rules impose the usage of English only with reason to accommodate South Africans present in the meeting. Once again, the attempt to collaborate in their own colonisation by refusing to speak CamP is not only challenged by the general assembly members but, ironically by the very members of the executive bureau who try to set these standards. This is again illustrated by the excerpts from Anna, Tom, and some executive James, Joseph, Mary and Frank It can be said that despite its long history and multifunctionality, CamP still faces much contempt and disdain as articulate in the words of Anna who somehow continues to protest that she had not thought his son CamP, while speaking the same language which she resists in front of him daily and even during the interview session. Fluid communication codes reflect the hybrid identities of Cameroonian immigrants, a reality which they resist. One cannot be and then, be absent at the same time. Cameroonian immigrants continue to depend on CamP and at the same time, reject it. That Cameroonians immigrants resist their pluriversality, a way of convivially relating to the world in multiple forms, shows how deep the ideologically influence of colonialism had been. As stated earlier, Cameroonian immigrants have a habit of announcing that either English or French would be the suitable languages for official gatherings even though pluriversality also allows them to move in-between languages in a constantly changing multilingual environment. Reasons for choosing a specific language often ranges from the desire to include South Africans present to the desire of using official languages of Cameroon or the population of communication in South Africa. When this happens, almost immediately, there is always a switch to CamP as shown below. Ironically, this switch most times is negotiated by the same person who made the announcement. James: I invited Tony we may we wait till when he comes. When he comes maybe he will then answer some of these questions then we can then move on. Joseph: (to James in a low voice) Na Tony that Tony done come meeting. /There is Tony, Tony has come to the meeting/ James: So we are still at matters arising from these minutes. Frank: Well I think the issue of the kitchen is simple. Make dem no di sell mimbo for meeting time/[?]drinks should not be sold during the meeting time/ The above excerpt is in a Cameroonian meeting venue and involves three executive members and one member of the general assembly in Cape Town. Meanwhile the general assembly has been told to use only English, Joseph, an executive member is the first to whisper CamP utterance almost immediately. Joseph who is also the chairperson of the day meeting is also seen expressing his frustration on the noise levels emanating from those sitting in the kitchen area of the meeting house. The meeting house is also a business place where food and drink is always sold. Hence, Frank proposes a solution to help alleviate the noise levels during meetings. Interesting Frank speaks in both English and CamP. Similarly, although meeting minutes were written in English, they were read out in CamP during meeting sessions. Although the first half of the meeting could sometimes be conducted in English, the rest of the meeting was always in CamP where even South Africans present were seen interacting in CamP and other Sotuh African languages. What this means is that the hybrid identities available to Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town allows them to resist the ascribed Anglophone/Francophone identity options to explore the multiple identities available to them, while signalling previously ignored identities in new and hybrid ways. # c) CamP as a Decolonial Dilemma When people meet each other, some new languages are bound to emerge. Cameroon and Cameroonians reflects such contacts through CamP. CamP thus is an embodiment of an impressive multilingual context which, instead of being celebrated, is perceived as a dilemma. Once urban cities, in the diaspora the role of CamP and its ability to cut across boundaries cannot be contained and, it is in such context that the awkward position of the language is revealed. Once in other multilingual and contact environments like the urban city of Cape Town, South Africa where Cameroonians again meet others from equally diverse backgrounds like themselves, Cameroonians will mostly depend CamP for communicating white also trying to 'unlearn' it, claiming that CamP is not suitable for the sake of South African present in their midst: Bobda (2006) estimates that a population of 32% of children in Yaoundé, the capital city Cameroon, and between the ages of 10-17 do not speak any national language (vernacular) apart from French. Bobda claims that the causes for this are the marked adherence to the Western and especially the French ways of life, which is a characteristic of Gabon and Cameroon. This, he justifies by arguing for example that the consumption rate of Champaign, one of the most expensive French drinks and one of the greatest marks of the French culture is perceptible in these countries among other things. This is true of many of the research participants in this study who would like to speak only English but feel compelled to speak CamP for solidarity purposes like Sidonie and those who were aware of their pluriversality and would like to make use of their linguistic repertoire by using language in a creative manner, and so, needed CamP like Bob as shown below, Sidonie: Sometimes I really want to speak English but because the people will think it is a show, I find myself putting in some of those Pidgin words. Bob: And of course, we di use language weh I be most comfortable with, Pidgin/And of course we use the language with which I am more comfortable, Pidgin/. These are two very opposite extract which all the same reveal the sociolinguistic role of CamP in society. While Sidonie feels compelled to use CamP just to identify with the multitudes, Bob on the other hand, thinks CamP is a social Practice. Like Bob, other Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town simply employ CamP as a way of life since this language has become a part of them. Despite effort from the colonial masters to implement a one-language-one-sate ideology, while portraying their own languages (the colonial languages as supreme/central with all other languages as peripheral) and, the post-colonial elites perpetrating such agendas, CamP continues to thrive and as such, could also be viewed as a considered a decolonial practice. CamP is therefore a true mode of resistance which enables Cameroon immigrants to assume a culture which is theirs. Consider the following: Dave: Pidgin is our language Alain: Pidgin is the unofficial official language of Cameroon Melanie: Yeah, Pidgin. You must speak it [?] what will you speak? Celine: No, because we understand each other well. If we use the language, we communicate very well. Blandine: Okay make ah try for divide am again. We bi di tok like 70% Pidgin, we bi di tok may be like (8 seconds) 10% erhh French but nobi for house and maybe another 10% Englsih and 10% contry tok. That three languages them. For here massa, you di chat like 80% English (laughing)/Okay let me divide it again. We use to speak like 70 percent Pidgin, we use to speak like (8 seconds) 10% erhh French but not at home and maybe another 10% English and 10% national language. Those three (actually meaning four) languages. Friend, here one speaks like 80%. Oliver: We try to use language in a creative way you see. You say if I talk like this or like that they will still understand me you see. This section brings us face to face with this dilemma. Uptown Cape Town is a colonised spaces and forces Cameroonians to deny who they are but who they are still manages to come out. Some participants like James, Anna, Sidonie and Tom may want to maintain the Cameroonian statuesque of language use in Cape Town by continually trying to deny CamP its communicative role in hope to fit into the English dominant white group, thereby reacting to the colonial and postcolonial hierarchies of languages and identities even in Cape Town, Cape. This again shows as living dead (Maldonado 2011) that is, CamP is a manifestation of Benveniste's damne´ (in Maldonado 2007) where it remains excessively visible at one point and invisible in another. The refusal of CamP confirms Fanon's (1952) asserting that the first action of the black is a reaction. But, it is necessary to go beyond. The participants in the above extract precisely go beyond simple reactions. They fully embrace CamP and claim that CamP permits them to use language in a stlish way. For most, it is the language that permits effective communication, without which, there will be not be able to fully express themselves. The importance of Camp can be Summarised in the words of Dave and Alain who say, 'Pidgin is our language' and that 'Pidgin is the unofficial official language of Cameroon' In fact, Blandine specifically divides Cameroonian's manner of using their languages in percentages, pointing out that CamP is used 10% more in Cape Town than it was in Cameroon. # IX. # Discussion Ultimately, such claims and attachment to CamP turns to corroborate works of scholars who have tried to summaries human communicative situation in various ways. Fonlon for instance notes that in theory, the human mind is supposed to think ideas but as a matter of practical fact, we think in words and it is to this extent that we reflect while we think. We can hear ourselves thinking in a definite language. This language according to Fonlon substitutes itself to ideas in our minds so much such that it becomes the very warp and woof of our mental life. In this way, it creates an intimate union between people who share the same language and oneness -the mind which is the most essential thing in man. To this regard, Fonlon further explains that the cry "one people, one language" that is heard in countries like Israel for instance is not an empty political slogan (Fonlon 1969:25). To make this claim more explicit, Halliday (1978:1) states that language arises in the life of an individual through ongoing exchanges of meaning with significant others. In addition to this, Finegan and Besnier (1989:383) propound that those who speak with one another tend to speak like one another. Moreover, Anchimbe (2005a:8) estimates that language and identity are interwoven icons of individual and group membership. Even though Fonlon identifies ancestry, religion physiognomy and other dimensions of ethnicity as dictates of such a membership, it has, especially through the evolution of English been demonstrated that the more practical index is the linguistic. This means that it is through the language that the values of the group are portrayed and transmitted. Anchimbe (2005a) further elaborates that the validity of language in-group identification exists at four levels namely that "language is often an attribute of group membership, an imported cue for ethnic categorisation, an emotional dimension of identity? a means of facilitating in-group cohesion". These to Anchimbe (2005a) are the four levels, which make the group a complete entity whose feelings and social esteem have vocal dimensions. In addition to the four levels, reticulations of a national identity and its expression through a local language have fuelled efforts in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania for example to adopt Swahili as the official language. This is meant to reduce the range of functions and attachment of the colonial -bequeathed language -English which was before then; had been the language of intra and international communication (Anchimbe, 2005a(Anchimbe, : 2005:8):8). Some prominent scholars (Echu 2004, Anchimbe 2005a, Myers-Scotton 2006, Bobda 2006 andDibussi (2006) have repeatedly shown that there is more attachment to the official languages than to the vernaculars and most interestingly, that the language of greatest function is CamP. CamP thus allows Cameroon immigrants to speak their own language without being measured or judged in terms of their whiteness and in relation to how well they have mastered any colonial language. Unlike in other countries where a single language may be used as a symbol of national identity, Cameroonians immigrants simply use an amalgam language, CamP, which represents their diversity. Although Cameroonian immigrants are confronted with many languages there is a sense that they continue to draw from their linguistic repertoire to continuously redefine who they are and to position themselves and others in various ways during communication in the Diaspora. Excerpts from exemplify the fact that speaking CamP is "about state selfownership" 2 Similarly, the so-called Francophone Cameroonian in Cape Town who now speak CamP . The participants are struggles to repossess and take back CamP. Some out rightly despise the monologic official norms of pure and standard language norms inherited by the postcolonial government and, forcefully reclaim CamP unconditionally when Participants 1-8 say: "I was born with Pidgin [?]. I cannot say I ignore Pidgin" "Yes, everybody speaks Pidgin", "Pidgin is our language", our creation and as such belongs to us. Other go on to say "[?] when a Cameroonian arrives here, the first thing he [/she] speaks is pidgin. He talks and talks, well I know that this is a fellow brother. Even more provocative are the following utterances: Pidgin is the unofficial official language of Cameroon", Yeah, Pidgin. You must speak it [?] what will you speak?" "No, because we understand each other well. If we use the language, we communicate very well". fluently claim that while in Cameroon they could not speak this language. Evidently, even the whiteness of Cape Town with its ruminant apartheid structures as compared to Cameroon is no excuse for Cameroonian immigrants not to be who they really are. Therefore, instead of conforming to the previous state bilingualism of Cameroon which presupposes that Cameroonians are either 'Anglophones' (English-speaking) or 'Francophones' (French-speaking), the Cameroonian immigrants basically downplay this dichotomy to take the decolonial path by bringing to the fore their hybrid identities as shown in by some research participants. The fact that CamP has survived colonial rule and is still being used in the Diaspora defies fixed homogenous and prescribed dominate practices. Therefore, it is through CamP that the social agents despise "standard" official English and French bilingualism, and the regionally recognised three official languages of the Western Cape namely; Afrikaans, isiXhosha and English or even the national recognition eleven official languages in South Africa by simply using CamP with other languages as a singular linguistic repertoire (Anchimbe, 2007) or an amalgam system (Higgins (2008). This amalgam language is the preferred choice of the people as it reflects their lived experiences and every day practices even in the Cape Town Diaspora. The Cameroonian immigrants thus, challenge the subalternisation of CamP in society and the academic milieu and, continue to use this language that they had created themselves. In this way, 'the ethical, the political, and the epistemological are linked together in a powerful form' (Mignolo (2011:6-7). This is, indeed, one of the features of the decolonial turn, that is, the refusal to segregate epistemology from ethics, politics, and other areas of human creation. In the pluri-linguistic context of Cape Town where diversified people meet in a "whiter" seemingly race structured environment, the use of CamP and CamP itself symbolises a decolonial paradox. In such a context, CamP is the only language suitable to facilitate communication since CamP continues to reflect as sense of belonging and identity. Yet it seems the Cameroonian immigrants have internalised the state and institutional ideologies of CamP and brought these ideologies to Cape Town where the official language speaking and studying CamP in relation to the common person is seen in a sense as disrupting language. That is, speaking CamP is a decolonial Practice because its users continue to associate this language with English, backwardness low status and continue to refuse that they speak it in spite of the overwhelming evidence bearing on its indispensability. Even in Nigeria where Pidgin based mostly on an ex-colonial language, English, has been accepted nationally and internationally as a language as demonstrated by the fact, some vital United Nations (UN) documents for example, the UN Charter and the Millenium Development Following from the disdain of CamP, Widdicomb (1998) establishes that, the social agents tend to live out the prevailing ideologies of the ruling power under the illusion that they have chosen their path. Therefore, it can be said that although CamP serve as a vital tool of communication for the media, for the politicians to reach out to their large audiences, the market men and women and for both the educated and uneducated who use it in Cape Town, verbally, and politically being either Anglophones or Francophone compels these same users of CamP to attempt to completely disassociate themselves with their diverse cultural heritage, very nature of their being, that of CamP. Refusing to accept their diversity or what Maldonado-Torres has termed pluriversality is tantamount to being dead. That is the Cameroonian immigrants tend to "exist[?] in the mode of not-being there, which hints at the nearness of death [?]" Maldonado (2007: 257). At this juncture, it becomes urgent to take necessary steps for imagining and building democratic, just, and non-colonial even if this should mean using force (Césaire 1955). Nevertheless, the aim od thus paper is to investigate the prevalence of hybrid identities among Cameroonian immigrants from various economic, socio-political, and cultural conditions in which the use of multiple modes in CamP for communication portrays hybrid identities are the norm rather the exception, and hence, a decolonial paradox. While meeting members maybe sanction for coming late, nothing is done to the SG who speaks CamP. In another situation, James is seen shouting at some members who are disturbing from the kitchen area during a meeting. The president effective using CamP to perform this task. As James, Blandine, Anna and other participants have shown, CamP is a decolonial practice in that it resists every instance of subjugation and all attempts to control its manifestation. This language is thus a carrier of that decoloniality identity as it is an identity that they created themselves. In this sense, this paper defies the simplistic views of the Anglophone/Francophone binary identities assumed by other scholars (Anchimbe 2010, 2005b, Awasom 2004, Echu 2004, 2003a, Konings and Nyamnjoh 1997, Alobwed'Epie 1993). In a similar manner, Echu (2004) refers to Cameroon as a linguistic paradise when he compares Cameroon's number of 279 vernaculars alone to the fact that Africa possesses a little over 1000 indigenous languages. To Echu, this then, is impressive especially when the official languages (English, French) and Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) are added to the figure (Echu, 2004:1). This notwithstanding, he points out that this peculiar heterogeneous language situation does not facilitate linguistic communication in Cameroon, according to him, it constitutes a major handicap to communication due to the absence of a nation-wide lingua franca to serve as a common linguistic idiom. This situation according to him even becomes worse given the unequal distribution of French and English, and the ineffective implementation of official language bilingualism in a negative manner. To substantiate this view, language scholars and political observers entertain fears that such a multilingual situation is a potential source of conflict, a factor that can bring about political disintegration (Echu, 2003:1). This however is not the case in the Cape Town surrogate space. The Cameroonian immigrants therefore represent 'a reordering of the "order of indexicalities" Vigouroux (2008:426) seen further on. The argument here is that the diverse communication contexts of Cape Town entail that social legitimacy is not achieved through fixed linguistics forms, bounded ethnolinguistic categories and predetermined colonial characteristics but, rather negotiated in the immigrants' communicative codes all of which are part of their linguistic repertoire. The use of centre/periphery norms are here rather portrayed as localized social practices to offer alternative arguments about the nature of language, identity and communication in decolonial contexts. In another situation, Participant 15 (the President) is seen shouting at some members who are disturbing from the kitchen area during a meeting. The president effective using CamP to perform this task. As Participants 15 and 16 illustrates, CamP is a decolonial practice in that it resists every instance of subjugation and all attempts to control its manifestation. This language is thus a carrier of that decoloniality identity as it is an identity that they created themselves. In this sense, this paper defies the simplistic views of the Anglophone/Francophone binary identities assumed by other scholars (Anchimbe 2010, 2005b, Awasom 2004, Echu 2004, 2003a, Konings and Nyamnjoh 1997, Alobwed'Epie 1993). In a similar manner, Echu (2004) refers to Cameroon as a linguistic paradise when he compares Cameroon's number of 279 vernaculars alone to the fact that Africa possesses a little over 1000 indigenous languages. To Echu, this then, is impressive especially when the official languages (English, French) and Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE) are added to the figure (Echu, 2004:1). This notwithstanding, he points out that this peculiar heterogeneous language situation does not facilitate linguistic communication in Cameroon, according to him, it constitutes a major handicap to communication due to the absence of a nation-wide lingua franca to serve as a common linguistic idiom. This situation according to him even becomes worse given the unequal distribution of French and English, and the ineffective implementation of official language bilingualism in a negative manner. To substantiate this view, language scholars and political observers entertain fears that such a multilingual situation is a potential source of conflict, a factor that can bring about political disintegration (Echu, 2003:1). This however is not the case in the Cape Town surrogate space. The Cameroonian immigrants therefore represent 'a reordering of the "order of indexicalities" Vigouroux (2008:426) seen further on. The argument here is that the diverse communication contexts of Cape Town entail that social legitimacy is not achieved through fixed linguistics forms, bounded ethnolinguistic categories and predetermined colonial characteristics but, rather negotiated in the immigrants' communicative codes all of which are part of their linguistic repertoire. The use of centre/periphery norms are here rather portrayed as localized social practices to offer alternative arguments about the nature of language, identity and communication in decolonial contexts. This means CamP represents the reordering of the orders of indexicality (Blommaert 2005). Orders of indexicallity are systematically reproduced stratified meanings often called norms or 'rules' like those found in 'standard' versus 'non-standard' [forms] (Blommaert 2005:73). But use of CamP use shows such ordering is a fallacy. People of all social and economic group use the language (Mai, 2016, Bobda 2006, Myers-Scotton 2006, Anchimbe 2005, Echu 2004). Therefore, English, French and the national languages are reordered in Cape Town in ways that enable new languages, for example CamP to emerge and questions totalising effects of homogenisation. Hence, in line with (Fanon 1952), CamP erases language and identity crises of the "black self" where blackness is no longer a figure of absence. X. # Conclusion This article has explored how the French, German, and the British attempted to deprive Cameroonians of their culture, whether overtly or covertly. It would appear that everything which these colonial powers did has been internalised by the postcolonial regimes and in the social actors both in the local context and in the Diaspora clamour seemingly dominant language English in attempt to represent 'the civilized' world and the 'civilised' meanwhile CamP and indeed, their own culture, which constitutes an extensive means of communication and language Practices is relegated to the back despite functions and the powerlessness to avoid or unlearn the language. CamP is shown to communicate an identity that cuts across linguistics and colonial boundaries. It is an identity that has been taunted by assimilation in an atmosphere of rejection, leading to an inferiority complex among Cameroonian immigrants who desire to denounce the language that communicates their own heritage and history. History, Aimé Césaire (1955) Year 2021 Decoloniality, Language, Identity and Communication: The Case Study of Cameroonian Pidgin believes, contains several cultural elements of great value. In his essay 'Discourse on Colonialism' Aimé Césaire' declares the need to decolonise society simultaneously with the minds and the inner life, given that Africans have been doubly alienated first as workers and as blacks and as such, projected as the one race which has been denied the notion of humanity. The colonial attempt to erase CamP is tantamount to erasing the Cameroonian culture and diasporic integration and unity since CamP serves as communication system, a means of identification and an embodiment of the Cameroonian immigrants' culture. Yet, the experiences of the Cameroonian immigrants including some of their South associates who now speak CamP are not entirely suppressed since the language continues to flourish as an identity marker and lingua franca linking the excolonial languages and the national languages even the South African languages within the diasporic space. Anna [To Interviewer]. 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