I've worked as a Lecturer in African Studies, in the Section of African Languages, Cultures and Literatures, of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS, University of London. I hold a PhD from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, U.K. I studied at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2023
This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected a... more This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected articles. We begin with a consideration of various factors that led to the marginalisation of African languages, including the hegemony of English, colonialism and ensuing language policies that still hold today. Such policies proclaimed languages exogenous to the continent as official languages for formal public discourses, including the education domain. This led to the low visibility of indigenous languages in such domains. European missionaries also contributed to this by imposing Western linguistic frameworks on the continuum of African languages such that they became separate, named and bounded, which is counter-intuitive to the heteroglossic, multilingual realities of language use in African indigenous communities. We then examine the expanding role of African languages in response to technology, social media, globalisation and more responsive and dynamic language policies. The articles in this Special Edition cover language policy and language in education; language and identity negotiation in contexts of migration; language use on social media platforms; language and the workplace and language use in advertising. These contributions reveal that the multilingual reality of Africa’s language ecology is increasingly visible in many domains.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2023
This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected a... more This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected articles. We begin with a consideration of various factors that led to the marginalisation of African languages, including the hegemony of English, colonialism and ensuing language policies that still hold today. Such policies proclaimed languages exogenous to the continent as official languages for formal public discourses, including the education domain. This led to the low visibility of indigenous languages in such domains. European missionaries also contributed to this by imposing Western linguistic frameworks on the continuum of African languages such that they became separate, named and bounded, which is counter-intuitive to the heteroglossic, multilingual realities of language use in African indigenous communities. We then examine the expanding role of African languages in response to technology, social media, globalisation and more responsive and dynamic language policies. The articles in this Special Edition cover language policy and language in education; language and identity negotiation in contexts of migration; language use on social media platforms; language and the workplace and language use in advertising. These contributions reveal that the multilingual reality of Africa’s language ecology is increasingly visible in many domains.
In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political envir... more In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political environments, mobility, and technological advances, the Cameroonian journalist is caught between the need for social relevance, a role in helping positive social change and the maintenance of professional standards.
Talk of media freedom in post-colonial Cameroon raises the question: Freedom from what or whom? Who or what restricts or represses freedom of expression for the journalist?
From independence Cameroonian journalists were essentially rooted in their jobs and careers as civil servants. Joining the profession was generally not due to an inner call to find the truth against all odds and to share that truth with the public. The entry route into the profession was based on a state-controlled and highly selective entrance examination into the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC). Students graduated as civil serv-ants—with a career set for life in public and state-owned media outlets, namely the National Radio Service, and the main national newspaper, Cameroon Tribune. There were a number of state-owned news agencies where some journalists could also be posted, but all the main media institutions were owned and controlled by the government. The journalist was more or less a mouthpiece for mass communication, or in other words, the state propaganda.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2014
At the heart of debates about recent world history and ensuing globalization is the question of t... more At the heart of debates about recent world history and ensuing globalization is the question of the place of local cultures and languages. They can either be perceived as a necessary part of the globalization agenda, or as the epicenters of resistance to the globalization trend. Yet, as Rassool points out in the introduction, her book is “not about language per se; neither is it explicitly about language rights discourses” (p. 1). The focus of the book is on the role that “language-in-education policy”, throughout history, has played in shaping development possibilities within the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Three complementary parts of different lengths make up the book. The first part focuses on language diversity, and is made up of four chapters. The second part is the case studies, made up of three chapters. The third part is a concluding chapter analyzing issues related to globalization, language(s) and development within the post-colonial contexts.
Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues: Le cas des langues moins enseignées [, 2020
More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are sti... more More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are still struggling with their exclusion from the education system of their speakers and their ensuing marginalisation as mediums of instruction in the schools and the literacy classes. Even for those languages that are managing to get some standardisation and develop a solid writing system leading to their usability in education, a major challenge remains regarding the selection of the dialectal variety to be used for the development of the writing system and consequently, for use in education and in the production of literature. This issue is tied essentially to the dialectal variation inherent to most living languages.
This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West of Cameroon.
Cameroon is an officially French-English bilingual country, but actually highly multilingual with 286 local languages, all at various levels of their standardisation. Ghɔmálá’ is considered to be one of those languages that are thriving, in comparison to the majority of the Cameroonian languages, and in terms of its print-richness and use in formal education – schools and literacy classes.
The language is spoken in more than a dozen different chiefdoms and villages which are historically distinct and full separate socio-political entities, each of them having their dialectal variety which has developed over the centuries with specific structural features and sociolinguistic dynamics (Nissim, 1972, 1975, 1981; Kayum Fokoue, 2011).
This paper sits in a theoretical framework of corpus planning and status planning within language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997; Liddicoat and Baldauf, 2008), with a focus on reference dialect theory and standard language development in terms of three core areas: development of a writing system, production of literature, and teaching in educational contexts (Sadembouo and Watters, 1987; Sadembouo, 1989; Bergman, 1989; Watters, 1990).
Some key issues examined centre around dialectal variation and the challenges in selecting and raising one Ghɔmálá’ variety to a standard and then using it in literature production and the writing of didactic materials for the teaching of the Ghɔmálá’ language. There is also an analysis of the sociocultural and economic implications that arise from those inter-connected challenges in the development of the language, not just in terms of the relations between the dialects, but the very sustainability of the whole enterprise of Ghɔmálá’ teaching in formal contexts.
In this vein, the importance of this chapter lies in its investigation of the process of selection of the dialectal variety that has been promoted to become the standard, and in its revisiting of the implication of this selection of one dialect out of more than a dozen equally valid varieties on the development of the writing system for Ghɔmálá’, the production of literature in and the pedagogic issues related to this dialectal variation and selection.
This thesis investigates, describes and analyses adult literacy in local languages in Africa, wit... more This thesis investigates, describes and analyses adult literacy in local languages in Africa, with a focus on Kom, a rural community situated in the North West province of Cameroon. The thesis presents the motivations, relevance, importance and aims of the research; then gives an overview of the national and local backgrounds, namely Cameroon and Kom. A detailed description is given of the multilingual landscape and language use in formal education, the development of writing systems for Cameroonian languages, the official literacy activities at the national level, and the Kom language and community. The thesis discusses the philosophical and conceptual frameworks of the research, namely the naturalistic and critical approaches adopted, and the ethnographic approach used in data collection and the theoretical analysis. It also describes key literacy institutions in Cameroon, such as NACALCO and SIL. Four primary domains are investigated as they pertain to adult literacy: organisatio...
In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political envir... more In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political environments, mobility, and technological advances, the Cameroonian journalist is caught between the need...
Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues; Le cas des langues moins enseignées, 2020
More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are sti... more More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are still struggling with their exclusion from the education system of their speakers and their ensuing marginalisation as mediums of instruction in the schools and the literacy classes. Even for those languages that are managing to get some standardisation and develop a solid writing system leading to their usability in education, a major challenge remains regarding the selection of the dialectal variety to be used for the development of the writing system and consequently, for use in education and in the production of literature. This issue is tied essentially to the dialectal variation inherent to most living languages. This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West...
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2023
This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected a... more This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected articles. We begin with a consideration of various factors that led to the marginalisation of African languages, including the hegemony of English, colonialism and ensuing language policies that still hold today. Such policies proclaimed languages exogenous to the continent as official languages for formal public discourses, including the education domain. This led to the low visibility of indigenous languages in such domains. European missionaries also contributed to this by imposing Western linguistic frameworks on the continuum of African languages such that they became separate, named and bounded, which is counter-intuitive to the heteroglossic, multilingual realities of language use in African indigenous communities. We then examine the expanding role of African languages in response to technology, social media, globalisation and more responsive and dynamic language policies. The articles in this Special Edition cover language policy and language in education; language and identity negotiation in contexts of migration; language use on social media platforms; language and the workplace and language use in advertising. These contributions reveal that the multilingual reality of Africa’s language ecology is increasingly visible in many domains.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2023
This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected a... more This introduction to the Special Edition provides a rationale for the inclusion of the selected articles. We begin with a consideration of various factors that led to the marginalisation of African languages, including the hegemony of English, colonialism and ensuing language policies that still hold today. Such policies proclaimed languages exogenous to the continent as official languages for formal public discourses, including the education domain. This led to the low visibility of indigenous languages in such domains. European missionaries also contributed to this by imposing Western linguistic frameworks on the continuum of African languages such that they became separate, named and bounded, which is counter-intuitive to the heteroglossic, multilingual realities of language use in African indigenous communities. We then examine the expanding role of African languages in response to technology, social media, globalisation and more responsive and dynamic language policies. The articles in this Special Edition cover language policy and language in education; language and identity negotiation in contexts of migration; language use on social media platforms; language and the workplace and language use in advertising. These contributions reveal that the multilingual reality of Africa’s language ecology is increasingly visible in many domains.
In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political envir... more In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political environments, mobility, and technological advances, the Cameroonian journalist is caught between the need for social relevance, a role in helping positive social change and the maintenance of professional standards.
Talk of media freedom in post-colonial Cameroon raises the question: Freedom from what or whom? Who or what restricts or represses freedom of expression for the journalist?
From independence Cameroonian journalists were essentially rooted in their jobs and careers as civil servants. Joining the profession was generally not due to an inner call to find the truth against all odds and to share that truth with the public. The entry route into the profession was based on a state-controlled and highly selective entrance examination into the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC). Students graduated as civil serv-ants—with a career set for life in public and state-owned media outlets, namely the National Radio Service, and the main national newspaper, Cameroon Tribune. There were a number of state-owned news agencies where some journalists could also be posted, but all the main media institutions were owned and controlled by the government. The journalist was more or less a mouthpiece for mass communication, or in other words, the state propaganda.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2014
At the heart of debates about recent world history and ensuing globalization is the question of t... more At the heart of debates about recent world history and ensuing globalization is the question of the place of local cultures and languages. They can either be perceived as a necessary part of the globalization agenda, or as the epicenters of resistance to the globalization trend. Yet, as Rassool points out in the introduction, her book is “not about language per se; neither is it explicitly about language rights discourses” (p. 1). The focus of the book is on the role that “language-in-education policy”, throughout history, has played in shaping development possibilities within the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Three complementary parts of different lengths make up the book. The first part focuses on language diversity, and is made up of four chapters. The second part is the case studies, made up of three chapters. The third part is a concluding chapter analyzing issues related to globalization, language(s) and development within the post-colonial contexts.
Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues: Le cas des langues moins enseignées [, 2020
More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are sti... more More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are still struggling with their exclusion from the education system of their speakers and their ensuing marginalisation as mediums of instruction in the schools and the literacy classes. Even for those languages that are managing to get some standardisation and develop a solid writing system leading to their usability in education, a major challenge remains regarding the selection of the dialectal variety to be used for the development of the writing system and consequently, for use in education and in the production of literature. This issue is tied essentially to the dialectal variation inherent to most living languages.
This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West of Cameroon.
Cameroon is an officially French-English bilingual country, but actually highly multilingual with 286 local languages, all at various levels of their standardisation. Ghɔmálá’ is considered to be one of those languages that are thriving, in comparison to the majority of the Cameroonian languages, and in terms of its print-richness and use in formal education – schools and literacy classes.
The language is spoken in more than a dozen different chiefdoms and villages which are historically distinct and full separate socio-political entities, each of them having their dialectal variety which has developed over the centuries with specific structural features and sociolinguistic dynamics (Nissim, 1972, 1975, 1981; Kayum Fokoue, 2011).
This paper sits in a theoretical framework of corpus planning and status planning within language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997; Liddicoat and Baldauf, 2008), with a focus on reference dialect theory and standard language development in terms of three core areas: development of a writing system, production of literature, and teaching in educational contexts (Sadembouo and Watters, 1987; Sadembouo, 1989; Bergman, 1989; Watters, 1990).
Some key issues examined centre around dialectal variation and the challenges in selecting and raising one Ghɔmálá’ variety to a standard and then using it in literature production and the writing of didactic materials for the teaching of the Ghɔmálá’ language. There is also an analysis of the sociocultural and economic implications that arise from those inter-connected challenges in the development of the language, not just in terms of the relations between the dialects, but the very sustainability of the whole enterprise of Ghɔmálá’ teaching in formal contexts.
In this vein, the importance of this chapter lies in its investigation of the process of selection of the dialectal variety that has been promoted to become the standard, and in its revisiting of the implication of this selection of one dialect out of more than a dozen equally valid varieties on the development of the writing system for Ghɔmálá’, the production of literature in and the pedagogic issues related to this dialectal variation and selection.
This thesis investigates, describes and analyses adult literacy in local languages in Africa, wit... more This thesis investigates, describes and analyses adult literacy in local languages in Africa, with a focus on Kom, a rural community situated in the North West province of Cameroon. The thesis presents the motivations, relevance, importance and aims of the research; then gives an overview of the national and local backgrounds, namely Cameroon and Kom. A detailed description is given of the multilingual landscape and language use in formal education, the development of writing systems for Cameroonian languages, the official literacy activities at the national level, and the Kom language and community. The thesis discusses the philosophical and conceptual frameworks of the research, namely the naturalistic and critical approaches adopted, and the ethnographic approach used in data collection and the theoretical analysis. It also describes key literacy institutions in Cameroon, such as NACALCO and SIL. Four primary domains are investigated as they pertain to adult literacy: organisatio...
In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political envir... more In the globalised world of the 21st century, characterised by fast changing socio-political environments, mobility, and technological advances, the Cameroonian journalist is caught between the need...
Variation linguistique et enseignement des langues; Le cas des langues moins enseignées, 2020
More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are sti... more More than half a century after the African Independences, many minority African languages are still struggling with their exclusion from the education system of their speakers and their ensuing marginalisation as mediums of instruction in the schools and the literacy classes. Even for those languages that are managing to get some standardisation and develop a solid writing system leading to their usability in education, a major challenge remains regarding the selection of the dialectal variety to be used for the development of the writing system and consequently, for use in education and in the production of literature. This issue is tied essentially to the dialectal variation inherent to most living languages. This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West...
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Papers by Dr. Seraphin Kamdem
Talk of media freedom in post-colonial Cameroon raises the question: Freedom from what or whom? Who or what restricts or represses freedom of expression for the journalist?
From independence Cameroonian journalists were essentially rooted in their jobs and careers as civil servants. Joining the profession was generally not due to an inner call to find the truth against all odds and to share that truth with the public. The entry route into the profession was based on a state-controlled and highly selective entrance examination into the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC). Students graduated as civil serv-ants—with a career set for life in public and state-owned media outlets, namely the National Radio Service, and the main national newspaper, Cameroon Tribune. There were a number of state-owned news agencies where some journalists could also be posted, but all the main media institutions were owned and controlled by the government. The journalist was more or less a mouthpiece for mass communication, or in other words, the state propaganda.
Three complementary parts of different lengths make up the book. The first part focuses on language diversity, and is made up of four chapters. The second part is the case studies, made up of three chapters. The third part is a concluding chapter analyzing issues related to globalization, language(s) and development within the post-colonial contexts.
This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West of Cameroon.
Cameroon is an officially French-English bilingual country, but actually highly multilingual with 286 local languages, all at various levels of their standardisation. Ghɔmálá’ is considered to be one of those languages that are thriving, in comparison to the majority of the Cameroonian languages, and in terms of its print-richness and use in formal education – schools and literacy classes.
The language is spoken in more than a dozen different chiefdoms and villages which are historically distinct and full separate socio-political entities, each of them having their dialectal variety which has developed over the centuries with specific structural features and sociolinguistic dynamics (Nissim, 1972, 1975, 1981; Kayum Fokoue, 2011).
This paper sits in a theoretical framework of corpus planning and status planning within language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997; Liddicoat and Baldauf, 2008), with a focus on reference dialect theory and standard language development in terms of three core areas: development of a writing system, production of literature, and teaching in educational contexts (Sadembouo and Watters, 1987; Sadembouo, 1989; Bergman, 1989; Watters, 1990).
Some key issues examined centre around dialectal variation and the challenges in selecting and raising one Ghɔmálá’ variety to a standard and then using it in literature production and the writing of didactic materials for the teaching of the Ghɔmálá’ language. There is also an analysis of the sociocultural and economic implications that arise from those inter-connected challenges in the development of the language, not just in terms of the relations between the dialects, but the very sustainability of the whole enterprise of Ghɔmálá’ teaching in formal contexts.
In this vein, the importance of this chapter lies in its investigation of the process of selection of the dialectal variety that has been promoted to become the standard, and in its revisiting of the implication of this selection of one dialect out of more than a dozen equally valid varieties on the development of the writing system for Ghɔmálá’, the production of literature in and the pedagogic issues related to this dialectal variation and selection.
Talk of media freedom in post-colonial Cameroon raises the question: Freedom from what or whom? Who or what restricts or represses freedom of expression for the journalist?
From independence Cameroonian journalists were essentially rooted in their jobs and careers as civil servants. Joining the profession was generally not due to an inner call to find the truth against all odds and to share that truth with the public. The entry route into the profession was based on a state-controlled and highly selective entrance examination into the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC). Students graduated as civil serv-ants—with a career set for life in public and state-owned media outlets, namely the National Radio Service, and the main national newspaper, Cameroon Tribune. There were a number of state-owned news agencies where some journalists could also be posted, but all the main media institutions were owned and controlled by the government. The journalist was more or less a mouthpiece for mass communication, or in other words, the state propaganda.
Three complementary parts of different lengths make up the book. The first part focuses on language diversity, and is made up of four chapters. The second part is the case studies, made up of three chapters. The third part is a concluding chapter analyzing issues related to globalization, language(s) and development within the post-colonial contexts.
This paper will examine the case of Ghɔmálá’, a Grassfields-Bantu language from the West region of Cameroon, Africa; building its discussion on document analyses, field notes, and data collected on the current teaching of Ghɔmálá’ within the local speech community in the West of Cameroon.
Cameroon is an officially French-English bilingual country, but actually highly multilingual with 286 local languages, all at various levels of their standardisation. Ghɔmálá’ is considered to be one of those languages that are thriving, in comparison to the majority of the Cameroonian languages, and in terms of its print-richness and use in formal education – schools and literacy classes.
The language is spoken in more than a dozen different chiefdoms and villages which are historically distinct and full separate socio-political entities, each of them having their dialectal variety which has developed over the centuries with specific structural features and sociolinguistic dynamics (Nissim, 1972, 1975, 1981; Kayum Fokoue, 2011).
This paper sits in a theoretical framework of corpus planning and status planning within language planning (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997; Liddicoat and Baldauf, 2008), with a focus on reference dialect theory and standard language development in terms of three core areas: development of a writing system, production of literature, and teaching in educational contexts (Sadembouo and Watters, 1987; Sadembouo, 1989; Bergman, 1989; Watters, 1990).
Some key issues examined centre around dialectal variation and the challenges in selecting and raising one Ghɔmálá’ variety to a standard and then using it in literature production and the writing of didactic materials for the teaching of the Ghɔmálá’ language. There is also an analysis of the sociocultural and economic implications that arise from those inter-connected challenges in the development of the language, not just in terms of the relations between the dialects, but the very sustainability of the whole enterprise of Ghɔmálá’ teaching in formal contexts.
In this vein, the importance of this chapter lies in its investigation of the process of selection of the dialectal variety that has been promoted to become the standard, and in its revisiting of the implication of this selection of one dialect out of more than a dozen equally valid varieties on the development of the writing system for Ghɔmálá’, the production of literature in and the pedagogic issues related to this dialectal variation and selection.