PROMOTING FRENCH-ENGLISH INDIVIDUAL BILINGUALISM THROUGH EDUCATION IN CAMEROON

INTRODUCTION

Cameroon, a Central African state sharing a long border with Nigeria, is a medium-sized country with a surface area of 475,000 km^sup 1^ and a population of around sixteen million people. In 1961, it adopted French and English as its joint official languages and decided to promote French-English official bilingualism in all domains of public life including education. This paper first examines language in education in the country, then reviews attempts made by the state to promote bilingualism in education and lastly proposes a redefinition of the policy of official bilingualism.

LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION IN CAMEROON

At independence, African countries adopted different language policies. Some promoted an indigenous language to official status, like Kiswahili in Tanzania and Arabic in Tunisia; these countries are termed 'endoglottic' by Brann.2 Some adopted an indigenous language and a foreign language as their joint official languages, like Burundi (French and Kirundi) and Lesotho (English and Sotho); these countries are called 'mixoglottic'. Other countries called 'exoglottic', adopted one foreign language as their official language, like Benin (French), Ghana (English), Angola (Portuguese), Equatorial Guinea (Spanish). A sub-group of exoglottic countries adopted two foreign languages, like Comoros (French and Arabic), Namibia (English and Afrikaans) and Cameroon (French and English).

What is now called the Republic of Cameroon (République du Cameroun) is a union of the former U.N. Trust Territory of Cameroons under French administration, which gained independence in 1960 and took the name République du Cameroun and thé former U.N. Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under British administration, which gained independence in February 1961. Both territories united in October 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon, consisting of two federated states (West Cameroon and East Cameroon). In 1972, the government abolished the federation and adopted a unitary political system and subsequently changed the country's name to United Republic of Cameroon. In the mid-1980s, the name was changed again, this time to Republic of Cameroon.

In the U.N. Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons under British administration, English was the official language and in the U.N. Trust Territory of Cameroons under French administration, French was the official language. In these regions, the patterns of language acquisition were slightly different. In the French region, educated people generally spoke two languages, namely one indigenous language, which was an ethnic language acquired in the home and French, which was learned in school. In the English region, three types of languages co-existed: first, a number of indigenous languages spoken by people in the home, secondly Pidgin, a widespread nonethnic lingua franca3 spoken in the neighborhood for out-group communication,4 and thirdly English, learned in school.5

With the reunification of these two regions in 1961, Cameroon found itself with several languages and had to decide which one(s) to elevate to official status. There were over 200 indigenous languages,6 four major regional languages,7 namely Pidgin, Fulfulde, Ewondo, and Duala, and two European languages, namely French and English. As preserving the reunification of these two regions was a more urgent political issue than anything else, the government decided to shelve all language problems and adopt French and English as the joint official languages of the country. This choice was consolidated with the stipulation in the country's constitution that the State shall guarantee the promotion of French-English bilingualism throughout the nation, which is what it has been trying to do in various domains of public life.8 This explains why English and French happened to jointly have official status in Cameroon. In other parts of the world where these same two languages co-exist as official languages, they seem to be native, not foreign languages as is the case in Cameroon. In Seychelles, for example, part of the population has either French or English as a mother tongue. This is also true of Canada where French in Quebec is a native language sharing official status with English. Cameroon is therefore unique in the world in having French and English, two foreign languages, as its official languages. In the domain of education, French is the medium of instruction in Francophone schools and so is English in Anglophone schools; in addition, bilingualism in the two languages is promoted in all schools.

ATTEMPTS AT PROMOTING BILINGUALISM IN EDUCATION SINCE 1961

Since reunification, various attempts have been made by the state to foster official bilingualism in education. These attempts can be grouped under two periods, namely the post-reunification period (1961-1971) and the postunitary state period (1972 to the present). At reunification in 1961, the two federated states decided to devise ways of making their citizens bilingual in the two official languages. In both states, the OL2 (that is English for Francophone citizens and French for Anglophone citizens) was introduced as a subject in all secondary schools, where students are expected to spend a total of seven of their schooling years. In 1962, the OL2 became a subject in the lone federal university, besides being the medium of instruction: Anglophone and Francophone students were taught together in either French or English depending on the skills of the lecturers.