In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

xi Note to the Reader To avoid confusion, some clarification as to the usage of certain terminologies needs to be made. The orthography for “Cameroon” is as fluid as are the nation’s problems and this is due to Cameroon’s historical background. Mainly the Portuguese, Germans, the French and the British have romanced Cameroon, and the result is a plethora of terms of reference and even spellings for the name of this nation. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Cameroon is today a bilingual nation, with English and French as the administrative languages; the result is “The Republic of Cameroon” and “La République du Cameroun” as officially accepted terms of reference. Beyond these, the spelling of the country’s name as was used by each of the former colonial nations is still being used in different contexts. Accordingly, there is the Spanish “Camarões”, the German “Kamerun”, the French “Cameroun”, and the English “Cameroon”. Even then, other terms of reference are used in this book depending on the point in history to which one is referring. Before reunification, when today’s Cameroon had been split between the French and the English, the English-speaking part of Cameroon at that time was referred to as “Southern Cameroons”, and the French-speaking part as “La République du Cameroun”. After reunification, when both the English and French colonized parts came back together to form a federation, the terms “West Cameroon” and “East Cameroon” respectively, came into existence for the English and French speaking parts of the nation respectively. After these appellations and the attendant political structure, came the “United Republic of Cameroon” when Ahmadou Ahidjo eliminated the federation in his effort to annex English-speaking Cameroonians. Today, the name of the country has returned to “La République du Cameroun” in French and “The Republic of Cameroon” in English. However, English-speaking Cameroonians refer to their country as “Cameroon” since the present name—The Republic of Cameroon—has political implications to the effect that the former West Cameroon of the federation has been annexed by the former La République du Cameroun of the same era, and this is not the case. Or better still, the French speaking part of Cameroon has seceded from its union with English-speaking Cameroon. In a nutshell, therefore, the time one is referring to, and the linguistic perspective from which one is coming all determine which term of reference this country is given. Accordingly, English-speaking Cameroon will occasionally emerge under names such as “British Cameroons”, “Southern Cameroons”, “West Cameroon”, “English-speaking Cameroon”, “Anglophone-Cameroon”, and “Cameroon”, whereas French-speaking Cameroun will be encountered as “La République du Cameroun”, “French Cameroun”, “East Cameroon”, and “French-speaking Cameroun”. “Cameroon”, will, however, be used for the entire nation in this text. ...

Share