Language, Identity, and Statehood in the Southern Cameroons

This chapter examines language and identity, language and development, and language and statehood in Ambazonia. It explores the consequence of the “civilizing” missions of three colonial powers and the relationship between those missions and language development in Ambazonia. It investigates the root of both states’ language polemic and probes English education in Ambazonia with a view to surface the linguistic choices which would best serve a people in search of an identity and statehood. Drawing from the checkered history of Ambazonia—beginning with the Germans, to the British, and to the French through the agency of La République du Cameroun—the chapter seeks ultimately to shed light on the role of language in the reconstruction of the statehood of Ambazonia and argues for a language curriculum which challenges and transcends the colonial design.