The language of President Paul Biya’s Reunification speech

It was easy to imagine the expectation and excitement awaiting President Paul Biya’s Reunification speech in Buea. If you are a social media presence like I am, you would have fallen on posts anticipatorily gauging Cameroonians’ take on the issue. Even a cursory look at Cameroonian TV stations would have proven this as they quizzed many intellectuals about the language which the President should use to address the nation on this momentous national rendezvous. So it is no surprise that hours after the speech was uttered it is trending on social media.

Be you a Cameroon or a foreign national dare not take lightly the pre- speech anticipation, the concurrent excitement and the significant post-speech residue, worse still if you are a policy maker or should I say a patriot. Better take the effervescence around the language of President Paul Biya’s speech as a renewed reminder that one of the greatest hindrances to our attainment of the utopia of unity is uncannily crystallised by language. Indulge this explanation.

What is a language?

I am not a linguist or grammarian or one of those nerds interested in and capable of gutting language to expose and explain its entrails. So I will rather start from this premise; language is the warehouse of a people’s hopes, aspirations, beliefs, phobias and much more. From this angle then speakers of different languages should have disagreeing aspirations, right?

Language in Cameroon

With Reunification in 1961, Cameroon became a bilingual country with two official languages, international for that matter, English and French. This choice has consistently been perpetuated by the various constitutions. Section 1 sub 3 of the current constitution unequivocally states “The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavour to protect and promote national languages.”  Despite this provision, practice has made this constitutional edict resoundingly hollow as English-speaking Cameroons opine that English practically does not have the same status as French. They point most especially to the absence of English translations for information from government offices as some legislative texts often appear first in French and then later, very much later in some instances, in English. This absence has created room for the preponderance and predominance of French which has in turn bred feelings of the marginalisation of English and so them amongst the English – speaking Cameroons.

Simply put, language, its use, the preponderance of its use in Cameroon is a reliable tool for measuring the road travelled so far in the unity quest.

 The language of President Biya’s Speech

Before yesterday’s bilingual speech, the President of the Republic’s English vocabulary was thought to be limited to the phrase “I do so swear”, generally heard only when he is being sworn in after getting another presidential seat. As a living embodiment of a bilingual State, delivering the speech in both English and French was a welcome move although the accompanying sounds of applause from many English – speaking Cameroonian should not be seen as victory for the president or a 100% approval rating from English-speaking Cameroonians. If for anything, the President should personally see this insultingly and as his belated righting of a wrong since as the expected most bilingual Cameroon he should have much much much earlier than February 20, 2014 incarnated the ideal Cameroonian when language is concerned. His delivering a speech should be a given, usual and not unprecented, groundbreaking, famous and grounds for ululations from an educated crowd. As early as 1983 when he came to power he should have been giving his speeches alternately in English and French during occasions like the Youth and National Days. He should not have waited for the 50^th anniversary of our Reunification to do this given that in the midst of the unity fanfare and secessionist grumbling, this act considered more introspectively seems to be a rabbit he has pulled out of his political hat. In fact it can rightly be considered a flash in the pan if on National Day 2014 he does not repeat this performance.

This is the unfortunacy of President Biya delivering the Reunification speech bilingually: it is belated, too belated to put it lightly. What if common Cameroonians had like him chosen not to express themselves oftenly and publicly in English and French. We would be in an existential stalemate as a people.

The real language of President Biya’s speech

Since  national unity is the background to all the celebration, one question that Cameroonians must ask themselves is which language best represents them today as one people; a people that have been through German  and Anglo/French colonisation, a people with the diverse realities of their past, the complexity of their present and the prospects of their future. When they get the answer, they should ask themselves whether the President also delivered his speech in that language. Let’s face it, from a language perspective English and French do not unit us. From a historical perspective, these languages and our insistence on them as the prisms through which we define ourselves are an indication of the long road we still have to travel to consolidate our independence and unity.

Houses everywhere but “no house to rent”

Current house hunting trials and tribulations have forestalled a glowing tribute this writer has been concocting for his beloved adopted city  Buea. However he is not necessarily going to lampoon Buea because of his woes. He is merely going to warn that Buea is unfortunately losing its soul to the chimera affectionately called development.

                         After close to five years of uninterrupted residency and quiet enjoyment in a relatively quiet suburb of Buea - to be preciseMuea-, this writer has been compelled to move (something he has dreaded and hated since childhood since it entails re-starting the emotionally expensive process of making new friends and getting accustomed to new places). He has contracted aching legs and stress combing through most of the nooks and crannies of up and coming neighbourhoods. He has journeyed to the frontiers of the city. He has seen Beverly Hills mansions. He has seen houses but hasn’t seen any house to rent. 

                         It will be a lie to say Buea is not witnessing a housing crisis. But it would be an even bigger lie not to admit that this crisis is virtual as Buea is littered with rain-beaten and sun-baked room apartment and house –to- let signs. In his house searching outings, this writer saw many of these signs, took numbers and called, knocked and inquired only to be asked big sums and obese upfront payments. Upon setting out, this writer planned to upgrade his housing status and move into a bed room and parlour apartment - a step up from his one-room castle. After reading one of those apartments to let signs, this writer called the number next to the sign and was informed that the two rooms and parlour apartment would be his at 65,000 CFAF monthly and if he could pay a ten month advance – this is outside his financial reach. Next he was informed of a room and parlour apartment - 35,000 CFAF monthly and 10 months upfront payment. This writer found other houses well within his financial reach and within thieves’, diseases and cleanliness’ as well. He would have gladly taken it as suggested by the urgency of his need and the depth of his pocket but he thought of the toilet and all the prayers and fasting taking a dump in them necessitated; he thought of the guys lurking in the shadows of the long stretch from the road to the house. He know some will scoff at this post, saying it is just what a poor man would say  and they are entitled to their opinion. But this begs the question of whether the poor like this writer are not entitled to decent, clean and secure housing? If only the rich have the right to aspire to such housing, what becomes of social justice?

                  Buea like most cities in Cameroon, and Africa I imagine, are witnessing a real estate boom. Buea’s most specifically is spurred by the University of Buea and the consequent ever-growing need for housing for students. This has triggered not only a building frenzy but also something of a rent and advance inflation frenzy that has rippled across the entire city, far from the epicentre where this is understandable and even justified. To avoid the stress of rent-collecting from many tenants and relieve students from the stress of thinking about meeting the monthly rent-payment deadline, one understands that owners of student hostels can demand a year’s upfront payment for access to their hostels. Unfortunately even owners of non-hostel houses now exact such rents and upfront payments usually reserved for hostels and houses in upscale areas. Building a house is no mean fit but getting tenants who can pay huge rents and advances isn’t either. I know somebody will still see this as a poor man’s outcry but once again why must development always be synonymous with the systemic exclusion of the poor. In Buea’s case, the issue of rising housing costs and the hard affordability of decent, secure and clean housing is crucial because housing has even been undercurrent in University of Buea students' reasons for striking: remember the attempted 2007 standardisation of Buea hostels into A,B,C,D. This issue deserves urgent attention because if unchecked it will destroy the city's legendary hospitality reputation.