When language issues are neglected in decentralisation projects:
Case Study of Mundang, Tupuri, Masana, Mafa, and Mada communities in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Keywords:
Decentralization, heritage languages, communal development plan, municipality (council)Abstract
The legal framework in Cameroon has been evolving in recent years in favour of linguistic diversity and Cameroonian heritage languages. Beside the Cameroonian Constitution of 18 January 1996, three Cameroonian laws: Law No. 2004/17 of 22 July 2004 on the orientation of decentralization; Law No. 2004/18 of July 2004 to lay down rules applicable to councils; and Law No. 2004/19 of July 2004 to lay down rules applicable to regions, all provide a legal framework for the preservation and promotion of heritage languages and cultures of Cameroon. These laws provide the devolution (transfer) of some of the competences of the Central Government to the decentralised government (Municipalities and Regions). It is against this backdrop that some councils of Cameroon have begun integrating projects aiming at preserving and promoting heritage languages and cultures in their Communal Development Plan (CDP) (Ngouo and Chumbow 2017).
This paper aims at making a policy discourse analysis of the CDP of five councils of the Far North Region of Cameroon which are the cradles of six Cameroonian languages, namely Mundang, Tupuri, Masana, Mafa, Giziga and Mada to evaluate the level of appropriation of these legal provisions provided by the decentralisation laws. The research questions is: What is the level of appropriation and implementation of the provisions of the laws on decentralisation by the councils of the Far North Region as far as heritage languages preservation and promotion are concerned? Beside the methodological approach which makes a policy discourse analysis of the CDPs of the host councils, interviews with council officials are used to elicit the entanglements causing low achievements.
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