Dr. Nyindem Nancy Sirih-Nagang and Dr. Eric Anchimbe on linguistic dynamics during the ongoing crisis in Cameroon
Media records
Abstract
- Abstract
- In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Nyindem Nancy Sirih-Nagang talks with her host Dr. Eric Anchimbe about her research on the linguistic dynamics in the ongoing violent crisis in Cameroon. It exposes the creation of new lexemes and describes the linguistics and non-linguistic techniques employed in communicating through the labelling of concepts, individuals, or situations by the ruling government and the secessionist fighters or activists of the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon.
People & roles
Origins & context
- Title
- Dr. Nyindem Nancy Sirih-Nagang and Dr. Eric Anchimbe on linguistic dynamics during the ongoing crisis in Cameroon
- Language
- English
- Podcast series
-
Cluster Conversations
- Date
- August 23, 2025
Rights & access
- Extent
- 39 minutes, 45 seconds
Identifiers & sources
Further details
- Episode number
- 26
Full text
- Transcript
-
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Speaker 1: Cluster Conversations, a podcast by Africa Multiple.
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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, welcome yet to another episode of uh Cluster Conversations. Um this is part of the podcast of the Africa Multiple cluster of excellence here at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. I am Eric Anchiimbe, I'm a linguist in the English department, a member of the Institute of African Studies here at the University of Bayreuth and also a principal investigator with the cluster of excellence that's Africa Multiple. Today I would be in conversation with Doctor Nancy Sirinangang Nyindem from the University of Bamenda, Cameroon, who I have had the pleasure to host here at the University of Bayreuth as part of the cluster academy fellowship program. Nancy, welcome to Bayreuth once again and thanks for making time um for this conversation.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much Prof. Chimbé.
Speaker 1: Good. Now before we go into more serious issues maybe first of all I introduce who Doctor Nyindem is. Um Nancy holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Buea, Cameroon. Um her previous work was on language description and documentation of endangered languages or unwritten Cameroonian languages. Um from two thousand and six to two thousand and eight she worked on the description of Bantu languages or Bantu Cameroonian languages like um Isu and Wovea. And in two thousand and ten, in the context of her PhD thesis, um she documented folk knowledge of plants and animals in two endangered Coastal Bantu languages of Cameroon, the same languages I just mentioned, Isu and Wovea. And I say get it, it was quite an interesting experience, right?
Speaker 2: Very.
Speaker 1: Uh and this um research was part of the Documentation of Endangered Languages programme called DOBES which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. As part of that project, Nancy was also the principal investigation for the language documentation project on the Isu language. Um um for this and many other of her uh research she received language documentation training at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Well um Nancy has done a lot of research but her main domains of interest are documentary linguistics, uh language description and language engineering. She has participated in so many national and international conferences and she has been awarded a few um postgraduate fellowships amongst them the Alexander von Humboldt Junior Research Grant Fellowship and currently the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence Academy Fellowship which is what has brought her here. Um besides her regular activities she is also a member of the Cameroon Professional Research-Oriented Women's Network. And administratively she is currently the head of the division for teaching and programs at the Higher Institute of Commerce and Management of the University of Bamenda in Cameroon where she is also based. As you can see, I could go on and on with all of what she's been doing in the past, but for now let me say thanks Nancy for being here and for spending the last four months with us here in Bayreuth. Alright, just for us to set the pace going, um what have been your major uh research activities in the past few years?
Speaker 2: Uh thank you very much Prof. Chimbé Eric for having me here today, uh for this uh podcast conversation session. Uh once again I want to thank the multiple cluster podcast team for giving me this opportunity to share my research endeavor with a wider audience and also to appreciate the administration of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence and even the University of Bayreuth for giving me this opportunity and uh making it available for me to share this environment in order to carry out my research and also to thank my host Prof. Chimbé Eric for the cooperation and support in leading me through this research endeavor. Uh once again thank you very much. And uh to fall in line with the question, I will want to say that from my my uh short bio just presented, I have been interested in uh the description of Bantu Cameroonian languages and the documentation of
Speaker 1: some threatened or endangered languages in Cameroon which has been fascinating as uh it provides an opportunity for us to provide data which could be used to document or which could be used to standardize these languages and even be used in the educational domain and also to revitalize or to enhance language maintenance of these languages in Cameroon. Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 2: And um as part of that I can remember being also involved in some projects similar to that that some of these languages have been introduced as subjects in primary level education in Cameroon. Is that still the case?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is the case but the implementation is kind of having some constraints given that most of the national language teachers who have been trained to teach these languages are being sent to areas where they they can't speak the languages of that area and they are expected to teach these languages. So somehow the implementation has begun which is seemingly on its way and we hope that subsequent improvements would take place where we'll have so many teachers who will be trained to teach the languages they are being sent to the areas where they have to teach.
Speaker 2: Okay. That's uh a very good way to get into the main topic of your research which is also about language. Um the project you're working on during this fellowship is entitled 'The Politics of Labelling in Crisis' and you're focusing on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon at the moment. Um like you, I was also born in Cameroon in the Anglophone zone as well. So this conflict is also more than just an object of research for you since you were also born in that region and you work in Bamenda which is also at the heart of the crisis. Uh before talking about the research itself, could you perhaps just explain briefly the origin of this crisis, the Anglophone crisis?
Speaker 1: Thank you once again uh Prof for this question. These crises which is ongoing in the two English-speaking regions in Cameroon it uh could be termed to be a conflict of ideology and a quest for identity. And this crisis uh actually began in twenty sixteen with a process, a protest from lawyers, English-speaking lawyers in in the South West Region and in the North West Region in relation to the implementation of the bicultural legal system in these two regions. And these protests later on followed by English-speaking teachers who also had a sit-down strike on the educational system in these two speaking, in these two English-speaking regions. And these manifestations blew off into a violent situation where these protesters were being uh were being cracked down by the government and it has all led to the crisis which we are facing this far. And historically this crisis has been examined from a historical point of view, a geographical point of view and even an international intervention point of view. And if we want to trace the origin of this crisis, we might want to fall back to the historical perspective of Cameroon and of these two English-speaking regions. And looking at uh the occupation of Cameroon during the the Scramble of Africa, we will put our minds back in the eighteenth century where this part of Africa was being occupied by the Germans.
Speaker 2: Oh, you mean colonialism, right? Yeah. Okay. For those who don't know the history of Cameroon, um Cameroon was initially colonized by Germany and at the end of the First World War, uh it was handed over by the United, by the League of Nations to England, to Britain and France. Um the part that Britain occupied were two little stripes of land neighbouring to Nigeria and the rest of the country was handed over to France. That's the origin of what we now have today as Anglophones and Francophones, right? How does this colonial history then factor into the current crisis that we have today?
Speaker 1: Looking at this uh occupation situation of uh these two regions in Cameroon by the British and the French, it led to a bi-dual identity of having two cultures. And uh given the independent resolutions which were being carried out between these two regions where uh this French Cameroon had gained its independence in nineteen sixty and the British Cameroon came later on with its independence in nineteen sixty one and uh which led to a plebiscite where the Southern Cameroons or the British Cameroon had to
Speaker 1: had to join or how to come into a union with French Cameroon. In this union, we saw an argument of two cultures coming into play and the whole issue of language being used as uh the English language and the French language being used as the language of administration.
Speaker 2: Okay, so at the beginning in nineteen sixty sixty one, it was a federal system where you had the the English speaking part maintaining its English language and its system of education based on English and the French maintaining its and this is what is still today and the same with the judicial system why that's why it's called a pre bi-jural system. Um and the problem that came up which started which led to this crisis is that um francophone or lawyers trained in the French system were posted to the English system who had no knowledge of that judicial system. Teachers who were trained in French were posted to English-speaking schools who couldn't speak English and this is why the lawyers and the teachers then started revolting having peaceful strikes but they were met with a lot of violence by um the the government. And this is how it then gradually evolved into the Anglophone part calling for secession wanting an independent state of their own. Now fast forward to the crisis now today in two thousand and twenty four the the violence is still going on the fight between the separatist fighters and um the government soldiers is still going on even though it's reduced significantly. And this is where your project comes in, right? To look at the discourses produced in this crisis and how these discourses reflect identities or as you put it how this labeling is done um for the actors involved in this fight. So maybe let's go straight to you to your research. What is your research project all about?
Speaker 1: Okay thank you very much. My research project is on the politics of labeling in the crisis situation in the two English-speaking regions uh the crisis which is termed the Anglophone Crisis. And uh in this research I am interested to discuss uh the intricate linguistic dynamics uh of a complex crisis situation which involves the creation of new lexical and discourse operations or discourse discourses and also to describe the linguistic and non-linguistic techniques that are used in communicating through the labeling of individuals entities and even situations that occur.
Speaker 2: And who is involved in this labeling? Who are those doing the labeling? What do they label?
Speaker 1: Uh this crisis is going on between two parties that is uh the Ambazonian activists which we call them they have a series of names.
Speaker 2: What is Ambazonia?
Speaker 1: Ambazonia it's uh it's a term which is used to refer to the area where the two English-speaking regions are found which is like the boundary of the territorial occupation of the British Cameroon during the colonial days.
Speaker 2: Oh okay if I if I get that properly when the Anglophone regions declared independence they called their country the Republic of Ambazonia. This is how Ambazonia came in. Okay can you go on?
Speaker 1: Yeah so this uh this crisis is ongoing between the Ambazonians and the Cameroonian government given that they are advocating for an identity or of an independent of their territory. So these are the two parties that are involved in the crisis.
Speaker 2: And they're the ones involved in the labeling or is it more of a general phenomenon? Maybe to answer that you might want to give us some of the some of the labels or some of the names that are prominent in this conflict.
Speaker 1: Both parties are involved in the labeling because I we I realized that they use the labelings to communicate their ideas and their ideologies across or to refer to one another each other when they want to share their ideas. And uh for example you discover that we use they use the term secessionist the the ruling government will use the term secessionist or separatist fighters to refer to the Ambazonians given the fact that they they they use the term to to give them a leeway to be able to have the access to crack them down or to portray them as uh a body which is uh hindering the unity or the peace of the community. So when they refer to them as terrorists that already gives them a leeway to to be able to use all their forces and even the international intervention to say that these are a group of people who are trying to bring disorder in a nation which is united and...
Speaker 1: Oh okay. So the government in its reports, in its press conferences refers to the Anglophone separatists as terrorists, as secessionists, as separatists because this gives them some form of legal basis to go after them. What are some of the ways in which the separatists now refer to government soldiers, to the government as a whole?
Speaker 2: Interestingly, the Ambazonian refer to the government of Cameroon as first they refer to their military, military personnel as ekilibi. They use the term ekilibi. And it is interesting to see how this term is being appropriated within the context in which it is being used given that it has its origin maybe from elsewhere, both from Nigeria or from neighbouring country, a neighbouring country.
Speaker 1: What does it mean?
Speaker 2: It means like uh the term ekilibi means to watch, to watch. And this term is used within the circles of Nigeria to refer to the Nigerian military person. And that is how the the Ambazonian or the Ambazonian fighters also use this term to refer to the like public military men. And they also use terms like killer, killer government. And these are all terms which they also use to showcase their ideology, how they are being suppressed or to portray their resistance in their quest for their identity.
Speaker 1: Okay, just a short while ago you used the expressions la république government. That's that's from French. And who uses this term? Does the government refer to itself as la république government or is the separatist fighters who call it that way?
Speaker 2: No, the separatist fighters most of the time and all of the time refer to the ruling government of the Republic of Cameroon as la république government, which also portrays their ideology of referring to them as the French part of Cameroon while they are the Ambazonia or the Republic of Ambazonia.
Speaker 1: Okay, so somehow by calling the government la république, they limit the government only to the French side, that is only to the former French colony. And then they take themselves out of the whole equation. Are there any other ways of labelling that you found in your research?
Speaker 2: Yeah, from a linguistic perspective, we discovered that there are many techniques that are being used in labelling within this crisis. And we discovered techniques such as sodomy. We have such as lexical expansion or semantic expansion. We have exaggerations and neologisms which are being used to showcase their ideas and their grievances and their ideologies from both parties. And for example, in terms of synonyms, we have words such as general or field marshals which are being used by the Ambazonian fighters. It is interesting to note that we all know what a general in the military regime is. He must have gone through the training, he must have earned that rank. But it's interesting to note that these are the Ambazonian fighters are young men or are men who have never been into a military training and who have never gone through certain exercises to earn that rank. But they have their fellow comrades being dubbed general or field marshals and they even give them a compound name like General Nnafak or General...
Speaker 1: But they are not just generals, they are general somebody or general something. General Nnafak, for instance. The focus is from your data, the focus is not only on the general but also on Nnafak.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Or general mosquito or general... what are some of the... Black Rapport, for instance.
Speaker 2: The interesting thing is that it's always in a kind of compound compound word where the general or the field marshal is attached to a particular noun. And it is interesting to note that these compound words are put together giving relation to the activity or the practice that that individual did that made him to earn that particular rank within the area in which it is being used or within the circle in which it is being used.
Speaker 1: Which means they actually earned the title of general. Can you give us an example?
Speaker 2: We have an example of General No Pity. Good. Okay. That is an individual who is called General No Pity. And it is explained that he is very fierce in his combat and he eliminates his opponents without pity. He is he is he is...
Speaker 1: I don't know how to put it, he's very courageous and that is why he was termed, he's not fear, he's not fearful, he's always on the battleground and he has actually eliminated so many of his opponents. And that is why he is termed general no pity. And there are many of such names.
Speaker 2: Okay, means the labelling actually is systematic. There is some basis behind it. It's not just like you grab a name, I grab a name, but there is some order. Any other example beyond general no pity? I understand also that there is general Nanfang. And Nanfang is the brand of motorcycles that are very common in Cameroon. And he is called general Nanfang because he is very, very good at riding the bike, escaping capture, escaping from all of these traps set by the government soldiers to pick him up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very, very interesting. He is called general Nanfang because of his expertise in riding the motorbike, in escaping or in involved in any attacks or exercises which they intend to carry out.
Speaker 2: Many of these examples you're giving us, I get that you also did some interviews with actors who were involved in the crisis, both as interlocutors or interpreters or mediators. Could you maybe say a few things about the data you collected and how you collected your data, who you talked to?
Speaker 1: Thank you once again for, you know, being in a crisis area where it's kind of insecure and you never know who you are talking to. It was kind of a hideous exercise to actually get data. But yeah, as far as you live within the community, you can still find your way through to be able to get data. It's true, I got into interviews with some persons who actually expressed their meanings or their ideas or their interpretations about these words which are being used within the settings in which the crisis is going on. And these persons were able to give this information without their identity being released because it is presumed that when you give that kind of an information, you are either considered a blackleg from the opponent who is against the other. And it was kind of discrete interview sessions which I was fortunate to have.
Speaker 2: What type of people did you talk to? What occupations? What were the...
Speaker 1: Occupations, I would not really know. But in terms of the persons I talked with in this research, I was able to meet some young men who could share their views about the labellings which are being used and even some women who also shared their ideas on how these labellings are being used and what are the interpretations that they have or what is the information they communicate whenever they use these labellings.
Speaker 2: Okay. There are also beyond just words that are used to label fighters or label entities like the government or the Ambazonian secessionist group, there are other words that are used to refer to guns, to bullets and so forth, which are also more or less common words. Can you maybe say a few things about some of them?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have expressions or phrases such as wata na wata. And interestingly to note is that the language used during this crisis, it's a kind of a combination of English and pidgin English and even local languages within these areas where the crisis is going on. And in the expressions which are being used or in the discourses, we realize that most of the time the actors make use of either English or pidgin English or a mixture of the two. And we have expressions such as shek shek nu di, which is a Cameroon pidgin English expression to express their courage, their fearlessness in confronting their opponents. And we have wata na wata to show that nobody can do anything to them and they are ready to confront anybody and at any time. Those are just some of the few examples that I could share at this moment. And for words, we will have words such as popcorn. We all know popcorn, it's a snack and in the course of producing it, it has some sounds it produces. And interestingly, this word is being used to refer to the sounds of the guns which are being...
Speaker 2: To the automatic sound produced by...
Speaker 1: guns like popcorn, like gun popping. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So you discover that you're sleeping in the, you you're sleeping or you you wake up in the morning with gunshots and they sound like tutututu, like you have your popping corn in a pot and all of that. And we even have granotes. And this is a word which is used to refer to cartridges that they use in in the course of their fighting. And uh we see the the image of a cartridge or like you peel granotes and you have the peels and you have the cut the the notes inside. That's how you also find the the cartridges which are being used and with their with their the caskets being being left. So these are all the kinds of words which are being used or which are semantically the meanings are expanded to refer to the activities within the crisis.
Speaker 2: Good. And some of these uh well cartridges are referred to as groundnuts, um guns referred to as sticks, sometimes as walking sticks. Uh why do you think they go in for such metaphorical choices? Why don't they just say guns and bullets or cartridges?
Speaker 1: It is interesting their choice of words. I I think they want to use it as an identity construction, like a fingerprint of their way of communicating within the crisis. And also to to differ from maybe being uh being pinned down on the on their activities as as as as being violent or they want to shower down the effect of their activities because it is it is amazing to refer to cartridges as granotes given that granote is something, it's food that gives life but you refer to something that takes away life and and you refer to it as granote. It's it's kind of amazing. And that is what pulled my interest in looking at uh these labels and discourses used within the context of the crisis.
Speaker 2: Oh could we say it's it's a way of actually avoiding accountability? Um for instance, if they're talking about groundnuts, there is no way you could accuse them of buying bullets in the open market. For instance, many of those who are involved in this conflict are actually in the diaspora. And to sit in the US and talk about buying bullets to send to Cameroon to to fight a war, this could land someone in trouble and to rather use groundnuts or sticks, don't you think this is also a way of avoiding that accountability?
Speaker 1: I think that is also a way and it is also a way of of making it uh look so feature so so meaningless because in the case of kidnappings, when you are kidnapped, you are told to to give a bucket of bitter kola. Okay, that we need a bucket of bitter kola. That's they need a bucket of cartridges. Okay, bitter kola it's a it's a kind of a uh food or a food which has been eaten and it is common within the context within the area where these crises have been going on uh which is going on. And it is interesting to refer to it as bitter kola. Okay, and it could be a way of hiding, not to be cracked down because they they want they don't want to use the term cartridges. But it is also amazing for them to refer to as cartridges as edible things, things that could enhance life.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's very interesting. Well, I have I I guess you had a chance to talk with some of the separatist fighters. Did you ask them why they chose these words? It would be interesting to hear from them.
Speaker 1: I attempted the question but they they they the response was just is their way, is their is their own code of communicating which which makes them unique and which gives them a code which only them can understand and and this code it's already perpetuating within the community where they operate, given the fact that the people within the community already tend to understand the meaning of these words which are being used. The fact that if you are adopted or if you are kidnapped and they say we need a bucket of bitter kola, I already infer that they know that they are expecting me to to provide maybe something or in relation to cartridges. It's it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Okay. At some point you mentioned that um um one key feature of the Ambazonian secessionist effort is that they use predominantly pidgin English for conversation, for most of their um
Speaker 1: speeches for most of the um propaganda well called the propaganda or information they send out is in pidgin or communication among the fighters is predominantly in pidgin. Um is that some form of identity construction or is it just that pidgin is a convenient language that everyone understands?
Speaker 2: Uh using uh pidgin English within the separatist fighters uh it's uh one could be considered as an identity construction and two could be considered as a language of convenience given that they they want to communicate to a wider audience and they think that if they use a language that can easily access a wider audience that would be good for them. Yes for identity construction giving the birth or the use of Cameroon Pidgin English within these two English-speaking regions from the the period of colonialism missionaries coming into Cameroon how it gave birth to the pidgin which is now referred to as Pidgin English Cameroon Pidgin English and we all see there the the the use of this language across regions and people identify themselves or people are able to communicate among themselves with the use of this language. I think it's also as a form of identity and also as a form of convenience.
Speaker 1: Well we we saw that each time they refer to the government they use French which means um for them somehow French is is a language that is identified with the enemy which would be the the opponent which is generally the Francophone part of the government and English also somehow is an elitist language in this case because um you mostly learn English in school and it's identified with high white collar uh social status and employment but pidgin is that language that reaches the grassroots don't you think somehow the choice of pidgin is also to show that this this fight is uh is one that represents everyone especially the normal people because sometimes the elites the high ranking um people are identified as being inclined to work with the government because they are employed by the government so they don't want to give up their jobs to come into the fight and then have nothing to hold on to do you think it's also the fact that pidgin is not elitist is spoken by everyone it's it reaches the the common people that's why it's taken as a language for the struggle.
Speaker 2: I I wouldn't I I would say yes but I wouldn't say English is not elitist because we have English is elitist uh pidgin yeah yeah pidgin yeah Cameroon Pidgin English is not elitist because we have people who are educated but who still understand and speak pidgin so I think the the better bet would be the fact that uh the use of uh Cameroon Pidgin English by the separatist fighters I think is to add is to access a wider audience and also to to gain support and uh uh uh support yeah.
Speaker 1: Of the common people of the common people who would normally not be reachable with the use of English.
Speaker 2: Yeah or who would not understand fully the ideas they are they are they are they are perpetrating or they are sharing.
Speaker 1: And of course you agree that many of the fighters also are not very highly educated you won't place all of them in the elitist group as well right which means that pidgin is also besides being what you said the identity landmark is also a convenient um way of reaching all levels of the society.
Speaker 2: True not all the the separatist fighters are uh educated or are of the same level of education and which also gives a justification of the use of Cameroon Pidgin English.
Speaker 1: Okay um you're an applied linguist you've done a lot of work in that direction um what do you think is the significance of this research especially within the context of the conflict.
Speaker 2: Hmm thank you once again for that question as an applied linguist uh with interest in looking at uh uh language related issues and how we could provide uh possible solutions I think that uh looking at the linguistic dynamics within this crisis highlights the role of language in a crisis situation and how language could be used as a tool to resolve or as a leeway into resolving crisis situations and if uh the labellings which are being used or if uh we we describe and show the impact or the the meanings of these labels and the impact it has on both parties and even on the community then maybe we can we can expose the
Speaker 1: The positive and negative effect of language in crisis solving, which is what I intend to showcase in my research. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay. Maybe as a last question, if you happen to meet those you interviewed for this research after you go back and after all the work you've done on your research, what would you tell them?
Speaker 1: I will share my research output or what I have done so far and how I think it's going to impact the current situation and also tell them what I have researched on and what I have learned.
Speaker 2: Would you tell them to use more positive labels, more negative labels, more... How would you try to contribute to some form of a solution?
Speaker 1: I could, if I'm put in a position where I could share my experience, maybe I will always caution for language to be used in an amicably way which does not antagonize parties which are involved in a crisis. Either you could express your ideologies, you could express your ideas without using labels which are negative or which would provoke violence. And I think that would be my standpoint.
Speaker 2: Ah okay. Great. Good. Thank you Nancy for sharing not only the content of your current research with us but also your perspective on language and its place in peace and cohabitation within the society. Thanks for talking to us.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much Professor Chigbue.
Speaker 2: And this is it for the cluster conversation this time. Thanks ladies and gentlemen for listening and see you in our next episode. Thank you.
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