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Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 27, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(4):361-377; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp107
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Perspectives on Africa [View the issue table of contents]

Bilingualism and Double-Talk: Language and Diplomacy in the Cameroons (1959–1962)

Mélanie Torrent

UFR d'Études Anglophones
Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot
10 rue Charles V
75004 Paris
France

melanie.torrent{at}paris7.jussieu.fr

  Abstract

When the Federal Republic of Cameroon came into being on 1 October 1961 as a result of the unification of a former British and a former French mandate, it portrayed itself as the embodiment of unity in diversity, and the choice of official bilingualism served to symbolise Cameroon's commitment to national cohesion and continental harmony. Yet bilingualism was essentially conceptual, a useful linguistic device supporting present national construction but only really practicable in an ideal future. Reunification meant two languages, French and English, and a double diplomatic absence, from the French Community and the British Commonwealth. Ultimately, this double absence mattered for the Federation's postcolonial international relations, but not because it established a real balance. Rather it provided a reassuring theoretical framework for the bilateral and regional relations promoted by the essentially French-speaking elite in power in Yaoundé, and for new forms of cooperation with Francophone partners in the 1960s.

Key Words: Cameroon • Cameroun • Commonwealth • French Community • language • bilingualism • Ahidjo, Ahmadou • Foncha, John Ngu • Mbembe, Achille


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