European colonization and the transmission of the Ewondo language in Cameroon and Abroad: Historical and transnational perspectives

Abstract

European colonization has deeply marked the linguistic practices in different African territories until today. Cameroon, which was colonized by Germany from 1884 to 1916 and by France and Great Britain from 1916 to 1960, is formally a bilingual country with French and English being its two official languages. However, the linguistic reality of the country goes way beyond these two languages. Today, more than 250 African languages are spoken in Cameroon. This article focuses on the experiences of Alexis-Bienvenu Belibi, who was born in Yaoundé in 1950 and who is today Professor Emeritus of African languages at the École normale supérieure of Yaoundé. The article evokes Belibi’s family history, his schooling, university studies and his career as a high school teacher and as a university professor. It thereby examines the different school policies implemented in Cameroon toward African languages over time as well as the impact of university actors on ongoing political changes in the educational field. It also addresses demands from the Cameroonian diaspora in Europe and the world concerning the learning of Ewondo. The article is written in the form of a conversation between Alexis-Bienvenu Belibi and Elise Pape, a Franco-German sociologist specialized in the fields of migration studies and of postcolonial memories.