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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Cameroon City Shuts Down Over Language Issue |
| 2017-01-12 |
| [VOA] The streets were empty Monday in the Cameroonian city of Bamenda, as residents honored a call to strike over the increasing use of French in English-speaking parts of the country. Lawyers in the English-speaking southwest and northwest regions of Cameroon called the strike in September, to protest what they called the overbearing use of the French language. English speakers constitute 20 percent of Cameroon's population, and the constitution says English and French inherited from colonial times are equally important. But most official documents are only in French, and judges, administrators and teachers with little understanding of English are often sent to work in English-speaking regions. The lawyers have been joined by teachers and supported by young people. Protests in November led to clashes with the military that left several people dead, hundreds missing or wounded, and scores under arrest.The government opened up negotiations, but the striking teachers and lawyers stormed out. The leader of the striking lawyers, Bobga Harmony, says they will resume talks once authorities release youths who were arrested for burning police stations, vehicles, and Cameroon's national flag during the protests. In an address on December 31, President Paul Biya said he was open to talks with the protesters, but warned he will never accept any attempt to destabilize what he called Cameroon's hard-earned national unity. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #2 English can be a precise language, where the meaning is clear, using as few words as possible. English is also a dynamic living language. French is almost always obscure and takes many many words to derive the meanings of what is being said, French is also a dead language in that there is an official organization that set the words used in French and does not allow loan words, i.e.: offically a dead language with no future. (Although in reality, most french speakers I know tells me that they ignore the official rules and use a lot of loan words to reduce the cumbersome speaking requirements.) |
| Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-01-12 18:09 |
| #1 Wow! Can they do that? Could we shutdown Spanish and Ebonics? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-01-12 10:02 |