Buea, an English-Speaking Metropolis at the Heart of the “Anglophone Crisis”: an Attempt to Describe a Linguistic Hotbed in (re) construction

Abstract

A tentative of representation of the social space of Buea, a Cameroonian metropolis located in the English-speaking area and experiencing a socio-political crisis known as "anglophone crisis", is the subject of this study. This is based on the verification of the precept according to which the State is a glottophagous monster which decides the fate of languages ??on its soil. However, the example of Buea turns out to be an atypical case where it is rather Pidgin-English, a language basterdized, vilified and even hunted down by the State, which gives the pawn to the official languages (English and French) ??of foreign origin which nevertheless benefit from all kinds of favors. The study also shows that the current linguistic context of Buea is constantly evolving, favoring, as well as other endogenous languages, the regression of the bakweri, language of the natives and first occupants of this city.Fortunately, Pidgin-English, the language of rallying, linguistic decolonization and integration, is there to wash away this affront to endogenous languages. It even goes so far as to assume the function of "buffer language" between French and English in Buea; easing the tensions created by the angry of English speakers toward French at the start of the "English crisis" in Cameroon. For these reasons and many more, Pidgin-English, like its hybrid twin, the Mboa (Camfranglais), deserves more consideration from the guarantor of the country's language policy.