Although its population is little bigger than Belgium鈥檚, Cameroon boasts more than 250 languages. In schools, however, this extraordinary linguistic diversity has been brushed under the carpet. The government has promoted the two official languages, French and English, at the expense of native tongues. So while the playground resonates with cadences of local languages, French and English hold sway in the classroom.
Thanks to the passionate advocacy of one man, however, this may now be about to change. Cameroon is home to a project called Propelca, a pioneering experiment to introduce native tongues into schools. It is the brainchild of Maurice Tadadjeu, a linguist at the University of Yaound茅 I. Long regarded as a threat by the government, Propelca is now beginning to influence national education policy. And a growing list of countries such as Chad, Ethiopia and Madagascar are following its example.
More than most African nations, Cameroon is an artificial state, its people lacking even a common colonial history after the German colony of Kamerun was split between France and Britain after the First World War. The new nation鈥檚 government feared that tribal tensions would be fuelled by the use of local languages, so it suppressed them.
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But when Tadadjeu returned from completing a PhD in the US in 1977, he was incensed at what he saw and spurred into action. State schools turn out children who have been taught in French or English, reading European textbooks. Most return to a village in which their 鈥淓uropean鈥� education counts for little. 鈥淭he reality is that in this country, and in most other African countries, we have been uneducated,鈥� says Tadadjeu. 鈥淵ou have to go back to the language and culture and start again.鈥�
Which is exactly what he and his team of linguists have done. The task is Herculean: the nation can make a strong claim to be the most linguistically diverse in Africa, and in many of its languages, the meaning is conveyed only if vowels are sounded at the correct relative pitch. Poet-composers write songs whose lyrics define the tunes.
Propelca has made a start with some 15 languages. First, it standardised the alphabets, so that they could be written in a common format. Since then, with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, Tadadjeu鈥檚 team has devised a curriculum.
In the first year of primary school, the emphasis is on getting children to read and write in their own languages, and the local mother tongue is used for 75 per cent of lessons. As children pass through primary school, the proportion tails off to fit in with the demands of the national curriculum. Because of the government鈥檚 wariness of Propelca, most of its participants have been church schools. And Tadadjeu鈥檚 main collaborator has been the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an evangelical organisation that translates the Bible.
The project鈥檚 true value, says Tadadjeu, is to root children in their own culture. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of identity. This continent has 1700 languages, so someone who speaks just one really does not fit in very well,鈥� he says. And the argument that educating children in their mother tongues will inflame tribal rivalry cuts little ice. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a fallacy,鈥� he says. Language is part of cultural identity, but none of Africa鈥檚 tribal conflicts can be attributed to linguistic differences. 鈥淚n Rwanda and Burundi, they all speak exactly the same language.鈥�
More than 30 000 children have now been educated along Propelca lines. Asking Tadadjeu whether they have performed better than those educated exclusively in French or English is a sure way to light the blue touchpaper. 鈥淧eople want us to justify teaching children in their own languages,鈥� he explodes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sheer prejudice. You would not ask whether it is better to teach Germans in German.鈥�
There have been few systematic attempts to assess Propelca鈥檚 effects. But a small study suggests that children educated in Propelca schools do no worse than those taught exclusively in an official language. If anything, the Propelca children do slightly better at maths.
Providing all this new teaching material in dozens of languages sounds expensive. But the cost of imported school textbooks is exorbitant. 鈥淲ith local languages, you have to print locally,鈥� says Tadadjeu. Propelca has already commissioned a local printer to produce books at a quarter of the price of those imported from France.
At last, the Cameroonian government is coming around to Tadadjeu鈥檚 position: this spring, it pronounced that schooling in mother tongues should be encouraged in future. Even if it takes decades, the important thing for Tadadjeu is that his persistence has at last turned the tide. 鈥淭here is a national recognition of what we have done,鈥� he says.