Battling Language Rights Governance in Africa

Book excerpt: This book seeks to use the burning issue of multiculturalism (bilingualism particularly) to offer an appreciation of the roots and dynamics of the Ambazonia-Cameroun war, which has been raging for the past five years and counting. An understanding of Cameroon's language management and national unity policies is provided here through a comparative survey of the language politics of four other countries: two of them European (Belgium and Switzerland), one North American (Canada), and the other Third World and Asian (Indonesia). The author argues better language governance policies that gainfully protect minorities, as well as fostering the goals of national and continental unity and development, Cameroon (and, by extension, the anticipated UDA) must emulate from European countries like Belgium and Switzerland rather than from Canada which is traditionally regarded as 'the Cameroon of North America'.