The Anglophone-Francophone Marriage and Anglophone Dramatic Compositions in the Cameroon Republic

By Hilarious N. Ambe, Ph.D.

[Originally published in Towards a Transcultural Future: Literature and Human Rights in a ‘Post’-Colonial World. By Peter M. Marsden & Geoffrey V. Davis, eds. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2004, P.71-80]

Let me begin with the following anecdote, which throws some perspective on some of the issues discussed in this paper.

Quite recently, I was at a conference in Leipzig, and during one of the coffee breaks, I found myself in a conversation with a group of other participants. When I introduced myself as a Cameroonian, two of the persons in our little group exclaimed, almost at the same time: "Ha! Roger Milla! Football!" I simply nodded with a grin, somehow proud that almost a decade after Cameroon's ace football striker—Roger Milla's wonderful performance at the World Cup Football Finals in Italia 90, my country was still being remembered and praised.

A third person in our little group asked me: "If you're a Cameroonian, how comes you are this articulate in English?" I hoped inwardly that I were, and then told her I come from the English-speaking parts of Cameroon. She said she had always known Cameroon to be a French-speaking country. I told her we were a bilingual country. At the reception dinner that the conference convenors offered the next day, I again introduced myself as a Cameroonian to a new group with whom I was sharing the same table. "Ho! Transparency International! Your country is number one in the world!" one of them said to me.

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Comments

[cyndy]

lol.ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
This indeed is the fun of my life!!.To think that a few hrs before, u had recieved honour and glory, only for it to turn sour.I hope u recovered from it.That was way too wicked and more wicked on the part of the government which is doing all it can to keep us in that"prestigious position" of the NUMBER ONE CORRUPT NATION IN THE WORLD.pffffffff!!!.WHAT A NAME WE HAVE IN BIYA!!!!!

[Kenneth Frank Samuel]

Hi,
My name is Frank and I am Welsh and I live in Carmartheshire West Wales. I have a verry close friend who lives in Youndai in the Careroon I find your articles about the Carmeroon very intresting I hope by reading these articles to learn more about this country thanks and all the Best form the UK hope to read more K.F. Samuel