Cameroon – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Constance Mbassi Manga earned her Ph.D. from Lancaster University, UK, and wrote her thesis on Camfranglais in use by diasporic Cameroonians living in Western cities, from a sociolinguistic and ethnographic perspective.

A French native of Cameroonian origin, she was raised multilingual and has been working in the field of language for 30+ years, in various capacities (from working as a freelance translator and interpreter, then heading her own translation agency, and later as a Team Lead/an Account Director in Marketing Communications). Moreover, she spent her childhood in a highly multilingual country (Cameroon, where over 250 languages are spoken), speaking 4 languages (2 African languages, English, French) from birth, learning a 5th (German) from the age of 10. She has always been fascinated by language practices and by the unique and powerful link that people draw between the language(s) they speak and who they are.

In terms of academic study, she was introduced to the study of multilingualism and sociolinguistics during her Masters at Kings College London; her Masters thesis focused on ‘Language Practices of Francophone Cameroonians in London.’ Since that time, she has been interested in language practices of non-European background adults in diasporic contexts, and how these tie in with ideologies of language, home and ‘belonging’.

Sample Publication:

Mbassi Manga, C. (2019). A case study of Camfranglais in superdiverse contexts: France, the UK and the USA. In R. Siebetcheu & S. Machetti (Eds.), Le camfranglais dans le monde global Contextes migratoires et perspectives sociolinguistiques (175-191). Paris, France: L’Harmattan.

Work for CID:
Constance Mbassi Manga is the author of KC108: Superdiversity, has translated that into French, translated KC23: Afrocentricity into French, and also serves as a reviewer for French.

The Cameroonian Committee for the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights (Comité Camerounais de Promotion des Droits Humains des Femmes, CPDF), a women’s organization based in Cameroon in Central Africa, is looking for a US-based organization with which to develop a partnership as part of a project to counter hate speech in Cameroon.

The Women’s Actions To Counter Hate Speech (WATCH SPEECH) project deals with the dissemination of hate speech in Cameroon. It offers an approach to fight hate speech online and in person, through media and information education, and the strengthening of intercultural skills of young beneficiaries.

Cameroon is an ethnically diverse country with about 250 groups. Cameroon’s ethnic community has been known to coexist in peace, and no particular group had political influence over the affairs of the country. These groups contribute to the cultural diversity of the country. But insecurity is increasing in the country, due to terrorism and the resurgence of separatist impulses in the two anglophone northwest and southwest regions. this situation contributes to increasing the tension between the main ethnic groups and between francophones and anglophones. . . Public hatred and socio-ethnic stigma are taking on alarming proportions. The phenomenon has taken on such alarming proportions that the government decided to present a bill to the National Assembly to punish contempt of the tribes and incitement to tribal hatred. . . A tremendous number of intolerant and hateful messages are now exchanged by young Cameroonians on social networks. Hate speech in Cameroon unites and divides at the same time. It creates “us” and “them”. Indeed, while statistics offering a global overview of the phenomenon are not available, both civil society organizations and officials have recognized that hateful messages disseminated online by Cameroonians against Cameroonians are increasingly common and have elicited unprecedented attention to develop adequate responses. . .

The Cameroonian Committee for the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights has chosen to act to counter hate speech in Cameroon. This will be done by promoting peace and security, alternatives to violence to resolve conflicts, tolerance, and mutual understanding between ethnic groups.

Read the full description of the project in the PDF. Contact information is included. If you are able to help, please contact CPDF directly.