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Media & Cultural Environments |
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Colonialism and the Development of the Press The nature of the press in Cameroon reflects the colonial legacy left by Germany, Britain and France who had competing socio-economic ideologies. Germany were the original colonists and they developed the press in Cameroon but the British and French ruled after when the country was divided and continued to change the role of the press according to their colonial ambitions. There are two major issues with the development of media in Cameroon that both relate to the country’s vast array of languages. Traditional means of communication was sacrificed and preference was given to modern, mass communication. Also indigenous languages were being forgotten as French became the dominant form of expression within the media. “This systematic indigenous language persecution was carried out with vigour, until French became the sole language in use for education and official communication.” (Muluh 207) After Germany was defeated in 1916, the next colonial administration was characterized by conflicts over language between missionaries who wanted to continue the use of indigenous languages and the French colonial administration who wanted to relegate these languages and promote French. This colonial history explains why Cameroon unlike other African countries has never had a nationally active and viable indigenous language press. Today there is virtually no vernacular press in Cameroon but there is some vernacular broadcasting. Traditional and less prevalent forms of media in Cameroon include having a town crier walking at night striking is gong in order to encourage community activity. The drum beat communicates death and the accompanying lyrics work to reduce stress and help with productivity. In large part, mass communication was brought to Cameroon through Christian missionaries who brought in printing presses and opened printing facilities in the country. The first newspaper, Das Evangelische Monastblatt (the evangelical newsletter) was printed in German and was a protestant missionary newspaper that began in 1903. Publications that followed during the German colonization were in indigenous languages and this period of time was when indigenous language press in Cameroon was at its height. The first indigenous language newspaper printed in Cameroon was Elolombe Ya Kamerun (The Cameroon Sun) in 1908. It was published in the Duala language which is one of the country’s coastal languages. When the British and French took over in 1916 Cameroon was split into the British Southern area and the Northern French Cameroun. “Each ruled by the respective colonial masters, left and indelible mark on the development of the press in Cameroon.” (Muluh 210) There was more freedom of press in British Southern Cameroon than French Cameroun. The first vernacular newspaper in French Cameroun was Nleb be Kristen (1935) and it was published in the local language of Yaoundé, Evondo by a Catholic Church. Newspapers in local languages established by the early missionaries were mostly in Duala, Bamilieke, Bassa, Bulu and Ewondo. Most of these religiously affiliated newspapers were a reflection of the evangelical mission of converting Cameroonians to Christianity. These publications had a Christian editorial slant and mostly covered issues relating to the church and its evangelical mission however they also informed the public about decisions being made by the colonial authorities. Vernacular press in Cameroon was short-lived and faced a rapid decline. “Today there is no remarkably identified vernacular newspaper and most printed materials in the vernacular still come from the Catholic Church.” (Muluh 211) The failure of vernacular media in Cameroon can be attributed to lack of access to printing presses and the infrastructure to publish on a regular basis. Also there was a problem of print and run readership which meant that the purchasing capacity of readers was too low and subsequent losses led to the publishers being forced out of business. Another issue was the level of literacy in Cameroon which stagnated the progress of the indigenous language press. “The prevalent illiteracy rate made the reading of vernacular newspapers a matter of a privileged few and the bulk of the masses depended more on a two-step flow transmission of the message carried by the newspapers. (Muluh 212) Since it was elite members of society who adapted to the colonial language and read English and French language newspapers the vernacular became associated with the uneducated and primitive and colonial language media was associated with the educated and civilized. Similarly because there are so many languages in Cameroon it was difficult to publish a newspaper in any indigenous language that could serve even a third of the country’s people.
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