TEACHING PIDGIN ENGLISH AS A COMMUNICATION TOOL FOR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN SOUTHERN CAMEROON ARMED CONFLICT

Abstract

In every conflict situation, language is considered as a driving tool for communication
regardless of the type of language, which is being used. Language is used to disseminate
information from one person to the other, especially in a situation of crisis to update the
population on how events are unfolding. That is why looking at the population involved in the
conflict it was deemed necessary to use Pidgin English also as a tool of communication in
resolving the conflict in Southern Cameroons. The objective of resolving a conflict is to have
peace, thereby promoting the absence of war, fear, violence and so on and in the other hand
promote peaceful coexistence among a people. Many avenues have been exploited from the
consortium to the Major National Dialogue with the absence of the articulation of Pidgin
English, which is a language for wider communication. The purpose of this study is to
investigate the importance of teaching pidgin English as a communication tool. Data for the
study was collected both quantitatively and qualitatively from a population of 125 respondents
and 35 informants and Pidgin programs in Ndefcam and Afrique Nouvelle radio stations
respectively and using excepts in Pidgin English from the speeches of Prime Minister Dr.
Dion Ngute and that of Mancho Bibixy. Using Aristotle (1991) on Rhetoric: A theory of Civic
Discourse, the results obtained show that Cameroon Pidgin English is more natural and a
unifying language, which grows in the eyes of all Cameroonians and transcends to all
geographical, social, economic, psychology and political boundaries to all Cameroonians. It is
a language for wider communication and it can be taught and used as a communication tool in
a way in resolving the conflict in Southern Cameroons.