Cameroon: young people are turning away from their mother tongues
The use of official languages and other foreign languages included in school curricula is to the detriment of local languages.
In a young environment in Cameroon, mother tongues do not have their place assured. Young girls and boys enjoy communicating in French, English, Spanish, German, Arabic and Chinese. Some people go to great lengths to master more than one of these languages. But, when it comes to borrowing Ewondo, Basa’a, Duala, Ghômala or another of the approximately 250 local languages in Cameroon, young people can no longer cope. The number of those who speak only one local language is marginal, particularly in urban centers.






