Camfranglais – Peter Wuteh Vakunta (1)

Fouda’s text is not the only stylistically challenging novel written in Francophone Cameroon. Fonkou’s Moi taximan (2001) harbors similar hurdles as the critical analysis in Chapter Six reveals. Chapter 5 Fictionalizing Camfranglais in Fonkou’s Moi taximan Gabriel Kuitche Fonkou’s Moi taximan seems to defy comprehension on account of the Africanized nature of the French language in which the novel is crafted as the following sentence shows: “Dans l’après midi, je devais rembourser de l’argent dans une tontine des ressortissants de mon village natal” (7) [In the afternoon, I had to pay back money I had borrowed from members of a tontine of people from my village.] The word ‘tontine’ is a neologism that describes a ‘thrift society’ where members contribute and borrow money when the need arises.29 Lexical truncation is another word formative process used adeptly by Fonkou for the purpose of adding local color and flavor to his narrative: “J’avais remarqué dès les premiers jours que certains collègues clandos ne s’arrêtaient pas aux barrières de contrôle, ou que quand ils s’y arrêtaient, c’était pour échanger avec les contrôleurs des plaisanteries puis repartir sans avoir servi ni le café ni la bière” (12) [I had noticed from the onset that some clando colleagues never stopped at the police checkpoint, or only stopped to crack jokes with the controllers and leave without serving coffee or beer].

Fonkou’s recourse to the word ‘clando’ could pose comprehension problems. Kouega 29An annuity, or loan, based on a group of annuities that are shared among several people with the provision that as each person dies his share is spread among those remaining, and the entire amount accrues to the survivor of them all. This term also refers to the members of the group collectively.

Chapter 4: Literary Camfranglais in Mercédès Fouda’s Je parle camerounais: pour un renouveau francofaune………………….. 81 Chapter 5: Fictionalizing Camfranglais in Fonkou’s Moi taximan………………………………………………….. 97 Chapter 6: Streetwise French in Nganang’s Temps de chien…………………………………………….. 111 Chapter 7: Camfranglais and the Question of Orality in Cameroonian Literature…………………………………. 133 Chapter 8: Conclusion…………………………………. 157 Works cited…………………………………………….. 165 Glossary/Glossaire……………………………………… 183 Index……………………………………………………. 215 vi vii Acknowledgement A work of this calibre is, undoubtedly, the end-product of sustained perusal and critiquing of works by peers in the field.

This book was inspired by interest in the seminal works of language scholars and linguists in Cameroon, namely André- Marie Ntsobé (2008); E. Biloa (1999); E. Chia (1983, 1992); Jean-Paul Kouega (2013, 2008, 2007); Paul Mbangwana (983, 1987); Simo Bobda, (1994,1999) and Ze Amvela (1989). I owe these genuine intellectuals a debt of gratitude. Portions of several chapters of this book appeared in the following journals: Translation Review73 (2007), Meta54.4 (2008), Midwest Modern Language Association Journal 44.2(2011), Journal of African Literature Association 6.2(2012) and Pambazuka 574(2012).

For permission to republish, I thank the editors and journals. viii ix Preface Camfranglais: The Making of a New Language in Cameroonian Literature addresses the emergence of a hybrid code in Cameroon and its usage as a narrative canon in francophone literature. In order to transpose the speech patterns and idiolects of Cameroonians into fictional writing, creative writers consciously deconstruct the French language in an attempt to reflect socio-cultural realities. Linguistic manipulation engenders a third code that poses enormous problems for readers and translators not acquainted with Cameroonianisms.

When creative writers resort to linguistic miscegenation as a narrative device they do so in a bid to superimpose the speech particularisms and value systems of indigenes upon a foreign tongue—in our case French. By resorting to the domestication of French the writers whose works constitute the corpus analysed in this book give leverage not just to indigenous languages but also to the kind of streetwise French spoken by the Cameroonian rank and file.

The first chapter of this book theorizes postcoloniality; it delves into theories of post-colonialism and their ramifications for fictional writing after colonization. Chapter Two is a review of Kouega’s extensive research on the emergence of a new code in Cameroon—Camfranglais. It dwells on the sociolinguistic and morphological structures of this emerging language. Chapter Three explores the trope of signifying (or linguistic tricksterism) as a literary canon in Cameroonian literature.

It provides readers with an inventory of words and expressions that have come to be accepted as the functional vocabulary of Camfranglophones. Chapter x Four sheds ample light on the phenomenon of linguistic indigenization as a narrative trope in Je parle camerounais: pour un renouveau francofaune by Mercédès Fouda. The crux of the discourse in Chapter Five is the fictionalization of Camfranglais in Fonkou’s Moi taximan.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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