Abstract

This study titled, “The Role of Mother Tongue in Enhancing Sustainable Community Development in the North West Region of Cameroon”, had as purpose, to evaluate the role of mother tongue in enhancing sustainable community development in the North West Region of Cameroon with focus on the Kom community. Three objectives and three research questions were coined to guide the study. These objectives were to: find out language and communication difficulties faced in the implementation of community development projects, investigate the role of mother tongue literacy in the communication of project plans and implementation strategies and find out mother tongue based solutions to language and communication problems faced in community development projects. The study made use of a descriptive survey research design and the instruments used for data collection were a questionnaire and an interview. The population of this study was made up of all native of Kom who have participated in local development projects. The sampling techniques used was the purposive sampling techniques to select the respondents who constituted the sample population of 116 respondents. The questionnaire used, had a reliability coefficient of 0.83 Cronbach’s alpha. Data was analyzed descriptively using simple and relative frequencies and percentages and also inferentially using the correlation analysis. The results revealed that; there exists a significant positive relationship (p=0.00>0.05) between mother tongue use and community development. It was concluded that mother tongue use has a significant influence in enhancing sustainable community development in the North West Region of Cameroon. Some recommendations were made.  

Problem Statement

In recent times when human contacts and negotiation are essential to serve the purposes of sustainable development world-wide, language as a shared means of communication is worth paying attention to whenever development comes up. Under normal circumstances, the people of a community in which a development project is directed are supposed to actively participate and support the project for it to be sustainable. Projects, such as in the domain of agriculture for subsistent community often require that the local population fully understands the purpose of the project for better impact to be realized, and this often is achieved by communicating the project goals in the best way to the stakeholders. Languages and the sociocultural environs remarkably contribute to sustaining role in development, playing the role of a transmitter of human knowledge from one to the other generation and across space. When a project is presented to a community in a language they own and understand best, considering language as a key aspect of culture, they feel connected and tend to believe that was designed specifically for them. This therefore ensures community acceptance and active participation in the realization processes including community members without formal education in the English language.

The involvement of local communities in project design and management has been very weak in the rural areas. Despite this great role played by the mother tongue (local language) in enhancing sustainable community development, language remains a much neglected factor in the planning of local development projects in Cameroon. Most often, project documents come in the English language, without translation into the the people’s heart language, and sometimes goes extreme to come in the French language in an English speaking region. The local man in the villages often perceives these projects as the thing of some people who came, did it and left. A good example could be the borehole water project in the Eastern region for the Pigmies who were not involved in the project planning and realization. This project was completed and inaugurated, yet, the people maintained their usual source of water because they did not feel involved or had a sound knowledge of the project. Several community development projects have failed to impact the lives of the intended beneficiaries due to insufficient communication, which could be remedied by the promotion of mother tongue. The development of mother tongues and promotion of mother tongue literacy therefore could serve as a solution to this major issues. Institutions like CABTAL have had realized the importance of mother tongue as a heart language of a people and the language they understand best and are using it for Christian projects and community development projects.

Sustainable development broadly comprises the economic, environmental and social domains. However, it likely appears that more emphasis is laid on the economic and environmental growth while the social or rather sociocultural sphere that includes language and communication remains unnoticed. The United Nations World Summit (2005) calls for an equal degree of conceptualization, planning and implementation in all these areas, also known as the three pillars of Sustainable Development, for inclusive growth. In order to remedy this situation, the Government has deemed it necessary to mount projects in which the rural population will participate in the identification of its planning needs and development actions, but this is still limited without the involvement of the community’s socio-cultural aspects, language of communication as a pivotal instrument in enhancing development. This study therefore attempts to investigate the role of mother tongue in sustainable community development.

General Objective

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of mother tongue in enhancing sustainable community development in the North West Region of Cameroon with focus on the Kom community.

Specific Objectives

1. This study seeks to find out language and communication difficulties faced in the implementation of community development projects.
2. This study seeks to investigate the role of mother tongue literacy in the communication of project plans and implementation strategies.
3. Finally, it aims to find out mother tongue-based solutions to language and communication problems faced in community development projects.