(Note: I took lots of pictures but forgot to load the pictures of Buea Town - the "downtown" heart of Buea - onto my thumb drive. Next time I will bring them and post them here.)
The Southwest province is also one of the two anglophone provinces of Cameroon. Cameroon was a German colony before World War I. After the war the British and French divided it between them, with the French getting the majority and the British getting a chunk along the border with Nigeria. After independence, the British and French zones were unified again. For more details you can read up on the history of Cameroon here.
Buea is a nice town. Because of the altitude it's usually pretty cool and often gets a bit foggy. It has paved roads, running water and electricity (although they have frequent outages of both), a ton of cyber cafes, lots of good restaurants and lots of stores - including "White Man Stores" where you can get imported western goods, and book stores, which are a rarity in most of Cameroon. In Buea you can rent videos and buy candy bars (like Snickers and Mars bars), soft serve ice cream, books, major appliances, and wine in bottles. I have none of these luxury items at my post.
When the Germans moved in, Buea was the original colonial capital before Yaoundé was built, so there are lots of old German buildings in town.
As a legacy of the divided colonial administration, the Southwest and Northwest provinces of Cameroon are predominantly English speaking. Along with French, English is one of the two official languages of the country (Canada is the only other country in the world to have English and French as official languages). While walking through Buea we noticed another little remnant of the British stay here: a big red mailbox just like the ones in the UK with the letters "E-II-R" (Elizabeth II Regina) on it.
Of course, English in the Cameroonian context isn't quite the same as the English Americans speak. There are really two varieties of English in Cameroon: Pidgin English and Special English. Everyone I met spoke both.
Special English is what is taught in the schools and is used in most professional and public settings. Accents, some vocabulary, and idioms are different, but English speakers from the US, Canada, or the UK generally have no trouble understanding Special English. The main differences I noticed between American English and Special English:
- Special English is spoken very slowly and enunciated more than American English.
- Contractions are not used.
- Questions are usually inverted. (Example: instead of saying "Where are you going?" you'd say "You are going where?")
- They don't ask "How are you?" The question is "How is it?" or just "How?" The expected response is "Fine."
- The word "fine" is normally used in place of "good" or "well."
- For the present progressive tense, they use the auxiliary verbs "do" (pronounced "dee") and "go" together before the verb in the sentence. For example: whereas I would say "I am eating" in English, I would say "I dee go chop." in Pidgin ("Chop" means "to eat".)
- Vocabulary is simplified. There are far fewer words than in English.
- The word "small" is also used in place of "little" and "short". The word "big" is used in place of "large" and "long". Both are used to denote length of time as well as physical size (example: "Small time" or "big time"). For emphasis, the words "small" and "big" are often used twice. Example: "I speak small small Pidgin."
- As in special English they ask "How is it?" or just "How?" and the expected response is also "Fine." The word "fine" is also used in place of "good."
Schools in Cameroon generally try to discourage people from speaking Pidgin without much success. The campus of the University was littered with signs like these:
In addition to Special and Pidgin English, the vast majority of anglophones also speak French with varying levels of fluency. Since the majority of Cameroon is francophone, most business and official matters are conducted in French, and the schools all have mandatory French classes they all learn French. Maybe not perfect but they all speak enough to get by in the francophone areas. English is a required subject in the francophone areas as well, but the francophones don't pick it up as well because they don't need to use it day to day. Throughout Cameroon, in both anglophone and francophone provinces, most people also speak their particular ethnic languages as well.Language aside, the anglophone provinces have a very different feel culturally than the francophone provinces. People generally seem a bit more laid back and a bit less aggressive than in the francophone provinces. At times it felt almost like a different country. And indeed, there are occasional grumblings in the anglophone provinces that they might be better off as a separate country. There are some groups in the region with that goal in mind, but at the moment they don't seem to have much ability to actually do much about it. So while the secessionists may be weak, there is still resentment towards the francophones and the national government for generally riding roughshod over the anglophone provinces.
A recent example of this took place at the University of Buea, one of the seven state universities in Cameroon. A number of francophone students who had not done well on their exams were admitted in place of anglophone students who had scored better (probably because of bribery, political connections, or both). When word got out it blew up into a major scandal. Students at the university organized a series of protests which were suppressed with force by the authorities. For several weeks back in December the area around the campus was packed with police, soldiers, and roadblocks as the government moved to shut down the protests. There were a large number of arrests and several shootings as well. Things seem to have calmed down now. Ironically, when Bill was headed off to post Peace Corps told him "Don't worry - nothing ever happens in Buea." Indeed.
Bill works at the government TRC (Teacher Resource Center) in Buea, where he runs computer classes primarily for public school teachers and administrators from the province. So far he seems to be doing pretty well with it.
As a secondary project he works part time at a local NGO called Linkup. Its mission is to help orphans in the region. The organization runs a cyber cafe which they use to make money to keep the lights on, and then searches for donations and grants to finance their charity work. They track orphans in the region, keep copies of their records, assist local orphanages, buy school books and pay school fees for kids so they can get an education, and other things of that nature. I got to meet Roland, the founder of the organization and he seems like an extremely competent, driven person who's committed to making a difference. Bill has been helping them upgrade their website and develop an Access database they can use to track the orphans they help.
Bill has a nice little house in a neighborhood known as the 
"Sandpit" with an oil palm tree in front. (Apparently his neighbors will sometimes take the palm nuts for oil.) He has two bars, restaurants and a number of stores and little chophouses (restaurants) within spitting distance of his place. He's also made a number of good friends in the area who I got to spend time with during the visit. They were very warm and welcoming and we had a lot of fun.
Bill has a nice little house in a neighborhood known as the 
"Sandpit" with an oil palm tree in front. (Apparently his neighbors will sometimes take the palm nuts for oil.) He has two bars, restaurants and a number of stores and little chophouses (restaurants) within spitting distance of his place. He's also made a number of good friends in the area who I got to spend time with during the visit. They were very warm and welcoming and we had a lot of fun.
Wandering around Buea, we found a bar with a sign written by someone who may not understand German as well as he thinks.
Near the campus of UB we found that Microsoft has apparently
opened a branch in Buea, where they do "hardsoftware repair."
Bill took me to his favorite book store, "Books and Things." They have a huge selection of used books - mostly paperbacks sent form the US. I'd say it's on a par with most used book stores I've been to in the US. But it's the "And Things" part that makes the place interesting. When I was there they were also selling athletic trophies, construction helmets, yo-yos, obsolete computer programs (anyone want a copy of OS/2 for 10,000 Francs CFA?) shoes, soap, shampoo, and cosmetic products. Sometimes they apparently carry chain saws and collectible Bruce Lee action figures as well.All in all, I thought Buea was a great town. I told Bill I now have a bad case of "post envy." I like Nanga Eboko, but sorry, Buea is cooler. I guess I'll just have to visit again one day.
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