Bilingualism Commission campaigns against Hate Speech and Xenophobia in Bamenda

By Martial Gnoukapasir

campaign against hate speech and xenophobia at NW RD Minepat

The national commission on bilingualism and multiculturalism has rounded up a 3-day communication campaign in the North West region against hate speech and xenophobia.

Commission member David Abouem A Tchoyi, one time governor of the North West and South West regions, led the  campaign organized under the distinguished patronage of  Cameroon's head of state Paul Biya.

Moderated by commission member -  Barrister Halle Nicodemus Ndessi, discussions on the two cankerworms said to be fueling the flames of the ongoing conflict at the 'No Taboo Subject' session bringing together state actors, security bigwigs, humanitarian, youths, Civil society organisations and the press, centered on the identification of the origin, sources and causes of hate speech and xenophobia, it's propagators, ways of curbing the two phenomenon and the legal tools sanctioning them.

In tracing the root causes of hate speech and xenophobia the participants pointed out that, acts of marginalization, stigmatization, tribalism, nepotism, squandering of state resources by a few, depriving people of what's theirs and trampling on them, poverty, frustration, exclusion, unemployment etc, are factors driving people to spew hate and develop xenophobic tendencies towards one another, an institution or towards a government.

A media actor raising a concern

Examples such as constant harassment of citizens by uniform officers in the troubled regions, a governor referring to people as rats and dogs, the unchecked outings of Moja Moja in the South West region, hate outings  on the 'My Kontri pipo' facebook page, and the usage of slangs like 'les anglophones' and 'les Bamenda', 'Vous Amba' to identify people from diverse ethnic groups and backgrounds, as well as the gross neglect of the private press to name but these few, were used by the participants to back their claims.

The above examples are factors that breathes hate and pushes people to develope xenophobic attitudes according to Barrister Nico Halle, punishable under law no 2019/020 and attracts heavy sanctions under section 241and 241-1 of the amended penal code that talks of contempt of a race or religion, tribe or ethic group respectively.

Being  an advisory body to the head of state, the promoters of multiculturalism promised to channel their findings to the head of hierarchy for actions.

They however agreed that for peace, love, unity, justice, transparency, integrity, accountability and patriotism to be achieved, hate speech and xenophobia must be shown the door in all the sectors in Cameroon.

At the end of the campaign barrister Nico Halle said "We are happy that all the participants were honest, frank talk, we made sure that there was no taboo topic, we didn't stop anyone from expressing his frustration freely and we have taken note of all these. The people have underscored the construction of the Bamenda-babadjou road. Time for lies telling, falsehood and hypocrisy is over"

Nico Halle facing the press

Put in place via a presidential decree on January 23rd 2017, the bilingualism commission headed by senator Peter Mafany Musonge plays an advisory role to the president of the republic and handles issues such as monitoring the implementation of the constitutional provisions establishing English and French as two languages of equal status.