Abstract

This study seeks to find out the reason why the audience in Buea prefers radio programs in Pidgin English to radio programs done in other languages like the two official languages, English language and French language and other local languages such as the vernacular, specific objectives of study were to discover the language the audience have been exposed to often, to analyse why they prefer to follow radio programmes in Pidgin English, to get acquainted with the kind of programmes the mass audiences are mostly exposed to.

This study employed a case study design, the population of this include of students from the department of JMC students of the University of Buea, Purposive and convenient sampling procedure was used to select 50 students from the department of JMC students of the University of Buea. This study also makes used of questionnaire as instrument for data collection. Collected data from the field would be subjected to analysis using SPSS version 21.0, frequency and percentage distribution of variables were obtained and presented using tables and chats.

The study found that pidgin English was not course in the department of the respondents, respondents could not also express themselves very well in both English and French, only few journalists can host programmes in both French and English language, the study went further to concludes that Pidgin English is very common in radio programmes such as comedy and that  radio programmes in pidgin English has a significant influence on audience preference

This study recommends that radio stations and media houses should be encouraged to promote Cameroon pidgin by hosting some important programmes in the pidgin language and since most people like following programs in the language and a short should be designed in pidgin English by the department for that JMC students can learning to write, present and report in pidgin English since even the west are now consuming pidgin language.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the subject matter of the dissertation and brings out the need and justifies the focus of the study. It contains the problem of the study, as well as stating the problem, the research questions, the objectives of the study, the hypothesis, the significance of the study, scope and limitations of the study.

1.2 Background to the study

From the early days of human existence, the use of language had been established to aid communication and improve understanding. Language has always been an important part of humanity and will always seek to exist so and to bring together people from different parts of the globe.

According to Aristotle, a language is above all, a meaningful spoken language, and this explains why written words are symbols of spoken sounds (Hudry, 2015). Aristotle believes language to be a universal proof. When it comes to language in Cameroon, there are two official languages inherited from the two colonial masters; Britain and France. These two languages gave been accepted by Cameroonians.

Despite these two languages and the local vernaculars, there are other languages that Cameroonians have adopted such as the Pidgin English language. When we talk about Pidgin English, Pidgin English has been used in Cameroon for several years now. As Kouega (2007) says, Pidgin English came into being in the Slave Trade Years (1400-1800).  The first Baptist missionaries, who came to Cameroon in 1845 and introduced formal education in English, had to learn Pidgin.

A few decades later, during the German annexation period (1884–1914), Pidgin resisted a German ban. It took flight when it became a supportive language used in German plantations and undertakings by forced laborers who were drawn from the hinterland and who spoke different indigenous languages. With time, it took over the market places and was adopted by Baptist missionaries as the language of their evangelical crusades and for preaching. For many years, it has been used on school playgrounds and campuses and in political campaigns. Today it is forcing its way into the spoken media scene.

As mentioned earlier, studies on Cameroon pidgin English (CPE) stem as far back as 1960 with scholars who gave the language various appellations. According to Ayafor (2006), some scholars have called the language “Cameroon Creole Wes-Kos, and West African Pidgin English”. Todd (1992) on the other hand, called it “Cameroon Pidgin (CamP)” whi

le Todd (1984), quoted by Ngome (1986) called it “Kamtok”.  Based on the widespread belief that Pidgin English, be it of the Cameroonian type or other existing types like the Nigerian Pidgin English and Ghanaian Pidgin English is a simplified form of the English Language used mostly by people who were considered illiterate in some of the former British colonies of West Africa.

Some non-scholarly appellations such as “bad English and broken English” have equally been used to refer to this language. The name “Cameroon Pidgin English” (Féral, 1989) has so far gained a lot of popularity at the level of scholarship and consequently most linguists carrying out research on Cameroon today have adopted it. The adoption of this terminology makes it relatively easier to define this language as the Pidgin English used in Cameroon, as opposed to varieties used in other countries. It is however important to note that the varieties used in other countries (Ghana and Nigeria) are mutually intelligible to the CPE.

According to Echu (2004), the birth of CPE is often traced as far back as the 18th century when English traders and missionaries set foot on the coast of West Africa. Pidgin English developed to guarantee effective communication in the area of trade and evangelization. After the abolition of slave trade at the beginning of the 19th century, the language continued to expand all over the coastal region. It was used by some of the newly freed slaves who settled in Fernando Po, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and later moved to the Cameroonian coastal town of Victoria where they worked or the Cameroon Development Corporation (an agro-industrial complex created by the Germans in 1884) popularly regarded as the CDC.

The numerous road and railway construction projects where the colonialists practiced forced labour also served as a fertile ground for the growth and development of Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE). This has equally promoted the use of pidgin English in our recent use of radio as a medium in Cameroon. Radio is one very important part of the mass media in Cameroon used to pass information to the headquarters at the time of World War II in Cameroon.

From the knowledge acquired during my stay as a student in the Department of Journalism and Mass communication, radio was one of the first form of communication in Cameroon after the Newspaper and radio being one of the most credible. The language used at the time that was used for broadcast was the French language and even the name of the first radio station in Douala was named L’enfant de Guerre (Child of War

1.3 Statement of the problem

In recent times, many people no longer see the need to follow radio programs in the country. They tend to get involved in other platforms when it comes to entertainment and other facets concerning data collection, news, and documentaries just to name a few. This is a common phenomenon among youths because most of them are exposed to the social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter just to name a few, hence, tend to forget about the radio programmes at their disposal.

Not completely telling us that radio programmes are being neglected in Buea, the audience due to the language they have been exposed to (Pidgin English), have the anxiety to follow radio programmes in this particular language.

Despite the low consumption of radio as a medium, as compared to other media like television and conventional medium like social media, they tend to follow programs more in Pidgin English than other languages.

The study will therefore seek to find out the reason why the audience in Buea prefer radio programs in Pidgin English than radio programs done in other languages like the two official languages, English language and French language and other local languages such as the vernaculars.

1.4 Research Objectives

The dissertation is guided by the objectives below:

1. To discover the language the audience has been exposed to often.
2. To analyse why they prefer to follow radio programmes in Pidgin English.
3. To get acquainted with the kind of programmes the mass audiences are mostly exposed to.

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