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"Literacy is the best remedy." That is the theme of the 42nd Edition of the International Literacy Day 2008, which was celebrated on September 8th, as it’s done every year. The national celebration for Cameroon was held at Ebolowa, the provincial capital of the South Province, 150 km from Yaoundé. Presiding over the event was the Minister of Youth Affairs, H.E. Adoum Garoua. He put the emphasis on the ongoing effort of the Cameroon Government to eradicate adult literacy. The problem is still urgent, however, as 40% the Cameroonian population is still illiterate and 65% of these people are women. It is basing its plan for success on a network of cooperative relationships with NGOs organizations. He congratulated SIL, the Cameroon Association of Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) and the National Association of Cameroonian Language Committees (NACALCO) for their constant support to programs promoting literacy in Cameroon.

Connecting to the theme of the event, SIL Cameroon General Director presented an oral summary of the work SIL has done in literacy through his representative, Keith Beavon, Acting Director of the Language Studies Section. This speech presented testimonials of how the mother tongue can be more effective in saving lives than other languages. Messages in the mother tongue about HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis bring conviction and awareness of the urgency and presence of the dangers. He spoke on the behalf of the partners working with the National Literacy Programme under the direct administration of the Ministry of Youth.

Martin Beyala managing the display presented SIL and its works. H.E. Adoum Garoua took leave of a crowd of nearly 3,000 souls present at the ceremonial ground and visited the SIL stand. The Minister expressed his thanks to SIL for the efforts done on the ground in many locations. He said that he has been personally contacted by groups of people living in town who are worried about being illiterate in their own mother tongues. They affirmed their identity with these communities and declared their desire to learn their languages, too. He spoke emphatically of the need that meetings commence between SIL and MINJEUN's specialized services in Yaounde. This may not be SIL's primary focus, but it nevertheless is a need that our Cameroonian counterparts are feeling keenly.

Cameroonians often seem to focus largely on what is done in neighboring countries. Sometimes, this is they don’t know about the great things happening within Cameroon. For that reason SIL Cameroon organized a four-day visit to the Kom education pilot project in the Province of North West, Boyo division where people from eight different governmental ministries were presented.

The delegation saw children in first grade who were able to read well. The children encouraged one another saying :”Ka Jung”, which means “well done”. And it was truly well done.

“Visiting the KEPP project is a useful experience that must be encouraged in order to develop our nationals languages. For those who were still skeptical, this proves the feasibility of multilingual education in Cameroon. This experiment has to spread over the entire nation and be integrated into our education system”. These words of Didier Mbouda, the representative of the Minister of Basic education reflected the impressions of the entire delegation.

The delegation also visited a literacy class where 40 illiterate women learned to read Kom and Enlish (see photo), a church based literacy class and a government high school where the Kom language was taught.

“The learning of the Kom language helps a lot because, I have discovered that most of those who just left primary school and come here to secondary school find difficulties in reading. Most of them don’t know the difference between vowels and consonants. Even to sound the letters of the alphabet, they are unable. But with the teaching of the Kom language, they are now able to differentiate between vowels and consonants and even sound the letters well” Chia Macelus Ndah, Kom Language teacher at the Government high school Njinikom. More of these discoveries in our next papers

February 23rd, 2008 at Deuk a cultural event whereby linguistic diversity and the importance of multilingual education were celebrated. This ceremony marked the launching of the International Year of Languages with the slogan “languages matter!” at the level of Cameroon.

George installs the Isaacs'

An SIL couple was officially introduced in a new language development project the “Lefa” language. The entire administrative, traditional and religious authorities of Deuk community were present at this ceremony.

If you ask Cameroonians what is “Deuk”, the majority would not be able to tell you that it is a city. Actually, Deuk is local city in the Mbam Inoubou Division in the Centre province. The distance between this locality and Yaoundé the capital is not up to 200 kilometres towards the western part of Cameroon. But you need a ferry or a local canoe to reach that locality.

Crossing the Mbam River on ferry

Even closed to the capital, many thousand of people cannot read nor write their language. The Isaacs’ couple will work there for years to carry out mother tongue development and linguistic research. The community has agreed to help them in this big task.

The Ngomba team gets its first look at Adapt-It. SIL member Scott Satre (center) likes how adaptation speeds the process of finding natural expressions in Ngomba, based on written Ngiemboon. He says, "We no longer wrestle long hours to discover what is understandable to Ngomba speakers, because that was already done in the neighboring language of Ngiemboon."

Developing a language can also benefit communities of related languages. Thanks to “adaptation” bi-lingual individuals, who know both the "source" language and the target language, can start drafting a translation in nearly no time at all.

This is exactly what happened at the Adapt-It workshop in Bamenda in January when course participants learned to “adapt” existing texts into to their own language. A few weeks later, Mr. Keith Beavon trained Badwe’e-speakers Ferdinand Elanga and Jean Eveque Mvolo to work with Adapt-It unassisted—in just four brief hours! Ever since, Elanga and Mvolo have been adapting Badwe’e into Sso, a language west of Badwe’e.

Jean Eveque Mvolo (upper right) has done translation in Badwe'e for years, but he also speaks Sso. More recently, he started working with Badwe’e colleague Ferdinand Elanga (upper left) to translate into Sso, using Adapt It. Adapt It is a software computer program that allows a bilingual translator to take advantage of the work already done in one translation to produce a second translation in a closely related language.

Keith Beavon, who directs the Adapt It training, says, “Translation of the future will include an “adapter”—someone to produce a draft translation, using the Adapt-It computer translation programme. The draft is then reviewed for clarity of meaning so that others can more easily understand the newly translated draft. Reviewers are linguists who understand a language within a cluster of related languages and who recognize similarities between languages—such as the grammatical structure, the sounds, or the phonology.

Workshop participants came from Ngomba (West Province), and Pinyin, Bum, and Babanki (Northwest Province). Mr. Beavon was assisted by workshop staff Paul Kimbi and Frans Barah. SIL’s Scott Satre applied what he learned to Ngomba, using Ngiemboon texts. Nelson Ngong and Zebedee Chia participated as staff trainees to work with Bum, Babanki (using Kom) and Pinyin (using Bafut).

Patricia Wilkendorf (right), a senior consultant who helped develop the Nomaande language, believes adaptation shows promise as a tool for helping a neighboring language, Tunen, to more quickly develop. Here, she and fellow consultant Keith Beavon (back row) look on as Joseph Embom translates from Nomaande into Tunen with Jacquis Walaze entering the translation into the computer. Jacques-Rene Balahen (front right) after the work sessions, said “I am very pleased with this adaptation possibility as our language is closely related to Nomaande and the work of adaptation goes faster and faster as the database of words builds up in the Adapt-It program.

Whether adapting from Nomaande to Tunen, Koonzime to Badwe’e, Ngiemboon to Ngomba, Bafut to Pinyin, or Kom to Bum or Babanki, translation is continuing—thanks to the innovation of adaptation.

Ken Morton (Director of Technical Services), Alan Van Doren (Helicopter Pilot), and Dennis Freeland (Manager of the Aviation Department), with their backs to the helicopter together face and greet the 50 who came to hear of how "SIL's whirlybird" finally came to nest in Cameroon.

Under a blue morning sky Tuesday February 6, 2007, the SIL hangar door slowly creeks open. One hears “Everybody ready to push?” from Dennis Freeland, Aviation Department chief. In a few seconds, seven men push out an 1155 kilograms (2541 pound) helicopter propped on its wheels.

The helicopter is here! The 50 people on hand for this “celebration” exhibit exuberance, of course, but also something indescribable—like contemplation or humility, as if pondering how the seemingly impossible could and just did happen.

So, how will it be used?

“Dennis and his crew want to go beyond what could be expected” says Ken Morton, Director of Technical Services, “I’m excited about the possibilities.”

Dennis elaborates, “There is now the capacity to take people to even Tivoid where roads are few or nonexistent. Tivoid was inaccessible, but that’s changing.” Tivoid is a cluster of languages in South West Cameroon near Nigeria. No cell phone service is available there; people need to use a satellite phone to make a call.

An Aid Organization has agreed to lease SIL the Helicopter for $1 a year after using it for Tsunami relief efforts. Brought into country in a sea container, the helicopter was reassembled by Ken Spragg and Chip Jones from JAARS. Carmen Frith, also from JAARS, upgraded and repaired the avionics—the HF radios, GPS, and automatic flight following.

After the “celebration” Alan VanDoren, a helicopter expert who flew as a pilot for 8 years in Papua New Guinea, answered questions about medical evacuations, flight speed, weight, fuel consumption, and flying costs. The Bell Long Range III helicopter can take two stretchers and fly at 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour) for 3 hours. It lifts its own weight plus 730 kg. (1600 pounds)—that’s the weight of a pilot, six passengers, and gear for a total of 1900 kg. (4150 pounds). At $960 US (480,000cfa) an hour, it costs more to fly than a plane. A whirlybird like this sure does get thirsty, slurping up 140 litres (35 gallons) of high grade kerosene, Jet fuel, each hour. The helicopter nests in Kumbo, in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, next to the Helio Courier also serving that area.

Dr. Stephen Walter, senior researcher with SIL International, just summarized his analysis of the initial phase of research on mother tongue education effectiveness. Field research was carried out during the second half of 2006 in the Kom language area in the Boyo Division where education occurs in either English or Kom. Among the data gathered were the results of regular standardized tests administered every year to those completing their primary education (First School Leavers Exam). Analysis of this data yielded evidence that education in the mother tongue does, indeed, provide educational benefits.

Those who took this standardized test in 2006 from the Njinikom subdivision were divided into two groups based on whether they had attended a mother tongue school in the Kom area. A total of 455 students took the test—189 from English-medium schools and 266 from Kom-medium schools. The data revealed the following.

At the level of individual students:

• The top 6 students were from mother tongue schools
• 28 of the top 29 performers were from mother tongue schools
• 44 of the top 50 and 76 of the top 100 were from mother tongue schools
• Among those scoring above 50 percent on the FSLE, 130 were from mother tongue schools while 54 were from English-medium schools
• The average score of test takers from mother tongue schools was 22.1 points higher than the average score of students from English-medium schools.

• The top two schools were mother tongue schools
• 6 of the top 7 schools were mother tongue schools
• 5 of the lowest 6 performing schools were English medium
• Mother tongue schools outperformed English-medium schools by 23.3 points.

The town of Lolodorf bustled November 29 - December 2 as the Bissio from Equatorial Guinea, the Makina from Gabon, and the Kwasio from Cameroon joined hands under the banner ONE LANGUAGE: ONE PEOPLE. When Bissio people spoke, Lolodorf citizens exclaimed, “You speak our mother tongue perfectly!”

”Kwasio is their language,” highlighted Mr. Daniel Duke, a SIL linguist and organizer, "and this Congress belongs to all people who speak it.” Abay Bouh, a graduate of SIL coursework, echoed Mr. Duke’s perspective when he presented to the Congress texts that had taken him a lifetime to translate, “No one asked me to translate all these; but as a Kwasio man I wanted to do it!

Abay Bouh receiving an award for his lifelong commitment to the development of the Kwasio Language from Congress President Dr. Mbambo.(photo on left) “Abay Bouh also gave an award toDr. Mbambo.”

Mr. Duke (right) leading the orthography workshop.

Dr. Mbambo presided over the Congress—a congress that recalled his people’s roots and wings, their accomplishments and plans. Mr. Duke presented his paper "The History of Writing the Kwasio Language" and masterful story tellers presented animated and dramatic accounts of genealogies and ancestral migrations. Twelve other top leaders presented research on their language and culture.

Dr. Mbambo led the revision workshop, while Mr. Duke (pictured) led the orthography workshop. Thirty five attended each session. During these sessions, the translation and language committees finalized their statutes in preparation for further development of the Kwasio language.

Mr. Bert Visser, SIL Cameroon's Director of External Relations, spoke of working together, “In every successful collaboration, people’s attitudes and behaviours towards the other party provide the essential lubrication to keep the endeavour operating smoothly.”

No one community can develop independently, but these communities can succeed if they cooperate with one another. Thanks to such cooperation, work in Kwasio can benefit dialects Makina, Bissio, and even another Cameroonian language, Bagyeli.

Kids who only knew her by name witnessed "the pride of the Ngumba people" for themselves for the first time—a once in a life-time experience for the 300 people who attended her concert.

And there was a special attraction: celebrity Ann-Marie NZIE "the mother of Cameroonian pop music". At 75, "la dame de l'ame" still sings her way into hearts with favourites from the 1960s.

Capturing the Congress on recordings were SIL’s Joe Rider, Byung Sun Kim, and Roche Ntankeh, who are preparing a video the language committee may use for educational purposes.

All told, 90 attended Congress business: 70 delegates and 20 helpers. The dignified entourage included 20 village chiefs.

Musicians, presentations, work sessions, culminating in presentations of certificates and awards in recognition of contributions to 15 people for historic work that lives on—such as the first song book and the first grammar. By ceremonially honouring many who helped to develop the Kwasio language--even the dead whose language work lives on in the ongoing plans of the Congress—the people recalled that life is about making a difference for something bigger than ourselves.

Aids brochure in Fulfulde and Arabic script. The cover is on the right side, because the language is written from right to left. 5,000 were printed in Roman script and another 5,000 in Arabic. Anecdotal stories indicate that the brochure in Arabic is well received, especially by Fulfulde-speakers. Workshop participants were eager to see the brochure in their own language!

As the AIDS tract into Fulfulde (in Arabic Script) was being checked, Mullah was so excited that Scott barely understood him.

Mullah, an expert in the Arabic language, read the AIDS tract in his mother tongue written in Arabic Script. And then he exclaimed, "This is my very first time to understand what AIDS is and why it spreads so fast."

After correcting spelling mistakes, Mullah almost seemed to stare at the brochure, and then looked up at Scott; exclaiming, "This tract is now "final" and ready to present to my Fulfulde-speaking community."

A week later, they arrived early at a community-wide meeting in a neighbourhood of Yaounde. Special chairs were set aside for Scott, the main speaker, and Mullah. Feeling like royalty and sipping cokes, Mullah and Scott beheld the first Fulbe men trickling into the room until it was full. There were men not only from Cameroon, but also from Mali, Guinea Bissau, and Nigeria. As they entered the door, each one received an AIDS tract, some taking the one in Roman Script but most preferring the one in Arabic Script.

At the conclusion of the celebration, there were questions - lots of them. And the most poignant of them was, "It is good that this important information is now available to us in our mother tongue and script. But why did it take so long to get it to us?"

18,000 of these tracts are being distributed to health clinics and local AIDS control committees throughout the country. It is a brand new initiative--AIDS brochure production workshops by SIL Cameroon.

So far, there have been two workshops--one in English held in Bamenda and another in French held in Yaounde, each with speakers from 11 languages attending. (In addition, Bulu and Nomaande speakers translated the brochure outside the workshop.) The third workshop (in French) is scheduled for February for another nine languages of the Far North.

The brochure has been translated in 24 languages (22 of which have already been printed) and will be translated into another nine languages of Cameroon at the Far North workshop. Thus, a total of 33 language groups will be reached.

Three years ago, Dr. Gordon Martin designed and produced the AIDS brochure. Today, there are two versions of it, but the message is the same for both versions. The only difference is that one version has Scripture added to it to make it especially useful for church groups.

More than 100,000 copies of the brochure are now in print, with plans for more. Once the brochure is printed, distribution can take place right away. One brochure was printed one day, and began being distributed in the village only two days later!