Delegates shocked by Biya's CPA speech in French

The opening ceremony of the 60th Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA, at the Yaounde Conference Centre on October 6, hit an anti-climax when President Paul Biya shocked Delegates with his speech made entirely in French.

Given that the language of the Commonwealth is English, Delegates had expected the host President who is one of the Patrons of the Association to deliver his speech in English. But they were visibly shocked when Biya’s creaky voice crackled out unmistakably in French. The only phrase in English in that speech was a terse “Thank you very much”, at the end of it all.

A majority of Delegates who could not understand a word of French were visibly embarrassed, shocked and lost. Worse, even the headsets for Delegates to follow up the interpretation of the speech in English, were brought in at the middle of it. Yet only few people had the headsets. Many Delegates shifted uneasily on their seats in utter embarrassment.

A member of the South African delegation told The Post that he was lost and could only meet a bilingual person to explain to him what President Biya had said. Many observers interpreted Biya’s French speech to mean an affront and total defiance to the Commonwealth linguistic principle. Even the MC of the event, one of the Protocol Officers, shuttled between French and English.

While reacting to the President’s speech, SDF Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, said it was the worst thing that happened to the CPA conference in Yaounde. Hear him; “I felt really embarrassed and ridiculed when Mr. Biya addressed the CPA Conference in French. I thought, at least, that he was going to do what he did in Buea, where he spoke in English and return to French to give his main speech.” Fru Ndi said by committing what he referred to as such a blunder, the President was telling the world that Cameroon is uniquely a French speaking country.

“I know that I don’t speak French. However, I have got a few words in French. If I go, for instance, to a Francophone meeting, I should be able, at least, to master “Bonjour, Bienvenue au Cameroun, merci, au revoir,” (good morning, welcome to Cameroon, thank you, and goodbye). In the opposition Chieftain’s opinion, Biya’s speech in French at the Commonwealth event was a scandal.

He said: “By so doing, he snubbed the Commonwealth and the entire Anglo-Saxon world and the Reunification of Cameroon. That he snubbed the Reunification is no longer news, because he celebrated the events in Buea without paying tributes to its architects like Ahidjo, Foncha, Mbile, Endeley, Ntumazeh and many others. That attitude, coupled with the fact that official documents from the Presidency are only in French, is like telling Anglophones to go to hell”.

After the opening ceremony of the event, delegates were chummy-chummy, discussing the oddity of President Biya’s speech. According to one observer, Varsity don, Prof, V. Fanso, President Biya’s speech in Moliere’s language was a slap on the face of the Commonwealth.

However, some Delegates said the President committed no wrong by speaking in French. “It was nice to see some members speaking both official languages of Cameroon. I did not find anything wrong with the President’s speech in French”, Hon. Russ Hilbert of the Canadian Parliament told The Post. “Cameroon is a bilingual country. Coming from Canada, I understand French, so it was not a problem”, he said. Going by one of the Members of Parliament, MP, from Gibraltar, Hon. Edward Reyes, there was no problem. He said; “The President sounded very sincere in what he said. We were able to follow the President’s speech with no problem because there was translation”.

“There was no problem with the Head of State addressing us in French because there was translation. So we were able to follow him with ease,” one Parliamentarian from Malaysia, Hon. Mohammed Rozai, remarked. Meanwhile, the President of the CPA Executive Committee, Sir Alan Haselhurst, from England, said a few words while delivering his speech in order to recognise the bilingual nature of Cameroon. One of the silver linings of the ceremony was that many French Speaking officials delivered their speeches in English.

There was rumbling applause when the Government Delegate to the Yaounde City Council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna, began delivering his welcome speech in English. He staggered through the speech in something that was somewhat close to the Queen’s language.

The Speaker of Cameroon’s National Assembly and outgoing President of the CPA, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, was engaged in a tough battle with the pronunciation of some English words. Yet, he delivered his speech in passable English. The President of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji also read his speech in English.

Meanwhile, senior journalist and Director of Information at the CRTV television, Charles Ndongo, set the tone when he began running live commentaries in English with his colleague Joe Chebonkeng. Ndongo went down memory lane, recalling the circumstances in which Cameroon joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1995.

According to observers, President Biya’s attitude is a tell-tale of the hostilities that the Francophonie world has launched against the English Language. When Francophonie events take place in Cameroon, no word of English is heard. In 1998, a visiting French Minister of Cooperation who granted a press conference at the French Embassy in Yaounde, refused to take a question from a journalist for the simple reason that it was asked in English.

When the English Speaking Journalist, Mary Ayonke (who worked for Magic FM) struggled to ask the question in approximate French, the majority of French speaking onlookers booed and jeered at her and she ended up being humiliated.