Some people might not have believed us (The Post) when we wrote that official documents, including questions for exams into the public service are conceived, drafted and published in French; the Francophone officials who produce them do not give them to Anglophones to translate, but do the translations themselves. Anglophone translators are, thus, ignored.
We even warned that Anglophone candidates, for the ongoing exams for recruitment into the police force, will be disadvantaged because the questions would be set in French and poorly translated into English. That is what has obtained, as, barely days after our publications (see The Post No. ---- and ---- ), we have been vindicated.
Question 1 (a) on the questionnaire for the recruitment of 760 student police inspectors reads (in French): Qui élit le Président de la République? Translated as: “Who does elect the President of the Republic?” It would have read; who elects the President of the Republic. Or, the President of the Republic is elected by who? The import of misunderstanding in this question might be mild because any smart Anglophone who has a nodding knowledge of French candidate might perceive the sense therein.
But read Question 8 (a) and (b) that goes thus: Qui chaque députe représente-t-il? Translation : “Who shall represent each member of the National Assembly ? Qui chaque senateur represente-t-il? Translation: “Who shall represent each Senator?” Is it the people that represent the members of the National Assembly or Senators, as the questions imply? Or is it the members of the National Assembly or Senators that represent the people or a constituency? Question 8(a) is supposed to read: Who or what area does a member of the National Assembly represent and 8(b): Who or what area does a Senator represent?
From the above examples, the Anglophone candidate who hasn’t any reading knowledge or understanding of the French language has failed - a priori. (See copy of questionnaire besides)
Because of such experiences, most Anglophone children struggle to learn French.
And, behold, many of them do pass such exams. And after learning “in French tears” as it were, they usually pass such exams. That is when regional balance sets in, to fail them.
Which means that after making it difficult for Anglophone youths to write such exams, but they do and are successful, the Francophone authorities bring in regional balance and replace their names with names of family members and children of friends who failed or did not write the exam at all.
That is what has been happening with entrance exams into schools or into the public service.
Thus, Anglophones or Southern Cameroonians who posit that Cameroon is a French Bilingual country are being vindicated by the authorities that argue against that position.
This college of thought holds that, Cameroon is, de jure bilingual in French and English, but de facto, bilingual in French. Put otherwise, the two languages that make Cameroon to be called bilingual are French and French. And the Francophone authorities seem not to care.
