In-group Unity in Anglophone Cameroon's Separatist Discourse. Strategies and Means of Realization

Echitchi, Raymond

doi:10.26806/modafr.v11i2.449

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In-group Unity in Anglophone Cameroon's Separatist Discourse. Strategies and Means of Realization

Echitchi, Raymond

2023 • In Modern Africa, 11 (2), p. 57-81

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/311674

DOI
10.26806/modafr.v11i2.449

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Keywords :

Sociology and Political Science; Development; Anthropology; History; Cultural Studies; linguistics; Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract :

[en] The present paper is the result of a scientific venture into the discursive construction of separatism in Cameroon’s English-speakingregions, which separatists refer to as Southern Cameroons or Ambazonia. My study aims specifically at identifying the linguistic and rhetorical strategies separatist leaders use in order to create a sense of unity amongst all English-speaking Cameroonians and make them join the fight for independence. To achieve this aim, I have analysed speeches authored between 2010 and 2015 by two Anglophone Cameroonian separatist leaders. The analysis of the speeches, which followed the Discourse Historical Approach (Wodak et al. 2009), reveals that Southern Cameroonian nationalists try to achieve unity by resorting to strategies such as nomination, predication, and argumentation through topoi. These strategies were realised by means of linguistic resources including lexicon, imperatives, deontic and epistemic modals.

Research center :

Lilith - Liège, Literature, Linguistics - ULiège [BE]

Disciplines :

Languages & linguistics

Author, co-author :

Echitchi, Raymond ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction

Language :

English

Title :

In-group Unity in Anglophone Cameroon's Separatist Discourse. Strategies and Means of Realization

Publication date :

2023

Journal title :

Modern Africa

ISSN :

2336-3274

eISSN :

2570-7558

Publisher :

University of Hradec Kralove

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

57-81

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://uni.uhk.cz/africa/index.php/ModAfr/article/download/449/252

Available on ORBi :

since 22 January 2024

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