Editing Duala language (section)

==History==
The origins of Duala come from the migrations of the Duala people during the sixteenth century from the [[Congo River Basin]] to the coastal areas of southern Cameroon.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Africa">{{cite book |last1=Appiah |first1=Anthony |last2=Louis Gates |first2=Henry Jr. |title=Encyclopedia of Africa |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=386}}</ref> While it is a Bantu language, [[Malcolm Guthrie|Guthrie]] estimates that it has only retained as little as 14% of the roots of [[Proto-Bantu]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fage |first1=John |title=A History of Africa. |date=2013 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=Hoboken |isbn=9781317797272 |page=25 |edition=4th}}</ref>

[[Alfred Saker]], a [[British people|British]] [[missionary]] and [[linguist]], completed the first translation of the [[Bible]] into Duala in 1870. After the [[Kamerun|German colonization of Cameroon]] in 1885, the [[Basel Mission]] promoted Duala as a [[lingua franca]] in southern Cameroon with support from the German authorities.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Africa" /> In particular, [[Julius von Soden]], the Governor of Cameroon in the 1880s, supported Duala as a recognized lingua franca in the colony, although he maintained that [[German language|German]] should be the language of instruction in schools for brighter pupils. In 1903, the Basel missionaries launched a monthly journal titled Mulée Ngéa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gérard |first1=Albert S. |title=European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa |date=1986 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |pages=621}}</ref>

The missionaries' focus on using Duala in areas that did not natively speak it was viewed as dangerous by colonial officials, as they feared the practice would lead to [[ethnic conflict]] by elevating Duala to a [[prestige language]]. Since Duala was also being used by the missionaries in their schools, it was difficult for Cameroonians to become educated and obtain business, teaching, or government positions without knowledge of the language. This reinforced German officials' fears of the Duala ethnic group gaining too much power. Therefore, upon becoming Governor of Cameroon, [[Jesko von Puttkamer]] decided to suppress Duala and other local languages, such as [[Ewe language|Ewe]] in [[Togoland]], and promote German in the colony instead. Puttkamer blamed the Protestant missionaries for the lack of German-language use in Cameroon, and pressured them to stop using Duala in their schools and official communications. In 1897, he began pressuring them to switch to German, and later praised the [[Catholic]] missionaries in the territory for using German.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orosz |first1=Kenneth J. |title=Religious Conflict and the Evolution of Language Policy in German and French Cameroon, 1885-1939 |date=2008 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=9780820479095}}</ref>

In 1910, Governor [[Theodor Seitz]] issued an ordinance establishing governmental control over all educational establishments in the colony, including those run by missionaries. The ordinance enforced the use of German in schools and forbade the use of all other European languages. It also limited the use of Duala by missionaries to the traditional lands of the Duala people in order to prevent the spread of the language, as the German government wanted to prevent communication between local groups in the case of a revolution.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gwanfogbe |first1=Mathew B. |title=Changing Regimes and Educational Development in Cameroon |date=30 April 2018 |publisher=Spears Media Press |isbn=9781942876236 |pages=27–33}}</ref>

After [[World War I]], eastern Cameroon was [[League of Nations mandate|mandated by the League of Nations]] to [[France]] and western Cameroon was mandated to the [[United Kingdom]]. The French government ordered that only [[French language|French]] could be used in schools in 1920. The British allowed the use of Duala by missionaries and schools, but English-medium schools became the norm due to the colonial governmental influence and the lack of written materials in Duala. By the 1950s, this meant that Cameroonians were using [[English language|English]] as an instructional language and Duala as a "church" language, even if Duala was not their mother tongue. Through the 1960s and 1970s, as Cameroon gained independence, Duala remained in use only in religious and informal contexts, as the missionaries continued to use it and develop Duala texts for religious use.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Clinton D. W. |title=Language Use in Rural Development: An African Perspective |date=31 July 2013 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110869040 |pages=114–117}}</ref>