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A Word from the General Director What impact are you having? a k a B

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Administration in as of as hoped and expected. Secondly, it is difficult December 2013: A Word from the General Director to determine the impact in some domains. General Director: What impact are you having? Regardless of the challenges, our desire in 2013 Bert Visser was to develop new strategies or modified Director of Adminis - excisting ones in order to have a greater impact tration and Finance: in this nation. David P. Anderson Director of Language We have developed a new strategic plan for SIL Services: Teresa Heath Cameroon. We want to invest more on the well-being of our human resources and to train Personnel Director: Bianca van den Berg more people in the domains that are needed. Our Director of Bamenda desire is to build the capacity of local communities Region: and others to be able to provide leadership and Ria Hedinger

ne of our colleagues went on to visit a school Oin the village in the Far North and he was very impressed by what he observed. In this primary one class, the teacher writes a sum on the blackboard (8+5=) and asks a boy to come forward to give the answer. “Explain to everyone what you're doing.” The boy says “Eight plus....five equals....equals.... 13,” and writes the answer. “Is that correct?” the teacher asks the class. They all say “Yes!” and applaud. effective management for language programmes. Entity Committee: Chair: In this particular context, the key to success is We plan to maintain and promote high standards Ray Kapteyn the use of the mother tongue. By this mean, the in research, in translation, and other domains where we serve. And we want to see the results of Vice-Chair: children are involved, they understand and thus Georges Shultz are able to grasp more difficult concepts. The our work being well used. 2nd Vice-Chair impact on the children is visible and relevant and In 2013, we also worked with the Churches and Katrina Boutwell that brings a great satisfaction to the teachers as Bible Agencies in Cameroon in the “Platform for Bruce Cox well. the Impact of the Word in Cameroon.” The plan Philip Burgess developed from this Platform includes both th As we enter our 45 year of serving the people of elements of spiritual growth and community Cameroon, we continue to ask ourselves if we are development. having a significant impact in this nation. It is not an easy question to answer. First, it is Bert Visser, difficult to be honest with oneself to admit that General Director there are areas where we have not done as well

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Introduction Linguistics Platform for the Impact of the Word in Cameroon The foundation for language development hen building a house, plans are made and then the work begins: the Wfirst place to work is on the foundation. This is similar development. When developing a language, plans are made with the community, and work needs to start on linguistic research. Once the foundation is laid, the walls go up to support the roof. These parts of language development are pedagogical literacy materials of various sorts, and translation of important works into the language.

fter more than forty years in Cameroon, SIL still In the chart Adesires to see new methodological and strategic below, the number approaches without undermining what has been of participants is done in the past. Rather, the focus is to insure that the actual number the development of national languages is of people who sustainable and continues to bear good fruit. attended a given category of he continuous challenge is to associate more and more key players to this advocacy process. It is a high priority to create course or T exchange and work platforms to unify our efforts. It is in this workshop. perspective that the Platform for the Impact of the Word was created. If a house’s foundation is of good quality, it will be strong to stand against The number of We hope that the same kind of movement will be put in place to boost languages how- the storms. Similarly, if language development will succeed, the foundation our efforts in multilingual education. The Platform for the Impact of the of linguistic research must be adequate. The outcomes of this research ever, includes Word in Cameroon was created to promote development and are an excellent orthography, a description of the grammar, and a those who may Scripture Use in the different communities for a radical and lasting dictionary that presents the standard spelling and definitions of words. have been re- transformation in their lives. The members of this platform include the Years of research goes into the preparation of these products. presented in Forum of Bible Agencies in Cameroon (FOBAC), the Council of Protestant Churches of Cameroon, the Roman Catholic Church, More and more, Cameroonians are on the forefront of linguistic research. more than one and Pentecostal churches. The long-term objective is to work together SIL Cameroon remains committed to training and mentoring Cameroonians to participate actively in the development of their languages. Maybe you course or work- to put a plan in place to allow the churches and Bible agencies to work shop. know someone that has a strong interest in your language that could be together in order to have a lasting impact in the lives of the a language developer! communities, both in community development and spiritual growth.

Courses/ Workshops 6 in Linguistics 8 in Literacy 7 in Translation 4 in Scripture Use 5 in Training Language groups represented 33 58 43 24 17 Participants 83 133 110 71 105 4 5 Rapport Sil 2 anglais:Rapport Sil1 27/02/2014 14:18 Page 7

With the support of the different Training Language technology development development Orality, a new training approach partners, private IL has been at the forefront of the development of new promoters and for national language development! the civil society, Stechnologies for Bible translation and literacy. SIL the efforts of the develops and makes freely available the fonts and government keyboards which allow the creation and viewing of Scripture show a real and literacy materials in languages with non-roman scripts politic will to and characters (including the official orthography of develop strategies Cameroon). We are working hand-in-hand with Cameroonian adapted to the challenges of Language Committees to regularly provide training and quality universal consulting in these technologies to both Cameroonian and education, to the expatriate linguists and translators at our Cameroon real needs of training centres. SIL has developed software that allows national linguists to collaborate and work together using the internet economy and to to share and synchronise information and data, even the requirements of globalisation. when located on different continents. In support of that The strategies to collaboration, we have worked with partners to enable he SIL training department, in its desire to have a capitalise on are linguists in remote villages to utilize the internet by access to Tgreater impact in language development, realises that installing state of the art technologies, including satellite educational orality was an approach that would boost men and communication and solar power. material, women in the different communities to better master their restructuration of mother tongues. What exactly do we mean? The word orality has Latin roots: orare, which means to listen or to hear. Orality is a pedagogical and andragogical approach which enables one to convey different teachings by audio means. In the specific case of language development, we wanted to give the opportunity to many Cameroonians to wrestle with a new literacy method better suited to their skill set. This method involves listening to different Bible stories or other texts of general interest translated into the mother tongue. This experience is very successful, especially for the the institutional adults who don't know how to read and write. By listening In addition to providing training for Cameroonian linguists framework, the and translators to create dictionaries in local languages, growth of the to the different Bible characters in their mother tongue, SIL has created freely available software that can be used organizational for example, they were convinced that these people to publish dictionaries and Scripture to cell phones, infrastructures, belonged to their culture. the updating of tablets, E-book readers and the internet. This has been the management As far as the future translators are concerned, orality is a done in collaboration with partners for solutions like Every methods and the pedagogical approach which enables them to simply Tribe Every Nation ® (everytribeeverynation.org) and pedagogical supervision. know the exact pronunciation of the words. This method YouVersion ® (www.bible.com), which currently has 35 million users. Webonary.org, a new web resource provided is a great tool to help develop phonology. It also helps (Article UNESCO by SIL, allows language groups to access dictionaries in Cameroon Tribune) preserve the true nature of the language from a style and local languages on the internet without requiring deep accent standpoint. technical expertise or funding. 6 7 Rapport Sil 2 anglais:Rapport Sil1 27/02/2014 14:18 Page 9

Literacy A boost in our literacy efforts! trained to perpetuate the teaching of this language Nationalities in the schools. The school year being well underway, of SIL Cameroon we can affirm that the Baka child has started his Personnel journey on the path of his own development. Australia In another area, adult literacy was intensified by “Not all readers are Bahamas the increased commitment of the church and the Cameroon leaders, but all language committees. More teaching programmes Canada leaders are readers.” have been conceived, in order to promote the Chile Harry S. Truman development of the mother tongue. (33rd President of Costa Rica the United States Finland 1945-1953) he year 2013 comes to an end and we can Hungary Tsee that our literacy efforts were boosted. Ireland “Literacy arouses First of all, we are able to see fruits from our Peru hopes, not only in advocacy efforts on behalf of multilingual Sweden society as a whole education, one of them being a partnership Switzerland agreement signed with Plan Cameroun. It was but also in the The Netherlands in December 2012 that the two organisations individual who is The United Kingdom decided to implement a multilingual education striving for fulfilment, The United States project for the Baka in the East Region of happiness and of America Cameroon. The main focus was to facilitate personal benefit by access to education for the children of this learning how to minority community. SIL International read and write. In the year to come, we will continue to find new Administration: Literacy... means far Human and material resources have been strategies to enable our literacy efforts to bear more than deployed to implement teaching programmes in more fruit. We would really like to see the creation President: learning how to the in different pilot schools. And of a platform dedicated to multilingual education, John Watters read and write... The at the end of this year, we can say that the to federate the efforts of the different partners and aim is to transmit... results are conclusive. First of all, the number elaborate a global strategy. A first step was taken Executive Director: knowledge and of children involved in the programme is far in this direction by putting all of SIL shell-books at Freddy Boswell promote social beyond our expectations. In fact, more than 300 the disposal of our partners. This will enable the participation.” children are being taught in the Baka language. different language projects to have more impact Area Director for An alphabet, a primer, a pre-primer, a math for the good of their communities. We truly believe Francophone - UNESCO Institute Africa: for Education, book and other brochures in Baka were conceived that the involvement of the elites in literacy will be Nelis van den Berg Hamburg, Germany and published. The government deployed some a real asset. All of this will help literacy have more teachers to help in the project and they were impact in the communities. 8 9 Rapport Sil 2 anglais:Rapport Sil1 27/02/2014 14:18 Page 11

Translation Bamenda Regional Office Acronyms For a sustainable translation movement From BRO to BRTC CABTAL: Cameroon isitors looking for the SIL Bamenda Regional Association for VOffice along the street of Mile 3 in Nkwen will Bible Translation look in vain. The office, fondly known as the BRO, has ceased to exist. But the work of training, and Literacy consulting and IT service for language communities goes on unabated! FOBAC: Our partner, the Cameroon Association for Bible Forum of Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL), has built a Agencies- regional training centre, called the Bamenda Cameroun Regional Training Centre (BRTC) in the village of NACALCO: God is doing many he project is one of the translation programs that good things at CBTS National (Cameroon Baptist Thas the potential to be an example in the sustainable Association of Theological Seminary development of mother-tongues in general and more specifi - Cameroonian in Ndu) in the Bible cally in the translation of the Bible. This project is a cluster of Translation Degree six language communities spread out in two administrative Language Program. Committees The first photo is of units: Misaje and Bum Sub Divisions in Donga and Mantung four students who and Boyo Divisions respectively. graduated from CBTS MINEDUB: in December 2012 after studying in the Bible The factors enabling an effective implementation of this Ministry of Basic Translation Degree language projects are: Education Program: Rev. Nchindo Mbesi in Mile 4, Nkwen. The SIL Cameroon Innocent, Ngo Bikai - The fast mobilization and appropriation by the churches in language and translation workers were invited to Rita, George Shultz, creating six Interchurch committees and by the communities join them in these beautiful new facilities. MINJEC: Fotso Ervais, and Ministry of Youth Pastor Ihimbru David. in forming six language committees. The new offices and training facilities will allow the The second photo is of two organisations to serve the communities of the Affairs and Civic two students who - The engagement and the availability of the Nooni translators North West, South West and West Regions more Education successfully defended to combine their efforts with the Misaje translators thus efficiently. The old office was overcrowded and the their thesis, the final enabling a shorter implementation time period. classroom deteriorating, while the new Centre has MINRESI: linguistics project, ample office space for specialists and consultants before graduation in - The capacity for all people involved coming from 13 different Ministry of December 2013: Pastor in the domain of linguistics, literacy and translation, Nweshie Novester and ethnic groups (Chung, Kemedzung, Mungong, Naami, as well as a classroom and library. There is also Scientific Pastor Lanka Henry. Nchane, Sari, Noni, Limbum, Yamba, Nso, America, space for administrative and IT services. It also Research and With them are Netherlands, Costa Rica), to work in unity despite their diversity. has comfortable dormitory style rooms for Innovation Phonology teacher We believe that all this potential is helping set a good overnight stays. The Centre can also be used for Mathaus Njeck and foundation for a more sustainable Bible Translation movement local language community meetings, church George Shultz. George occasions and retreats. MINREX: Shultz and Mathaus in Cameroon, which would bring forth spiritual, social, and Ministry of External were the two readers economical transformation of the communities involved and We rejoice in this great accomplishment for CABTAL. for their theses. will call for the leadership of the movement by these An encouraging dedication of the Centre was held Relations on October 13, 2013. communities in the long-term. 10 11 Rapport Sil 2 anglais:Rapport Sil1 27/02/2014 14:18 Page 13

SIL Cameroon Bibliography in 2013 SIL Cameroon Bibliography in 2013 Technical Manuscripts Publications in National Languages

SIL Cameroon publications are Bafanji Gemzek (Zulgo) Kom Fulfulde-Bororro primarily written for HAMM, Cameron; Cliford SCHERRER, Elaine Marie. WALTER, Stephen L. 2012. WILSON, Cameron. 2012. national language Africa TIEMIDENG; and Moses 2012. An Overview of Gemzek Assessment Results for the Jahaangal Yaaya bee Daaso. speakers. In 2013, Tiefon LIWO. 2013. The Narrative Government (The Adventure of Yaaya and SIL members worked Daaso). Yaounde, Cameroon: Bafanji Noun Phrase. 27 pp. Discourse Features. 45 pp. Teacher Training College together with Came - SIL. roonians to produce (GTTC) in Fundong. 14 pp. publications in the Bamuka Iceve-Maci WALTER, Stephen L.; Kain Thesis mother tongue INGLE, Jane. 2013. The COX, Bruce. 2013. Godfrey CHUO. 2012. The covering a wide Bamuka Noun Phrase. 102 pp. A phonological Overview of Buwal range of topics, Kom Iceve-Maci. 75 pp. VILJOEN, Melanie Helen. 2013. including lexicons, Experimental Mother Tongue A Grammatical Description of Grammar books, Bamukumbit Education Pilot Project Report for the . Ph.D., La folktales, HIV-AIDS DeVISSER, Christine: Ipulo booklets, educational Yaoundé, 2013, of the GALLANT, Anna Grace. 2012. 2012. 33pp. Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. 716 pp. booklets and primers. Bamukumbit Noun, 20pp. The establishment of a Mfumte See our website for Homeland : an oral history Mpade more details: DeVISSER, Christine : MICHAEL, Nathan. 2013. from the Ipulo ALISSON, Sean David. 2012. www.silcam.org. Yaoundé, 2013, Reading and Conflict Resolution in Wulíi’ People in the South West Aspects of a Grammar of Makary Writing Mankong, 48 pp. Culture Donga-Mantung Region of Cameroon. 34 pp. Kotoko (Chadic, Cameroon). DeVISSER, Christine and Division, NorthWest Ph.D., University of Colorado. SORSAMO Hezel : Yaoundé, Isu Region. 42 pp. 606 pp. 2013, ANDERSON, Stephen C. SHULTZ, George Frederick. Tuki Bamukumbit (Mankong) 2013. Isu Orthography Guide. 2013. Factors in Cameroonian DE GOOIJER, Helma. 2012. Orthography Guide 18 pp. Christian Leadership for Bible (Revised 2013), 25pp. Une collection de contes, Translation. Ph.D. Fuller Theological proverbes, Seminary, School of Intercultural devinettes et chansons Studies. Pasadena, California. en Tuki. 87 pp. 424 pp. 12 13 Rapport Sil 2 anglais:Rapport Sil1 27/02/2014 14:18 Page 15

Equatorial Guinea Languages SIL served in 2013 During 2013, SIL gave consultation, training and/or logistic INCREASED IMPACT support to language development in many languages THROUGH LINGUISTIC TRAINING throughout Cameroon, including the following:

IL personnel in partnership with the Council of 1. Far Noth Region 5. South West Region SScientific and Technological Research offered twelve training courses and production workshops in Bana Mbuko Iceve-Maci Ipulo Equatorial Guinea, with participants from the following Buwal Merey [Oliti] Iyive cross-border languages with Cameroon: Basek (related Fulfulde Moloko 6. South Region to Bakoko), Fang, Kwasio, Ndowe, and Pidgin. Gavar Mpade Gemzek [Markary Kotoko] Gyele Kwasio Batanga Yasa (Guemzek) Muyang Language Hdi Tupuri 7. West Region names are Lagwan Vame Bangwa Ghomálá’ according to Mada Wandala the 17th Mambai (Mandara) 8. East Region edition of the (Mambay) Wuzlam Baka [Nzime] Ethnologue Matal (Ouldeme) Kako Makaa published by Mazagway-Hid i Zulgo Koonzime (Mekaa) SIL Mbudum [Badwe’e] Njyem International. CURSO O TALLER Participantes Koonzime Principios de traducción, módulo 1 14 2. North Region (Name)= Sesiones de traducción en Basek 4 9. North West Region Other Sesiones de revision de textos antiguos en Benga 3 Daba Gude Baba Limbum common Taller de escritores Ndowe 23 Fali Karang name Principios de traducción, módulo 2 5 Bafanji Naami Bafut Nchane Taller de gramática 15 [Name]= Taller de alfabetización 15 3. Adamawa Region Bamali [Mungong] Bambalang Ncane Dialect name Taller de lexicografía 15 Mambila Tikar Principios de traducción, módulo 3 1 Bamukumbit [Nchane] Principios de informática 4 Bamunka Noone (Noni) Análisis discursivo, módulo 1 22 4. Centre Region Bangolan Sari (Nsari) Cung (Chung) Ugare Taller de materiales digitales para la alfabetización 10 Basaa Nubaca Elip (Nulibie) (Baca) Fulfulde Vengo Kemedzung (Babungo) Lefa Nugunu COLABORACIÓN EN LA FORMACIÓN LINGÜÍSTICA EN GUINEA ECUATORIAL Kenswei Nsei Wushi Mbule Yambeta Personal de la SIL en colaboración con el Consejo de (Bamessing) (Babessi) Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas ofrecieron Mengisa Yangben Kom Yamba doce cursos de formación y talleres de producción en Mmaala (Nuasue) Guinea Ecuatorial, con participantes de las siguientes (Numaala) 10. Littoral Region lenguas tras-fronterizas con Camerún: Basek (relacionado con Bakoko), Fang, Kwasio, Ndowe y Pidgin. El Centro 14 Cultural Español auspició varios de los cursos. 15