Social Communication and Intercultural Mediation in Decompartmentalizing Identity Groups in Socio-political Crisis Context in Cameroon

Abstract

From the corporatist strike in the North-West and South-West regions in 2016, from which the "Anglophone crisis" arose, to the campaign and the presidential elections of 2018, the results of which were openly contested by one of the candidates, there is the ongoing question of living together routinely emerge in the Cameroonian public space. These events appear as triggers of identity folds, until then latent in the collective subconscious. Among other things, they fostered the propensity and confrontation of hate speech between Cameroonians claiming different territories and identities: anglophonefrancophone, tontinard-sardinard, bamiléké-beti. Faced with this, certain public institutions such as the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education and the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, are sending out messages calling for civility, patriotism and tolerance. This paper demonstrate that, despite the limited confidence of Cameroonians in their public institutions, the discourses of these organizations are positioned within the framework of the intercultural tensions observed, as the third party speeh, and contribute to initiating the decompartmentalization of community and identity, with a view to consolidating a true culture and national identity. The Methodology consists precisely in analyzing the messages disseminated by these institutions on their Facebook pages, as well as the comments of their followers.