An African Kulturkampf: Religious conflict and language policy in German Cameroon, 1885-1914

Orosz, Kenneth J.

doi:10.1515/9783110236262.81

Cited by 7 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The latter aspect had practical implications for the mission societies as they depended in part on the financial support of the German government (cf. e. g. Orosz 2011;Sokolowsky 2004, esp. regarding Africa;Mühlhäusler 2012;Stolberg 2015).…”

Section: Language Politics Under German Colonial Rulementioning

confidence: 99%

Historical sociolinguistics in colonial New Guinea: The Rhenish mission society in the Astrolabe Bay

Stolberg

2017

Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics

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Abstract; The Rhenish Mission Society, a German Protestant mission, was active in a small part of northern New Guinea, the Astrolabe Bay, between 1887 and 1932. Up until 1914, this region was under German colonial rule. The German dominance was also reflected in rules on language use in official contexts such as schools and administration.Missionaries were strongly affected by such rules as their most important tool in mission work was language. In addition, they were also responsible for school education as most schools in the German colonial areas in the Pacific were mission-run. Thus, mission societies had to make decisions about what languages to use, considering their own needs, their ideological convictions, and the colonial government's requirements. These considerations were framed by the complex setting of New Guinea's language wealth where several hundred languages were, and still are, spoken. This paper investigates a small set of original documents from the Rhenish Mission Society to trace what steps were taken and what considerations played a major role in the process of agreeing on a suitable means of communication with the people the missionaries wanted to reach, thereby touching upon topics such as language attitudes, language policies and politics, practical considerations of language learning and language spread, and colonial actions impacting local language ecologies.

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Section: Language Politics Under German Colonial Rulementioning

confidence: 99%

Historical sociolinguistics in colonial New Guinea: The Rhenish mission society in the Astrolabe Bay

Stolberg

2017

Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics

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“…A comprehensive overview of language regulations from the German colonial period exists for Togo (Sokolowsky 2004, various publications by Adick and Mehnert) and, to some degree, for Cameroon (Anchimbe 2013;Boulleys 1998;Djomo 2009;Orosz 2008Orosz , 2011. A circular regarding language instruction in the colonies was passed in 1897 (cf.…”

Section: Documented Planning Activities/language Policies (By the Govmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Language policy in Togo, especially with respect to school regulations, is focused by Adick and Mehnert in several publications (e.g., Adick & Mehnert 2001;Adick 1981Adick , 1993Adick , 2011Mehnert 1965Mehnert , 1974Mehnert , 1993 as well as by Sokolowsky (2004), Lawrance (2000), and Koffi (2012). Orosz (2011) investigates the interaction (and conflicts) between the German colonial government and locally active mission societies with respect to language policy in colonial Cameroon. Orosz (2011) investigates the interaction (and conflicts) between the German colonial government and locally active mission societies with respect to language policy in colonial Cameroon.…”

Section: German Language Regulations In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was also the line of action strongly recommended by Protestant mission societies who were convinced that it was not possible to truly Christianize a population in a foreign language (cf., e.g., Adick & Mehnert 2001;Orosz 2011). While the use and teaching of German and other languages (primarily the local languages and English) was more regulated than in the Pacific colonies, heterogeneous activities were carried out, depending partly on local conditions and partly on the political convictions of the respective colonial governors.…”

Section: German Language Regulations In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But there was also the desire to invest only limited resources in the process of language policy, planning, and implementation in the colonial enterprise (Orosz 2011). This lack of systematic planning was partly due to the German colonial administration's being inexperienced in handling a linguistic situation of such complexity as they encountered in Africa and the South Pacific.…”

Section: Corpus Planning (Concept Introduced By Kloss 1968)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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German in the Pacific: Language policy and language planning

Stolberg¹

2015

Koloniallinguistik

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During the second half of the 19th century, extended regions of the South Pacific came to be part of the German colonial empire. The colonial administration included repeated and diverse efforts to implement German as the official language in several settings (administration, government, education) in the colonial areas. Due to unfamiliar sociological and linguistic conditions, to competition with English as a(nother) prestigious colonizer language, and to the short time-span of the German colonial rule, these efforts rendered only little language-related effect. Nevertheless, some linguistic traces remained, and these seem to reflect in what areas language implementation was organized most thoroughly. The study combines two directions of investigation: First, taking a historical approach, legal and otherwise official documents and information are considered in order to understand how the implementation process was planned and (intended to be) carried out. Second, from a linguistic perspective, documented lexical borrowings and other traces of linguistic contact are identified that can corroborate the historical findings by reflecting a greater effect of contact in such areas where the implementation of German was carried out most strictly. The goal of this paper is, firstly, to trace the political and missionary activities in language planning with regard to German in the colonial Pacific, rather similar to a modern language policy scenario when a new code of prestige or national unity is implemented. Secondly, these activities are evaluated in the face of the outcome that can be observed, in the historical practice as well as in long-term effects of language contact up until today.|| 1 This paper is based on a joint presentation by Stefan Engelberg (IDS Mannheim) and the author, held at the Seventh International Conference on Missionary Linguistics, University of Bremen (Germany), March 2012. Thanks go to Stefan Engelberg for preparing substantial parts of the presentation, especially regarding remuneration policies and the categorization of loanwords with respect to planning effects. Further thanks go to our student research assistent, Ineke Scholz, for categorizing the loanwords into semantic fields.

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The Colonial Space of Knowledge: The Medical Mission in West Africa, Imperial Entanglements and Colonial Cleanliness

Ratschiller Nasim

2023

Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies

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The increasing expansion and intensity of European imperialism overseas produced new knowledge on purity, health and cleanliness, which affected the development of hygiene. This chapter begins by exploring the Basel Mission’s activities on the Gold Coast since 1828 and in Cameroon since 1885, which included far-reaching economic, social and medical policies. The involvement of the Basel Mission in delivering health care to the population in West Africa was increasingly valued by imperial policy-makers. There was a marked shift between 1885 and 1914 from an initial emphasis on the health and survival of white colonists to the teaching of hygiene to the resident population in the colonies, ostensibly for their own benefit. The improvement of “indigenous hygiene”—as it was referred to during the colonial period before World War I—became a key concern of colonial governments in Africa around 1900, for both economic and cultural reasons. The tropics provided a setting in which the Basel Mission doctors not only gained scientific reputation but also political authority.

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An African Kulturkampf: Religious conflict and language policy in German Cameroon, 1885-1914

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Historical sociolinguistics in colonial New Guinea: The Rhenish mission society in the Astrolabe Bay

Historical sociolinguistics in colonial New Guinea: The Rhenish mission society in the Astrolabe Bay

German in the Pacific: Language policy and language planning

The Colonial Space of Knowledge: The Medical Mission in West Africa, Imperial Entanglements and Colonial Cleanliness

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