The english-language press and the "Anglo-phone problem" in Cameroon: Group identity, culture, and the politics of Nostalgia

This paper traces the role of the Cameroonian English-language press in creating awareness of the "Anglophone problem," and putting it on the Cameroonian and international political agenda. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the problematic situations perspective which holds that when newspapers report events, they always present the issues in terms of problems that need to be solved in order to maintain individual, political and social equilibrium and harmony. English language newspapers and radio programs made use of identity and nostalgia to present an unenviable picture of the Anglophone minority in Cameroon. The newspapers concluded that Anglophones were a marginalized minority whose problems could only be solved by political autonomy and less control from the French-style over-centralized bureaucracy in Yaoundé.