International Journal of Humanitatis Theoreticus. Vol. 4.

(Issue: 2); December, 2020

A critical discourse analysis of the language of Internally

Displaced Persons in Dschang, Cameroon

By

Gwladys PA’AMI TCHAKOTE Blasius Agha-ah CHIATOH (PhD)

Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Lecturer, Department of Linguistics,
University of Dschang, Cameroon University of Buea, Cameroon

Abstract
The “forced” migration of individuals from the North-West and South-West regions of
Cameroon due to the Anglophone crisis is working for a new perception of identity which finds
expression in the language used by displaced persons. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),
consciously or not, bargain for a new sense of belonging and minimize their cultural
differences with the host population in French-speaking regions. As such, how IDPs negotiate
new spatial identities is of key interest in this study. Using Critical Discourse Analysis,
indicated hereafter as CDA, as theoretical framework and Discourse Historical Approach
(DHA) as the main methodological approach, this paper examines discursive strategies of
identity construction in the new geographical space. Data for this study consisted of a total of
100 IDPs’ life stories in the town of Dschang. The analysis of participants’ narratives reveals
that the integration and identity formation process into the new space follows three stages: the
renegotiation of the past, opening up to another culture and forming new consciousnesses.
Their stories further indicate that there exist different degrees of identity reconstruction that
could be identified through specific discursive strategies: identification, exclusion, inclusion.
The findings in this study should serve as a pathway to bridge dichotomous categorization of
“us/self” and “them/other” in present day Cameroon as a whole.
Keywords: Identity; new space; IDPs; cultural differences; home; discourse

Introduction
In Cameroon, the Anglophone crisis has caused mass exodus of populations on a scale
previously unseen in the North-West and South-West regions. The 2019 mid-year report of the
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) discloses that the current migratory flows
are reflected, on the one hand, by a general displacement of 437,500 persons from the North-
West and South-West regions to other regions or country sides. On the other hand, the
emigration of about 32,600 Cameroonians towards Nigeria1 equally provides an overview of
the rate of displacement due to the Anglophone crisis. As a matter of fact, displacement has
been reported on by the media as one of the most striking humanitarian consequences of the
secessionist insurgency in the Anglophone regions. This phenomenon raises several
preoccupations in cultural studies among which is that of the negotiation of new identities in
host spaces. Mobility and displacement cause IDPs in general to redefine themselves in their
new environment, to re-think their previous identity patterns and to adopt new ones.
The United Nations Guiding Principles of 1998 on Internal Displacement describes
Internally Displaced Persons as:
Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their
homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid
the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human

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rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally
recognised state border. (p. 3)

In this case, they are conflict-induced IDPs and focusing on individuals’ narratives as the main
data for this study, ways in which IDPs in Dschang mould a new spatial identity are unveiled.

Research Problem and Question(s)

Migration or displacement of individuals to a new space engenders a repositioning of
the ‘self’ which is translated in narratives of IDPs in Dschang. These discourses constitute life
stories in which the process of identity negotiation is at work in a dynamic scheme.
Consequently, IDPs in Dschang, upon engaging into contact, relationships and acquaintances
with the population (hereafter referred to as ‘other’) assume a change of attitude that transforms
interpersonal affiliations with one another. Noticeably, as they strive to adapt in the new
cultural environment, new linguistic needs are emerging. Indeed, language is a central
component to issues of migration and negotiation of identity and as such, an examination of
how IDPs in Dschang use it to negotiate a new spatial identity is indispensable to this research.
This preoccupation has therefore inspired the following research question: how do IDPs in
Dschang negotiate a new identity in discourse? For a thorough analysis of this topic, it is
essential to consider the following secondary research questions: What are the discursive
strategies used by IDPs in their interactions with the ‘other’ to negotiate spatial belonging in
Dschang? How does language use categorise or position them in the new space? Both the main
and secondary research questions converge to investigate how IDPs position themselves and
others in various interactions and how they negotiate their identities in communication. A
workable theoretical framework to answer these research questions is Critical Discourse
Analysis, a theory which focuses on the discursive and linguistic features of texts. Owing to
the postulate that discourses are sites in which identities and social relations are constructed, it
is imperative to analyse IDPs’ narratives to examine how social positions are presented.

Theoretical framework and review of literature

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), is a multidisciplinary approach in discourse
studies2 which is guided by a critical perspective over how certain social issues, those which
are characterised by inequalities, power abuse or discrimination, and identity are reproduced,
legitimated or enacted through discourse in relation to the wide social and historical context
(Wodak and Meyer, 2001). As suggested by Fairclough and Wodak (1997, pp. 271 - 280), the
tenets of critical research on discourse include:
1. CDA addresses social problems and political issues
2. Power relations are discursive
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture
4. Discourse does ideological work
5. Discourse is historical
6. The link between text and society is mediated
7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
8. Discourse is a form of social action
The above-mentioned aims of CDA clarify the consideration of identity (linguistic/
cultural) issues raised in this study as effectively within the framework of CDA. In more
concrete terms, discourses of migration and negotiation of new identities constitute a social
problem, which is discursive, historical, interpretative and explanatory. CDA is appropriate
for this inquiry because it is resourceful to developing a conceptual framework to discuss issues

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of identity and the way in which they are constructed in texts or speech as part of discursive
processes. Within the CDA tradition, Wodak and the Vienna School of Discourse Analysis
have researched extensively on this topic and this has resulted in the development of what is
known as the Discourse-Historical Approach, equally spelled DHA (Wodak and Meyer, 2001).
Wodak and Meyer’s DHA to CDA investigates the strategies that help to construct,
justify, change or dismantle identities in discourse regarded in this context as “[…] a mental
representation (a meaning, an opinion), a cultural product […]” (p. 67). Their discourse
historical model of CDA refers to the use of language for the expression of experiential
meaning. As an analytical method, DHA is applied in this study to reflect how the experience
of identity is negotiated in a new space. Consequently, DHA is used here to analyse content
topics and discursive strategies that substantiate the negotiation of a new identity in narratives
of IDPs in Dschang. To this effect, DHA is used in a sequence of three analytical dimensions:

Description/micro-level of interpretation: The focus here is on the various aspects of textual

and linguistic analysis of IDPs’ narratives such as the processes of identity formation and
rhetorical arguments.

Interpretation/meso-level: Otherwise referred to as "level of discursive practice", this

involves making an evaluation of IDPs’ narratives, here considered as “[…] site[s] where
identity positions are negotiated” (Farell, 2008, p. 57). Emphasis will therefore be laid on
examining how IDPs position themselves in relation to the ‘other’ and how they position
themselves to themselves in their narratives.

Explanation/macro-level: This level looks at the intertextual and interdiscursive elements in

IDPs’ narratives while taking into account the societal conditions against which these life-
stories are told3.
The following section contextualises the literature related to this research and provides
a justification for the present study.
This review of literature explores key definitions attached to the concept of identity. It
equally puts in relation the notion of identity with narratives, then that of language and identity,
followed by that of space and identity.
In the modern setting, identity is an important issue and at the same time a polysemic
concept. Previous research has termed the concept of identity as (1) constitutive of a particular
group membership (Spears, 2011), (2) a cultural product (Hall, 1996) and as construction
(Babbha, 1994 and Simo, 2012). This research subverts these authors’ views in that it
transcends the essentialist conception of identity as a relatively static pattern and a pre-existing
characteristic that language has the only function of representing. On the contrary, it projects
identity as a changing concept which is multifaceted and dynamic in nature.
In Weinberg’s (2014) perspective, the social constructionist approach has emerged as
the dominant framework in the theorisation of identity. This approach to identity is adequate
for the study of IDPs’ negotiation of a new spatial identity as it is manifested in interaction.
The definition of identity by Bucholtz and Hall (2010, p. 18) as “a relational and socio-cultural
phenomenon that emerges and circulates in local discourse contexts of interaction rather than
as a stable structure located primarily in the individual psyche or in fixed social categories”
will therefore be adopted in this study.
Talking on identity and narrative, there are issues that are widely explored in CDA.
Studies on narrative discourse address different social issues like aspects of national identity
(De Fina, 2006); couples therapy (Yeganehfarzand et al, 2019; Hamidi et al, 2016); gender and

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child birth (Das, 2017); racism (Dijk, 1993; Briscoe and Khalifa, 2015); divorce (Shelley,
1997); L2 and language ownership (Riessman, 2008); and asylum seeker process (Beatriz,
2015). Specifically, significant to this research are studies that converge towards an interest in
assessing the role narratives play in identity construction in interaction (Bamberg, 2011). There
is much of the linguistic literature about this and remarkably, scholars propose several
approaches in bringing together narratives and identity. Among these approaches, the most
comprehensive ones are the structuralist perspective through the works of Labov and Waletzky
(1967) and the discourse-oriented approach (Ochs and Capps, 2001).
This paper is imbued in the discourse-oriented approach because it defines narrative as
a “situated performance” (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001, p. 13-14), a resourceful material for
examining the contextual discursive construction of ‘self’. De Fina (2003, 2006) contextualises
the link between identity and narrative within the framework of migration and social
belonging. She concludes that narrators negotiate membership into particular social groups
through the use of “categorization and identification strategies to introduce themselves and
others in narratives” (2003, p. 23). In the same way, Gergen (2001) notes that narratives have
emerged as a resourceful ground for the construction and re-construction of the self, as well as
for the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘other’, then ‘self’ and ‘society’. Just like Farell’s, De
Fina’s and Gergen’s works, this study is based on the assumption that narratives are forms of
interactions through which stories of migration and settlement provide a perspective whereby
the negotiation of identities can be examined. In the present study, our interest is not only on
studying how spatial identity is negotiated discursively but also on how it lays particular
emphasis on discourses of language (here the French language). The stories produced by
participants in the study are analysed to identify discursive strategies that contribute to the
negotiation of a spatial identity in Dschang.
The relationship between language and identity is often ambiguous as quite a good
number of researchers have labelled it as a marked-based component in the definition of ‘self’
(Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995). Here, identity is understood as “[…] a practical
accomplishment, achieved and maintained through the detail of language use” (ibid, p. 133).
Within the context of migration or displacement as the background for the study, the binary
language and identity constitutes a further perspective for the examination of identity
construction in discourse. Pavlenko and Lantof (2000) note that in investigating issues of
language and identity, attention should be paid to “issues of affiliation and belonging” (p.155).
This goes alongside the assumption that identity is contextually negotiated. Therefore, the link
between language and identity is palpable at both individual and societal level. However, this
perspective is downplayed in this study because the emphasis on a particular language (be it
an official language, a mother tongue or a dialect) as the principal characteristic of an
individual that defines his/her identity often neglects new or mixed language identities that are
more common nowadays in Cameroon.
Space is a core element in discussions on identity. Space and identity are intrinsically
linked notions given that “people identify with where they live, shape it and are shaped by it”
(Daoud, 2017, p. 4). In essence, a sense of space identity derives from the multiple ways in
which place functions to provide a sense of belonging, to construct meaning and to foster
attachments (ibid). Hence, the study of spatial identity is the study of a people’s spatial feelings
and ideas in the stream of experiences.

Research Methodology
The present research is a case study in which analysis is data-centred; it focuses
exclusively on the individual narratives of participants. It is appropriate for this study because

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it does not only define the type of participants (IDPs) involved in the study but it equally
situates the study within a specific geographical setting, which is Dschang. Likewise, it gives
room for the analysis of a particular problem, that of the negotiation of new spatial identity by
IDPs in Dschang which has become a town of hospitality for many. As for data collection,
specific instruments were used. A research design of this type adopts a qualitative research
approach which involves data typically collected in the participant’s setting.

Area of study
This study is geographically limited to Dschang. Dschang is the headquarters of the
Menoua division and a town located in the West region of Cameroon, with an estimated IDPs
of 12,4694 in 2019 according to the 2019 World Population Review of the population of cities
in Cameroon. There are IDPs in virtually all the towns of Cameroon but Dschang was chosen
as the main area of study for this research because of its proximity to the affected regions and
equally because statistics have established that among the divisions in which IDPs have sought
refuge in the West region, the Menoua division harbours the highest number of IDPs. Thus, it
is based on these figures that the researchers opted to conduct the study in Dschang.

Population and identification of IDPs

The target population of this study is IDPs in Dschang. To identify IDPs, casual
discussions were conducted with some students and lecturers in the Faculty of Letters and
Social Sciences of the university of Dschang campus. They were asked open-ended questions
such as: “do you know IDPs living in Dschang?”, “if yes, where do they reside?” The 20
respondents (8 course instructors and 12 students) that were randomly chosen for this inquiry
identified Paid Ground (students’ residential area), Foto and Ngui as places where IDPs could
be located in Dschang. Interestingly, of the 20 respondents 4 (course instructors) said they
hosted IDPs, 8 identified themselves as IDPs and 5 claimed they have friends who are IDPs
and 3 said they did not know IDPs but could tell where they live because it was announced in
their church that Christians should make donations for IDPs in Ngui. Of the 20 respondents, 4
lecturers granted permissions to the researchers to visit their homes in Foto and interview IDPs;
5 students expressed their willingness to direct the researchers to the houses of IDPs they knew
in Paid-Ground and Ngui.

Sample and sampling technique

The sample consisted of 100 participants (51 males and 49 females). The sample was
purposively selected as the researchers choose to interview only IDPs who were adolescents
and adults because they could understand the meaning of the questions addressed to them and
to respond accordingly.

Table 1: Identification of participants

Number of Age Profession Provenance
respondents

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47 [25 – 45] House helps (04) North-West region

Teachers (06) (Kumbo, Wum,
Traders (18) Bamenda, Batibo, Santa
Jobless (11) and Tubah)
Vendors for MTN (07) South West region
(Tombel, Ediki, Ekona)
43 [16 – 23] Students: North-West region
University: 30 whose level ranged (Jakiri, Awing, Oku)
between level 1 and 2 South West region
High school level: 13 whose level ranged (Menji, Egbekaw,
between lower sixth and upper-sixth Akwaya, Eyumojock)
Source: Data retrieved from interviews

Data Collection and Analysis Instruments

A study of identity as expressed through personal experiences within a specific or
defined linguistic and geographical context is undoubtedly a cultural study which requires
flexibility in its approach to data collection. Therefore, the researchers opted for a qualitative
method of data collection because in a narrative-centred analysis like this one, the findings
should communicate participants’ worldviews and provide a contextual understanding of the
life experiences of IDPs in Dschang. For this reason, data was collected through interviews.
One of the best sources of information regarding IDPs is the IDPs themselves. The
interviews which lasted for 15 to 25 minutes were mostly conducted in public spaces
particularly shops (both at the entrance of the university of Dschang campus and in town),
while some others were conducted in hostels and households in Paid Ground, Foto and Ngui.
Using a tape recorder, the interviews aimed at profiling participants in the study (identification,
places of origins and their language identities)5 and getting information on their coping
strategies in their new milieu. For that purpose, the interviews were based on open-ended
questions such as: what is your name? What is your profession? Where do you come from?
What is your first language? What obstacles do you face living in Dschang as an IDP? Do you
believe you can fully adapt and integrate yourself into your new space?
The data were collected from the first-person point of view, thereby encouraging
narration by means of the above questions. The rationale for the use of narratives to investigate
issues of identity is particularly relevant here. The researchers sought to find out how the
participants create their sense of identity, how they share their knowledge of the world in some
logical and coherent manner (Moskal, 2010) as a means of interpreting the world and
themselves (Larsson and Sjöblom, 2009, p. 274; Czarniawska, 2004).
In line with this, identity is perceived in this study as a social construct, a feature of
human being which is bound to constant change, multiple and conflicted (Wodak & Meyer,
2001). Through narratives, the researchers were able to produce coherent data, that which has
been subjected to conscious processing. The narratives were collected orally and then
transcribed word verbatim. The transcription was followed by a thorough reading of the
narratives which consisted in highlighting prominent discourses6 in each participant’s
narrative. These discourses are itemised in the following table:

Table 2: Categorisation of discourses in participants’ narratives

S/N Discourses
01 Conflict and displacement

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02 Spatial reference: Home versus here

03 Brotherhood
04 Nationhood
Source: Retrieved from interview data

A structural and linguistic analysis of these discourses will highlight phases of the integration
and identity negotiation process and bring out discursive strategies used to this effect. In
accordance with the three levels of textual interpretation suggested by the DHA, the structural
analysis of participants’ narratives consists in:
• identifying and analysing linguistic elements on which processes of identity formation
are established (micro / discursive level of interpretation)
• examining how participants negotiate identity positions in terms of ‘self’ and ‘other’
(meso-level of interpretation). Here, reference is made to Leeuwen (2008) socio-
semantic inventory which is a framework by which we explain the many ways in which
participants in the study position themselves in their discourses in relation to the ‘other’
and to themselves. It is more relevant for this study because it operationalises discursive
and analytical categories on ‘self’ and ‘other’ and grants them a socio-semantic
interpretation. The categorisation at stake here involves components of interpersonal
interaction as a metafunction which can be framed in terms of exclusion, inclusion,
relational identification, nominalisation among others.
• highlighting recurrent elements (interdiscursivity) in participants’ narratives to see how
the socio-cultural context influences integration of IDPs (macro-level of
interpretation).
The table below summarises the process of data collection and analysis.

Table 3: Summary of data collection and analysis instruments

Specific objective(s) Methods of data Instruments of data Methods of data
collection collection analysis
To identify the main Purposive selection of Interviews (open-ended) - Transcription word-
discourses in IDPs verbatim
participants’ narratives - Interpretation and
inferential analysis
To identify stages of the Structural analysis using
negotiation of a new the Discourse Historical
spatial identity by IDPs Approach (DHA) and
(description and Van Leeuwen’s (2008)
explanation) Socio-semantic
inventory
Source: inferred from components of research methodology for this study

Data presentation and analysis

The present study uses qualitative data which cannot be displayed in graphs, diagrams
or in statistic charts as would be familiarly found in quantitative research. However, data has
been organised into analytical categories obtained by means of an inferential analysis of
participants’ narratives as in table 2 in which recurrent discourses found therein have been
identified and categorised. In addition, word verbatim quotes from the research subjects are
used in the presentations of findings as illustrations of the main discourses that emerged from
the data and to demonstrate the reliability of the conclusions. This way, the researchers could
counter the iterative process of overlong narrative which often distracts from the main findings.
However, for purposes of helping the reader get the intended message, a visual
representation of the prominent aspects of participants’ narratives are provided in the table
below. These elements constitute responses to key questions of the interview that enabled the
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researchers make sense of participants’ experiences as IDPs in Dschang and make an

interpretation of how they negotiate a new spatial identity.

Table 4: Data presentation

S/N Questions Responses Number of
participants
1 What obstacles do you face living a. The rejection of IDPs by some people in 15 over 100
in Dschang as an IDP? Dschang
b. Lack of effective communication with 70 over 100
the host population due to the non-mastery
of French by IDPs
c. Joblessness due to the distrust the host 15 over 100
population have toward IDPs.
2 Do you believe you can fully adapt a. Yes 75 over 100
and integrate yourself into your b. No 25 over 100
new space?
Source: Retrieved from data

Findings and discussion

The analysis of data has revealed that IDPs have developed strategies for creating a
sense of home and belonging in ways that reflect their social context. These are more or less
conscious efforts that IDPs adopt to negotiate their belonging in Dschang. Specifically, three
phases of the integration and identity negotiation process into the new space are identified in
participants’ narratives. They are the renegotiation of the past, opening up to another culture
and forming new consciousness respectively.

The renegotiation of the past and opening to another culture

A common feature in participants’ narratives is that displacement has prompted them
to reconsider historical differences between English-speaking and French-speaking
Cameroonians which can be traced back to the ethno-colonial history of Cameroon7. The latter
involves contradictions (oppositions) in individual identity and instances of the perpetuation
of the unequal distribution of resources outlined by participants. Here are some examples:

Participant 12:
“[…] I owe my status as an IDP in Dschang to the government who has never paid
attention to the welfare of Anglophones. Imagine that from where I come from we lack
basic facilities like water and electricity, talk less of lack of trained teachers to educate
children”.

Participant 20:
“I came to Dschang because I am running away from war. People here are good to me
and my family but I am convinced the government has deprived us from our rights as
Cameroonians because if they considered us citizens of this country the president would
have come to dialogue with Amba boys and not sending the army to kill people.”
In these excerpts, the discourse of prejudice and oppression prevails. Discourse is
identified through linguistic traces which can be a word, a clause, a phrase, a clause or a
sentence. The first linguistic trace identified here is the use of action verbs: “owe”, “lack” and
“deprived”. These verbs show that participant 12 attributes the responsibility of his status as
IDP to the government (“owe”). In addition, they express a frustration (“lack” and “deprived”)
inflicted on both participants who feel cheated in the state’s distribution of resources namely

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“basic facilities like water and electricity”, “trained teachers” and, more essentially on their
“rights as Cameroonians”.
The second linguistic trace that shows frustration is the adverb “never”. This adverb
expresses the disregard manifested by the government towards Anglophone Cameroonians in
general, implying that at no time in the past has the state considered improving their conditions
of living. This evidence is put into perspective by participants to show that Anglophone
Cameroonians in general undergo a form of disregard and marginalisation that have altered
their mode of being by reducing them to a minority8 status in a Francophone-dominated
country. This perception of participants generates a view of the government as the oppressor
as seen in the following clause: “if they considered us citizens of this country the president
would have come to dialogue with Amba boys and not sending the army to kill people”. This
clause constitutes a genocidal argument carefully put forth by participant 20 using factuality
as a discourse strategy to show the degree of the government disregard for the victims of the
ongoing crisis in the North-West and South-West regions.
Indeed, the history of contemporary Cameroon from the point of view of Anglophone
Cameroonians is that of unequal distribution of space by colonial powers, deceit and bias
treatment which has resulted in the legitimisation of the ‘other’ versus ‘self’, ‘home’ versus
‘here’. However, participants have formulated alternative discourses to spatial reference,
otherness and blame. Some of the mediating mechanisms expressed in the data in favour of
this argument are presented in the following diagram:

Figure 1: Stages of the renegotiation of the past by participants

Reducing social
distance with the
host population
• Relational
identification
• Exclusion • Socialisation in with the 'other'
French and inclusion
• Creating and
The reconstruction essentialising
of 'self' and hybridity
'other'
Discursive
construction of
national identity

5.1.1 The reconstruction of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’

There is evident in participants’ discourses that the negotiation of identity entails a
reconstruction of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’. Displacement or migration, as Daoud (2017) rightly
observes, requires a renegotiation of the past in which individuals re-identify their ‘self’ and
the ‘other’. Actually, the reconstruction of the ‘self’ here also takes into account that of the
‘other’ and vice-versa. Out of 100 participants involved, 85 narrated discourses related to
otherness, an attitude used by some city dwellers in Dschang to develop negative stereotypes
about IDPs. The word “Ambazonians” appeared 15 times in participants’ narratives and the
word “Amba” 55 times as observed in participants 13 and 94:

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Participant 13 :
One day, I overheard my landlady telling her son that: “il faut dire aux
Ambazoniens là de fermer le puits dès qu’ils finissent”. That word “Amba” shocked
me but I could not blame her because I assumed she does not know that secessionists
are the ones we refer to as “Ambas” and not civilians.

Participant 94:
Because I was unable to provide the correct answer to a question my literature madam
asked during her class last Thursday, my bench mate laughed and said “na this kind
answer e takam pass GCE for Amba land”.
In these two excerpts, participants express a bitter recall of their life experiences as
IDPs in Dschang. In participant 13’s narrative, there is a prejudiced recall of the past that
transpired through the landlady’s address to her son and it is glaring that history informed such
a dichotomous representation. Evidently, there are traces of hate speech in the landlady’s
address to participant 13 in the following terms: “il faut dire aux Ambazoniens là […]” in
English “tell those Ambazonians that […]9”. Interestingly, an analysis of this excerpt using
Leeuwen’s socio-semantic inventory (2008) reveals that the landlady uses two major
discursive strategies to establish a difference between themselves (her son and herself) and
participant 13 namely identification and exclusion. Identification occurs when individuals are
defined in terms of what they are, including age, gender, provenance and ethnicity10, etc. The
landlady classifies her tenant (participant 13) in terms of his provenance as “Ambazoniens” (in
English, “Ambazonians”). When examined closely and giving the present socio-political
context in Cameroon, this attribute is a stereotyping and pejorative label that the landlady
attaches to this participant and his family. This same identification strategy is applied to the
excerpt of participant 94 whose classmate made a mockery concerning how certificates are
obtained in “Amba land” where the Anglophone crisis has rendered education ineffective11. In
so doing, the address “Ambazonians” and the location “Amba-land” constitute a strategy of
exclusion in that they establish a difference of origin and space between participant 13 and his
landlady, then seek to create a distinction between a GCE obtained by participant 94 in a
conflict area and that of his bench mate.
However, participant 13’s refusal of any association with the “Ambas”: “[…]
secessionists are the ones we refer to as Ambas and not civilians” relates to a reconstruction
of ‘self’ and the exclusion of the ‘other’ in this case, perpetrators of the secessionist movement.
The word “Ambas” here refers to the political ‘other’ to which participants in general owe
their displacement: “kidnappings and deaths caused by the ‘Ambas’ as well as their armed
confrontation with the army has made me and my family to escape from my place in Wum”
(participant 41). To bridge all these incongruences12, almost all participants (92 out of 100)
engage into frequent and ‘friendly’ interactions that can remind the host population of the
individuality and human quality of IDPs in personal and social space.

Reducing Social Distance with the Host Population

Reducing social distance with the host population is an enculturation (socialisation)
process in which IDPs seek to change the host population’s ways of thinking about them. As
a matter of fact, processes of individuals’ self-conceptions are materialised through
communication with others (Khan, 2014). This involves a linguistic dimension referred to as

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the foreign language identity development that participants’ narratives illustrate. Actually, for
all Anglophone interviewees, French is a foreign language. They were asked if the exposure
to the French language has had negative or positive impact on them. In response, 65
participants held the view that learning French has influenced their perception about their ‘self’
and has enabled them to be familiar with people in Dschang. The following quotes were
formulated in response to the inquiry concerning the impact of learning French on one’s
identity:
Participant 2: French permits me to get familiar with people I meet here and learn about their
ways.
Participant 8: I will be learning and using French henceforth because Cameroon is bilingual
and because Dschang has become my new place of residence.
Participant 13: I learn French to be able to communicate with others in school and with those
around me.
Participant 47: I will get to know people and make new friends in Dschang by learning
French.
In the above excerpts, participants use justification as a discursive strategy to advance
reasons underlying their motivation to learn the French language. Likewise, the linguistic
elements that express their willingness to learn the French language are summarised in the
following table.

Table 5: Evidences of participants’ motivation to learn French

Linguistic elements Grammatical class Relevance
Henceforth Adverb Show resilience and explain participant’s
Because Coordinating motivations to learn French / the new culture
conjunction termed as “their ways” by participant 2.
Permits Verbs Express a modality and a capacity to learn
To be able to French
Source: Personal computation from data.

Of the 100 participants, 35 said that contact with French has not impacted their view of
who they are since they do not want to be integrated in Dschang. Here are some facts they
stated:
Participant 65: I speak English at home, I study English in school and I speak English with
my lecturers and classmates so what do I need the French for?
Participant 74: Learning French has not affected me because I don’t see how a language can
change somebody’s ways.
It is obvious from the resistance expressed above that these learners of French do not
have the ambition to be acculturated as they have no motivation per say to integrate into the
target language. The use of the modality “I don’t see how […]” shows reticence to learning
French since, according to participant 74, it has no impact on the perception of self. Similarly,
the interrogative clause “what do I need the French for?” demonstrates the indifference of
participant 65 toward the new culture. It can therefore be hypothesised that motivation for
integration into a given culture leads learners into developing an interest in learning a foreign
language. In the light of these considerations, participants who have acknowledged the fact
that they have resorted to learning French with the aim of being integrated in Dschang, engage
in what Ting-Toomey (1999) calls “mindful communication”. Mindfulness here means
“readiness to shift one’s frame of reference”. It implies opening up to another culture thus,
being receptive to new modes of identity construction and more importantly, learning new
values. In so doing, the majority of participants (80 out of 100) in this study aims at establishing
a sense of sameness with the ‘other’.

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Discursive Construction of Sameness

The ideas retrieved in participants’ narratives converge to assert that the population of
Dschang and IDPs are one. The following quotes corroborate this judgement:
Participant 36: “We are all Cameroonians and I feel at home here”
Participant 44: “My neighbours sympathise with me and we live like brothers and sisters.
They share their food with me and when I have I do same”
Participant 77: “My family and I settled in Dschang since two years now and as compared to
what I had in mind, there is no bias in the way people treat us here. […] I feel at home and I
have made friends that I look up to as brothers”
Participant 83: “The Dschang people and I are all members of the same motherland and so I
consider them like my brothers as in my neighbourhood, they treat me like a Cameroonian and
not as a stranger.”
The personal pronoun “we”, nouns: “brothers and sisters” and “brothers” were used
profusely in the narratives under study. They are inclusive terms which establish a relational
identification of IDPs in terms of their personal relations with the host community. Such
discursive elements highlight a form of brotherhood in which IDPs commune with others. In
another perspective, some participants provided a unifying content in rethinking the ‘other’
which goes beyond ethnic and cultural identities. In the following excerpt, for example: “the
Dschang people and I are all members of the same motherland […]”, participant 54 transcends
geographical specifications of identity to talk about a “same motherland” people. This relates
to inclusion as a discursive strategy in which the idea of a national identity is embedded.
At this level, it is worth remembering that the conceptual framework of national identity
is culturally produced to create difference through the fostering of a sense of sameness. Such
a construction may be viewed as a consequence of the contact of cultures and the mutual
accommodation of the elements from these cultures as expressed in the use of French by some
IDPs to communicate.

Formation of New Consciousnesses

The emergence of new consciousnesses on the part of IDPs is manifested in their
narratives through their resilience and willingness to open up to the ‘other’ and learn their
language (French) as shown in page 12 and 13. The use of French by majority of participants
(65 out of 100) as a foreign language to socialise with other inhabitants in Dschang has
expanded their socio-cultural scope. They are gradually developing a double language
consciousness based on their familiarity with another culture and language. Consequently,
participants assert a hybrid identity. Unconsciously, they may gradually embrace the national
prospect of multilingualism which will confer on them multiple identities.

Conclusion
Examining narratives of displacement and migration using Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA) as a theoretical framework, this study has demonstrated that space and identity are
interrelated. It has explored the processes of negotiation of identity following settlement in a
new environment. In the light of the above findings, it can be said that the narratives that were
analysed signify the personal and collective experiences of participants in the study.
Furthermore, the study has revealed that leaving in Dschang has opened up a new space for
them through which they will be able to expand their “selves”. The different stages of the
negotiation of a new spatial identity indirectly subject participants to develop dual language
skills which constitute an initial stage of hybridization. Hence, acquiring French ‘language

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codes’13 through interaction with the other is a way for participants to delegitimize social
distinction between Anglophone and Francophones, thereby, acquiring the ‘cultural capital’14
required for integration in Dschang.

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