By Bakah Derick
A Master's degree dissertation defended a few months back in the University of Bamenda's faculty of Arts, department of Linguistics and African languages titled Social media hate speech and National unity in Cameroon: A critical discourse analysis is emerging as the game changer in efforts to combat hate speech in the country.
Defended with uncommon mastery of the subject backed by well researched data and analysis, the author of the masterpiece Bah Emmanuel Tokoh says his choice of the topic was motivated by "the spate of online hate speech in Cameroon especially within the context of the Anglophone crisis and the 2018 presidential election."
"I thought that it was neccessary for Cameroonians first of all from an academic or scientific perspective to know what hate speech is all about and those situations in Cameroon that are helping to generate hate speech." He said
The close to 200 page work examines hate speech from the words and expressions used in Cameroon which can be considered hateful, discourse use of these words and expressions as well as social practices which underpins the use of the words and expressions be they in the political, social and historical context.
"We noticed three outstanding drivers of hate speech in Cameroon; marginalisation especially in the context of the Anglophone problem, social inequalities because in Cameroon we have many communities that are languishing in abject poverty while others seem to be treated with some kind of favouritism and political rivalry which also generates hate speech." Bah stated.
While telling Hilltopvoices that the work has been requested for publication by some international Journals, Bah Emmanuel believes that if properly exploited, the academic and scientific work can contribute significantly in reducing hate speech in Cameroon.
As a social ill being fought by some state institutions and Non governmental organisations, the researcher says he is available whenever the need arises to contribute in combating the phenomenon.
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