Congratulations to Mr. Ishmael Brown - Cameroon/Kamtok Project

Cameroon/Kamtok Project

 This summer, Mr. Brown, along with a group consisting of 15 educators (secondary teachers, administrators, and college professors), was afforded the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the country of Cameroon, which is located on the west coast of Africa.  They were there from June 9 – July 9, 2017. They represented various disciplines but shared a concerted interest in Kamtok (or Cameroonian Pidgin English).

Mr. Brown's trip took him the following places (click on the links for more information about each area):

• Doula, the economic capital of Cameroon
• Anglophone region of Cameroon to Buea.  (While there, they toured significant sites such as the Fiftieth Anniversaries of Independence and Ratification monuments and the vast areas of tea fields (Cameroon is considered “The 27th largest producer of tea in the world”).  
• Northwest Region of the Anglophone region to its largest city, Bamenda.  (While there, they had the opportunity to visit several local villages and met each king from the village and then made several visits to the local markets for shopping.)
• Francophone region to the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde.  (While there, they visited the Ministry of Higher Education.)
• Western region of Cameroon, arriving in Limbé. (While there, they participated in presentations about Cameroonian Pidgin English; its origin, statistics, and the push to make Pidgin English an official language. The cultural visits concluded with a trip to Bimbia, which was the major slave market of Cameroon.  They also visited the local fish hatchery and the conservation reserve.)

Of his experience, Mr. Brown says, "My cultural view of Africa has definitely changed.  The people and the landscape is not readily displayed in most media outlets.  Experiencing Cameroon, experiencing Africa first-hand, brings me to a different perspective of how we are truly alike, and yet what makes us different; we are the same, just different circumstances."