One question I ask myself constantly while making Speaking Tongues is, “Who gets to decide if a language has value?”
Long before I’d even hit record on episode 1, I’d spent years listening to language, travel, and cultural podcasts. While many were interesting, I couldn’t help but notice how little attention was given to Africa and its languages. Aside from Swahili, it often felt like the hundreds of languages spoken across the continent were either ignored or treated as an afterthought in the broader language-learning community.
My mission with this show has always been to change that narrative. I want to give African languages the recognition they deserve, to showcase their splendor, and not just in a way that relegates them to “special episodes” or subjects them to the exoticized gaze of outsiders. Instead, I want people to hear these languages in all their richness—their unique sounds and tonalities, their deep connections to the people who speak them, and their ties to religion, history, and everyday life.
When I started this show, I could never have imagined learning as much as I have about Cameroon. I’ll admit, my knowledge of the country was once limited to football and Makossa music. But now, I’ve dedicated two episodes to exploring five different languages from Cameroon. In the most recent episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Pius Akumbu about Babanki, an endangered language, and his passion for preserving it opened my eyes to the linguistic diversity and challenges in the region.
We kicked off our conversation with Pius sharing his linguistic journey. His first language, Babanki, also known as Kejom, is a grassfields Bantu language spoken in the northwest region of Cameroon. Pius gives us an in-depth look at the structure of Babanki, highlighting its tonal nature and noun class system. We learned about how changing the pitch of a word can alter its meaning entirely. For instance, “kumbu” with a low pitch means “back,” while “kumbu” with a rising pitch means “madness.” We even learn about the honorific language used when addressing the chief of the Babanki people. This special form of address underscores the deep respect and cultural heritage embedded in the language.
Pius was truly the perfect person to have this conversation about language and culture with. I was curious about broader linguistic landscape of Cameroon and he explains that the grassfields region, where Babanki is spoken, is home to a staggering number of languages—over 70 by some counts. This region is one of the most linguistically diverse areas on the continent. He also touches on the mutual intelligibility among these languages and how they share certain lexical and grammatical features. As Cameroon’s two “official” languages are English and French, we talk about their influence on the local languages and on Cameroon Pidgin and CamFranglais.
One of the key challenges facing these languages is the impact of colonialism and the dominance of English and French in education and administration. Pius shares his personal experience of being educated in English when he started school, despite Babanki being his first language. This systemic issue has led to a decline in the use of indigenous languages, as people prioritize languages that offer economic and educational opportunities.
But we are hopeful! Pius talks about various efforts to revitalize Babanki, including community meetings where the language is spoken, and his initiative to start a school where children can learn in Babanki for the first few years before transitioning to English. He also highlights the role of technology and social media, such as a huge WhatsApp group he is a part of for Babanki speakers, in promoting the language.
We also discuss Cameroon Pidgin, or Kamtok, an English-based pidgin that has become a lingua franca in the region. Pius explains its origins and some of the ways German and Portuguese have influenced this Pidgin.
This episode is incredibly insightful, full of cultural stories, and the passionate efforts of Kejom like Pius to preserve and celebrate their linguistic heritage. Listen to the episode on YouTube below and while you’re there, please subscribe and give this conversations a thumbs up!
A Little Note from Me
Where did September go? Ok, yes, I know we have a few more days before we reach October but September really flew by like it had someplace to be!
In the past few weeks I’ve been in the swing of things with Italian, studying on my own, watching Italian movies, reading Italian recipes and the like. So things are going along nicely so far. My French has really stalled growth wise but I did understand quite a bit of the French spoken in this latest season of Emily in Paris so I’m not too worried.
I do have two new-ish to me languages on the horizon. One is Spanish because it’s about time I make steps to learning a language that is SO widely spoken in New York City and the other one… I will keep under wraps until I start in October. I can reveal that it’s an African language. So excited!
I also had a plan that I wanted to start dabbling in Portuguese; some much needed motivation for my dream trip to Brazil. The time hasn’t occurred organically, yet so while I have these two short bursts of language just around the corner, I think I will have to save Brazilian Portuguese for 2025.
Tell me your thoughts on this conversation about this episode on Babanki language and culture in the comments!
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