Language Barriers and Health Communication in Rural Cameroon: The Case of Babessi

Abstract

In Babessi (Ngoh-Ketunjia, Ndop Plain, Cameroon), healthcare messages are predominantly delivered in French and English, with Pidgin English used only occasionally to interpret them for local populations. Field observations and semi-structured interviews with local households reveal that this linguistic mismatch reduces comprehension, particularly among elderly villagers, and limits the uptake of essential services. For instance, when sickle-cell test fees were reduced from 6000 FCFA to 3000 FCFA between May and December 2024, announcements using the French term drépanocytose were largely disregarded, with approximately nine out of ten elderly women failing to understand them. When official communication fails, villagers often turn to soothsayers, traditional doctors, or herbalists who communicate in local languages. While these practitioners provide culturally resonant explanations, reliance on them can delay biomedical interventions and exacerbate health risks. The study highlights the critical need for linguistically and culturally inclusive healthcare strategies, including training health personnel in local languages and Pidgin English, giving a broad medical insight to liaison workers, co-creating health messages that resonate with indigenous cultural frameworks, and promoting local-language literacy in health contexts. By addressing language barriers, such strategies can improve comprehension, uptake, and outcomes for malaria, sickle-cell disease, and HIV/AIDS in Cameroon’s multilingual communities. Drawing on sociolinguistic and cultural competence frameworks, the study examines how language choice shapes comprehension and trust in health communication. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how linguistic inclusivity in public health communication enhances service effectiveness and supports health literacy in rural, multilingual populations.