New Englishes as Retaliation against Colonial Norms in Selected Postersin Bamenda

Abstract

A major aspect of colonial rule in Africa was the imposition of an alien culture through the English language which unleashed a deadly blow on the African culture. The main aim of this research is to explore the business linguistic landscape of Bamenda in the Northwest region to discover how advertisers use language differently from the imposed English language. How can New Englishes be a form of retaliation or affirmation of the Africanness? How is this being managed in the business linguistic landscape of Cameroon? What linguistic strategies are employed by business persons to lull their clients and maximize profits?  Through purposeful sampling methods, the linguistic landscape of the Bamenda in the Northwest region is exploited with focus on collecting posters used in advertising products or services. The Culture Code Theory of Design, Wen et al. (2022) helped to analyze the posters; examining the strategy aspect, meaning aspect, and the technical aspect. We see the adherence to New Englishes as the start of significant changes by the people in the study area to reintroduce their concepts and thoughts into their daily activities as a major retaliatory action. The results indicate that advertisers use New Englishes in their own creative ways and as retaliation to Standard English and culture dominance.