ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to investigate on the effects of the anglophone crises on the psychological adjustments of students in the University of Bamenda. The population of the study was made up of 100 respondents. Four research questions were answered. Questionnaires were the main instrument for data collection. The direct delivery technique (D.D.T), on the spot was used to administer the questionnaire in order to avoid instrument mortality and to have 100% return of questionnaire.

The questionnaire were administered by the researcher to students by hand and explained to the understanding of respondents. The respondents were given enough time to respond to the various questions after which the questionnaire were collected back on the spot to avoid any type of bias that might have arose as a result of filling the answer to the questionnaire at home. After collecting data from the field and before the researcher conducted the analysis and interpretation, he prepared the data through organization and coding of data, capturing of data, corrected errors in the coding of data. Data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences, (SPSS) Version 20.0. This data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to answer the various research questions in the form of tables. The study revealed that the anglophone crises have negatively affected students of the University of Bamenda.

The findings of the study had some important implications for the government, policy makers, and heads of schools, teachers, parents and students. Recommendations were made to teachers, parents and students. Some suggestions were made for further findings.

CHAPTER ONE

General introduction

Paul t’Hart (2001) has given a contemporary definition of crisis, describing it as an “unpleasant event that represents a challenge for decision-makers, tempts them to act under conditions of imperilment, time constraint and unpreparedness.” Crisis is a “serious threat to the basic structures or fundamental values and norms of a social system, which, under conditions of time pressure and very uncertain circumstances, demands the bringing of critical decisions.” This definition has two important characteristics. Its significant advantage lies in the fact that it can be applied to all types of disruptions (ecological threats, breakdowns of informational-communications systems, economic crisis, intrastate conflicts, jail mutinies, regional wars, factory explosions and natural catastrophes). This very characteristic demands a multidisciplinary approach in understanding crises. Secondly, this definition directs our attention toward decision-making: crises are seen as an opportunity to make critical decisions.

Finally, Pearson and Clair (1998) define crisis as an “event of small probability and great consequences, which imperils the life of an organization, being characterized by unclear causes, effects and means of solution, as well as a conviction that decisions must be made quickly. This definition could be directly linked to the anglophone crises.

This chapter presents the historical, conceptual, theoretical and contextual background of the study, statement which presents a concise description/view of crises, formulated objectives which summarized the expected outcome and provide direction to this study, research questions which gave the initial steps to this study, justification of the study which stands for the rational of this research, significance of the study which deals with what this study will contribute and the people that will benefit from it. Scope of the study which specifies the parameters within which this study will be operating and the operational definition of terms which gives meaning to key terms in this study.

Background of The Study

Historically, the word crisis is probably one of the most frequently used words in everyday speech. It is used to describe personal, i.e. private situations but, more frequently, it is used to describe a state in which society as a whole or individual organizations and systems within it find themselves, with potentially negative consequences. Still, in spite of its frequent use, the term “crisis” does not have a clear or uniform conceptual content. Instead, there are numerous and often mutually divergent interpretations. Etymologically speaking, the word crisis comes from the Greek language. In ancient Greece the word crisis (κριςις) meant “judgment” or “decision,” i.e. the decisive moment that determines the further positive or negative development of a thing or a situation. The essence of crisis is that one must decide, but that no decision has yet been made. In present times, crisis primarily signifies discrimination or the ability to discriminate, choice, judgment, decision, but also exit, conflict resolution, clarification.

The modern concept of crisis comes from medical literature, in which it designates a dangerous state of an organism’s health, from which it cannot recover without permanent damage, outside intervention or a fundamental restructuring, since the defence (immunological) mechanisms of the organism are not sufficient to pull it out of the crisis. Social scientists have borrowed this basic medical metaphor in order to describe crises in economic, political, social and cultural systems. Although there is no consensus regarding its meaning, crisis is a quite popular and widely used term. It is even said that its popularity makes it more difficult to define it. This is not surprising, since the researchers who study the phenomenon of crises do not consider themselves to be crisis researchers. The crisis field is poorly defined, sort of like a confused jumble of scientists from various disciplines (sociology of catastrophe, public administration, the political sciences and international relations, political and organizational psychology, along with technical specialists such as computer scientists or epidemiologists). As to who is on the inside and who on the outside – that depends on the person defining the field. The issue is further complicated by the fact that the following terms are used for various kinds of negative or dangerous events simultaneously and often without a clear awareness about their mutual relations and delimitations of meanings or, especially in the English language, even as full synonyms for the concept of crisis:

Major incident, i.e. a state of emergency representing any event that may cause death, injuries, property damage, environmental changes, disruptions in the normal functioning of society, whose activity and consequences cannot be prevented, alleviated or remedied by available community means and capacities, and especially the terms: catastrophe (disaster) – denoting a calamity caused by natural factors, and emergency situation.

However, the meaning of these terms and the kind of response (reaction) they require, remains problematic. There is a large body of literature dealing with crisis and, thus, many partly matching or partly divergent definitions. Crisis is much too complex a phenomenon to be easily defined. Calamity (adversity) disrupts normal conditions and creates confusion, while specialized organizations (agencies) are assigned the task of restoring everything to a normal state. However, when adversity goes beyond normal boundaries, we enter the world of crisis.

Since the phenomenon of crises has attracted the attention of a number of researchers from different scientific disciplines and fields (economics, history, politics, medicine, ecology, psychology, etc.), this means that the concept of crisis, in addition to certain general characteristics (a situation that has reached a critical point and a turning point, either toward something better or something worse), is often used in quite specific meanings characteristic for different fields of research. Thus, psychology talks about crisis of personality, medicine about crisis as the culmination of serious disease (or crisis in a country’s health system), while ecology thinks about a critical threat to the environment. Even within the bounds of the same science, such as economics, there are differences regarding the use of the concept; thus, macroeconomics talks about crisis as a turn in a previously regular market cycle, and microeconomics about crisis as a condition that threatens a company, i.e. an individual economic actor. In our efforts to harmonize various perspectives, the term crisis is usually used as a “universal box,” i.e. as a concept that encompasses all types of negative events. In an even broader perspective, the term crisis is applied to situations that are unwanted, unexpected, unpredictable and almost unthinkable, which cause disbelief and uncertainty. Referring to the numerous definitions in the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, James Robinson concludes that they are either overly precise and specific and, thus, not broadly applicable to different situations, organizations and actors or, on the other hand, that they are overly broad, i.e. unbounded in their meanings, which, in that case, makes difficult to distinguish crisis from non-crisis.

Kathleen Fearn-Banks (1996) defines crisis as a “larger event with potentially negative consequences affecting an organization, company or industry, as well as its target public, products, services or good name. “For Hamblin (1958), crisis is an “urgent situation in which all the members of a group are faced with a common threat,” while Pauchant and Mitroff see it as a “disruption that physically affects the system as a whole and imperils its fundamental premises, its autonomy and essence.” Fink claims that crisis is any event that can escalate in intensity, become the focus of attention of the media and the government, obstruct normal business operations and negatively affect a company’s image and profit.

This study will be focusing on the Anglophone crises and the psychological adjustments of students in the University of Bamenda.

Conceptually, the Anglophone crises were birthed through the partition of Cameroon in 1916 between Britain and France after the defeat of the Germans in Cameroon during the first world war. It was evident through the partition that a problem will emerge from it due to the separation of two brothers who have been living together for ages. It even became more evident when Britain administered her own potion of the territory as an integral part of Nigeria. British northern and British southern Cameroons. Here, they were treated like second class citizens because they were administered as a colony under a colony from 1922 to 1961 when British southern Cameroon voted to reunify with French Cameroon during the February 1961 plebiscite. On October 1^st, 1961, the two Cameroons came together under a two-state federalism which was called the federal republic of Cameroon. Federalism was later dissolved through the May 20^th referendum. This change caused the Anglophones minority to start purging out their grievances again to the way they were being ill-treated and taken for granted by the francophone majority. These grievances kept growing and the government of Cameroon kept giving pain killers instate of a long-lasting solution to the problem. Finally, in October 2016, the crises reached its peak when the Anglophones could not take it any longer and almost every social group in Anglophone Cameroon went out to the street to purge out their emotions and, yet the government did nothing about it. These crises have affected not only the political but the social, economic and most importantly, educational structure of Cameroon as schools were the most targeted areas. The following variables will be used to explain how it has affected schools especially higher institutions in the affected regions.

lockdown are restriction policies for people or a community to stay indoors usually due to specific risk to themselves or to others if they can move and interact freely. since 2017, lockdowns have become a tradition in the two Anglophone regions. All national days were declared ghost towns by the separatist fighters in the diaspora and was strictly respected back home. All Mondays were since January 2017 declared ghost towns in respect of the fallen heroes and it has been strictly respected till date. This has seriously affected the students as most of them are unable to complete their syllabus.

Gunshots might have dealt a serious blow on the psychology of students. Many students are scared of going to school when there is a combat between the military and separatist fighters because of the fear of being caught by stray bullet. This also has made students to be sensitive to sound as any sound, sounds like gunshots to them.

Kidnapping is a crime of taking a person by force, deceit, or threat and detaining that person against their will. Kidnapping of students and lecturers by the separatist fighters; this has been a source of income to the separatist fighters. The first set of students were kidnapped from (Presbyterian secondary school) P.S.S Mankon in November 2018. They were released days after and were warned not to go back to school. Since then till date, kidnappings of not only students but lecturers as well have been the order of the day in Bamenda. This has scared many especially university students from living far away from school because of the fear of been kidnapped on their way to school. Hostels that are close to campus have become overcrowded and too expensive for students of low income to be able to afford. Students therefore will have to psychologically adjust to these numerous changes.

Theoretically, several theories have been used to address the issue of tension and conflict. Understanding the relationship between tension and conflicts between communities has always interested social science, particularly sociology. Karl Marx conflict theory focuses on the causes of class conflict between the bourgeoisie (the owners of the means of production and the capitalist) and the proletariats (the working class and the poor). The conflict theory therefore states that, tension and conflict, when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in the society and these conflicts becomes and engine for social change in the society. In the context of Cameroon, power according to Marx will mean, the control of material resources, accumulated wealth, control of politics, and institutions that make up the society and one’s social status.

The conflict theory painted a clear scenario of the Anglophone crisis. According to Marx, as the socio-economic conditions of the Anglophones worsened, they develop a class consciousness, that reveals their exploitation at the hands of the Republic of Cameroon, and they will revolt demanding changes thus Conflict. Marx also explained that, if the Republic of Cameroon does not address the issues of the Anglophone in relation to their needs there will always be conflict in Cameroon.

In addition, Robert K Merton developed the Strain theory to better analyze the Anglophone crisis. The Strain theory explains that deviant behaviors, is an unavoidable consequence of the distress individuals experience when they are deprived of ways to achieved culturally valued goals. For example, in the context of Cameroon, the government of Cameroon places value on the economic success of the country which is largely beneficial to mostly the Francophone, while the Anglophone minority only watch from a distance. According to Merton, some individuals in the Minority will use every means including, violence as to have a piece of the pie. Merton also explains that the society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals. The government of Cameroon have suppressed the Anglophone, neglected their calls for equality, justice and even freedom. Also with the heavy-handed manner in which the government handled the 2016 Anglophone teachers and lawyers protest, pushed the Anglophones to the streets to revolt against the government.

Contextually, the emergence and development of what is today as the anglophone has been explained by several authors (cf.Konings and Nyamnjoh 1997, 2000; Nkoum-Me-Ntseny 1996; Eyoh 1998). Most agreed that it roots back as far as the partitioning of Cameroon after the first world war. quest for a separate state by the anglophone Cameroon separatist has evolved over time. Although there are substantial publications on the study especially by sociologist, anthropologist, historians, political scientist, lawyers and journalist, (Lunn and Broke, 2019; Lohkoko, 2013; Ngoh, 2019; Chereji & Lohkoko, 2012; Fonchingong 2011; Konings & Nyamnjoh 1997). Most of the findings on the anglophone crises has been on the origin, causes, manifestations, effects etc. this research is based on the effects of the anglophone crises on the psychological adjustments of students in the university of Bamenda. This study is being carried out in Bamenda, precisely on campus to find out how many effects the ongoing crises have on students and how they are coping with the crises.