Multilingualism and the politics of participation at a Cameroonian wildlife sanctuary

This article takes a language ideological assemblage approach to examining the politics of multilingual communication at a wildlife sanctuary in Limbe, Cameroon. At the Limbe Wildlife Centre, English is treated as the primary and even neutral lingua franca of the institution, although it is almost no one's first or preferred language. In reality, the majority of communication takes place either in Cameroonian Pidgin English (used by animal keepers and staff) or French (used by foreign NGO managers and volunteers). In this institution, the shared belief in the neutrality and accessibility of English leads to the erasure of work done in other languages, thereby magnifying the neocolonial, racial, and epistemic divides between Cameroonian staff and French NGO workers. •Case study of language ideological assemblage of a Cameroonian wildlife sanctuary.•English treated as neutral, despite turbulent national politics of language usage.•Majority of workplace communication occurs in Cameroonian Pidgin English and French.•Erasure of linguistic diversity magnifies disparities between workers.