Using lexical and discursive resources in Anglophone Cameroon literary works as a means for the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage

Drawing data from eleven literary works of six Anglophone Cameroonian writers (Asong, Kongnyuy, Ambanasom, Tardzenyuy, Nyamnjoh, Nkemngong Nkengasong, this paper studies how Anglophone Cameroon writers make use of linguistic resources (lexes and discourse) for the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage (values and knowledge) as well as the linguistic strategies of insertion of these cultural values and knowledge in these texts. The analysis reveals that in the ongoing globalized world where cultural values and knowledge in many African countries are gradually losing grounds due to the influence of Western cultural practices, literary texts can be one of the means to preserve these cultural values and knowledge so as to transmit them to future generations. Besides, it is found that various linguistic strategies are utilized by these writers in order to insert these cultural values and knowledge in their literary works: loanwords, loanblends, loantranslations, idiomatic formation, Cameroon Pidgin-English discourses, French discourses and proverbs. It is recommended that in the selection of literary texts to be used in the secondary and high schools of African countries that priority should be given the literary texts which embody the cultural values and knowledge of their countries. This will enable African students in general and Cameroonian students in particular to be more versed with some cultural values and knowledge of their sociocultural environments.