**1.1 The description of Kumbo**

Kumbo, also known as 'Kimboh' is the capital of Bui Division, North West Region of Cameroon. It has a population of about eighty thousand two hundred and twelve (80,212) based on the 2005 census report. It is divided into three distinctive hilly settlement areas: Tobin, Mbveh and Squares.

Apart from the popularity of its boarding schools, it is host to two referral hospitals - St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital Shisong and Banso Baptist Hospital (BBH). It is also host to the Nso palace. There are four radio stations in Kumbo. One is owned by a non-governmental organization (City Community Radio (CCR)), another by the Roman Catholic Church (Radio Evangelium (RE)), the other by a private individual (Helen Kris FM Radio (Helen Kris)) and finally by the community (Bui Community Radio (BCR)). All four radio stations work for the service of the community and are highly competitive. Religiously, there is a Roman Catholic denomination, a Protestant order, an Islamic order and a Pentecostal order.

It is an area where farming is considered as the source of livelihood. Crops such as maize, coffee, beans, groundnuts, potatoes, kola-nuts, cabbage are produced here and exported to urban cities like Douala, Bamenda, Yaounde, and the Far North. Also, some of the products are transported to neighboring countries like Nigeria, Chad and Gabon.

#### **1.2 The linguistic situation of Cameroon**

In the twenty-first edition of Ethnologue present Cameroon as a multilingual country with two hundred and eighty three languages (283) [2]. Out of these, two hundred and seventy seven (277) are living while the remaining six (6) are dead. According to the description of language statuses in the world, Cameroon is presented as a bilingual country, with English and French languages as the languages used for administrative transactions both nationally and internationally. With this in mind, it does not mean that the two hundred and seventy seven languages identified by [2] are neglected. The 1996 Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon states that.

"The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavor to protect and promote national languages" [3].

Since language determines and influences thought as presented by the famous Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, it is in line with this that this paper looks at multilingual broadcasting practices by the four radio stations in Kumbo - two privately-owned radio stations (Helen Kris and City Community Radio), a Christian-owned radio station (Radio Evangelium) and a community radio station (Bui Community Radio) – who have decided to not only use English and French languages during broadcasting, but also other native languages.

In terms of the languages used, these radio houses prefer not only to use the native language of the area where they are located but those of neighboring communities to convey information because as [1] states, "language is a right; a human right of the same level of importance as all other inalienable human rights" so that when information is disseminated, the people can be involved.

At the level of the media landscape in Cameroon, the languages in use by the national broadcasting service, Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) are French and English. However, regional stations of the service broadcasting house use the native languages of the area, as is the case in Buea (Mokpwe), North (Fulfulde), and West (Ngemba). In Kumbo however, the case seems to be different as it does not only make use of Lamnso but other languages around the area.

This then leads us to the main point of focus of the paper, which is to find out the number of languages used during broadcasting by the rural radios in Kumbo and how these languages are managed.
