Code-Meshing as Resistance: Digital Pragmatics, Implicature, and Stance-Taking in Buea Youth Discourse During Cameroon's Anglophone Crisis

Abstract

Objective:  The study investigates pragmatic strategies  in social media discourse among Buea youth during Cameroon's Anglophone Crisis (2016-2026),  examining how code-meshing,, implicature, stance-taking, function as resources for constructing resistance identities in digitally mediated political communication.

Background: Whilst structural studies have documented the grammatical features of Cameroon English, the pragmatic dimensions of digital resistance discourse in Anglophone Cameroon have received comparatively little scholarly attention. The Anglophone Crisis, which began in a peaceful protest in 2016, transformed social media platforms into critical cites of political communication nfor the youths, observed to navigate complex multi-lingual repertoires that include Cameroon Pidgin English, Cameroon English, and French. 

Methodology: A corpus of 2500 posts (approximately 185,000 words) was drawn from WhatsApp groups (n=1,800), and X, formerlly Twitter (n=700), and analysed using a mixed-methods approach. Implicature coding applied Gricean maxim-violation criteria; stance annotation employed Du Bois's triangulated framework [7]; and code-meshing analysis examined language alternation patterns for pragmatic function. Inter-rater reliability for implicature coding yielding Cohen's Kappa =0.87, indicating strong agreement.

Results: Seventy-three percent of protests mobilisation calls employed implicature rather than explicit directives, with irony (42%), metaphor (31%),  hyperbole (18%), and understatement (9%) as the dominant types. Positive alignment stance appeared in 68% of coded instances, indexing in-group solidarity. Code-meshing followed four principal patterns: Pidgin-to- English (41%), English-to-Pidgin (29%), French-to-Pidgin (18%), and triadic meshing (12%), each serving distinctive audience design and identity idexing functions. Implicature usage itensified by approximately 15% during periods of heightened government surveillance.

Conclusion: Code-meshing functions as purposeful audience design across local and global communicative skills. The findings position pragmatic competence as a form of resistance capital and advocate for additive digital literacies that validate local pragmatic norms within educational contexts in Anglophone Cameroon.