Maurice Tadadjeu (1950-2012 in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

) was a Vice-President of the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

's Economic, Social and Cultural Council of

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

. He was a co-creator of the

General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...

in the late 1970s. In 1996 he became Founding Director of NACALCO Center for Applied Linguistics in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the Capital city, capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of more than 2.8 million which makes it the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region o ...

, Cameroon. From 1993 to 1997 Prof. Tadadjeu was Head of the Department of African Languages and Linguistics at the

University of Yaoundé The University of Yaoundé () was a university in Cameroon, located in Yaoundé, the country's capital. It was built with the help of France and opened in 1962 as the Federal University of Yaoundé, dropping the "Federal" in 1972 when the countr ...

. He was also Professor of Linguistics at the

. Prof. Tadadjeu was a founding member of the

African Academy of Languages The African Academy of Languages (ACALAN; ; or ) is a Pan-African organization founded in 2001 by Mali's then-president Alpha Oumar Konaré for the development and promotion of African languages. First established as the Mission for the Africa ...

. He died on December 30, 2012.

Selected works

*Démocratie de Partage du Pouvoir : Pour le Modèle P3 au Cameroun cademic Literature, ANACLAC/NACALCO, 1997*Confédération des Etats Unis d'Afrique cademic Literature, Editions BUMA KOR, 1996*Training manual for the teaching of national languages in primary schools eference book, Collection PROPELCA, 1991 *Le defi de Babel au Cameroun cademic Literature, Collection PROPELCA, 1990(Co-authored with Elisabeth Gfeller and Gabriel Mba)

Achievements

In 2005 Prof. Tadadjeu was awarded the Linguapax Prize.Linguapax website

References

1950 births 2012 deaths Academic staff of the University of Yaoundé Economic, Social and Cultural Council officials Cameroonian diplomats Indigenous linguists 20th-century linguists {{Cameroon-politician-stub