At 27, Dr. Ambelem Tangyie Aya-Nwi wins the best thesis award from the Dschang School of Arts and Social Sciences. Defended on March 20, 2026, her research shows that linguistic exclusion deprives 60% of Cameroonians of health messages and proposes to reshape public communication.
What if the biggest obstacle to health was not medical but linguistic? This is the thesis defended by Dr. Ambelem Tangyie Aya-Nwi, awarded the best Doctoral thesis 2025-2026 from the Dschang School of Arts and Social Sciences (DSASS).
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Entitled “A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Social Communication and Social Conflict within the Health Domain in the Multilingual Context of Cameroon,” conducted under the supervision of Prof. Emmanuel Nforbi, the research is based on 4 years of investigation in Dschang, Bamenda, and Douala, with 500 questionnaires and 100 interviews, notably during the Anglophone crisis and Covid-19.
The finding is political: the Cameroonian health system insufficiently takes into account cultural and linguistic realities. Cultural identity determines trust and access to care. Worse, family and friends remain the main source of health information, ahead of professionals. Messages only in French or English exclude 60% of the population, especially rural.
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The young researcher, born in 1999 in Bafoussam and having studied in Bafut and at the University of Bamenda, proposes three breaks: placing conflict resolution at the heart of health messages through a decentralized approach, substituting the uniform national message with localized identity-based approaches, and truly integrating African traditional medicine into research and care. A thesis that should guide public policies.
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