Kenneth J. Orosz's study (a revised version of his doctoral thesis) examines the development of language policy in Cameroon during both the period of German colonial rule and the ensuing period of French mandate control up to 1939. In doing so, like a number of recent scholars, he illuminates the inherent tensions in the colonialist project, in this case in the form of the tempestuous relationship between the religious missions and the colonial administrations. Although a number of studies concentrating on the history of the various missions and on the history of education in Cameroon have already been carried out (see the likes of Horst Gründer, Madiba Essiben, and Samuel Johnson), Orosz successfully builds on this previous research. He makes use of a wide range of mission and administrative archival source material to provide a more complete overview of language and education policy. This includes a detailed discussion of the activities of the American Presbyterian mission, which have largely been overlooked in previous research. Additionally, he sets his investigation against the continuation of church-state conflicts in the metropole and seeks to show their influence upon debates about language policy in Cameroon.

Orosz's study is composed of five main chapters, the initial three of which focus on the pre-1914 period while the remaining two are devoted to the wartime years and subsequent period of French mandate control over much of Cameroon. During both the German and French periods, it was the various Protestant and Catholic missions that took the leading role in providing education. In part this was due to the lack of financial resources available to both overseas' administrations. Nonetheless, the colonial authorities expected the missions to implement policies of educational and language instruction that matched their own plans to impose their authority, inclusive of their own language, over the local populations. As Orosz successfully demonstrates, however, particularly the Protestant missions insisted on retaining their independence from state control, and they sought to pursue their own agendas. Often these were at odds with the respective state Germanization and Gallicization campaigns.

In both German and French Cameroon, the priority of Protestant missions was evangelism. In keeping with established mission practice, the likes of the Basel Mission and later the Paris Mission believed that this was best served through the spread of vernacular-based literacy, which would enable local populations to understand the Gospel in their own or a similar African language. This policy of promoting the use of the vernacular brought the Protestant missions into conflict with the colonial authorities. For example, on account of their use of Duala as a regional lingua franca, the Baslers incensed several German Governors who were actively trying to reign in the influence of the Duala population. Additionally the mission's support for indigenous rights, and its open criticism of the administration and of the sale of alcohol to Africans led to allegations of it being unpatriotic. The Paris Mission initially fared little better, but its growing willingness to work within the constraints of the official educational system eventually led to improved relations with the French administration.

Instead, it was the Catholic missions that proved more disposed toward working with the authorities and who, as a result, enjoyed a closer relationship to the state. This contrasted with the situation in the metropole where residual anti-Catholic feeling originating from the Kulturkampf in Germany and anti-clerical legislation in France weighed heavily upon the relationship between both states and the Catholic Church. Equally, it helped to explain why the Catholic missions actively sought to avoid confrontation. In French Cameroon, however, this initial positive relationship would be irreversibly damaged with the arrival of Francois Xavier Voigt as leader of Spiritain Order and his decision to retreat from the use of French and to emphasize the vernacular. This led to continuous clashes between the Catholics and the authorities up to the outbreak of war in 1939.

Throughout, the author effectively illustrates the complex interplay of issues that influenced policy at national, regional, and local levels and that hindered mission progress. In addition to the fractious church-state relationship that resulted in frequent overhauls of the educational system, these ranged from chronic staffing shortages and a lack of trained staff to African demands for European languages, Cameroon's great linguistic diversity, and bitter interdenominational rivalries. A particular strength of the study is Orosz's analysis of the inability of the various Catholic and Protestant missions to work together, despite sharing a number of common goals. Instead the end result was fierce competition for native souls, mutual accusations of spreading heresy, and demands for separate spheres of influence.

Orosz provides a number of interesting links between the resurgence of anti-clericalism and church-state conflict in the metropole with the development of language policy in Cameroon, but this aspect in particular might have benefited from further attention. At times it is unclear as to how much influence events in the metropole actually had on the actions of the missions and colonial authorities. Equally, while the comparative approach employed illustrates the many similarities in educational methods shared by the French and German authorities as well as overlaps in church-state disputes, the author says surprisingly little about language instruction in the other German and French overseas territories. This leaves the reader with no sense of how typical or unique the situation in Cameroon was. In spite of these shortcomings, Orosz has produced an interesting, comprehensive investigation of education and language policy in Cameroon which adds to our understanding of the competing and conflicting interests within European colonialism.