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Abstract
This article examines how language sustains competition in Cameroon's deregulated religious marketplace. Drawing on 15 years of personal participant observation and 30 months of intentional ethnography in Yaoundé, Douala, Bamenda and Buea, with 20 recorded sermons and 45 interviews, it shows that inter-denominational rivalry has shifted from overt mudslinging to covert intimidation. While pejorative labels such as “business centre”, “les hiers hiers”, les pietines, pietines, holier than thou churches, lovy lovy churches and “Jesus Kwem” still circulate, pastors increasingly rely on excessive glossolalia as a deniable market strategy. Timed observations reveal Pentecostal services average 18 minutes of uninterpreted tongues per 90-minute service, compared to zero in mainline services. Framed through Mark 16:17, Acts 2:4 and Romans 8:26, this sonic excess functions as symbolic capital that makes silence appear as unbelief without a single direct insult being uttered, prompting youth to question prior faith.
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