Acculturation and Self-esteem: The Case of Second Generation of Baka Pygmies Immigrants from the Great Equatorial Forest of Southern Cameroon

Discourse on modernism is increasingly spreading within pygmy communities. However, this call for social change is more widely heeded by the youth, unlike the parents who advocate for sociocultural rootedness and identity fold. This tendency of the youth to acculturate is the problem addressed in this study. Among the various reasons cited, the most controversial is that young pygmies underestimate themselves. The hypothesis to be tested here is therefore the contingency link between acculturation and self-esteem among second-generation pygmies’ immigrants. This has been operationalized into five research hypotheses, all confirmed by the Chi-square test of empirical data collected through a questionnaire submitted to a representative sample of 120 “urban and village pygmies” from the districts of Djoum, Oveng, and Mintom II. This result led us to conclude that personality and social identity are determining variables in the adoption of outgroup behaviours and upward social comparisons.