This paper raises two questions. First, how does an African leader expand his authority, even under the constraints of democratic institutions? The answer speaks to recent literature on authoritarian permanence in Africa. This study highlights three strategies that are normally associated with 'real' democracy: drawing electoral boundaries, registering voters, and including minority rights in a constitution. These institutional changes in have served to entrench autocracy in Cameroon. The second question asks whether authority is bolstered or undermined by the expansion of discrete literate associations - specifically language groups whose language gains written form. The question evokes older literatures on state- and nation-building and more recent work on civil society. Initial evidence from Cameroon suggests that groups with longer histories of a written language are more likely to coalesce in opposition to the state.