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The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence, and Belated Histories in the Cameroon Grassfields Nicolas Argenti The young people of the Cameroon Grassfields have been subject to a long history of violence and political marginalization. For centuries the main victims of the slave trade, they became prime targets for forced labor campaigns under a series of colonial rulers. Today’s youth remain at the bottom of the fiercely hierarchical and polarized societies of the Grassfields, and it is their response to centuries of exploitation that Nicolas Argenti takes up in this absorbing and original book.
Beginning his study with a political analysis of youth in the Grassfields from the eighteenth century to the present, Argenti pays special attention to the repeated violent revolts staged by young victims of political oppression. He then combines this history with extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Oku chiefdom, discovering that the specter of past violence lives on in the masked dance performances that have earned intense devotion from today’s youth. Argenti contends that by evoking the imagery of past cataclysmic events, these masquerades allow young Oku men and women to address the inequities they face in their relations with elders and state authorities today. (20070702) |
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Images from Bamum: German Colonial Photography at the Court of King Njoya, Cameroon, West Africa, 1902-1915 Christraud M. Geary |
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In Search of Salt: Changes in Beti (Cameroon) Society, 1880-1960 (Cameroon Studies) Frederick Quinn Relatively recent Bantu-speaking migrants to central Cameroon, the Beti have had an eventful history. Based on extensive interviews and traditional Beti (Fang) poetry, in addition to German and French archival sources, the author of this readable study recreates the social structure of the Beti and their self-perceptions in pre-colonial times, their disruptive encounters with first German (1880-1918) and then French (1918-1960) colonialism, until Cameroon’s independence. |
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The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe Peter Geschiere Despite being told that we now live in a cosmopolitan world, more and more people have begun to assert their identities in ways that are deeply rooted in the local. These claims of autochthony—meaning “born from the soil”—seek to establish an irrefutable, primordial right to belong and are often employed in politically charged attempts to exclude outsiders. In The Perils of Belonging, Peter Geschiere traces the concept of autochthony back to the classical period and incisively explores the idea in two very different contexts: Cameroon and the Netherlands. In both countries, the momentous economic and political changes following the end of the cold war fostered anxiety over migration. For Cameroonians, the question of who belongs where rises to the fore in political struggles between different tribes, while the Dutch invoke autochthony in fierce debates over the integration of immigrants. This fascinating comparative perspective allows Geschiere to examine the emotional appeal of autochthony—as well as its dubious historical basis—and to shed light on a range of important issues, such as multiculturalism, national citizenship, and migration. |
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From Cameroon to Paris: Mousgoum Architecture In and Out of Africa Steven Nelson The kind of extraordinary domed house constructed by Chad and Cameroon’s Mousgoum peoples has long held sway over the Western imagination. In fact, as Steven Nelson shows here, this prototypical beehive-shaped structure known as the teleuk has been cast as everything from a sign of authenticity to a tourist destination to a perfect fusion of form and function in an unselfconscious culture. And in this multifaceted history of the teleuk, thought of by the Mousgoum themselves as a three-dimensional symbol of their culture, Nelson charts how a singular building’s meaning has the capacity to change over time and in different places.
Drawing on fieldwork in Cameroon and Japan as well as archival research in Africa, the United States, and Europe, Nelson explores how the teleuk has been understood by groups ranging from contemporary tourists to the Cameroonian government and—most importantly—today’s Mousgoum people. In doing so, he moves in and out of Africa to provide a window into a changing Mousgoum culture and to show how both African and Western peoples use the built environment to advance their own needs and desires. Highlighting the global impact of African architecture, From Cameroon to Paris will appeal to scholars and students of African art history and architectural history, as well as those interested in Western interactions with Africa. |
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Fiscal Disobedience: An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa (In-Formation) Janet Roitman Fiscal Disobedience represents a novel approach to the question of citizenship amid the changing global economy and the fiscal crisis of the nation-state. Focusing on economic practices in the Chad Basin of Africa, Janet Roitman combines thorough ethnographic fieldwork with sophisticated analysis of key ideas of political economy to examine the contentious nature of fiscal relationships between the state and its citizens. She argues that citizenship is being redefined through a renegotiation of the rights and obligations inherent in such economic relationships. The book centers on a civil disobedience movement that arose in Cameroon beginning in 1990 ostensibly to counter state fiscal authority--a movement dubbed Opération Villes Mortes by the opposition and incivisme fiscal by the government (which for its part was eager to suggest that participants were less than legitimate citizens, failing in their civic duties). Contrary to standard approaches, Roitman examines this conflict as a "productive moment" that, rather than involving the outright rejection of regulatory authority, questioned the intelligibility of its exercise. Although both militarized commercial networks (associated with such activities trading in contraband goods including drugs, ivory, and guns) and highly organized gang-based banditry do challenge state authority, they do not necessarily undermine state power. Contrary to depictions of the African state as "weak" or "failed," this book demonstrates how the state in Africa manages to reconstitute its authority through networks that have emerged in the interstices of the state system. It also shows how those networks partake of the same epistemological grounding as does the state. Indeed, both state and nonstate practices of governing refer to a common "ethic of illegality," which explains how illegal activities are understood as licit or reasonable conduct. |
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Prisoner without a Crime. Disciplining Dissent in Ahidjo's Cameroon Albert Mukong Doughty human rights crusader, Albert Mukong was incarcerated for six years in some of Cameroon's worst detention centres under the despotic regime of late President Amadou Ahidjo. This book details his personal account of the discipline and punishment that the Cameroonian state has systematically dished out to dissidents who have dared to stand their ground. Until his death in 2004, Albert Mukong was without doubt, Anglophone Cameroon's most conspicuous political prisoner, spokesperson and champion human rights advocate. The particular detention he recounts in this book is evidence of how nationalists such as Ruben Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie, Bishop Ndongmo and others, have in their struggles sacrificed enormously so that freedom and democracy might see the light of day in their reluctant Cameroon. |
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man no be God: Bushdoctor in Cameroon Dieter Lemke "man no be God is a story of a willing and driven Canadian doctor who spent his life immersed in the wonderful, complex and interesting lives of the people of western Cameroon. The individuals he went to learn from, to serve, to encourage, to support, and to befriend together provide a fascinating look at familiar struggles and triumphs in an unfamiliar setting. There is nothing more fulfilling or satisfying than being involved in and involved with others. Although this writer has the satisfaction of knowing that he has done what he was called to do, there is a vast and frightening opportunity for the reader to dare to take the same challenge.
AIDS does not threaten to destroy a great horde of faceless people—it is far worse. It is destroying lovely, interesting, vibrant, and extremely valuable individuals, one at a time, relentlessly, killing off a significant part of each of us as it marches through Africa.
One man’s experience, and willingness to throw talent, brains, and brawn into being a part of people’s individual lives made a difference to many, and enriched him far more than he ever thought possible. (That’s how the mundane becomes meaningful, after all). Therein lies the glimmer of hope, and the challenge. Anyone can, if anyone will, make a difference to at least one other. Doing so in the face of this killer sharpens and focuses that challenge—and its rewards—immensely."
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Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin (Culture, Place, and Nature) Stephanie Rupp Forests of Belonging examines the history and ongoing transformation of ethnic and social relationships among four distinct communities--Bangando, Baka, BakwŽle, and Mbomam--in the Lobeke forest region of southeastern Cameroon. By slotting forest communities into ecological categories such as "hunters" and "gatherers," previous analyses of social relationships in tropical forests have resulted in binary frameworks that render real-life relationships invisible and that have perpetuated correspondingly misleading labels, such as "pygmy." Through rich descriptive detail resulting from field work among the Bangando, Stephanie Rupp illustrates the complexity of social ties among groups and individuals, and their connections with the natural world. She demonstrates that social and ethno-ecological relations in equatorial African forests are nuanced, contested, and shifting, and that the intricacy of these links must be considered in the design and implementation of aid policies and strategies for conservation and development. Stephanie Rupp is assistant professor of anthropology at Lehman College, City University of New York. "Rupp's compelling ethnography and forceful analysis imply an attack on the apparent self-evidence of notions of identity all over the world." -Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam |
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The Peace Corps in Cameroon Julius Atemkeng Amin The Peace Corps was established in 1961 during the Kennedy administration, symbolizing a new direction in foreign policy-making for the United States. Founded on large aid programs staffed by volunteers, the agency's primary goal was to help modernize Third World countries while guarding against the expansion of communism. Julius A. Amin interprets the motives behind the development of the Peace Corps and analyzes the program and performance of its volunteers in Cameroon during the 1960s. He bases his study on previously unused primary sources, including the completed questionnaires of returned volunteers and the diaries and letters they donated to him. He also provides extensive interviews conducted in Cameroon where, as a student, he was taught by the volunteers and later worked as their colleague. Amin finds that the volunteers contributed greatly to the social and educational development of Cameroon and made many new American friends within the host country. On a broader level, they learned about themselves and other people, and returned to the United States determined to reeducate Americans about Africa. Amin notes, however, that the volunteers expressed difficulty in justifying the ideals of American democracy to the Cameroonians in light of such issues as racism in America and U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Washington policymakers have seldom involved returned volunteers in discussions concerning the Third World. Amin believes that the volunteers could be invaluable in stimulating a renewed friendship between America and Third World countries, and in helping to explain why programs designed to assist Third World development often fail at the implementation stage. The Peace Corps in Cameroon also contains a comparitive analysis of the agency's work in the neighboring countries of Ghana and Guinea, where its efforts were not as successful. In addition, it features numerous photographs of volunteers at work in Cameroon and maps to complement the text. This pioneer study contributes to Africanist/American scholarship in general, and specifically adds to the historical literature about Peace Corps volunteers in a Third World country. It is must reading for anyone interested in similar endeavors in African countries or in the overall effectiveness of the Peace Corps |