Changing intercommunity relations and the politics of identity in the Northern Mezam area, Cameroon* (original) (raw)
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Cameroon: a country united by ethnic ambition and difference
1999
Abstract This paper attempts an answer to the question: What keeps Cameroon together despite widespread instability in Africa, despite the turbulence of the subregional environment in which it finds itself, and despite its own internal contradictions?
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL STUDIES, 2021
Le vivre ensemble recently dominated political discourse in Cameroon due to the difficult cohabitation between the more than 250 ethnic groups that make up the Cameroon ‘nation’. The outcome has been inter-ethnic conflicts and the resurgence of identity crisis. If Cameroon is African in miniature because of its ethnic diversities, then the North West Region is Cameroon in miniature because its populations came from almost all the cultural spheres of Cameroon. This paper attempts an investigation into the attractiveness of the destination for settlers, the identity crisis that emerged from the settlement of strangers and the symbiosis and apparent calm that characterise autochthon-settler relationship in the Northwest Region since Precolonial Times. Data was collected from primary and secondary sources and the qualitative method used to analyse it. The findings suggest that the region’s economic potentials, the hospitality of its indigenes and the inter-dependence between the various ethnic groups made for the le vivre ensemble that characterised the peoples. Unlike the economically advanced Southern part of Cameroon where le vivre ensemble was problematic, the Northwest region has experienced some level of integration amongst different communities probably because of the non politicisation of identity. The Northwest Region can therefore serve as a veritable laboratory for Cameroon at this time that national unity and national integration are threatened by ethnic and other forms of sub nationalisms.
European and Cameroonian scholarship on ethnicity and the making of identities in Cameroon
Relations between colonial and post-colonial studies in and on Cameroon have been both continuous and discontinuous. As reflected in the domains of historiography and social anthropology, this has impacted on ethnic self-representations and popular labeling. This paper examines contrasting drives that have led to a replication of colonial redefinitions of ethnicity and how this informs current discussions on ethnicity in Cameroon. The argument is that certain research works have informed or substantially influenced the identity question when one aknowledges that the colonial period is a bench mark epoch in the establishment of certain categories of ethnic perception. Although substantially deconstructed at the scientific level, these categories have survived and continue to influence social categories of perception that become common sense intrusions (what Bourdieu called doxa) into social science. afrika focus -Volume 24, Nr. 2 [ 34 ] e. yenshu vubo afrika focus -2011-12 [ 35 ] European and Cameroonian scholarship on ethnicity and the making of identities in Cameroon afrika focus -Volume 24, Nr. 2 [ 36 ] e. yenshu vubo
THE IGBO IDENTITY AND ITS INTERPRETATION IN WEST CAMEROON, 1970 -1997
UZU JOURNAL, 2021
The Igbo people have always been on the move. They migrated to West Cameroon before and after independence. From the 1970s to the 1990s, they were found in Kumba, Mamfe, Tiko, Victoria and Buea working as truck pushers and being involved in trading and religious activities, especially in the growth and sustenance of the Anglican Church. Truck pushing and trading were the major occupations of the Igbo ethnic group in West Cameroon. The Igbo through their hard work were able to break even, but were misconstrued to be siphoning the wealth of Cameroon to Nigeria. This shows that they were not welcomed in the country. They were labelled lovers of money, cannibals and 'Biafra'. The Cameroonians used the word 'Biafra' derogatorily. This paper argues that though some Igbo were lovers of money by their actions in West Cameroon, but it was wrong to refer to them as cannibals. It goes further to argue that if not for the Igbo, the Anglican Communion might not have been in existent in Cameroon. This paper looks at the economic and religious activities the Igbo were known for (Igbo identity) and the various name tags they were addressed, as it adopts the social identity theory. It makes use of primary and secondary sources. Findings show that as the Igbo were going about their activities, they suffered abuse in form of derogatory remarks from the Cameroonians, which were hallmarks of Igbophobia. Recommendations are presented on how to put a stop to the verbal assaults suffered by the Igbo in West Cameroon.
Revisiting the Politics of Belonging in Cameroon
Africa, 2010
The article introduces a themed section in the journal on hometown associations in Cameroon. It outlines the impact of ten years’ work in this field and argues that notions of autochthony remain central in understanding Cameroonian politics. However the three articles go on to argue that some of the claims about home, belonging and politics are difficult to reconcile with the hazier reality observed on the ground. The articles aim to disturb any universal, inevitable or overly tidy segue between questions of belonging and claims of political segmentation. Too often the existing literature moves too quickly to an analysis that foregrounds only the worrisome dimensions of a politics of belonging, thus leaving little space for other interpretations. To explore this dilemma the article continues by exploring a land dispute in Bali Nyonga, north-west Cameroon. It shows (1) how ideas of belonging remain central to the practice of politics; (2) how the politics of belonging has changed ove...
Afrika Focus
Relations between colonial and post-colonial studies in and on Cameroon have been both continuous and discontinuous. As reflected in the domains of historiography and social anthropology, this has impacted on ethnic self-representations and popular labeling. This paper examines contrasting drives that have led to a replication of colonial redefinitions of ethnicity and how this informs current discussions on ethnicity in Cameroon. The argument is that certain research works have informed or substantially influenced the identity question when one aknowledges that the colonial period is a bench mark epoch in the establishment of certain categories of ethnic perception. Although substantially deconstructed at the scientific level, these categories have survived and continue to influence social categories of perception that become common sense intrusions (what Bourdieu called doxa) into social science. Key words: colonialism, ethnicity, identity, perceptions, scholarship
2003
This is a significant and timely book on the politics of belonging. It captures, with fascinating detail and insight, the current widespread disaffection with the sterile rhetoric of nation-building that has characterised much of postcolonial African politics. Until the liberation struggles of the 1990s, dictatorship only paid lip service to democracy with impunity, often by silencing those perceived to threaten national unity. Since then, individuals and groups have reactivated claims to rights and entitlements and nowhere more so than in Cameroon.