Cameroon: Exploiting Anglophone Identity in State Deconstruction

Mbuagbo, Oben Timothy

doi:10.1080/1350463022000029986

Cited by 10 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Mbuagbo, 2002;Mbuagbo and Akoko, 2004). This practice consists of writing letters of support to political leaders such as the one older and established South-West political elite such as Chief Victor Mukete wanted all elites present at the Buea event to endorse, as mentioned in the introduction.…”

Section: Manyu Youths and The Praxis Of Patrimonial Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mbuagbo, 2002;Mbuagbo and Akoko, 2004;Nyamnjoh, 1999). However, I suggest that since at least the mid-1990s, the cultural politics of belonging enfolded into Cameroon's current democratization project has accentuated these anxieties and uncertainties among the political elites even as the economic hardships have increased uncertainties for the nonelites (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Manyu youths, belonging and the antinomies of patrimonial elite politics in contemporary Cameroon

Orock

2013

Cultural Dynamics

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This article explores the social and political connections between youths and political elites from Manyu Division in South-Western Cameroon. Unlike several recent studies on youths in Africa, it focuses on educated youths from Manyu, exploring their strategies to secure greater political inclusion and better chances for upward social mobility. With a critical attention to their discourses and practices, the article examines the disjuncture between the promise of Cameroon's patrimonial state as an inclusive structure of political action and the sense of exclusion, anxiety, and uncertainty felt by many actors. It argues that this tension generates relations of mutuality and interdependence between elite and nonelite actors. Yet, the article finds that while the logics of political intimacy between Manyu students and their political elites in Cameroon are mediated by kinship, ethnicity, and patronage, these do not always guarantee inclusion and success in social mobility for the youthful actors. For these youths, they felt their exclusion to be more a result of the obstructive character of middle-aged elites who were reticent to acknowledge the values of kinship, ethnicity, and patronage as valid basis for granting opportunities to their younger kinsmen.

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Section: Manyu Youths and The Praxis Of Patrimonial Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Manyu youths, belonging and the antinomies of patrimonial elite politics in contemporary Cameroon

Orock

2013

Cultural Dynamics

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“…I also question the existing local, contextual accounts of the practices of political elites within SWELA as driven solely by their selfish personal interests (see Geschiere, 2005;Konings and Nyamnjoh, 2003;Mbuagbo, 2002;Mbuagbo and Akoko, 2004;Mbuagbo and Orock, 2012;Nkwi, 2006;Nyamnjoh, 2005;Nyamnjoh and Rowlands, 1998;Orock, 2005;Yenshu-Vubo, 2006a). I examine how elite practices of ethno-regionalism within SWELA to pursue their personal interests -what Abner Cohen (1981) labeled as ''particularistic functions'' -also serve what Cohen describes as ''universalistic functions,'' in terms of securing some socioeconomic benefits for the whole South-West Region as a whole.…”

Section: An Anthropological Approach To Ethnicity and Democracy In Afmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This codified a vague notion of indigenous minority rights and advanced protective guarantees to some cultural groups (largely undefined). In practice, these promises have been followed through with the appointment of ''natives'' as local Government Delegates over elected mayors of local city councils who in most instances were migrants or descendants of migrants to those cities (for more on these, see Mbuagbo, 2002;Mbuagbo and Orock, 2012;Nyamnjoh, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

SWELA, ethnicity, and democracy in Cameroon’s patrimonial state: An anthropological critique

Orock

2014

Critique of Anthropology

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Since the importation of liberal democracy by African postcolonial states in the 1990s mainstream political science scholarship has mainly represented the outcome as a pathologically ethnicized disfiguration of a universal model of politics upon which many had invested much hope for political empowerment and accountability. This article draws from a recent anthropological theoretical position on democracy as a work of cultural construction as well as on ethnographic material on an ethno-regional elite organization in Southwestern Cameroon called SWELA to provide an alternative reading of the ethnicity-elite-democracy nexus in postcolonial Africa. I suggest that while ethnicity is a major idiom through which the politics of democracy is practiced in Africa where most states are very patrimonially organized, this need not be seen as unproductive to the democratic ideals or expectations of effective political participation, deliberation (voice), and political accountability. Taking the case of Cameroon, I argue that in complete reversal of the situation under the one-party state, the historical shift from the one-party state to multiparty politics in 1990 and vernacularization of democracy in Cameroon along a cultural politics of ethnic identities have provided political spaces to the elite that were previously inexistent. I explore how South-West political elites successfully articulate personalized and collective interests on the state through various ethno-regional modes of political action that range from lobbying to threatening memoranda to the regime. These successful strategies by South-West elites indicate how ethnic and patrimonial politics by political elites can link up to democratic expectations in quite surprising ways, suggesting the need for a more cautious interpretation of democracy as a culturally enfolded and enfolding formation subject to local political conditions.

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“…Today Anglophones constitute approximately one-fourth of the Cameroonian population. 3 What is known as the 'Anglophone Problem' in Cameroon, has received (and will probably continue to receive) considerable treatment in the literature (Balencie & de La Grange 1996;Gemandze 2002;Konings & Nyamnjoh 1997Nkoum-Me-Tseny 1999;Jua 2001Jua , 2004Mbuagbo 2002). According to Konings & Nyamnjoh (1997:207), the root cause of the Anglophone problem may be traced back to 1961 when political elites of two territories with different colonial legacies -one French and the other British -agreed on the formation of a federal state.…”

Section: The Anglophone Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Diversity in Conflict and Peace Making in Africa

Sama¹

2008

Afr. J. Conflict Res.

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Contrary to common belief that Cameroon is a haven of peace in a turbulent Central African sub region, this paper demonstrates that the absence of war in the country does not imply that it is peaceful. Given the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country with its more than 289 ethnic groups and a colonial legacy of French and English cultures and languages, plus remnants of a German sub-stratum, it should be clear that there are many potential ingredients for conflicts in Cameroon. The politicians seem to have nurtured these cultural and/or linguistic diversities in ways that fuel conflict and can even spark civil war. The tension that results from these ethnic and/or linguistic and religious splinters is not overt, however, due to the repressive nature of the regime in place. However, this tension continues to grow, to the detriment of the country's socioeconomic development. There is therefore an acute need for measures to defuse such cultural conflicts which have the potential of sparking future civil strife in the country.

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Cameroon: Exploiting Anglophone Identity in State Deconstruction

Cited by 10 publications

References 7 publications

Manyu youths, belonging and the antinomies of patrimonial elite politics in contemporary Cameroon

Manyu youths, belonging and the antinomies of patrimonial elite politics in contemporary Cameroon

SWELA, ethnicity, and democracy in Cameroon’s patrimonial state: An anthropological critique

Cultural Diversity in Conflict and Peace Making in Africa

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