The enduring allure of proximity-based political campaign communication strategies in Cameroon

Abstract

Like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, since 1990, the political and media landscapes in Cameroon have changed significantly. Unlike in the West, where developments in the media sector have been directly tied to parties' adoption of media-based campaign communication strategies, in Cameroon the proliferation of the media and changes in legislation to allow for a more media-based campaign communication scenario have been accompanied not by parties' prioritization of media-based campaign communication strategies but rather by a prioritization of proximity-based campaign communication strategies. This article examines this emerging paradox and offers an analytical perspective to understand this phenomenon.

WELCOMING THE ‘FON OF FONS’: ANGLOPHONE ELITES AND THE POLITICS OF HOSTING CAMEROON'S HEAD OF STATE

“…At the parade grounds, as at the state dinner that he offered at the regional presidential villa to mark the end of the celebrations, several hundred people struggled to touch him, stretching out their hands, just for the symbolic value of the prestige associated with the act for the less powerful hosts (both the elites and the ‘ordinary’ people). In a country where political communication is still largely mediated by face-to-face encounters (Ngomba 2011), Bamenda's hosting of the head of state was spectacularized by the private and especially the public media as a demonstration of the conviviality, and by extension the political legitimacy, that exists between President Biya and his citizens.…”