Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

The intention of this work is to show that European expansion not only transformed the historical trajectory of non-European societies but also reconstituted the historical accounts of these societies before European intervention. It asserts that anthropology must pay more attention to history.

Europe and the People without History

Citizen and subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

▪ Abstract Taking as a point of departure Fernandez's survey (1978), this review seeks to show how research on African Independent Churches (AICs) has been reconfigured by new approaches to the anthropology of Christianity in Africa, in general, and the recent salient popularity of Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches (PCCs) in particular. If the adjectives “African” and “Independent” were once employed as markers of authentic, indigenous interpretations of Christianity, these terms proved to be increasingly problematic to capture the rise, spread, and phenomenal appeal of PCCs in Africa. Identifying three discursive frames—Christianity and “traditional religion,” Africa and “the wider world,” religion and politics—which organize(d) research on AICs and PCCs in the course of the past 25 years, this chapter critically reviews discussions about “Africanization,” globalization and modernity, and the role of religion in the public sphere in postcolonial African societies.

Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal‐Charismatic Churches

The root of the 'anglophone problem' in Cameroon may be traced back to 1961, when the political elites of two territories with different colonial legacies - one French and the other British - agreed on the formation of a federal State. Contrary to expectations, this did not provide for the equal partnership of both parties, let alone for the preservation of the cultural heritage and identity of each, but turned out to be merely a transitory phase to the total integration of the anglophone region into a strongly centralized, unitary State. Gradually, this created an anglophone consciousness: the feeling of being marginalized by the francophone-dominated State. In the wake of political liberalization in the early 1990s, anglophone interests came to be represented first and foremost by various associations and pressure groups that initially demanded a return to the federal State. It was only after the persistent refusal of the Biya government to discuss this scenario that secession became an overt option with mounting popularity. The government's determination to defend the unitary State by all available means, including repression, could lead to an escalation of anglophone demands past a point of no return. Notes, ref

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The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon

Political liberalization in Cameroon has been marked by the construction and mobilization of ethno-regional identities that pose a major challenge to the postcolonial nation-State project This book focuses on Anglophone Cameroon, a region characterized by a widespread feeling that reunification with Francophone Cameroon in 1961 has led to a growing marginalization of the Anglophone minority The book traces the historical trajectory of Anglophone Cameroon to reunification and outlines the strategies used by the Francophone-dominated State to undermine the identity of Anglophone Cameroon, the emergence of Anglophone organizations in the aftermath of political liberalization in the 1990s, the strategies employed by the Biya government to deconstruct the Anglophone identity, and Anglophone and Francophone responses to the Anglophone movements' views It pays special attention to two of the major confrontations between the government and the Anglophones, namely the struggles for the preservation of the Anglophone educational and economic legacies The book concludes with some suggestions on how the present stalemate between the regime and the Anglophone movement could be broken [ASC Leiden abstract]

Negotiating an Anglophone Identity: A Study of the Politics of Recognition and Representation in Cameroon

This article focuses on China's growing engagement with Africa – a subject that has not been given due attention in African studies. Following a review of the various shifts and continuities in Sin...

China and Africa Building a Strategic Partnership

The political liberalization process in Cameroon was marked by protracted strike actions on the campus of the University of Yaounde during the period 1990-1996. Political liberalization provided space for students to organize and voice their multiple grievances about the poor living and study conditions on campus as well as the process of "institutional liberalization", which blocked their pursuit of upward mobility. The unprecedented degree of violence that accompanied the protracted strikes may be attributed not only to the persistent refusal of the university authorities and the regime to enter into any meaningful form of dialogue with the students, but also to the internal divisions among the students along party and ethnoregional lines. The major lines of division were between two groups: the "stranger" students organized in the Students' Parliament and closely allied to the radical opposition; and the "autochthonous" Beti students organized in the Committee for Self-Defense and the Beti militia and closely allied to the regime in power. In their fight with Parliament, the latter groups resorted to violent forms of ethnic exclusion to reestablish control over what they considered to be their university and to maintain their regime in power. (Journal abstract)

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University students' revolt, ethnic militia, and violence during political liberalization in Cameroon

This study shows that the neoliberal project propagated in the 1990s by the Western donors and the international financial institutions has not yet made much progress in Cameroon. It argues that this is not surprising, given the class character of the Cameroonian postcolonial State. The limited political reforms introduced by the Biya regime in 1990, especially the legalization of multipartyism, seem not to have stimulated economic liberalization, but rather to have further eroded the authoritarian and patrimonial State's capacity and willingness to undertake economic reforms. The experience of Cameroon suggests that there is no automatic linkage between political and economic liberalization. [ASC Leiden abstract]

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Piet Konings

Papers

The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon

Negotiating an Anglophone Identity: A Study of the Politics of Recognition and Representation in Cameroon

China and Africa Building a Strategic Partnership

University students' revolt, ethnic militia, and violence during political liberalization in Cameroon

The post-colonial state and economic and political reforms in Cameroon