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Despite all the talk about African renaissance, much of the continent is plagued by poverty and instability. To break out of that cycle, the guardians of African heritage (the old independence freedom fighters turned political leaders and their successors) and much of Afrocentric literature rightly promote African ideas and solutions for African problems. While the idea in itself is noble, the danger is for Africa to close itself off and ignore 'outside' technical and intellectual innovations that it desperately needs to advance further. Africa through Structuration Theory - ntu joins the discourse by attempting to restore intellectual freedom and convincingly defends structuration theory not only as the way forward for Africa but also as a legitimate African concept. It is innovative, refreshing and deserves to be heard across the world and appreciated especially by African graduates, current and future leaders of various African institutions or businesses, non-Africans who might hesitate to refer to such a theory when trying to understand and deal with African problems and the wider public who constitute the audience for this book.
Flashlight on Drama and Film succinctly describes how to use drama to afford target audiences opportunities to analyse environmental situations, presented through drama, with a view to enabling them to make informed decisions and take responsible actions in similar situations in the real world. This constitutes the guiding principle of Drama for Situation Analysis (DRASA), with Flashlight on Drama and Film as its training guide.in the drama effort. The guide is divided into three parts. Part One looks at the development of the play script from the research stage. Part Two describes the stages involved in interpreting a play, including the skills, techniques and terminology of acting, from a simple definition of drama. Part Three gives a rundown of the stages in rehearsing and presenting a play, either as stage drama or film production.
In the instinct to survive those who are able to dominate the competition go about their activities as if others (humans and non-humans) did not matter or did not have interests. Selfishness becomes more prevalent as a people move from elementary economic systems to modern economic systems. The major reason why economic systems collapse is human selfishness. Despite all the achievements in science and technology, there are still poor people in the world and environmental cataclysms have become daily occurrences. This is because the would-be agents of development, such as Multinational Corporations and states, are largely motivated by selfishness. Unfortunately, poor economies pursue development using borrowed models formulated for selfish reasons. Needless to say, the solution to current economic and environmental challenges does not lie in abstract economic jargons or more advanced technological machinery but in taming the evil of human selfishness. This book makes a strong case for a vaccine against the virus of selfishness, namely, education for altruistic egoism.
This is a dense, erudite collection of finely crafted poems that powerfully reflect on vices such as war, bad governance, deforestation, dissipation, greed, oppression and cruelty. The poems also tackle other important phenomena of life such as love, anxiety, weather, time, politics, morality, economics, justice, culture and the environment. The virtue of these finely tuned poems does not only lie in their philosophical questioning, but their artistic merit and audacious reflection of issues pertinent in human life of all ages. While some of the poems provoke amusement and others tears, the corpus of the collection educates through entertainment. The poetry penetrates into the greater depths of the public's psyche to appraise, query, empty and expose their concerns in such a manner that should hopefully make those who cause or ignite human tribulations to rethink their actions and those haunted by the same to stay vigilant.
Peri-urban Land Transactions : Everyday Practices and Relations in Peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi
(2012)
This book explores the changing land relations in the peri-urban villages of Blantyre in Malawi. It questions and debates how and why the peri-urban villages have become the locus of the selling and buying of customary land, the practices and also the relations involved. The book provides rich ethnographic insights on the commodification of land relations, custom, practices, disputes and social relations between land sellers, land buyers, traditional leaders, and intermediaries. The transactions draw strength from the growing peri-urbanization and monetization of social relations, both of which push towards land decisions at family and individual levels. Bigger groups like the village, clan or extended family have minimal, if not symbolic role only. Village headmen benefit materially by taking gifts (signing fee) rationalized by custom on reciprocity, while estate agents claim commission. Numerous constraints are negotiated about the ownership, rights to sale, multiple selling and the use and sharing of land money. Peri-urban land transactions offer scope for examining a wider range of social and economic relations, and the subtle ways in which the state infiltrates the everyday lives of actors. Overtime, the practices reproduce but also transform land relations in significant but less appreciated ways.
This book presents innovative material on ethnography; more specifically, it exposes events where African individuals deal with the supernatural - such as: reaction to the death of a child whose surgical operation was considered an answer to prayers to God, how African students have dealt with evil spirits in their lives, how African people have experimented the phenomenon of 'miracle' with their specific religious background that merges imported religions (Christian and Islam) and their traditional cultural religious beliefs. The material is also of interest to readers concerned with the need for dialogue between religions for the purpose of finding solutions to conflicts arising in the modern world. The book is truly thought-provoking. See for example what happens when a Muslim faces Jesus Christ as recounted in chapter 5. Mevoutsa's testimony in chapter 6 is a perfect example that exposes the way Africans attached to their traditional cultures believe that God may use tradition healers to manifest his presence among his creatures.
International development has its origins in the histories of nineteenth and early twentieth-century European colonisation. What happens when a leading colonial power decides to transform a model tropical colony, relying on head-loading of goods as the predominant form of transport, into a modern market economy on the back of the greatest British industrial ingenuity of the time - railways? In this meticulously researched book, Komla Tsey brings to light the historical origins of a wide range of issues confronting present-day international development researchers and policy-makers, such as technology transfer, wealth creation versus equity of access, and ways to evaluate the benefits of development work, especially across cultures. In the context of the early twenty-first-century international investment interests in resource-rich Africa, Tsey argues, forensic historical research is required to determine the precise nature and scale of the financial and humanitarian injustices committed by British colonialists during the construction of major public works projects. More than providing opportunities to take possible legal actions for reparations, this research should also serve as a reminder to present-day African policy-makers and their international and local business partners that the injustices and blatant abuses of power of the past should never be repeated.
This book is the fascinating study of Christian enclaves in the Southern Cameroons of the colonial era. The Christian enclaves came into being with absolute spontaneity as a modus vivendi. Oblivious of the danger in store both colonial governments and traditional authorities provided the conditions in which these Christian villages took root and flourished. However what had taken root in the territory as a self-protection mechanism, soon unleashed its lethal, enticing tentacles luring both the wives of royals and commoners into their bosom. This disruptive influence of Christian villages threatened the survival of ethnic groups, arousing the rancour of traditional authorities and civil administrators. In many ways the Christian enclaves inhibited the potential of colonial governments to administer the territory. These states within a state propagated by the missionary in the most insidious and perfidious of all manners sowed within their own bosom the seed of self-destruction. The whole issue of runaway wives of royals and commoners alike who took refuge in the Christian villages troubled both the colonial and traditional authorities. By offering a safe haven to these runaway wives and welcoming women who were outside the traditional male authority in a tribal setup, the missionaries began sowing within the Christian communities the seeds of their own self destruction. Records of wives of Fons and commoners escaping into these enclaves, eloping with a man and returning pregnant remained the regular subject of several colonial intelligence reports. Highhanded methods by missionaries in these villages brought both the missionaries and their work into disrepute. In less than a quarter of a century these enclaves had lost the war of attrition waged by colonial and traditional authorities. Worn out by endless strife and dissension within and without and forced by contingency, what had been conceived to be ideal Christian communities with snowballing effects, saw its premature demise.
This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart.
This book explores the relationship between plantation labour and gender in Africa. Such a study is the more opportune because most of the existing works on plantation labour in Africa seem to have either under-studied or even ignored the changing conceptions of gender on the continent in recent times. One of the book's major concerns is to demonstrate that the introduction of plantation labour during colonial rule in Africa has had significant consequences for gender roles and relations within and beyond the capitalist labour process. The book focuses on two tea estates in Anglophone Cameroon. A study of these estates is particularly interesting in that one of them employs mainly female pluckers while the other employs mainly male pluckers. This allows for an examination of any variations in male and female workers' modes of resistance to the control and exploitation they meet in the labour process. Such a comparative analysis is helpful in assessing the widespread managerial assumption on tea estates that female pluckers tend to be more productive and docile than male pluckers.
This book examines some facets of gender relations in Cameroon - symmetry in male-female relationships, women's access to land in traditional society, socialization into gender roles through language textbooks in schools, the association life of women, widowhood and inheritance, social capital and entrepreneurship, husband-wife relations in early German colonial encounters - as socially and historically constructed realities from a multidisciplinary perspective, bringing together some social sciences and humanities. The studies point to the fact that these relations are as much rooted in traditions and customs fashioned in several benchmark epochs in African history - arming women with formidable social and cultural capitals or making of them victims of social structures over which they have little control - as they are constantly evolving in contemporary times and transforming women into agents in their own affairs as well as those of the new societies in the making.
This is a comparative ethnographic study of witchcraft and associated violence between the kingdoms of Kom and Venda in Cameroon and South Africa respectively. The book shows why despite its prevalence in both societies, witchcraft does not lead to open violence in Kom, while such large-scale violence is commonplace in Venda. It reveals that this difference can be explained by factors such as the variations in local ideas on witches, differences in the role of traditional authorities, and various state interventions on witchcraft matters. The book demonstrates, through a rich collection of detailed cases, that contrary to anthropological theory that views witchcraft as a mechanism for the expression and resolution of social tensions and conflicts, witchcraft may at times become a disturbance of amicable social relations. Witchcraft accusations may occur in a context where strained social relations have not preceded them. The knowledge and experience that people have about witchcraft is sufficient to trigger an accusation and a violent reaction. Different forms of witchcraft account for variations in witchcraft attributions and accusations. This comparison provides a valuable contribution to ongoing witchcraft policy discourse amid widespread citizen anxiety over witchcraft, and the increasing call on the post-colonial state to intervene and protect its citizens against occult aggression.
Globalization is a term that describes the contradictory economic, political, and cultural processes of world capitalist integration. Although capitalism has been of a global character since the 1400s, the current phase of globalization is manifest by emergent transnational institutions, changing relations between multinational corporations and assaulted paradise of sovereign nation-states and the development of a global monoculture of consumption among feuding class divides. This book examines the relationship between globalization and nation states, the dynamics, contradictions, and crisis of global capitalism, and the developing and maturing class struggles and the prospects for social change and transformation of global capitalism. It examines these class struggles within the context of the globalization of capital and draws out the political implications of this process for the future course of capitalist development on a world scale. In this book Tatah Mentan drives home the point that contemporary neoliberal globalization is in fact an advanced stage of capitalist hegemonism and that the contradictions of 21st century globalization are thus a projection of the contradictions of capitalism on a global scale, with all its inherent exploitative characteristics and militarized class conflicts that will lead to the revolutionary transformation of vulture capitalist society. He argues that dominant global processes are not an immutable feature of capitalism, but are contested by social class actors across these three dimensions.
Son of a Red Devil
(2012)
This is the story of Lukemba Gelindo. He was adopted by a former football player, August Hellemans - also called Gustaf - of the national Belgian team - The Red Devils. Gelindo and his brother were adopted after they were abandoned in a nursery home where they had been mistreated. He grew up in a Flemish village where people had never seen a black person. In general, Flemings are still surprised when they hear blacks speaking their language fluently. This can lead to perplexing and frustrating encounters with ignorance and arrogance, such as during a job interview where Gelindo had to justify himself over and over again as to where he learned to speak the Flemish language. This is also the story of the differences in mentality between the Flemings and Walloons viewed from a black perspective through the eyes of someone who is intimately familiar with both cultures. Gelindo's parents were Flemings but he always went to French speaking schools. It is as well, a story about racism, especially racism that stems from Flemings - which is quite implacable, to say the least. Evidence of this statement is not far-fetched; black people are completely absent in the Flemish media, except perhaps as footballers or musicians, meant to entertain but not to claim rights, entitlements or any serious measure of social visibility. More personally, this story is about Gelindo's experience undergoing psychiatric treatment and also about the sexual tensions between his mother and him. Among other things, it is also Gelindo's aim to speak out against the manner in which young black children get objectified by the rich and famous as the latest 'must have' things, designer accessories up for adoption and adaptation. Like in the rest of the world, this trend is also seen in Flemish magazines in which parents pose in photos with their little black trophy children. The account is direct, honest, uncompromising, laced with cynicism, and in many ways therapeutic.
This book is largely the personal account by Patrick Mbunwe Samba, of how life in his home village of Binshua has been permeated throughout by belief in witchcraft. The book not only provides a historical account informed by his reminiscences of his childhood, it shows as well that even today, belief in witchcraft is very widespread. Witchcraft exerts a profound influence on society in Binshua and in Cameroon in general. The book also provides accounts of the experiences of others, some of them very recent, and gives examples of what injustices and suffering can be caused by the notion that any misfortune must have been caused by witchcraft. For the overwhelming majority of people in village communities such as Binshua, Samba argues, anything not immediately understandable is witchcraft - which is synonymous with mystery. Many educated Africans, too, revert to such traditional attitudes in stressful situations. It may be thought surprising that in spite of the impact of Christianity, Western culture and the improved level of education, the majority of people still believe in witchcraft, and that this phenomenon not only persists but is actually increasing. The book perplexes and challenges by avoiding to provide simple answers to the question whether which witchcraft is real or imagined.
It is in Mauritius that the first newspaper of the African continent was published. Annonces, Affiches et Avis Divers was created in 1773 by the French administration for the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Since its independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has known a very rich media history with an impressive number of publications and a relatively good level of press freedom. However, many challenges remain. Confrontational episodes in the relationship of the local media with the political sphere, the rise of sensationalist journalism, increased concentration of ownership in the industry as well as market uncertainties have taken their toll on a profession which often prides itself in the defence of freedom of speech and democracy. The media conference jointly organised by UNESCO and the University of Mauritius in 2010 offered a singular opportunity - the first time ever in Mauritius - for media practitioners, regulators, lawyers, politicians, academics and civil society to discuss the state of the media as part of the country's democratic systems. Media roles and functions, the legal and regulatory framework, self-regulation, market issues and new trends such as citizen journalism were thoroughly examined. This book brings together papers and conclusions from that conference. Whilst much ground has been covered especially since the emergence of private radio stations, much still needs to be done to move towards a true media democracy. The book points to media governance, access to information, training of and professionalism among media practitioners as areas of unfinished business. This is an invaluable contribution to on-going debates about press regulation, liberalisation of electronic media, new forms of journalism, continuous training and professionalization in Mauritius.
The bicultural polity of Cameroon has become problematic over the years. In addition to the increasing marginalization experienced by its English speaking component in many domains (politics, administration, economy, culture), it is facing mounting inequality and disarray despite the nation-building aspirations at reunification in 1961. This book examines the very basis of the union crisis by tracing the causes to the asymmetrical nature of negotiations between the contracting partners the founding fathers of the union and the politics of guile and force that has characterized the regimes in Yaound. From a federal model that takes the equality of the contracting parties as a given, the polity has developed into an ethno-regional patchwork designed by its architects to be essentially unequal in nature. Consequently, the segmented Anglophone community can exist only in contradiction within itself. They have been worked into the regimeís statecraft of consciously maintaining or re-activating ethnic boundaries inherited from colonialism. An analysis of the cultural and linguistic dimension of the union shows contrasting drives between the assimilation/attempts to dominate by the French-speaking component and resistance by Anglophones. The analyses further show the projected harmonization and rollback by the State, the creative blends and the crystallization around continuing or reproduced colonial experiences, a fierce competition between elites with a drive to impose the culture of the demographically dominant and a refusal to accept the idea of a linguistic minority. The contentious experience, Yenshu Vubo argues, can still be remedied by reforms in a politics of possibilities.These reforms must be ready to re-examine the constitutional basis of the union by revisiting the often dismissed question of the form of the state defined as one and indivisible (a new federal architecture as requested by several political voices). Institutions should be restructured to attend to diversity issues and essential linguistic differences while consolidating any strategic gains of the union such as the creative blends and the acceptance of specifi cities of each community, statutory equality of citizenship and the essential clauses of the fi rst federation.
Blessing
(2011)
Fatti Ashi died. Startling her family and community, she comes back to life just a few hours after dying. Blessing chronicles the life of this Fatti Ashi, a young village girl who from the moment she rejoins the land of the living is faced with both obstacles and opportunities consistent with an attempted mergence of two worlds. From a child who is molded with her father's advice to merge ancestral skull worship and Christianity to an underprivileged teenager who falls in love with the alphabet and finally becoming a woman who desires emotional and financial independence, Fatti Ashi's life yields misunderstandings and isolation. As a child in the village, her life is a battleground for family rivalry and religious conflict. As a teenage wife in the city, she befriends a sex worker who encourages her to bring meaning into her life rather than simply living to the dictates of others. She takes up the challenge by embarking on adult education and becoming a breadwinner but is taken aback when her husband requests a divorce. In a search for solutions to save her marriage, she entertains traditional religion, Catholicism and Pentecostalism. Disappointment and desperation lead her to take a deeper look at the situation. Is she to stay married simply for convenience? Is she to continue following religious paths laid out by others, clearly not as beneficial to her? Is she to please society to her detriment? The long journey of self-discovery takes her through scandal and humiliation but in the end, she emerges as a confident, admired and happy woman.
This book brings together six seminal essays by Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, essays first published mostly in the 1960s in ABBIA (Cameroon Cultural Review) and in the pages of leading newspapers in Cameroon. Preoccupied with the cultural dignity, humanity and freedom of Africa and Africans, Fonlon never contented himself with stating the problem. In a very Socratic and scientifically systematic approach, he proposed solutions as well. Patiently pedagogical, philosophical and steeped in the classics he convinced his readers through the force of argument. In 'The Task of Today;' Fonlon invites Cameroonians and Africans to face the challenge of nation-building and development in a world where imperialism is far from dead and buried. 'Random Leaves from My Diary' shares his aspirations and challenging experiences as a young seminarian learning to be relevant to God and the Catholic Church. In 'Will We Make or Mar' Fonlon is worried, and indeed frustrated, by the temptations of material pursuits and the love of money threatening to derail modern elites charged with the postcolonial destiny of African nations. As a member of the Cameroon National Union, in 'Under the Sign of the Rising Sun, ' Fonlon preaches patriotism and compromise. In 'Idea of Literature, ' Fonlon expresses his passion for art as the pursuit of beauty and the sublime, stressing, as he was wont to do, that no race or culture has a monopoly of this aspiration. 'A Case for Early Bilingualism' invites Cameroonians to take advantage of their English and French linguistic colonial heritage, by embracing bilingualism in early childhood and playing a major role in an interconnected world where interpretation and translation is eternally needed.
Death of Hardship
(2012)
Death of Hardship kaleidoscopically unveils human intrigues, predicaments and woes. It brings into sharp focus the most dreaded products of cruel oppression, exploitation, and destruction - the worst forms of human degradation and sufferings. However, it also sheds beams of hope, celebrating optimism in the struggle and eventually opening the curtain to the stage of victory of the oppressed and impoverished under the shameless sky.
So the Path Does Not Die
(2012)
Protagonist Finas search for happiness and belonging begins on the night of her aborted circumcision and continues through her teenage years in Freetown, Sierra Leones capital; her twenties in the Washington Metropolitan Area; and ends with her return to Sierra Leone to work as an advocate for war-traumatized children. The novel explores the problems she encounters in each setting against the backdrop of the tensions, ambiguities, and fragmentation of the stranger/immigrant condition and the characters struggles to clarify their ideas about home and abroad. Finas circumcision gets significant, though not sensational, play in the different attitudes toward the practice between her and her fiancé Cammy, a Trinidadian urologist. The differences complicate their relationship at a time when skeletons from their pasts threaten their impending marriage. The stories of Finas friend, African-American Aman and her fiancé, Nigerian Bayo; of Edna (Finas foster sister) and her husband Kizzy; and of Mawaf, a war-traumatized teen, unfold in subplots that merge with the main plot and overarching theme of belonging as characters straddle home and abroad places.
This book brings and blends together a dozen scholarly articles published by the author since the 1970s. It sketches two different yet related stories: first, that of one of the most ancient and prestigious African civilizations, the antiquity and sophistication of which are becoming more and more prominent as field research unfolds their many facets. Second, the story of the researcher himself, who has had to alter and shift his approach to that civilization as he got to meet Grassfielders, colleagues, friends and scholars who changed his views about the Grassfields kingdoms and their people. This book bears witness to those many encounters. Historical and anthropological research is not only a question of relevant theories and methodologies. It is also a human endeavour made of networks and friendships.
The subject of revolutionary overthrow of constitutional orders in Africa is at the intersection of three disciplines: jurisprudence and legal philosophy, constitutional law and power politics, and civil-military relations, that is, military security policy which is one aspect of national security policy. The subject is of interest in at least four ways. It problematizes the inescapable question of governance in the African continent. It challenges the democratization agenda in Africa - how does one democratize not only political governance but also the instruments of violence in the state? It also challenges African constitutional lawyers and policy makers to seek a constitutional model that addresses the enduring menace of the power of the gun in African affairs and the changing role of the military in African politics. Finally, it underscores concerns about sovereignty and national security. This book contributes to a fuller understanding of the coup syndrome in African. To this end, it vigorously interrogates the place of coups in the governance of Africa, and explores the relevance of Kelsen's theory of revolutionary legality in the context of coup d'états in Africa. It is a major contribution by a leading thinker in the field.
The Trials of an Half Orphan
(2012)
Death strikes and claims the mother of Martin Smith when he is still in primary five, leaving him and his siblings at the mercy of a volcanic tempered and cruel father. No longer prepared to accept any beatings from his father, he runs away from home and takes up residence in a deserted house in a neighbouring village with little to live on. His fate appears sealed. Just when all hope seems lost, appears Mr Finley Banks - a Peace Corp Volunteer and teacher. Martin Smith is pleased to be treated like a son once more, only for Mr Finley Banks to come to the end of his stay in the country five years later. How will things turn out with him gone? Set in Cameroon and Italy, this is a story of opportunities and opportunism. It is the story of the trials, thrills and tribulations of a young African half orphan boy determined to make it in life.
Since the end of World War II, global capitalism, spearheaded by US financial interests and backed by the most lethal military force that has ever been assembled, has consolidated its power over the world economy. In the past decades, especially, transnational corporations have tightened their control over national governments and international institutions. The imposition of free trade policies and the increasing privatization of social services have facilitated the accumulation of fabulous wealth for the owners of capital at the expense of working people and the environment worldwide. Contemporary capitalism now dominates every major sector of the world economy. The social and environmental costs of contemporary capitalism are prohibitive. The global megatrends of rising inequality and absolute poverty, political instability, and global climate change-all compounded and accelerated by this predatory mode of production-are adversely affecting the lives and threatening the future of every inhabitant of nations and the entire world. In view of these megatrends and the current global economic crisis, the conclusion that contemporary capitalism does not serve the interests of the vast majority of the people on the planet and is both economically and environmentally unsustainable, is self-evident. History offers harsh lessons. The political violence of the 20th century, which resulted in an estimated 200 million deaths and untold economic and environmental destruction, cautions us to work for socialism in the 21st century with every means at our disposal except violence. Facing the awful power and willingness of capitalism to coerce and corrupt, we must find ways to make soft power prevail. Clearly, a revolution is in order-it is time to place the socialist alternative on the national and world agenda.
When a correlation emerges between a prophecy and a police investigation, and a kidnapper maintains his presence at a crime scene, a woman dreads the passage of time. She cannot understand why a man set an innocent teenager on fire and kidnapped her son. The kidnapped boy's father knows when two warring hangmen stand on the same scaffold, one must bow to the other or die. Into the fray comes a game ranger, an ex-decathlete expert at tracking man-eating crocodiles. However, a Senator twice his age counting her fertility days desperately wants him in bed. She isn't aware her sweetheart is in the belly of a world no criminologist can understand. As mayhem takes centre-stage in a community suffering the brunt of a veiled matrix of calamities, is the ranger further bait, a weapon or a sacrificial ram between crouching outlaws?
The book investigates what have become of Cameroonian transnational family and friendship ties in the age of the mobile phone and the internet that make people readily available and reachable. Most theoretical literature states that these tools of sociality cement transnational social relationships through instantaneous interaction. To capture the different experiences and impressions on the significance of these media in easing communication for migrants and non-migrants, Tazanu draws on ethnographic accounts based on his fieldwork in Freiburg (Germany) and Buea (Cameroon). He argues that it is mainly the migrants who maintain or are expected to maintain ties with non-migrants back in Cameroon through calls and material support. The main finding of the study is that cell phones and the internet have facilitated discontents, grudges, insults, fights, avoidance, arguments and estrangement of relationships much more than they have contributed to binding friends or families through direct mediation. Underlying these aspects of distanciation are the high expectations and sometimes contradictory motives for instant virtual interaction. Non-migrants' accounts suggest that direct availability and reachability should lead to uninterrupted transnational interaction and also that the cultural practices of remittances from migrants are easily requested and coordinated. Such motives are generally contrary to migrants' wishes, willingness or ability to support friends and families in Cameroon. These unexpected outcomes arising from rapid speed of interaction questions the advantages that are often associated with instant sociality across space and time. The finding is a call for the cultural background and life-world experiences of media users to be taken into consideration when theorising the significance of information technology in the debate on media globalisation.
My Brother, My Sister
(2012)
The fiery passion and epigrammatic terseness with which Loretta Burns re-enacts her experiences and observations as an African American woman in contemporary America reveal her as a poet of life who transcends the labels African American, feminist, and/or womanist. Her poetry captures moments and scenes of living that echo her impressions and intuitions of a world trapped between appearance and reality, illusion and disillusion, expectation and realization, the material and the spiritual. Through her deceptive simplicity of diction, she explores the nooks and crannies of her psyche as well as her society's. It is a poetry written from the depths of the heart that calls attention to the mystery and sacredness of the everyday. It therefore comes as no surprise that Loretta Burns and Bill F. Ndi, the Cameroonian-born poet with a fierce drive for global peace and the oneness of humanity, should collaborate on a collection of poems. With vibrancy and a sense of urgency, their lines evoke humanity's perpetual struggle for freedom and its search for meaning.
The Cameroon Condition
(2012)
The Cameroon Condition brings together three seminal essays by George Ngwane, one of the most renowned, committed and daring Anglophone Cameroon writers. 'The Mungo Bridge, ' is a stinging indictment of the tenuous relations between La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons - a marriage gone sour right from the honeymoon. It raises hard questions on the failed union, and is uncompromisingly courageous in the solutions it proposes. This popular essay was first published at a time when it was risky to be open and critical, especially on what has come to be known as The Anglophone Problem. 'The Anglophone File' discusses the narrow and barren politics of belonging that have exacerbated divisions and controversies among Anglophone elites, turning them into political fodder for the Francophone dominated state. The essay suggests ways out of the divisions and intrigue that have kept Anglophones permanently at daggers drawn against each other, and facilitated their exploitation, humiliation and marginalization. The third essay, 'Fragments of Unity, ' concerns the South West Region, whose leaders Ngwane criticizes of political opportunism and of a chronic lack of vision and fortitude with regard to the socio-economic development of the region. It calls for a leadership free of the docility, mediocrity and praise-singerliness. These are powerful essays that have attracted praise and criticism alike. They are essays to leave few indifferent. Their continued relevance to current debates makes of them a most read.
From its very inception, detective fiction has enjoyed a great popularity among the young and the old, the learned and the not so learned. By some unfortunate stroke of irony, its respect has not kept pace with its enormous popularity. For over half a century now, it has remained the bane of creative writing. In strict intellectual circles, it is very rare to find people talk defensively and interestingly about the genre. Yet Asong has chosen to do just that. He has stoutly defended the weak by putting up a good case for its continued existence. He has also shown how irresistible key elements of the genre are to even the best respected novelists. Finally he has demonstrated for the first time, how the genre has been domesticated by African writers of very great repute such as Ngugi, Sembene and Lessing. That he has been able to prove that these writers have used techniques of detective fiction is a significant broadening of the horizons for appreciating creative writing in Africa.
This is the story of the prolific professor Newit Anatole Lobe who after his studies and a failed marriage in the US decides to return home to Cameon, an imaginary post-colonial African state to take up a teaching job with the country's main university. When he refuses to join the machinations and antics of the power elites who want to hang on to power at all cost, he pays a heavy price. He plays a key role in the founding of an opposition party just to be betrayed by those in whom he placed his trust. He is arrested and detained on trumped up charges of subversion and complicity with external enemies of the state. He learns the hard way that life is larger than logic.
This innovative book is a forward-looking reflection on mental decolonisation and the postcolonial turn in Africanist scholarship. As a whole, it provides five decennia-long lucid and empathetic research involvements by seasoned scholars who came to live, in local peoples own ways, significant daily events experienced by communities, professional networks and local experts in various African contexts. The book covers materials drawn from Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. Themes include the Whelan Research Academy, rap musicians, political leaders, wise men and women, healers, Sacred Spirit churches, diviners, bards and weavers who are deemed proficient in the classical African geometrical knowledge. As a tribute to late Archie Mafeje who showed real commitment to decolonise social sciences from western-centred modernist development theories, commentators of his work pinpoint how these theories sought to dismiss the active role played by African people in their quest for self-emancipation. One of the central questions addressed by the book concerns the role of an anthropologist and this issue is debated against the background of the academic lecture delivered by René Devisch when receiving an honorary doctoral degree at the University of Kinshasa. The lecture triggered critical but constructive comments from such seasoned experts as Valentin Mudimbe and Wim van Binsbergen. They excoriate anthropological knowledge on account that the anthropologist, notwithstanding her social and cognitive empathy and intense communication with the host community, too often fails to also question her own world and intellectual habitus from the standpoint of her hosts. Leading anthropologists carry further into great depth the bifocal anthropological endeavour focussing on local peoples re-imagining and re-connecting the local and global. The book is of interest to a wide readership in the humanities, social sciences, philosophy and the history of the African continent and its relation with the North.
This book explores the customary, social, economic political and rights issues surrounding access, ownership and control over land from a gender perspective. It combines theory and practice from researchers, lawyers and judges, each with track records of working on women and rights concerns. The nexus between the reluctance to recognize and materialize women?s right to land, and the increasing feminization of poverty is undeniable. The problem assumes special acuity in an essentially agrarian context like Cameroon, where the problem is not so much the law as its manner of application. That this book delves into investigating the principal sources and reasons for this prevalent injustice is particularly welcome. As some of the analyses reveal, denying women their right to land acquisition or inheritance is sometimes contrary to established judicial precedents and even in total dissonance with the country?s constitution. Traditional and cultural shibboleths associated with land acquisition and ownership that tend to stymie women?s development and fulfilment, must be quickly shirked, for such retrograde excuses can no longer find comfort in the law, morality nor in ?modern? traditional thinking. The trend, albeit timid, of appointing women to Land Consultative Boards and even as traditional authorities, can only be salutary. These are some positive practical steps that can translate the notion of equal rights into ?equal power? over land for both sexes; otherwise ?equality? in this context will remain an unattractive slogan.
When an ex-commando, a man seeking celebrity status, prepares to rob the Louvre Museum of the Mona Lisa, his 'wife' discovers that she is his mistress. In the eye of a cyclone, her son and she base their lives on hope. With a business proposal is another murderer prophesied as 'a demon in human form'. At the Vatican, he once aspired to be the first black pope. He is angry with God and his eyes are set on a billion-dollar heist. The ex-priest baits his archenemy and makes his way to a scaffold. Of the happiness he found after cursing God, he is tired. Scars disfigure his manhood. The two men are fugitives lethally dangerous to the other. While the ex-priest desires to honour the same gods and spirits that wrecked his priesthood, the ex-commando must rise above his limitations or he risks total ruin.
This is a vivid, thought-provoking and fascinating text on some contentious issues in contemporary medical ethics. The book acknowledges the contribution of 'African tradition' and Western scholarship to the development of medical ethics as a university discipline. It questions the lack of consensus around such biomedical issues as euthanasia and traditional medicine. In many countries, the failure has resulted in public outcries. Its thrust centres on the nexus of practice and theory, and the importance of pragmatism and critical questioning in dealing with different cases on and around biomedicine. Its virtue is its significant shift from the traditional positions on selected biomedical issues to a more rigorous, pragmatic and critical questioning and understanding of the reasoning and positions of all involved and/or affected parties.
The Dialectics of Praxis and Theoria in African Philosophy : An Essay on Cultural Hermeneutics
(2011)
This book is a clarion call for African renaissance informed by African spirituality. It develops the vision that Africans can be the same in the process of change. Africans have to coincide with their ways of perceiving values, and to retrieve their identity wiped out by regrettable historical events. Even in this involvement of revalorisation of their stifled ways, Africans have to be aware of the fact that history has evolved and new human environments are taking place. Any attempt to recover African personality involves a triple necessity. First, to remember the past, second, to analyse critically what Africans have inherited from their past, and lastly, to project new ways and means for a genuine renaissance, free from alienation and exploitation. Bin-Kapela sees in Cultural hermeneutics an appropriate philosophical method to achieve this end of recognising and projecting African spirituality as a universal value.
This is a pioneer, long overdue and truly original book that off ers a unique, comprehensive and thorough exposition of the criminal law of Cameroon by a leading scholar. This latest book by Professor Carlson Anyangwe adopts a thematic approach, each chapter covering a specific aspect of the criminal law. The text is a clear, simple and comprehensive exposition of all the offences codified in the Penal Code. It offers a rich, clear, learned and discerning analysis to understanding of the criminal law. The book is designed to instruct and to contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject, the treatment of which is unique, informative and makes for compelling reading. This is the first textbook ever on the subject in Cameroon and it is undoubtedly an indispensable tool of trade for judges, prosecutors, lawyers in private practice, academic lawyers, law students and law enforcement officers.
She Seized The Balls
(2011)
In She Seized The Balls, Ntube's exploits can best be described as guided by the hand of providence. In a bid to inherit her father's compound and live comfortably, she destroys the old sacred village grove and fells totemic trees. An epidemic breaks out, killing mostly the elderly. Ntube is accused of causing it because of the destruction of the sacred places. She is brought before the clan council several times but she tantalizes the council with her flawless defences. In due course, she rebuffs her former husband's bid for reconciliation; falls in love with an influential personality and begets a child with him. She uses the man to achieve the building of a bridge across the river that had enclaved the clan for centuries. With her elevated status among her people she becomes the first woman to be given the prerogative to pour libation in a patriarchal society.
The book examines the creative industries of Cameroon and Africa and makes bold the cultural triumphant assertion that Africa is home to some of the most diverse cultural patrimony and the most versatile creative professionals. It also discusses indigenous development models and questions the rationale for Eurocentric democratic paradigms which have partly contributed to the demise of a concrete democratic development entitlement in most African countries. Ngwane weaves both the cultural and political strands into a search for a homegrown development web which he calls 'glocalisation'. Ngwane's essays, most of which have animated debate and discourse in national newspapers, online blogs and International journals are lucid in their arguments, poignant in their ideological focus, rich in their non-fiction craftsmanship and urgent in their message delivery. The essays will make good reading for students of Africa studies, Development studies, Politics and Culture.
No Trifling Matter : Contributions of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon
(2011)
No Trifling Matter is a collection of controversial, critical weekly commentary on the reluctance of a monolithic regime to yield to popular aspirations for democracy in Cameroon. In these essays written between 1990 and November 1992, Godfrey Tangwa, alias Rotcod Gobata, doesnt quibble. He comes across as a man of courage and resolve; one ready to swim upstream in a manner of a desperate midwife eager to prevent a still birth (in this case, of democracy). His column is as daring an embarrassment to Biyas démocratie avancée as the radio programme Cameroon Report (later Cameroon Calling), was to Presidents Ahidjo and Biya in the hey days of the parti unique. Rotcod Gobata believes the time has come for Cameroon to graduate from a country over milked by mediocrity and callous indifference, to the paradise that it was meant to be for the poor and downtrodden. In this regard, he belongs with that rare breed of intellectuals who are genuine in their pursuit of collective betterment, and who in consequence, have opted to distance themselves from the stomach and all its trappings. This position is to be commended and encouraged, especially in a system where explanation is often mistaken for subversion, a system where the stomach is about the only political path-finder - the sole compass in use, a country where the champions of falsehood want all at their beck and call, and where a handful of thirsting palates daily jostle to share with Count Dracula the blood of the common and forgotten. Rotcod Gobata wants the new Cameroon to be rid of the ills and failures of the past five decades that have made it impossible for Cameroonians in their millions to live productive and creative lives.
To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook is designed to help young writers come to grips with questions and problems relative to their creative efforts. The authors discuss a range of topics, providing guidelines on such issues as style, technique, point of view, characterization, poetic diction, figurative language, denotation and connotation, etc. They equally offer useful critical comments on some of the works of accomplished African writers whom they cite as models for beginning writers, fusing literary creativity with literary criticism. All along the co-authors stress the centrality, in imaginative writing, of both the 'what' and the 'how' or matter and manner, and how to combine both to good effect.
Regional Balance and National Integration in Cameroon : Lessons Learned and the Uncertain Future
(2011)
This book presents a series of reflections by Cameroon scholars on a variety of topics associated with regional balance and national integration. The different reflections look for answers to some burning questions of the day such as: Where are we coming from? Where are we going? How are we going where we are going? Have the different state ideologies offered appropriate solutions to the quest for a strong, united, stable and prosperous nation-state? If not, what has gone wrong and why? What can be done to shape the future and accommodate the aspirations of the men and women of Cameroon and of their progeny? The book addresses the issue of national unity and national integration within the context of different political perceptions and visions. It examines the merits and demerits of the policy of regional balance of the Ahmadou Ahidjo years (1960-1982). Focus is also on the underlying flaws of this doctrine and philosophy. The debate also addresses some critical questions of the national integration policy and practices of Paul Biya, President since November 1982. The policy has failed to achieve its stated goals and has ended up in the ethnicisation and polarisation of national life. The future of the Cameroon nation-state, with its rich ethnic and cultural diversity, seems to be in jeopardy as internal forces question the management of civil society by leaders who have lost the sense of justice and equity. Why are there several voices singing the song of destitution and disappointment with the state? Have regionalism and the rhetoric of national integration and balance emerged as untenable polities within a nation-state in search of an identity and responsible leadership? These are some of the questions and issues Cameroonian and Cameroonist scholars have tried to address in this collection of 28 well-researched and outstandingly argued essays.
There is a dearth of well researched books on important disciplines in law written by Cameroonians. This regrettable situation has invariably meant a reliance of substantive and practice books written mostly by Nigerian and English writers. While books written by these writers have been helpful, they have not always captured the peculiarities and judicial attitudes of the Cameroonian context. When approached from the perspective of practice in the Anglophone regions, not even Cameroonian writers of French orientation have done justice to this situation. This book contributes to filling this gap. It is a comprehensive review that combines an analysis of the principles and basic procedure of labour law in Cameroon. Yanou draws on solid academic research as well as a wide ranging experience in legal practice across Cameroon and Nigeria to present a coherent and practical elaboration of themes such as employment, dismissal, remedies for wrongful dismissal, compensation for industrial injuries, and trade unions. The book is also motivated by the desire for a repository for members of the Bar and Bench, judges, academics, students and human resources practitioners.
This is an engaged and extremely well-informed book on business and business ethics in a society with political and social-economic crises. As an engaging and engaged effort to bring a nexus between business ethics and business practices in any human society, the book invites the reader to partake in pressing debates on business ethics in times of crisis. The book provides a much needed interdisciplinary approach and marshals an extraordinary array of social and intellectual resources that positively inspire business people and business making. It is wholesome and systematic in its articulation of the political and social forces that shape and are shaped by business. Additionally, it gives the reader a guided tour into the fascinating creativity that shapes and characterises business culture in contemporary Zimbabwe.
In this collection Ayuninjam attempts to capture his sentiments on many plains. He also takes the liberty to capture the sentiments of other persons in his life and in society as a whole as well as the sentiments of other creatures that are part of the chain of life. As a result, much of what follows is occasional poetry, as he has more often than not responded or reacted to his sensations while also being a surrogate for those who could (or would) not express theirs. Having lived abroad for as long as he lived in Cameroon, his perspective has, accordingly, been coloured, though not necessarily transmuted. The poems transcend space and time.
The debate on the existence of African philosophy has taken central stage in academic circles, and academics and researchers have tussled with various aspects of this subject. This book notes that the debate on the existence of African philosophy is no longer necessary. Instead, it urges scholars to demonstrate the different philosophical genres embedded in African philosophy. As such, the book explores African metaphysical epistemology with the hope to redirect the debate on African philosophy. It articulates and systematizes metaphysical and epistemological issues in general and in particular on Africa. The book aptly shows how these issues intersect with the philosophy of life, traditional beliefs, knowledge systems and practices of ordinary Africans and the challenges they raise for scholarship in and on philosophy with relevance to Africa.
The Campaign Trail
(2011)
In an uncomplicated plot, The Campaign Trail takes its readers through the independence of a state in fiction, the introduction of a multiparty system, to its demise owing to poor governance and power struggle; this novel has a universal appeal to the political scientist, the literary critic, the sociologist, the anthropologist and just anyone who needs entertainment. The author blends the comic and the tragic to good effect.
Within the Walls of Hell
(2011)
The Land of Eternal Discomfort is a place where no one wants to go. It is hot and dirty. One is sure to experience depression once there and sleep is a luxury no longer attainable in that place. Unbelievable though it may seem one enters the Land of Eternal Discomfort by choice. It is a place destined for those who did not live a righteous life according to the Creator. The kind of life one lives down below determines where they go thereafter. For the seven characters in this play, the love of power and the hatred for those different and inferior to themselves leads them to choose a life of luxury gained through deceit, theft, adultery and murder. Against all the Creator's commands, they chose to live lives of self-gratification ignoring their obligations to their fellow man. The choice they made was for their lives down there but they will forever live with the consequences in their lives thereafter. Life down there does not last forever and the characters are destined to meet the Messenger at which time the choice will have already been made. When you finally meet the Messenger, pray that he is ushering you into the Land of Eternal Happiness because in the other place you are doomed forever. In the Land of Eternal Discomfort the gate can only open to let someone in. It cannot open to let anyone out. Once you are in there you can never get out again.
At independence, Cameroon and Nigeria adhered to the OAU principle of UTI POSSEDETIS JURIS by inheriting the colonial administrative borders whose delineation in some parts was either imperfect or not demarcated or both. The two countries tried to correct these anomalies. But such efforts were later thwarted by incessant geostrategic reckoning, dilatory, and diversionary tactics in the seventies and eighties that persisted and resurfaced in the nineties with a more determined posture. On two occasions, the border conflict almost boiled over to a full-scale war. First, in May 1981 when there was the exchange of fire between Cameroonian and Nigerian coast guards and second, in February 1994 when Nigeria marched her troops into Cameroon's Bakassi Peninsula. Elsewhere in Africa, border incidents like these have often degenerated into war. But Cameroon and Nigeria together with the international community managed these protracted incidents from escalating into war. This book examines the part played by the disputing parties, Cameroon and Nigeria; the mediation, conciliatory and adjudicatory role of third parties; and the regional and international organisations, in the process of the resolution of the border dispute from 1981-2011. The study situates the nature and dynamics of the dispute historically, and comprehensively explores in detail its causes, settlement and resolution.
The Power To Make A Choice
(2011)
Is it possible to make a difference in your life that no one else has ever made? What difference will you make as an individual in your life's situations? Have you ever considered yourself a possible obstacle to your future plans? Some people toil and amass knowledge and fame to make a difference. Some engage in a life of politics where they believe they can make a difference. Still, there are some who make a difference in a quiet way and move the world on. The difference you make may lead to negative or positive results and both ways have a price. It is worth exploring the powers you have and discovering the real you. Life is full of surprises. Life around you might be ignorant but you have the potential to move to a better understanding. This story portrays and affirms the uniqueness of each person: how one moves on in life amidst all the difficulties that life presents. Life is beautiful if we are able to challenge what we can and accept what we cannot change. The Power to Make a Choice is a powerful story on how to look within ourselves to make a difference.
In this thought provoking book, Komla Tsey argues that if governments, NGOs, development donor agencies and researchers are serious about development in Africa, they need to get down to ground level, both metaphorically and literally. They must search deep into Africa's own rich oral traditions by creating space and opportunity for ordinary Africans, whose voices have so far been conspicuously absent in the development discourse, to tell and share their own stories of development. Story-sharing as research methodology acts as a mirror, reflecting the participants' self-evaluation of where they have come from, where they are now, and how to proceed into the future. They are strategies that can empower and enable individuals and communities of people to be agents of their own change which, in Tsey's view, is what development is all about.
I Will Fly is a collection of 52 poems which bring to life a story of struggle and hope, the struggle of ordinary Cameroonians who daily entertain hardship, and of English-speaking Cameroonians born into a minority population. Disgruntlement leads to protests; but what happens when the protests fail to yield? Immigration and resignation, the latter, at times, becoming an invitation to death. Adventure and romance stand as the lifeline of others. Hope is a constant companion in these situations, inviting all and sundry to desist from giving adversary easy victories.
This detailed, meticulous ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the linguistic content of mobile phone interactions via text-messaging, portraying it as a site for the expression of personalized and affective language. While men and women appear to be equally aggressive consumers and producers of text-message poetry, women are formally discouraged in using the phone for relations that go beyond the publicly acceptable norms of 'keeping in touch' and making arrangements. Nonetheless, women use it for such purposes and many manage it discreetly, showing how this technology can serve to subvert discursive norms on gender and marriage. The mobile phone in Sudan enhances individual autonomy over interactions, making possible the extension and creation of social spaces. It simultaneously enlarges private space and trespasses into public space. Poetic themes and language, previously limited to elite producers - those both more literate and who had control over mass media domains, radio and newspapers - are exposed to anonymous recipients, who draw from, copy or forward them in continuous circulation, thereby staking a claim in the public sphere. Similarly, the mobile phone serves as a site for the exercise of several layers of identity in negotiation, and reflects or creates alternative identities and the contestation of existing discourses, communities in physical space and notions of belonging.
This book emphasises that planning is essential, as the conservation approaches of the past may not work in an ever-changing warmer environment. It appraises current management strategies, assesses the biological and physical effects of climate change on natural systems in Cameroon and designs a planning and management framework for each natural system within the context of global warming. Climate change poses a complex bewildering array of problems for ecosystems. The key question is, what can be done ? in addition to efforts to reduce CO2 emissions ? to increase the resistance and resilience of these natural systems to climate change? This book seeks to answer the above question by drawing from the vast array of scientific data available on the subject, and which may not be readily available to policy makers, resource planners, resource managers, environmentalists, students of geography, conservation biology and agronomy. It constitutes an important manual for those ready to confront the impacts of climate change. It is also a valuable document for teachers of the functioning and management of natural systems globally.
The Weeping Triangle
(2011)
The Weeping Triangle portrays a country that has been overtaken by corruption. This country had been awarded the most corrupt country in the world two times in a row and a third time is increasingly likely. In a world where money talks and violence is a way of life, most people succumb to the way things are lest they become victims of the system. Smith, however, is one of a kind. As a teacher entrusted with the lives of his students, Smith sees the need to curb the current direction of his country. Frustrated with the way things are, curious as to how things got so bad and motivated to make a change for the better, he stands out among the rest determined to make a difference no matter how small. Branded a fool for his bravery and incessant inquisitiveness, Smith stands up to those in authority; most of whom are bound by corruption. He refuses to partake in this illegal way of life. Encouraging his friends and anyone else to do the same proves difficult but does not deter his intentions. What hope does one have in a country full of lies, secrets, deceptions and bribery? The Weeping Triangle takes you through the journey of Smith and his friends making the most of what little hope there is.
This study explores the predicament of Anglophone Cameroon - from the experiment in federation from 1961 to the political liberalisation struggles of the 1990s - to challenge claims of a successful post-independence Cameroonian integration process. Focusing on the perceptions and actions of people in the Anglophone region, Atanga argues that what has come to be called the 'Anglophone Problem' constitutes one of the severest threats to the post-colonial nation-state project in Cameroon. As a linguistic and cultural minority, Anglophone Cameroonians realised that the Francophone-led state and government were keener in assimilation than in implementing the federal and bilingual nation agreed upon at reunification in 1960. Calls for national integration became simply a subterfuge for the assimilation of Anglophones by Francophones who dominated the state and government. The book details the various measures undertaken to exploit the Anglophone regionís economy and marginalise its people. Principally the economic structures meant to facilitate self-reliant development were undermined and destroyed. Institutionalised discrimination took the form of the exclusion of Anglophones from positions of real authority, and depriving the region of any meaningful development. With the advent of multi-party politics, most Anglophone Cameroonians increasingly have made vocal demands for a return to a federation, in order to adequately guarantee their rights and recognition for them as a political and cultural minority. Actively encouraged by France, the Francophone-led regime in Cameroon has refused to yield to such demands, despite the grave danger of violent conflict and possible secession.
In most African countries, banana production has been consigned to subsistence production. However, a few countries, especially in Francophone West Africa, have recognised the commercial importance of banana, and have used their special relationship with France to export bananas. This has led to the dualization of the banana sector, with the traditional system existing side by side with a modern sector geared towards export trade. This book is one of the few comprehensive studies that have incorporated both the agronomic and economic aspects of banana production and marketing in Africa. It looks at all facets of banana production, from an historical perspective to the various traditional and modern technologies involved. The marketing aspect covers both the domestic and international trade, with emphasis on the preferential (ACP / DOM Lome Convention) and the open markets of the European Union. The book is a major contribution to understanding the internationalisation of the banana trade and to its ever-increasing investment portfolio, as the backbone of many a developing tropical economy. Although the emphasis is placed on Cameroon, other relevant African, tropical and subtropical banana-producing countries are mentioned where necessary, especially in the export sector where a degree of competition existed. Further, agricultural practices, soils, meteorological and climatological characteristics, pests and diseases, personnel and banana varieties grown, mean that findings in Cameroon are of relevance to other banana-producing countries, especially in Africa. Meanwhile, other African and tropical countries still contemplating entry into banana exports would benefit from the Cameroon experience. The book is of especial relevance to agronomists, entomologists, economists, farm managers, government policy makers, large, medium and small scale banana growers, and students and teachers in universities and schools of agriculture.
Despite rapid urbanisation, Africa remains predominantly rural. This calls for decentralisation beyond the dominant concern by states and government with urban spaces. Rural areas, rural development and the future of rural settlements need to be understood and addressed in the context of the ongoing democratisation trends and the emergence and development of civil society. States have tended to tame rather than serve civil society in Africa. By establishing a single cultural reference and imposing a centralised state, African governments have exacerbated the fragmentation of civil society. However, political pluralism has slowly been gaining ground since the 1990s. This book explores the scope for implementing decentralisation programmes that focus on citizens in rural areas. For the purpose of decentralisation, civic participation in local politics and user participation in development programmes must be seen as two sides of the coin. The book focuses on spatial planning ? a process concerned with spatial organisation in an integrative manner, and incorporates the design, establishment and implementation of a desired spatial structural organisation of land. This is especially relevant in a context where the formulation of guidelines for spatial development at the overall level of a state is inadequate.
The Lord of Anomy
(2009)
In 1875 the Rozvi Kingdom, now in present day Zimbabwe, is indistinctly besieged from within by the convergence of a missionary, Rev. Holbrook, a militant British bourgeoisie aspiring for knighthood, Sir Crowler, and an immorally amorous war emissary allegedly from King Cetshwayo of the feared Zulu Kingdom. The 'Zulu' ambassador uncompromisingly makes painstaking demands. While Rev. Holbrook is earnest in his endeavours, Sir Crowler is adamant the natives are enemies of both God and Britain meant for annihilation. The elders cannot consult the oracles; all diviners having fled before the arrival of the foreigners. An enigmatic and malicious hermit comes to the fore in the calamitous confusion that ensues. But nobody can tell with certainty if the hermit is messianic or anarchical.
Titabet and the Takumbeng
(2008)
Titabet and the Takumbeng is a play that relives the unprecedented political upheaval of the 1992 first ever multiparty presidential elections in Cameroon. Following the controversial elections, Bamenda - the stronghold of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) - was plunged into a tense and intense civil disobedience campaign. The violence which ensued pitted SDF militants who claimed their victory was stolen against regime loyalists. The government reacted by imposing a curfew on Bamenda. The army that was dispatched to keep the peace committed ferocious kidnapping, rape, theft and torture, driving women, children and men into the arms of terror. Titabet the protagonist emerges as the leader of the oppressed. He and the sacred women's cult of Takumbeng were the only hope for the people. The sacred cleansing cult and Titabet's courageous resistance apparently brought an end to what would have been too devastating a tale to narrate. Kehbuma Langmia teaches courses in Mass Communications, Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies at Bowie State University. With previous degrees in fine arts, television and film, he earned his PhD in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Howard University. He also has an MA degree in theatre arts from the University of Yaound?, Cameroon. He is also a graduate from the Television Academy in Munich, Germany. Dr. Langmia writes, produces and directs independent productions, and serves as executive producer for students' television projects at Bowie State University.
The Cameroon Political Story is a long journey through the eyes and actions of the author himself. It is a mix between Mbile's memoirs, a bit of his biography and the Cameroon political story, heavily weighted in favour of that part of the Republic formerly identified as Southern Cameroons, later West Cameroon, now South West and North West Regions. The story is told in the interest of the Cameroonian youth and scholar who have often complained of the inadequate recording by political leaders of the life and deeds of their times. It is the story of an African boy of humble village beginnings who rose to participate in the making of a modern political community. It is hoped the book provides useful knowledge on the history, growth and constitutional evolution of Cameroon, a country which after more than a century of administrative metamorphosis settled to its present statehood in 1961, a Cameroon reborn.
In the on-going democratic debate, the Cameroonian media have not played the role of objective mediators. A one-party logic, of which government, opposition and the public are guilty, has prevented Cameroonian multipartyism from addressing the major issue: that of how best to bring about real participatory democracy. So far, democracy has served mainly as a face powder, an empty concept or slogan devoid of concrete meaning used to justify reactionary propaganda by the ruling party and its acolytes on the one hand, and revolutionary propaganda by the opposition and some pressure groups on the other. This polarisation in the Cameroonian political arena corresponds to a similar polarisation in the Cameroonian media. One can identify two main political tendencies in the media: first, there are those who argue that all the government does is good and in the best interest of Cameroon, and that the radical opposition is void of patriots and motivated only by selfish, regional, or ethnic self-interests. These comprise the publicly owned, government-controlled electronic and print media on the one hand, and pro-government 'privately' owned newspapers on the other. Second, there are those who claim that all the radical opposition does or stands for is in the best interest of Cameroon, and that the government and its allies are only motivated by a stubborn love of power and other selfish pursuits. These comprise the bulk of the privately owned papers. The media are polarised into two diametrically opposing camps, each claiming to know and represent the best interests of the Cameroonian people.
The Wages of Corruption
(2009)
Corruption is endemic in Cameroon. Twice, Transparency International have accorded the country the infamous first place in corruption. As one of many concerned Cameroonians, Sammy Oke Akombi was moved and they realized that something was in fact wrong somewhere and something had to be done somehow. This collection of short stories is his contribution to the collective resolve by concerned Cameroonians to wage a war against this most unusual friend of fairness. The stories seek to elicit awareness about a social ill that is ironically championed by the very politicians, functionaries, educator, leaders and power elite whose duty it is to keep society healthy and on the rails. The stories are on corruption in different segments of society and about the people who perpetrate it. Almost everyone is immersed in it and so must make every effort to resurface from it. It takes only the will to stay alive because the wages of corruption like any other sin can only be death.
The history of the subalterns, also known as the history of the voiceless, took currency in the early 1980s in South East Asia and has been dominated by scholars from that region. Despite its popularity, the history of the voiceless has not gained the attention it deserves in Cameroon historiography. In other parts of Africa and beyond this type of history has already taken root and animated scholarly production and debate. Cameroon history has been replete with studies that focus mostly on political history and the actions and intentions of top politicians of the day, with scant regard for the historical importance of the everyday life of ordinary Cameroonians as makers and breakers. This book takes a bold step in the direction of subaltern studies in Cameroon, and makes a clarion call for the institutionalization of voicing the voiceless. Nkwi - innovative and stimulating in his blend of history and ethnography of the everyday - offers fresh insights into the contextual understandings of subaltern Cameroon between 1958 and 2009. This is a welcome contribution to closing gaps in social history, from a leader amongst a budding new generation of historians of Cameroon and Africa.
Mountain forests provide important ecological services, and essential products. This book focuses on the importance of mountain forests in Cameroon for the local people who depend most directly on them, and have often developed a wealth of indigenous knowledge on plants and sophisticated institutions for managing limited plant and animal resources. Such knowledge and institutions have often been threatened, or even destroyed, by centralization and globalization; yet there is increasing recognition that community-based institutions are the best adapted to ensuring that mountain forests continue to supply their diverse goods and services to both mountain and other people over the long-term. The book provides a useful combination of case studies on ethnobotanic analysis and cultural values of plants, community-based ecological planning for protected area management and eco-cultural tourism development. It provides an unusually useful combination of overviews and synthesis of theory and experience with in-depth case studies of montane forest-adjacent communities and protected areas. Throughout the book there are good summary tables, case study maps, and diagrams that are relevant to the themes in question. Finally, the book addresses the possible mutual benefits of indigenous knowledge and modern science, indigenous peoples and the development of eco-cultural tourism in protected areas, indigenous peoples and ecological planning in protected areas. It therefore emphasizes cooperation based on partnerships amongst indigenous people, governments and the global conservation community, in the interest of effective conservation. This is a valuable book for land managers, environmental scientists, environmental biologists, natural resource managers and students reading subjects such as geography, biology, forestry, botany and environmental science.
This book is about emerging informal responses to unemployment in Malawi. To the bicycle taxi and handcart operators who are at the centre of the book, informality is a means for negotiating newer experiences and challenges associated with urbanisation. Jimu richly documents how informal economy activities continue to represent grassroots responses to widespread poverty, unavailability of meaningful employment opportunities and the failure of the state as well as the private and the non-state sectors to respond to escalating demand for formal sector jobs. Multiplicity of activities and straddling urban and rural opportunities are strategies employed to deal with opportunity impermanence and maximize returns from various low paying tasks and jobs. While these activities have grown without state support, state involvement is necessary to regulate and promote the welfare of the workers in the sector as well as that of the users of their service and the general public. This will require constructive engagement among the operators, users of their services, local government, and various state agencies.
The Lady with the Sting
(2010)
The Lady with the Sting is sequel to The Lady with a Beard. In the two novels Alobwed'Epie compares and contrasts the masculinity and femininity of the two heroines Emade, and her daughter Ntube. In the first novel, Emade shuns her sex and clinks to a false masculine mask. In spite of her achievements she fails to debunk the old system. In The Lady with the Sting, her daughter Ntube, a less charismatic heroine, allows nature take its course and in the end she seizes the opportunity the erring old system gives her and destroys it. Alobwed'Epie, author of The Death Certificate, The Lady with a Beard, The Day God Blinked, and The Bad Samaritan was born at Ngomboku in Kupe-Muanenguba Division, South-West Region, Cameroon. He studied at the Universities of Yaoundé and Leeds, and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon.
Local Livelihoods and Protected Area Management : Biodiversity Conservation Problems in Cameroon
(2011)
Cameroon's tropical forest is home to numerous plants and animals. It is also inhabited by Baka pygmies who are foragers and Bantu farmers. These communities have developed forest-dependent livelihoods, cultures and religions. Destruction of the forest by commercial and state interests, subsistence agriculture and the harvesting of products has necessitated a considerable upsurge in environmental protection projects to conserve and rehabilitate ecosystems, forests, soils and water resources. Ultimately, the approach to conservation that is applied is the responsibility of the government and international development agencies. The case studies documented seek to demonstrate that a broader perspective linking environmental protection and human welfare is important for two reasons. First, it addresses the rights and needs of local people and more marginal groups in society. Second, it also ensures that fundamental conservation objectives are achieved in practice with the participation of local people. The book develop guidelines for a more integrative and socially-aware approach to environmental planning and project design and implementation. It outlines a participatory mapping procedure for the design and implementation of community forest programmes. This is a valuable book for land resource managers, environmentalists, environmental biologists, conservators, field workers and technicians involved with environmental conservation. With the professionalisation of courses in most universities, the book will constitute good reading for students of geography, biology, agriculture, forestry, botany and natural resource management.
The Raped Amulet
(2008)
An extraordinary story of a young man from Africa who tries hard to reconcile the ways he had grown up with, and those he was experiencing in his host country - Great Britain. The story is set in Coventry, in the English Midlands and is told by Dion Ekpochaba, a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick. Dion, fresh from his motherland, Cameroon, loses an amulet, a cherished heritage of his ancestry and becomes desperate about the loss. He meets an elderly English man, Tom Jones who makes a startling revelation: the amulet had just been desecrated by his dog and thrown into the depths of a lake in the campus. Dion became so flabbergasted that Tom Jones thought he might have gone out of his mind. The two strangers tried to understand each other to no avail. However, the misfortunes of time turn the tides, resulting in a friendship, which provides grounds for mutual understanding and respect for each other's ways. Read on and spark your views on making the world a better place.
Nso' and Its Neighbours : Readings in the Social History of the Western Grassfields of Cameroon
(2011)
This is a rich and compelling volume of readings in social history on Nsoí and its neighbours in the Western Grassfields of Cameroon. It consists of 19 essays by some of the leading historians, archeologists and ethnographers of the region, with seminal contributions by Jean-Pierre Warnier, Paul Nchoji Nkwi, Bongfen Chem-Langhee, Phyllis Kaberry, E.M Chilver, Miriam Goheen, Ian Flower, Dan Lantum and V.G. Fanso. The book covers a broad range of themes from precolonial times to date, including trade, alliances, diplomacy, the iron industry, colonial impact, continuities, discontinuities and compromise, general persistence, ideology and conflict. Warnier draws on linguistic and archaeological data to argue that this region has been settled for several millennia, very probably continuously, and that its landscapes are very ancient and have resulted from many human and natural forces other than the simple clearance of the forest cover of the region at an uncertain date as some authors have postulated. Using data on inter-group diplomacy and alliances, Nkwi puts into question some problematic theses on persistence hostilities and enhances knowledge of the precolonial history of the region. Fowler and Chem-Langhee show how local conditions and needs fostered the spirit and practice of cooperative ventures in the precolonial period, which provided the driving force and the ideological and structural underpinnings for the successful and smooth introduction of modern modes of cooperation in the area during the colonial and postcolonial periods. The rest of the studies have a unifying theme or thesis, namely, that despite the entry and assault of external, influences, particularly those associated with colonialism, Christianity and Islam, the traditional institutions, customs and value systems of the Nsoí and their neighbours have resisted major change and their total corrosion is not yet in sight. The volume illustrates the proposition that historical research is a continuous process of rediscovery which provides new questions, and also that the evidence of other disciplines - linguistics, archaeology and palaeobotany for example - may give rise to many new lines of inquiry and help to correct the documentary record and explain oral tradition. Herein lies the most important element of this experimental collection. Its editors hope that it will provoke other similar collections.
This book explores the latent and sometimes overt undercurrents that have shaped the judicial history of Cameroon since the United Nations Trusteeship period. It is an insightful account by a critical observer privileged to serve as Director of Public Prosecutions and a judge in a post-independence context characterized by dual and often conflictual legal systems inspired by French and English colonialism. Justice Nyo'Wakai demonstrates how the conflict of judicial concepts, procedures and usages have led to the Francophone judicial system trying to impose itself on the Anglophone judicial system in Cameroon. Often reduced to toothless bulldogs by new constitutional dispensations informed largely by the French colonial legacy and Francophone realities, Anglophones have bemoaned the independence of the Judiciary identified with their Anglo-Saxon heritage. In the face of such domination and the highhandedness of the Executive, only mature cool headedness and the ability to bend over backwards on the part of Anglophone legal practitioners have contained the explosive situation and allowed for a gradual evolution of the Judicial System in Cameroon.
This meticulous and comprehensive documentation of Cameroonian Youth Day Messages and leadership discourse on youth from 1949 - 2009 is a gold mine for researchers, historians and anyone interested in studying youth, politics and society in Africa. The book presents and explores themes and content of Youth Day Messages: how these messages tied in with, or veered away from, key events and issues of the time; how they served as a platform for West Cameroon governments, and the Ahidjo and Biya regimes to articulate their political vision, justify their policies, sell their respective ideologies to the youth; and what lessons could be drawn from them on competing, conflicting and complementary perspectives on youth agency in Cameroon and Africa. Churchill links the Youth Day to ongoing discussions in Africa about the role and place of youths as agents of development in Africa. Most significantly, he finally puts Cameroon's controversial Youth Day in its appropriate historical context - not as a political device created by the Francophone politicians to distort Cameroonian history and erase 'plebiscite day' from the collective memory as Anglophone nationalists claim, but as a British Cameroons colonial legacy, successfully sold to the Ahidjo regime as a day to be commemorated throughout the federation, by leaders of the federated state of West Cameroon. Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, a senior career diplomat, is Minister Counsellor in the Cameroon Embassy in Moscow. A graduate of the International Higher School of Journalism, and the International Relations Institute of Cameroon in the University of Yaounde, he was a 1991-92 Fellow in Public Diplomacy in Boston University, USA. He has served in Cameroon in various professional capacities. Ewumbue-Monono has written extensively on Cameroon's political history, and his books include Men of Courage, published in 2005.
Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong : Poems in Honor of Bate Besong
(2008)
Wading the Tide
(2009)
Wading the Tide is an expression of profound emotions touching on a wide range of issues-personal and political-from the birth of the Cameroon nation, her political meandering, until the state of emergency declared on the North West Province in 1992. Accordingly, Doh complains, ridicules, and pays tribute, even as he instructs and guides on timeless matters of life, all in an effort to draw attention to his country's gradual, downward spiral into anomy.
No Turning Back relives the tumultuous beginnings of Africa's democratization experiment in the early 1990s. The main theme of the collection is an investment in hope and in the resilience of Africans. The poems are loud and clear in their castigation of dictatorship and its miseries. They celebrate the mass resolve and thirst for democracy by Africans for whom there is 'No turning back!' 'A lucid and truly memorable collection of poems. Dibussi forces us to turn back and look at the pivotal volcanic moments in Cameroon's history between 1990- 1993... As a student activist and budding journalist during this historic period, Dibussi captures cadences of this struggle eloquently.' Joyce Ashuntantang, Ph.D., Department of English, University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford, USA. 'This collection is an important document chronicling, through verse, the events of an era in a given space with unmitigated passion.' Kangsen Wakai, poet, Houston, Texas, USA '. a subtle yet unapologetic critique of Cameroon's chequered history of predatory governance. The poems provide succor to a people besieged first by the unrealised dreams of a political (mis)marriage and then a false promissory note on which their democratic development is written.' George Ngwane, Chair, National Book Development Council - Cameroon
Neoliberalism has become the dominant development agenda in Africa. Faced with a deep economic and political crisis, African governments have been compelled by powerful external agencies, in particular the Bretton Woods institutions and western states, to pursue this agenda as a necessary precondition for the receipt of development aid. What is particularly striking in Africa, however, is that neoliberal experiments there have displayed such remarkable diversity. This may be due not only to substantial differences in historical, economic and political trajectories on the African continent but also, and maybe more importantly, in the degree of resistance internal actors have demonstrated to the neoliberal reforms imposed on them. This book focuses on Cameroon which has had a complex economic and political history and is currently witnessing resistance to the neoliberal experiment by the authoritarian and neopatrimonial state elite and various civil-society groups. It is the culmination of over twenty years of fine and refined research by one of the leading scholars of Cameroon today.
The Power to Succeed
(2011)
This is the fascinating story of a young girl from a very poor family who raised her head high and raised the dignity of women through her own personal and determined effort. She did not yield to the victimizations of corrupt minds, nor to the temptations of apathy and pessimistic thinking; rather she saw everything optimistically and through many hardships achieved her life's ambitions.
Twelve-year-old Bridget and her friends are excited when they get admitted into one of the most prestigious boarding secondary schools in Kumba, Cameroon. Passing exams is the least of their worries. But surviving the new academic and social culture with hormone driven adolescent boys and unscrupulous seniors remain a challenge. Can the ground rules for survival Bridget and her new girlfriends adopt protect them from the threats they face constantly from the seniors, teachers and the adults in the local community? Can they handle all the distractions in addition to the changes their pubescent bodies are undergoing?
A collection of six thought-provoking stories, four of which were award-winning-stories at the 1990 literary contest of the national Association of Cameroonian Poets and Writers (APEC). The stories are set in different localities in Africa and Cameroon in particular. The author in a lucid manner explores the theme of women lib- the African way in the lead story. Ebenye, the protagonist, representing the sharp-witted African woman cannot understand why she should cook food without tasting of it. So she decides to take the bold step of eating a piece of the python that she has been ordered to cook for the men of her community. The other stories tackle themes of corruption, poverty, alcoholism, endurance, love and more.
The Last Hope
(2011)
This play was written as part of an evaluation of Africa's oldest and most diverse rainforest conservation initiative in the Korup area, with the aim of highlighting and sharing some lessons learnt from the creation of the Korup National Park, through a period of full activity, to when activities were considerably reduced. It is a fine blend of the results of the evaluation and some carefully developed fictional, artistic materials for the achievement of an overall dramatic effect. Ekpe Inyang gives an informed artistic touch to achieve dramatic effects, succinctly relating the story of Cameroon's first rainforest national park, Korup.
The House of Falling Women
(2008)
House of Falling Women is the story of a young woman with quixotic ideas about improving the lot of women who finds out that the crusader's cloak is an uncomfortable one. Martha Elive, armed with a university education and a substantial legacy from a Dutchwoman she meets while studying abroad on a scholarship, decides to create an institute for the empowerment of women, only to find that the contradictions to be resolved are more firmly anchored in her psyche than elsewhere. In addition to her unexorcised ghosts and the legacies of a chequered love life, she has to contend with recalcitrant public opinion and moral inertia, the opposition of old-guard reactionaries, and the incomprehension of her small-town parents. House of Falling Women is a poignant, often hilarious story of the search by a group of women for a new place in society in a world where women are dissatisfied with the old values and bewildered by the new.
The Wooden Bicycle and Other Stories is a compilation of eight compelling short stories which immediately engage the reader, regardless of which story is selected for reading. Just like the author's other collection of short stories, Cup Man and Other Stories, the book is a depiction of the joys and pains of everyday life in the typical African country or even in the West Indies. This dimension includes an in-depth look at life within the African community in the West - an experience which is, of course daunting as the immigrant struggles to adjust to the new dispensation. Azonga once again shows outstanding skill in narrative techniques by adopting a style that is at once simple and intricate, entertaining and instructive.
The Tragedy of Mr No Balance
(2008)
Tussles : Collected Plays
(2009)
This collection groups together four plays - The Bite, Things Fall in Place, The Will and The Imprisonment of Sende Ghandi - written between 1995 and 2006. The plays in this volume dramatize a comprehensive world view. Through characters and themes chosen for their power to articulate the intended message, the plays paint a convincing and at times funny picture of human beings tussling with daily life. With clearly non-reductionist purpose, the actions all eschew the narrow minority questions so dominant in Cameroon Anglophone drama and instead reach out to concerns of a broader nature. In these plays Nyamndi does more than entertain. He reaches into the psychology of human relations and individual drives, and intimates responses to occasioned challenges. His wide, penetrating mind meanders in society: detecting the drunk before he takes his first drop; uncovering the embezzler even before he lays his hands on the collective holding; steeling the masses before the calamities of misrule descend on them; hoisting the flag of freedom long before revolutionaries come anywhere near the mast. He uses the play for healing purposes.
In Cameroon and Africa, lakes are sacred and often secret places. They fascinate curiosity and have often served as repositories of local histories, memories and dreams. In Mystique, Bime offers the reader a rich and seductive menu of reflection on the significance of legends and myths on and around lakes in Cameroon, Ghana, Benin and Tanzania. She tells her stories with the talent and elegance of a writer who does not only have an ear for what others tell her but who also has the ability to transform what she hears into something uniquely hers and truly universal. Mystique is a must-read and an opportunity for progeny to keep alive a tested and cherished heritage of story-telling. This is truly innovative and culturally relevant entertainment that invites the reader to unchain her spirit to explore. Beatrice Fri Bime, an international management consultant, who enjoys humanitarian affairs, holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA. A Cameroonian, she has worked in Banking, government, national and international organizations and is author of Some Place, Some Where. She lives with her family in Yaounde.
No Love Lost
(2008)
No Love Lost is a tale of troubled times in which the storyteller strives to return to wholesomeness a society whose values have jumped the rail. Set in the 'No Man's Land' of Ongola, the novel unravels the corruption and influence-peddling endemic in this African country. Framed around the travails of an unemployed university graduate, the story is the gripping depiction of one man's vendetta against a society at odds with itself. Among others, the novel explores the themes of identity crisis, political gerrymandering, individual and collective greed, love and marriage, and class exploitation to weave an enduring tapestry of great human interest. Written against the backdrop of nascent neo-colonialism No Love Lost combines the traditional and the modern; the private and the public to demonstrate that the quest for truth and justice behooves all and sundry. The author infuses the narrative with oral traditions to capture the reader's attention in a compelling style. This is a refreshing work by a writer whose heart throbs for his people and their plight.
Second Engagement
(2009)
Second Engagement is an enthralling tale of triangular love and the quest for fulfillment. Framed around Gabby and Lizzy, the narrative unravels the secrets surrounding relationships of love. Susan Nde explores the pleasures and tensions of how two individuals in love handle the obstacles on their path to being together. In an exceptionally lucid and graceful style, she weaves an enduring tapestry of great human interest, from divergent dreams, which converge at the point of acceptance and tolerance.
Predicaments
(2011)
In this juvenalia, his first collection of poems, Francis Nyamnjoh takes the reader back in time, even as the past catches up with the present, to show how unchanging and even painful life can be. Accordingly, the poems celebrate, mourn, ridicule, lambast, and lament, thereby highlighting Nyamnjoh's characteristic fascination with the plight of the person in society, a picture which reaffirms his already established role as the conscience of spaces, especially those African.
Stories from Abakwa
(2007)
Childhood and growing up in Mimboland, Cameroon are infused with fascinating stories and adventures. Discover life in Abakwa with Tom and his friend, as they are chased through an orchard for secretly harvesting avocadoes and mangoes. Smile as Mathias Chi's overloaded canoe almost loses balance. Shiver as Roland runs through the dark streets and bleeding corridors of Mvog Mvog. And cry when Big Brother discovers how his siblings suffered when he was away at school. What happens to Esther when she finds the courage to make an announcement at the Abakwa Mountain Foot Radio Station about her husband's disappearance? Will Prudencia and Collette kill or give life? How does Prisca Lum deal with her dwarf husband? Some characters will remind you of people you know - or even of yourself. Drum beats and church bells, thunder and lightning, princes and princesses, visions and deceptions fill the pages. Discover your favorite stories waiting to be told and retold, again and again.
The Fire Within
(2008)
In Africa, there is unrest, and possibly tragedy, when new trends clash with traditional values. With a curmudgeonly stepmother who harasses her even as she spoils her own biological daughter, Mungeu', the protagonist, blazes a path for herself in the face of many odds. But things go terribly wrong when she falls pregnant. The dilemma of whether or not to keep the pregnancy, given society's expectations, flings this young woman into direct confrontation with a life that is beyond her years. She is bent on succeeding: she will keep her baby, and with her training at a girls' craft center, start a business and bring up her illegitimate child. But Mungeu' can only make plans as she realises before long that the authority to dispose of them does not rest with her alone; there are other powerful forces out there.
Oriki'badan
(2009)
ORIKI'BADAN, is an entertaining, revealing, and equally didactic poem in which Doh, through an enchanting metaphorical backdrop, recaptures a memorable era-rich, diverse, challenging, yet gratifying-in the life of a distinguished institution-the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Characteristically bitter about those in power and the socio-political state of affairs on the African continent, this is a rare shot of Doh paying glaring tribute to his alma mater along with the distinguished faculty and student body that gave Ibadan its character during his days there as a student.
The Crown of Thorns
(2009)
Chief Nchindia held the Elders of his Council in total contempt, inwardly vowing to disagree with them at every point where disagreement was possible. What starts like a big joke develops into grim tragedy: the statue of the god of Nkokonoko Small Monje is discovered to have been stolen and sold to a white man! The tradition demands instant execution of the culprits. Was their Chief involved in the theft? What was worse, the crime or the punishment? Linus Asong was born in the South West Region of Cameroon in 1947. With a combined B.A honours in Education, in 1980 he entered the University of Windsor in Canada whence he graduated with a terminal degree in Creative Writing. He holds an M.A and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton Canada, and is presently Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at Ecole Normale Superieure Bambili (University of Yaounde 1). Asong is a stand-up humorist, a consummate portrait painter, an accomplished literary scholar, and a celebrated prolific writer with over a dozen novels to his credit.
' The United Nations-organised plebiscite on 11 February 1961 was one of the most significant events in the history of the southern and northern parts of the British-administered trust territory in Cameroon. John Percival was sent by the then Colonial Office as part of the team to oversee the process. This book captures the story of the plebiscite in all its dimensions and intricacies and celebrates the author's admiration for things African through a series of reminiscences of what life was like in the 1960s, both for the Africans themselves and for John Percival as a very young man. The complex story is also a series of reflections about the effect of the modern world on Africa. It is a thorough, insightful, rich and enlightening first-hand source on a political landmark that has never been told before in this way. In a vivid style with a great sense of humour, Percival's witty, cogent, eyewitness and active-participant account deconstructs the rumours and misrepresentations about the February 1961 Plebiscite which was a prelude to reunification and to the present day politics of 'belonging' in Cameroon. ''One of the major merits of this book is to provide us with a deeper insight into the role of those actors who have never been the subject of plebiscite studies, namely the Plebiscite Supervisory Officers.'' - Piet Konings, African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands John Percival-Anthropologist, Writer, Television Broadcaster of many innovative BBC series on the environment, history and anthropology. As a young graduate he was recruited and sent to serve in the Southern Cameroons as a Plesbiscite Supervisory Officer in 1961. He died in 2005 after a recent return visit to Cameroon with Nigel Wenban-Smith who writes an epilogue. This posthumous memoir has been edited by his wife, Lalage Neal.'
Precipice
(2008)
Madam Essin stood watching the young people holding each other. She looked at the young man who was her son. How handsome he looked. When he smiled he had that elusive curve on his lips that reminded her of her husband. She had been unable to resist that curve of the lips even after eight years of marriage. When her husband smiled she had the feeling he was looking down on her in amused condescension. This used to annoy her but she could not resist the charm he exuded. Now here she was an abandoned wife with an estranged son. Her thoughts roved as she watched them, plunging into the past, the present and the future. The girl brought back the past. She wished she could obliterate that past from her life and her son's. In Precipice, Susan Nkwentie Nde, in her first novel, has a way of weaving past intrigues and present emotions to keep all guessing about what will be. She opens up her characters for the reader to enter and inhabit their minds and bodies in a compelling story of love and estrangement, happy accidents, quest and survival.
Not Yet Damascus
(2007)
A literary monument erected by a poet for poets with a vision for poetry as a special annunciation and the poet as a seer, spokesperson, recorder, analyst, adjudicator and advocate with poetic vision and poetic understanding. Bill Ndi, the poet has the rare gift of slipping into the self and psyche of his society to empty the dark depths where the treasures of burden and sadness are hidden. He empties and exposes them to the world to see how even personal repression of feelings by far outweighs those imposed throughout History by tyrants. It is above all, his greatest task of filling these depths with the joys and expectations of the society. This objective stance by the poet places him above the fanatic whose subjectivity pushes the world adrift and makes of the poet a universal man of peace.
Tale of an African Woman
(2008)
The village of Yakiri has been cursed by ancestral wrath because of the treatment of Yaa, the first girl who wrestled her male goatherd peers to earn the right to be initiated into the society of manhood. Her struggle is taken up generations later by Yaya, the granddaughter of Tafan and Wirba. Orphaned like her forebear, Yaya becomes a star student in the village's primary school and promises to go far. But, ask the villagers, is it right to invest in an education for an African girl who may become the property of another village? An educated woman will abandon the farm where she is needed, wear high heels and try to order men around! In the midst of it all, one Irish missionary, living in Africa and for the most time with Africans, literally wiggles his way into hearts and minds. With his intervention, Yaya leaves the village to school in the city, but her troubles as a woman have not really begun. Yarns of cultural borrowing, indigestion and transcendence reveal the simple and complex ways in which community matters are confronted and decided. This happens in shrines where seers are consulted and cowry shells thrown, in palm wine houses, but also around the school and presbytery. The untold stories and perspectives of girls and women burst through in illuminating and uplifting ways. Quarrels, squabbles, near collisions and mutual conversions give way to innovative traditions.
The Convert : A Two-Act Play
(2007)
' ''This play tackles the theatrically attractive but ethically complex issue of Christian fundamentalism. Nyamnjoh, as a sociologist is well qualified to explore the social problems and psychological pressures which give rise to the born-again phenomenon, and the strong appeal of fundamentalist religion. The Convert, however is no schematic sociological tract. It deals with the conflicting imperatives in 21st century West Africa, which push ordinary people into extraordinary situations, and provides no easy solutions to the issues raised. Although the play revolves around the Ultimate Church of Christ and the four main characters affected by it, the audience is given a deftly sketched picture of a corrupt world beyond it, lacking in spiritual or community values. [..] The characterization. is remarkable for its avoidance of any obvious protagonist; the audience is allowed no clear character with whom to identify. The four main characters . have both virtues and flaws, each providing insights into ways the consumer-oriented materialism of modern life impacts upon African spirituality and community values. - David Kerr, Professor in Literature and Drama, University of Botswana ''''At the core of the implicit philosophy in Nyamnjoh's The Convert . is the theatrical manifesto that contemporary society has not only to liberate itself, and its productive powers from 'Pentecostal', freak religions and distortion, it also has to liberate these same productive capacities from their present prostration. There is a deep, engaging humanism that pervades The Convert, but it is a humanism emblematic, to speak analogously, of the Aeschylean variety.'''' - Bate Besong, Africa Review of Books.'''