Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms

Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms PDF Author: Jude Fokwang
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956716006
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
This study analyses the effects of democratic transition in two African countries - Cameroon and South Africa - on chiefs and the institution of chieftainship. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the monograph explores the cultural and socio-political conditions that enabled chiefs to reinvent themselves in the new era of democratic politics despite their status as 'old political actors'. It explores the kinds of legitimacies claimed by chiefs in the new era and the responses of their subjects to such claims, particularly with respect to chiefs' involvement in national politics. The monograph makes a case for the importance of comparative research on chiefs in the era of democracy and the predicaments they face therein. It contends that contrary to exhortations about the incompatibility of chiefs and democracy, the reality is that political transition in both South Africa and Cameroon produced contradictions, creating space and a role for chiefs in a fascinating and negotiated interplay of legitimacies and history.

Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms

Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms PDF Author: Jude Fokwang
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956716006
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study analyses the effects of democratic transition in two African countries - Cameroon and South Africa - on chiefs and the institution of chieftainship. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the monograph explores the cultural and socio-political conditions that enabled chiefs to reinvent themselves in the new era of democratic politics despite their status as 'old political actors'. It explores the kinds of legitimacies claimed by chiefs in the new era and the responses of their subjects to such claims, particularly with respect to chiefs' involvement in national politics. The monograph makes a case for the importance of comparative research on chiefs in the era of democracy and the predicaments they face therein. It contends that contrary to exhortations about the incompatibility of chiefs and democracy, the reality is that political transition in both South Africa and Cameroon produced contradictions, creating space and a role for chiefs in a fascinating and negotiated interplay of legitimacies and history.

The Secrets of an Aborted Decolonisation

The Secrets of an Aborted Decolonisation PDF Author: Carlson Anyangwe
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956578770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description
A remarkable feature of the collapse of the British Empire is that the British departed from almost every single one of their colonial territories invariably leaving behind a messy situation and an agenda of serious problems that in most cases still haunt those territories to this day. One such territory is the Southern British Cameroons. There, the British Government took the official view that the territory and its people were expendable. It opposed, for selfish economic reasons, sovereign statehood for the territory, in clear violation of the UN Charter and the norm of self-determination. It transferred the Southern Cameroons to a new colonial overlord and hurriedly left the territory. The British Governments bad faith, duplicity, deception, wheeling and dealing, and betrayal of the people of the Southern Cameroons is incredible and defies good sense. Ample evidence of this is provided by the declassified documents in this book. Among the material are treaties concluded by Britain with Southern Cameroons coastal Kings and Chiefs; and the boundary treaties of the Southern Cameroons, treaties defining the frontiers with Nigeria to the west and the frontier with Cameroun Republic to the east. The book contains documents that attest to the Southern Cameroons as a fully self-governing country, ready for sovereign statehood. These include debates in the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly; and the various Constitutions of the Southern Cameroons. The book also reproduces British declassified documents on the Southern Cameroons covering the three critical years from 1959 to 1961, documents which speak to the inglorious stewardship of Great Britain in the Southern Cameroons. This book removes lingering doubts in some quarters that the people of the Southern Cameroons were cheated of independence. Its contents are further evidence of their inalienable right and sacred duty to assert their independence. No one who reads this book can possibly be indifferent to the just struggle of the Southern Cameroons for sovereign statehood.

Royalty and Politics

Royalty and Politics PDF Author: Fo Angwafo
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956716057
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Royalty and Politics is the fascinating autobiographical account of a life rich in controversy, leadership, service, achievement and innovation. Born 1925 into the prominent and influential royal family of Mankon in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon, Solomon Anyeghamot Ndefru least expected becoming king, only to find himself the chosen one following the death of his father in 1959. As Fo Angwafo III of Mankon, one of the most educated traditional rulers at the dawn of independence, he succeeded into Parliament first as an independent, and subsequently as a member of the Cameroon National Union. He has served as First National Vice-President of Paul Biyas Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement since 1990. In this unique, analytical and insightful reflection 50 years into his reign, Fo Angwafo III discusses growing up in colonial times; his surprise appointment as king; the 1961 Cameroon Plebiscite and his initiation into politics; being king and politician; coping with the hostility of the modern power elite towards his active involvement in politics; churches, schools and politics; life as an agriculturist; and investments in tending the Kingdom of Mankon. He argues that the best way of consolidating traditions is to make them modern, and that modernity can only make sense to the extent that it is firmly grounded in traditions. In many ways he feels his life encapsulates this negotiation and reconciliation of continuity and change.

A Basket of Kola Nuts

A Basket of Kola Nuts PDF Author: Tanla Kishani
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956579114
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Bold, original and stimulating in its inspirational insights, A Basket of Kola Nuts explores Cameroons cultures as remarkable pivots of moral rectitude and such sickening vicious-circles as bribery and corruption. Ethnically grass-rooted and globalizing rather than alarmingly exotic and exclusive, this poetic diction of form-content aims at revitalizing its material contents to sever it from extinction and revamp cultural values that break the patience of silence to question deviation rather than the concrete interface of cultural identities and differences. Uprightly appealing, this poetry gathers kola seeds that fall apart in crisis to invite readers world-wide to taste its kolaly aroma.

Musings On Ars Poetica

Musings On Ars Poetica PDF Author: F. Ndi
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956716480
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
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.

Second Engagement

Second Engagement PDF Author: Susan Nkwentie Nde
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956558664
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
"Baimiao, shuanggou, gongbi, xieyi, and mogu. These words define unique Chinese painting techniques or methods, each of which is seized by the artists whose work is shown in the exhibition, Brilliant Strokes: Chinese Paintings from the Mactaggart Art Collection, at the University of Alberta Museums in 2008. These paintings span a period of five hundred years, from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century. "Brilliant Strokes", the book, is a stunning accompaniment to the exhibition: art enthusiasts and readers intrigued by Asian art are invited to tour its luminous pages. It is co-published with University of Alberta Museums." --Book Jacket.

Son of the Native Soil

Son of the Native Soil PDF Author: Shadrach Ambanasom
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956716316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Son of the Native Soil is a work whose quiet maturity glows in both subject and style. Here, love heals but the force of hate is very real. The hero, Lucas Achamba, by charisma and love undertakes to unite Dudum clan which politicking and egotism have split. His quick success stirs bitter rivalry and heartless cruelty that decide his fate. Nature is jumpy and even hysterical at this, and Ambanasom exposes it with fine evocative mastery. The style is refined and honeyed by sonal devices and visual tropes that half conceal subtle slashes at human foibles.

Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)

Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations) PDF Author: John Nkemngong Nkengasong
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956558656
Category : Cameroon
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
In this rich and compelling collection of poems the author explores the recesses of the imagination to reveal the different facets of contemporary experience. In doing this he highlights the social, the spiritual, and the metaphysical functions of poetry. The reader will find in the collection sincere expressions of feelings and penetrating thoughts, the genuine tone, spirit and taste of poetry and its ability to provide contemplative clues to prevailing circumstances. The preponderance of stimulating imagery and the overall display of ingenious poeticality reveal the poet as one imbued with a fertile imagination and prove as well that poetry remains the most noble of art through which one understands and comes to terms with the hidden secrets of the universe.

Straddling the Mungo: A Book of Poems in English and French

Straddling the Mungo: A Book of Poems in English and French PDF Author: Peter W. Vakunta
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956558893
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
This collection makes a forceful case that official bilingualism is not a pipe-dream, but rather a powerful modus operandi with the potential to ease a myriad of socio-political bottlenecks.

Landscaping Postcoloniality. The Dissemination of Cameroon Anglophone Literature

Landscaping Postcoloniality. The Dissemination of Cameroon Anglophone Literature PDF Author: Joyce Ashuntantang
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 995655829X
Category : Authors
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This is a foundational text on the production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature. The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages. Ashuntantang shows that the pattern of production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature is not only framed by the minority status of English and English-speaking Cameroonians within the Republic of Cameroon, but is also a reflection of a postcolonial reality in Africa where mostly African literary texts published by western multi-national corporations are assured wide international accessibility and readership. This book establishes that in spite of these setbacks, Anglophone Cameroon writers have produced a corpus of work that has enriched the genres of prose, poetry and drama, and that these texts deserve a wider readership.