Social Media and the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. Get the full PDF
Victor Ngu Cheo & Bamnjo Herman Yenika ……………………………………..1-14
This paper sets out to investigate social media use in the current Anglophone Crisis. The main assumption of the paper is that the increasing use of the social media by nontraditional journalists and non-state actors in the production and distribution of information, escalated the crisis in the North West and South West Regions. Underpinned by the gatekeeping theory, the study adopted a qualitative method. The unit of observations was published information on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp Chat groups by the separatist and the Head of State. The analyses were predicted on information shared on the social media platforms about the Anglophone crisis in
Cameroon by individuals, states and non-state actors. Results proved that the majority of information shared during this crisis period is mostly through Facebook and WhatsApps, although others like Twitter, Youtube etc are also employed. Prominent among the actors who use the social media during this crisis period is the Head of State, Paul Biya. He employed twitter for instance to condemn the crisis, call. The study, therefore, concludes that social media has been a tool used by both the government and non-government officials to transmit their messages in relation to the crisis in the North West and South West. However, while the government uses them to promote peace, the non-state actors rather exploit them to the contrary.
Keywords: Social Media, Anglophone Crisis, Cameroon.
Social Stratification in Niyi Osundare’s The Man Who Walked Away and The Wedding Car. Get the full PDF
Adeleke, Emmanuel B. ………………….………………………………………15-33
No society is completely classless; for, as an adage says, “all fingers are not equal.” However, in spite of the inequality of persons, many societies have managed to keep the gap between the haves and the have-nots from becoming too wide. In The Man Who Walked Away and the Wedding Car, the society dramatised has not been able to keep the gap between the classes within manageable proportion. Using the Marxist theory, this paper investigates the nature of social stratification in these plays. It finds that injustice, poverty and depression are triggered by this unbridled stratification. The paper concludes that unless these issues are redressed very fast, everyone is in grave danger because neither persons nor property will be safe.
Keywords: Stratification, Marxism, Injustice, Poverty, Depression.
Rage, fury (violence) in the Games of Football in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon, 1980-2005. Get the full PDF
Confidence Ngam Chia & Scot Tamfu Wepngong……………………………….34-57
One of the visible fallouts of European imperialism in the contemporary Bamenda Grassfields is football. From its introduction and popularization in England, football games and competitions became an endearing practice among rural and urban folks. This game strangely inaugurated streams of passions and sensation among African folks to an extent that it almost became a major source of long-standing conflict instead of impacting social fluidity and fascination that was its prime goal. From the analysis of data combed from primary and secondary sources, this paper examines the context of the rage and furry (violence) that unfortunately animated football games and competitions during the 1980s and 90s in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon. It submits that (a)the context of the time,(b) the nonchalance of the officiating officers of most matches,(C) the opaque nature of match programming and (d) the accumulated grievances of ignorant match spectators plus (e) the weakness of the institutions that governed the games, combined to make acts of violence like – desecration of playing grounds-threats, fighting or beating of match officials after matches-refusal of some teams to participate in some competitions as well as open fighting during and after matches. From this it offers that despite the odds and violent social and political climate that characterized the polities of the Cameroon Grassfields today, football has undergone significant paradigm shifts through and within which peace and harmony now prevails which is a marked departure from the violence and sensation that accompanied football matches and competitions in the past. Indeed, a team spirit and collective civility has built a culture where defeats and victories are accepted with no qualms as determined by the match officiating ministers.
Keywords: Rage, Furry, Violence, football, Grassfields, Cameroon, New Deal Era.
King as a throne: The symbolism of Afo-a-Kom in Kom artistry. Get the full PDF
Victor Bayena Ngitir ….……………..……………………………………………58-80
The subject of mystery and royal symbolism as incarnated in sacred objects among African peoples has never attracted as much curiosity as did the emblematic throne-statue, Afo-a-Kom, of the Kom kingdom in the Cameroon Grasslands. Crafted in the royal workshops of Laikom (1860s) and reminiscent of its patron, Foyn Yu (1865-1912), the antiquity became the subject of a highly mediatized Western campaign shrouded in controversy. Was Afo-a-Kom a prototype of African primitive art whose sole norm was wholesome superstition and witchery as painted by the West, or was it a noble standard of royalty and the intestines of a state as upheld by its kinsmen? Whisked off to the US in 1966 but restituted in 1973, Afo-a-Kom became the symbol, par excellence, of an organized rape of African art masterminded by Western collectors. This paper examines the role of Afo-a-Kom as a sacred object in kom culture and artistry, discusses its special traits, functions and significance, and assesses controversies surrounding the antiquity. In this endeavor, three questions beg for answers: What was the place of Afo-a-Kom and sacred art in Kom society? What were its peculiarities, functions and symbolisms? How far have controversies surrounding the antique subsided? Hinged on the theory of functional conservation (AO Konare, 1995) and the conservation debate (VB Ngitir, 2014), the study blends qualitative data and oral tradition, analyzed on the basis of content, iconography and chronology. From the study Afo-a-Kom emerges as soul of the Kom people, yet controversy persists on its alleged mystical manifestations both in the US and back home.
Keywords: King, throne, symbolism, Afo-A-kom, Kom.
Dynamique Performative et Spectaculaire du Nsuo Nda Nji chez les Bamoun. Get the full PDF
Moungande Ibrahim Aliloulay …………………………………………………..81-96
Les Bamoun ont connu une progression de plus en plus affirmée qui a débouché sur l’émergence d’une culture propre à ce peuple de l’Ouest/Cameroun. Sa richesse et sa singularité culturelles se traduisent notamment par un patrimoine culturel immatériel varié et préservé qui s’est transmis de générations en générations. De nos jours, certaines pratiques ancestrales sont toujours observées. C’est le cas des rites d’intronisation ou souo ndap. Face à la modernité, cette tradition séculaire s’est peu à peu réinventée à tel point que, les matrices spectaculaires y occupent une place prépondérante. L’approche sémiologique dans une perspective ethnoscénologique, permet de démontrer que c’est la dimension spectaculaire de ces rites qui cristallisent les regards et le « faire » des spectateurs.
Mots-clés : souo ndap, ethnoscénologie, sémiologie, invention des traditions, performance spectaculaire.
Jean Marie Teno’s Camera Verité as Art Intervention in Cameroon. Get the full PDF
Alasambom Nyingchuo………………………………………………..……….97-116
Historically, filmmakers in Cameroon have reacted differently to stiff censorship by the two political regimes that Cameroon has had since 1960. While some have opted for self-censorship and subtle deconstruction, a few have chosen to use their art as a liberation tool, consistently defying the status quo by decrying various socio-political injustices. Using Italian neorealism as analytical framework, this paper analyzes selected films of Jean Marie Teno, one of Cameroon’s liberationist filmmakers, to buttress how he stands in as the voice of the voiceless. At the end of this analysis, the major observation is that Teno could aptly be considered not just as a committed filmmaker with the objective to bring to the lime light alternative (and true) narratives of African life to the limelight, but also as an African theorist in present day socio-political discourse.
Keywords: Camera verité, Italian neorealism, militant filmmaking, socio-political discourse, post-colonial discourse.
Female Victimisation and Resistance in Alobwed’epie’s Trilogy: The Lady With A Beard, The Lady With The Sting and She Seized The Balls. Get the full PDF
Derick J. Mbungang…………………………………………………………….117-131
This paper examines how male characters in the corpus use tradition as a pretext to suppress female characters. The paper also demonstrates the challenges they face in their struggle with female protagonists. Feminism constitutes the theoretical lens that will be
used to analyze and interpret the texts under study. Feminism is a theory that advocates for the equality between men and women. According to feminists (de Beauvoir :1973, Gunew and Yeatman :1994, Tyson :2006) women are considered as social actors with specific characteristics which ought to be taken in account singularly. The problem the research addresses is one of representation of women in the corpus. Female characters are oppressed and victimized. The study is premised on the hypothesis that patriarchal norms are responsible for the subjugation of female characters who in turn fight back by performing roles that are known to be male in the society in which they live. The novels form a trilogy composed of The Lady with a Beard, The Lady with the Sting and She Seized the Balls. In this corpus, women are victims of male chauvinism. Male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior to women. According to Cambridge Dictionary, it is the “belief that women are naturally less important, intelligent, or able than men, and should be treated differently”. The trilogy provides great examples of mechanisms of hegemony, subordination and marginalisation through the representation of its male characters. In the fictional world which the texts depict, men denigrate women in the belief that they are inferior to them and thus deserve less treatment or benefit. What accounts for this belief is the patriarchal order imposed by the tradition of the Bakossi land. The study concludes that male characters manipulate social traditions to maintain inequality in gender relations but meet the opposition of women who are determined to
express themselves.
Keywords: Male Chauvinism, Patriarchy, Female Oppression, Resistance.
Varieties and Consciousness in Usage: Cameroon Pidgincreole and its Speakers. Get the full PDF
Fonka Hans Mbonwuh …………………………………………………………………132-152
After so many years of its existence in Cameroon and its development into varieties, both national and international scholars are still engaged in the debate about whether the various varieties of Cameroon Pidgincreole (CPc) are mutually intelligibility. This article attempts an examination of some existing varieties of CPc English and their various speakers, seeking to know whether speakers of a particular variety are aware of the existence of other varieties around them and whether they do understand such different varieties. The study used questionnaires to get the opinions of the respondents, who were both anglophone and francophone literates. The results indicate that some speakers know about the existence of CPc but not about varieties, while others are aware of the existence of varieties but cannot identify them distinctly by name. This paper is hinged on Microparametric Variation Model of Barbiers, Cornips, and vanderKleij. The results indicate that the question of mutual intelligibility is to an extent a battle among linguists, which does not directly concern the speakers who use this lingua franca daily without noticing differences. This equally indicates that even though there exist some indecipherable elements to speakers, codification and standardisation is quite possible because such elements in most of the varieties do not hinder understanding.
Keywords: Cameroon Pidgincreole, Varieties, Consciousness, Anglophone, Francophone.
Theatre and Therapy: a rapid review of related literature. Get the full PDF
Paul Animbom N……………………………………………………………….153-170
The available literature on/around theatre and therapy is increasing necessary so as to provide readers/scholars with up-to date resources. This literature, though readily available and accessible to most western countries, its availability to the Cameroonian scholars is still a problem. This review is aimed at providing the state of the art to researchers in the domain of theatre-related therapy in Cameroon so as to enable them, have a fundamental base on which to build and develop their arguments. This is necessary as more interest is manifested by young scholars who are developing concern on issues of therapy. This is a timely concern considering that, many more Cameroonians are
suffering from mental health issues and less is done with regards to the development of remedies. Theatre-related therapies are some of the alternative therapeutic modalities that can be used by Cameroonians to provide assistance to mental health patients. The paper follows a systematic review process and highlights various key and ground-breaking researches carried out on/around this area and shows that, if it is effectively applied, theatre and therapy become two sides of the same coin. This narrows the gap that has long existed between arts and health.
Keywords: Theatre, therapy, mental health, therapeutic theatre.
Orature at the Service of Environmental Sustainability in a Contemporary Cameroonian Setting: A Discourse on Bafut and Kom Spaces. Get the full PDF
Atoh Julius Chenwi & Che Chuchill Che………………………………………171-188
The role of indigenous languages expressed through proverbs to sensitize a people of a community cannot be under estimated. This essay investigates the role played by the Bafut and Kom proverbs in the sustenance of the environment. Several attempts have been made to curb environmental problems through NGOs, World Bank, WWF, UN, etc. The authors of this paper feel that if this problem can be handled in a holistic manner based on literature, with emphasis being laid on the psychological, social, spiritual, educative language and human conditions; using the case of Bafut and Kom proverbs, then environmental consciousness and preservation will be become a reality. This
investigation was guided by eco-criticism (theory) by Glotfelty (1996) and New Historicism of Gallagher and Greenblatt (2000). Data for this investigation was collected through oral performances on the said proverbs. These proverbs were first written in indigenous languages, which were later translated to English for better analysis. The results reveal that the society stands to gain much in our efforts to sustain our environments, if we go back to our cultures (which we have neglected) in general and dig deep into our oratures in particular as well as our indigenous languages to disseminate environmental information which can help to educate the masses.
Keywords: Orature, Environment, Sustainability .
Compliance and Breach of Non-refoulement Norm by the Cameroonian Authorities against Nigerian Refugees in the Conflict-ridden Far North Region of Cameroon, 2010-2019. Get the full PDF
Christian Nkatow Mafany & Emmanuel Yenkong Sobseh …………………189-209
This paper looks at the extent to which Cameroon conformed to Articles 33 of the 1951 Refugees Convention of non-refoulement which led to the influx of Nigerian refugees in the Far North Region, orchestrated by violent extremism by the Boko Haram Islamic Sect. It argues that, Cameroon complied to the non-refoulement norm by providing assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), providing settlement sites and free education to refugees, providing counseling and legal assistance, as well as water, sanitation and security services. The findings reveal that, the lack of a historical consensus on fanatic acceptance of non-refoulement obligation, as an international refugee customary law, resulted to the breach of the non-refoulement norm by Cameroon State authorities. This was followed with the forcedful return of Nigerian refugees to the Nigerian-Far North Regional borders and forced repatriations between 2016 and 2019 against the Abuja
Tripartite Agreement (ATA) of 2017 that was signed by Nigeria, Cameroon and the United Nations Refugee Agency. However, this paper based on primary and secondary sources, concludes that, the forceful repatriation of Nigerian refugees and asylum seekers by Cameroon Security Forces has strained relations between Cameroon and Nigeria.
Keywords: Compliance, Breach, Non-Refoulement, Conflict, Nigerian Refugees, Cameroon.
Optimisation des compétences heuristiques des apprenants et rentabilité financière des Formations Professionnelles des établissements de l’Université de Douala. Get the full PDF
Silvère Bandjokotok Missikon, Yves Bapes Ba Bapes & Christèle Nadège Ngando…………………………………..……210-232
La professionnalisation des enseignements à l’Université publique est avancée dans le discours politique depuis les années 2000 comme la principale réponse au chômage croissant de la jeunesse africaine et camerounaise. Mais près de deux décennies plus tard, de nombreux écueils entravent son implémentation et son dénouement. La présente étude jette un regard critique sur l’optimisation des connaissances des étudiants inscrits en filière professionnelle et sur la rentabilité financière des institutions universitaires. À partir de l’analyse qualitative des entretiens et des documents, on s’aperçoit que la rentabilité heuristique des formations professionnelles à l’Université de Douala est querellée, alors que les gains financiers engrangés par celles-ci profitent moins aux institutions en tant qu’entité morale qu’aux gestionnaires (personnes privées) des établissements.
The professionalization of teaching at public universities has been put forward in the political speech since the 2000s as the main response to the growing unemployment of African and Cameroonian youths. But nearly two decades later, many quarrels hinder its implementation and outcome. The present study throws a critical look at the optimization of the knowledge of students enrolled in professional courses and the financial profitability of university institutions. From the qualitative analysis of interviews and documents, we observe that the heuristic profitability of professional training at the University of Douala is disputed, meanwhile the financial gains it produces benefits lesser to institutions as a legal entity than to the managers (private persons) of the establishments.
Mots-clés : Professionnalisation des enseignements, Filières professionnelles, Rentabilité financière, Université de Douala, Optimisation des connaissances.
Keywords: Professionalization of teaching, Professional courses, financial profitability, University of Douala, Optimization of knowledge.
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