Table of contents
Sustaining the Future of Art Pedagogy and Practice in the Face of Technology. Get the full PDF
Sunday JAMES……………..………………………………………………..…1-15
There is no doubt that technology is here to stay. Its influence is being
noticed and reflected in studio and classroom situations. Students of Art
in the 21st Century are technology-driven. Their orientation and day-to-day
experience toll this line. Despite the many opportunities afforded to
art teachers in technology today, many of them avoid these opportunities;
either because they are not interested or they prefer the traditional way
of teaching or they lack the know-how to use them. A cursory look at our
Art institutions and Departments in Nigeria today reveals a need to
overhaul the training methods and facilities in the system to meet global
standards and the technology-driven society of our time. The author
thinks, there is a need to embrace the use of technology in the teaching
and learning of Art if its future is to be sustained. This paper discusses
the place of technology in Art pedagogy; looking at studio practice and
theory, its influence on Art production, careers in Art now; and
sustainability in the future. The methodology adopted includes literary
review and practical studio work experience. The paper points to the fact
that the role of technology cannot be over-emphasized in art teaching and
learning, exhibition and sale, recording, preservation, as well as
documentation and archiving of art experiences. It is recommended that
teachers of Art must be up-to-date with modern techniques in teaching
in the dynamic and technology-driven world of today.
Keywords: Camera Obscura, Education, Future, Pedagogy, Technology
Pictures (images) and construction of gender economic roles among the Nso’ of Cameroon. Get the full PDF
Noela Kinyuy Banla, Paul Animbom N., & Nixon Takor K. …..……..17-43
Discourses on gender are most often very complex over roles. Scholars
especially on Black African societies in many ways have attempted to
demarcate such roles along the female-male divide. As interestingly as
this knowledge construction is it has more or less been limited to textual
representations which do not quickly display visual imageries of the
specific and cross-edging roles that gender division of roles play in African
socio-economic processes. It is in this context that with the aid of visual
illustrations and using a qualitative historical research design informed
by primary and secondary sources, this paper presents and critically
examines the extent to which economic functions are shared and
distinguished between females and males among the Nso’ of the
Cameroon Grassfields. It questions whether or not these roles from an
iconographic point of view have remained resilient or whether the line is
progressively blurring off to give room to more complementary trading of
roles. It is argued that the overburdened textual literature on how females
and males negotiate economic roles among the Nso could be quickly
conveyed in visual symbols.
Keywords: Construction, economic, gender, pictures, images
Les lieux de mémoire à Ongola. Get the full PDF
Landry Ghislain Tele Djousseu ……………………………………………….………44-71
Ongola, ou encore Yaoundé, la ville aux sept collines a connu une
croissance remarquable ces dernières décennies. Ce sévère
accroissement a contribué au déracinement des populations en
développant le culte de l’oubli et le détachement aux valeurs intrinsèques
de la ville. Les lieux de mémoire oubliés de Yaoundé définissent
cependant les cadres de référence et de repères historiques d’Ongola, des
sources inestimables de son patrimoine. Il est nécessaire pour ses
habitants de reconsidérer cette mémoire oubliée parce qu’elle joue un rôle
important dans la notabilité de la ville. Elle contribue à redorer l’image
des activités quotidiennes et se présentent comme, un atout indéniable
du développement de la région. À Ongola, les lieux de mémoire sont
totalement déconnectés de la sphère politique de plusieurs citoyens. Ils
ne sont pas connus par de nombreux habitants de la ville, étant donné
que la politique culturelle locale s’appuie très peu, sur des valeurs
symboliques publiques à caractère national. Le problème de cette étude
est relatif à la précarité existentielle et à l’incertitude ontologique du futur
des lieux de mémoire à Ongola. Il est nécessaire de se tourner vers le
passé d’Ongola pour y trouver des repères, créer du vivre ensemble et
tenter de retrouver une identité spécifique de la ville, affaiblie par une
mondialisation de plus en plus globalisante. L’objectif de cette étude
consiste en l’identification et en la connaissance de certains lieux de
mémoire de la ville de Yaoundé afin de lutter contre le syndrome d’une
société en crise d’identité, sans projet, où règne surtout l’instantanée.
Notre méthodologie de recherche s’est échafaudée autour des enquêtes
orales. A l’aide des sources primaires et secondaires, et sur la base des
observations effectuées sur le terrain, nous avons procédé à la
reconnaissance sélective des espaces à mémorialiser. Cette démarche
nous a permis de recenser 5 lieux de mémoire d’Ongola d’une importance
manifeste. Ces résultats révèlent la nécessité, d’une réconciliation avec
l’histoire commune de la ville au service de la reconstruction nationale.
Mots-clés : Lieux de mémoire, Histoire, Héritage culturel, Monuments,
Mémoire collective.
An Empirical Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of The Covid-19 Pandemic in Cameroon. Get the full PDF
Muluh Henry & Sopse Majolie …………………………………………….…….……72-103
This study is primarily concerned with Newspaper Coverage of the
COVID-19 Pandemic in Cameroon. Newspapers written and published in
Cameroon constituted the study population of this work. The main
objective of the study was to assess how newspapers covered the COVID-19
Pandemic in Cameroon in 2020. It was guided by two theories namely;
the Diffusion of Innovation theory and Framing theory. Data was
collected through content analysis, using a mixed approach with three
newspapers published in the English language: The Post, The Guardian
Post, and Cameroon Tribune as the purposive sample. The findings
suggest that newspapers exploited eight frames in covering the pandemic
with the political frame being the most used. Also, consistency is very
much evident in the reports. It further highlights that the reports lacked
balance, were ununiformed, and not coordinated which accounts for the
fact that journalists do not do proper investigation and research before
writing their reports concerning the pandemic thereby making these
reports doubtful. The study concludes that Cameroonian newspapers
have been instrumental and frequent in providing vital information to the
public on the nature, prevention, and medication of the COVID-19
pandemic. The newspapers also recognised the place of proximity in news
selection by reporting more frequently the outbreak in Cameroon than
that of distant outbreaks of similar diseases in foreign countries. Based
on this conclusion, journalists should adopt Hallin and Mancini’s model
of media and politics, which states that crisis communication should be
truthful, fast, consistent, and explanatory. This will help reduce
inconsistency in reporting. Again, while newspapers are available for
content analysis, a survey of audience perception of broadcast media
reports on the pandemic or health crises is necessary and recommended
for further study. This is because it will determine if there is a health
behaviour change caused by the media. It will also determine if there is
a fast rate of diffusion caused by media reports. This will greatly
complement the findings of this study.
Keywords: Newspaper, Coverage, COVID-19 Pandemic
Analyzing Communication in Television Adverts: The Case of MTN TV Advert “Eto’o Peut”. Get the full PDF
Kamtchuang Anne …………………………………………………………….………104-120
This paper examines how the advertiser uses modes of communication
in TV advertisements in an interactive way to communicate the
advertising message to the consumer. These modes of communication,
language, visuals, music, sound, and paralinguistic elements, are often
seen and studied as semiotic resources. Very few look at it from a
communication angle, that is, how they are used to pass the advertising
message to the consumer present in the advert. What is of interest to
them, is the structure of the semiotic resource, that is, the grammatical
and syntactic structures of the semiotic resources used. Some studies
have equally looked at each of these modes of communication
individually, forgetting that in a TV advert, they automatically interact to
share the message. This study is undertaken within the framework of
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) drawing from Multimodal Discourse
Analysis (MMDA), which provides methodological tools that are applied
in the analysis of the TV advert “Eto’o Peut”. The data of this study
consists of the linguistic, visual, musical, and non-verbal elements
obtained from the observation of the TV advert. The analysis shows that
the advertiser uses mostly nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs for
verbal communication, sound quality, rhythm, and pitch for musical
communication, contact and social distance for visual communication,
and dress code and tone for non-verbal communication. All these
communication devices interact to convey the advertising message to the
consumer.
Keywords: communication, modes of communication, advertising
message, Eto’o Peut, consumers.
Centering African Traditional Dance Principles in Contemporary Dance. Get the full PDF
Chamba Nana Mirelle Flore ………………………..………………………….……121-157
This article interferes with the problems posed by contemporary dance
paradigms rooted in dominant Western epistemologies as illustrative of a
persistent ethnocentric and narrow discourse that portrays imperialist
ambitions and related exclusionary practice, which triggers skepticism
amongst Africans. Alternatively, it suggests that contemporary dance be
conceptualized as a cosmopolitan dance form influenced by a variety of
geocultural dance styles, amongst which African traditional dances, as a
perspective for circumventing and decentering this domination.
Grounded in qualitative research supported by Fanon’s postcolonial
cosmopolitanism, the paper models what colonial contradiction reading
might offer, showing how once trash and outlawed African traditional
dance principles were transposed into contemporary dance. Results show
the destabilization of Africans to connect with contemporary dance is
rooted in Western hegemony that disempowered African traditional
dances during colonization. However, the integration of these traditional
dance principles confirms African presence in contemporary dance and
more importantly challenges the dominant Western epistemology. As
such, from colonialism to cosmopolitanism, both African and Western
cultures are interconnected in the fashioning of contemporary dance. The
presence of heterogeneous dance aesthetics in contemporary dance
establishes a flexible counter-discourse of this practice which owes its
legacy to the global human community with which it shares a history
entrenched in cosmopolitanism. Thus, a sense of belonging is important
to engage Africans in the canon, and the fact that the characteristics of
contemporary dance are also embedded in African traditional dances
could strengthen communities, distance Africans from the many quarrels
linked to this denomination, and push them to dig more into the richness
of African dances to question the new Africa and join the new
cosmopolitan project of cultural globalization.
Key words: contemporary dance; African traditional dances; postcolonial
cosmopolitanism; decolonization; aesthetics
African Spirituality and Resistance to Neocolonial (Bad) Governance in Lake God and Dance of the Vampires by Bole Butake. Get the full PDF
Amadou Danlami……………………………………………………………………….159-179
Africa continues to suffer from European imperialism and its related
extensive ills like exploitation, ethnocide, corruption, dictatorship,
embezzlement, and murder. In his plays, the Cameroonian dramatist,
Bole Butake, handles numerous problems plaguing Cameroon and other
African countries, and one of these is bad leadership caused by
neocolonialism. This study examined Butake’s perspectives on the
connection between European expansionism and African autochthonous
spirituality. Using Cultural Resistance by David Jeffress as the
theoretical framework, the work sought to answer the question: What is
Bole Butake’s vision of the link between neocolonialism and African
sacredness? The paper, which is divided into three parts, concludes that
Butake projects African traditional religion as a solution to
neocolonialism and its negative offshoots. It opines that African spiritual
entities should be associated with governance as elements of regulation,
control, and punishment so that bad leadership and the subsequent
suffering of Africans can be mitigated or eliminated.
Keywords: Neocolonialism, African spirituality, Postcolonialism,
Resistance, Leadership
- Castigating Corruption in the American Political Space: A Study of Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier and The Titan. Get the full PDF
Nyaa Hans Ndah …………………………………………………………………….180-202
The American political space depicted in Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier
and The Titan presents a clear picture of the antagonism that prevailed
in the United States between capitalism and socialism in the first half of
the 20th century. We set out in this paper to portray how Dreiser
problematizes corruption in American politics and how this challenge is
addressed. This study is significant in that corruption is still endemic in
American politics, and the reforms suggested in Dreiser’s novels under
study are still relevant today as far as the democratization process in the
United States of America and the world is concerned. This study is based
on the hypothesis that the 20th century American political space
portrayed in Dreiser’s The Financier and The Titan is plagued by
corruption. The Marxist theoretical approach was considered suitable for
our analyses in this study. The major finding of this study borders around
Dreiser’s commitment in the two novels to castigate the alarming rate of
corruption that has destroyed party politics in the United States of
America. One also finds out that Theodore Dreiser fully endorses Karl
Marx’s vision of a classless society as an ideal system that can eliminate
the inequalities that prevail in the capitalist space. According to him,
such a classless society can go a long way to reduce (to the barest
minimum), corruption in American politics.
Keywords: Castigate, politics, corruption, capitalism, socialism
A Sociolinguistics impact of Ngamambo greeting culture and Identity. Get the full PDF
Sirih Nagang Nancy Nyindem ………………………………………..………………203-227
Despite the increasing rate of modernity nowadays, language has always
been and is still used as an ingenious device for transmitting ideologies
from one generation to the other. This study documents and examines
the sociolinguistic importance of greetings as a fundamental interactional
ritual in Ngamambo, a Grassfields Bantu language spoken by the Mbu
people in the Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon
(Eberhard et al., 2019). Greetings are indices of appropriate socialisation
that portray the relationship between the interactants and serve as a
binding fabric that holds the community together. Through an
ethnographic approach, qualitative and quantitative data were obtained
from forty (40) language consultants (20 adults and 20 youths) employing
interview and participant observation. Thirty greeting forms were
identified, recorded, and transcribed using Elan. These forms were
presented and analysed within the speech act theory (Austin, 1975) and
the linguistic anthropology approach, revealing their semantic
implications and the circumstances surrounding the salutation. The
study established that the greeting culture in Ngamambo, which
expresses the relationship between the speakers and the community’s
living and dead members, is declining due to modernity, Christianity, and
the influence of the dominant language, English, and the specific forms
reflect the Identity of the tribe and clan. The study reveals that the
Ngamambo speakers use various verbal and nonverbal greeting forms
determined by social factors such as age, religion, social status, and
location. It documents the greeting forms in the language, which are
gradually becoming endangered.
Keywords: Sociolinguistics, impact, greetings, Ngamambo, culture, and
Identity
The Culture of Increasing Coups D’États in Africa and its Implications on Democratic Institutions. Get the full PDF
Bamnjo Herman ………………………………………….……228-245
Coups d’état have been prevalent in different countries globally. However,
Africa has been the most affected, leading to significant consequences for
its socio-economic growth and democratic governance. In the last few
years, the frequency of coups d’état has increased, thus compromising
the progress of making the continent more democratic and peaceful. This
paper set out to investigate the culture of increasing coups d’état in Africa
and its implications on democratic institutions. Underpinned by the
Modernization theory, the study adopted a qualitative method. The unit
of analysis was based on interviews and secondary sources. The study
explores the various types of coups d’état and the reasons for the coups
d’état in Africa. Results proved that leaders who have stayed in power for
too long attempt unconstitutional changes to the constitutions which
later result in the unconstitutional ousting of them. The study also found
out that the Militarisation of Politics and entrenchment of guns have
accounted for increasing coup d’etat in Africa of recent. The study
therefore concludes that Africa needs to have stronger institutions than
stronger men for their democratic process to be stronger and
recommends that military juntas should call for democratic elections as
fast as possible to enable a peaceful transition
Keywords: Coup d’état, Democratic Institutions, Culture, Africa
11. De la Gratuité à la Commercialisation des Manuels Scolaires au Nord-Cameroun 1960-2018
Garga Bargue ……………………………………………………………….244-275
L’école occidentale s’est implantée au Cameroun précisément dans la
zone côtière en 1844. Depuis la création des premières structures
d’éducation jusqu’en 1960, les manuels scolaires ont fait l’objet d’une
distribution gratuite dans les établissements scolaires publics sur
l’ensemble du territoire national. Le Nord-Cameroun, quant à lui, a
continué à bénéficier de cette gratuité jusqu’en 1984 alors que dans la
partie sud du pays les élèves s’offraient les manuels scolaires dans les
lieux de vente. Comment la dynamique politique sur les manuels
scolaires a-t-elle été maintenue au Nord-Cameroun depuis 1960 jusqu’en
2018 ? Pour répondre à cette question, un certain nombre d’ouvrages
ayant traité de l’éducation en générale et les manuels scolaires en
particulier sur le Cameroun et la région septentrionale ont été consultés.
Une enquête a été menée sur le terrain auprès des personnes ressources
ayant côtoyé le milieu scolaire pendant cette période. Toutes les
informations collectées ont permis d’une part de présenter les facteurs
ayant maintenu la gratuité des manuels scolaires dans la partie
septentrionale. D’autre part, le présent travail analyse les raisons ayant
conduit à la commercialisation avant de jeter un regard sur la trajectoire
et les acteurs de la commercialisation des manuels scolaires.
Mots clés : commercialisation, gratuite, manuels scolaires, Nord Cameroun.
