La Problématique du Marché de l’Art Contemporain Camerounais. Les Ventes aux Enchères des Tableaux Chrétiens de Marc Padeu. Get the full PDF

Vendelin Abouna Abouna ………………………………………………………..1-26

Notre propos dans cet article est de démontrer qu’il existe bel et bien une économie de la culture africaine et que le marché de l’art contemporain camerounais, bien qu’étant embryonnaire, s’inscrit dans cette économie en pleine expansion. En portant un regard sur le contexte de naissance et d’évolution de l’art contemporain, le constat est clair que celui-ci se déploie dans une dialectique mettant en exergue dédain et admiration de la part de la critique. Cependant, malgré la non unanimité dans sa perception, cet art actuel prend de plus en plus de l’ampleur sur l’échiquier du marché de l’art mondial. De jeunes artistes africains contemporains inscrivent désormais leurs noms en lettre d’or dans les galeries les plus en vue de l’heure, et les grandes maisons de vente comme Christi’s, Sothebis et Piasa, pour ne citer que celles-là, proposent parfois à prix d’or leurs œuvres aux différents publics. Dans ces circonstances, le jeune peintre Marc Padeu s’y invite et propose un registre tout à fait nouveau. Il réinterprète l’iconographie chrétienne du XIVe et XVe siècle en lui revêtant un visage neuf suivant les lois de l’esthétique contemporaine. Cette iconographie chrétienne exprimée dans un langage nouveau, est plutôt bien accueillie dans le marché de l’art contemporain.

Mots-clés :  Economie de la culture, marché de l’art contemporain, maisons de vente, impact économique.

La peau travaillée dans la culture chez les Massa du Cameroun et du Tchad. Get the full PDF

Fidessou Sylvestre …………………….…………………………………………27-46

Les sociétés traditionnelles africaines ont toujours reposé sur leurs us et coutumes. Les communautés du bassin du lac Tchad, en l’occurrence les Massa du Cameroun et Tchad ont eu pour identité culturelle la peau travaillée. Cette peau a toujours été arborée par les braves jeunes hommes qui pratiquent la cure de lait ou la lutte traditionnelle. La peau travaillée servait sur le plan culturel et chez les jeunes athlètes du gourouna à revêtir d’une part leurs flûtes et d’autre part comme un sarong qu’ils passaient autour de la hanche ; il jouait le rôle de kimono chez les Judokas. C’est d’autant que, jadis, tout homme massa en possédait une. Avec l’avènement de la modernité et de la mondialisation, le port de la peau travaillée est resté une pratique réservée aux cérémonies socioculturelles telles que les festivals, les danses organisées ça et là en milieux urbains pour commémorer le passé culturel. Par contre, en milieu rural, la fonction sociale première reste quelque peu préservée. Reposant pour l’essentiel sur les données empiriques, documentaires et archivistiques, l’étude prouve en dernière analyse que la peau travaillée a joué et joue encore un rôle essentiel dans les faits socioculturels chez les Massa de la vallée du Logone. Aussi, malgré les effets ‘‘dévastateurs’’ de la modernité, l’usage de la peau travaillée reste encore pérenne quoi qu’à une échelle réduite dans la culture de ce peuple.

Mots-clés : Peau travaillée, bassin du lac Tchad, modernité, vallée du Logone, Massa, mode de vie.

North West-South West Divide Within the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon: The 1985 Synod Election Crisis. Get the full PDF

Michael Kpughe Lang …………………………………………………………….47-65

Power struggles have roiled African Christian churches in multiple forms, promoting conflicts, stalling mission work and disrupting peaceful communities. The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is no exception and has been the theatre of ethnic and regional differences expressed as power struggles pitching Christians from the North-West and South-West Regions of Cameroon. The principal cleavage in the PCC since her accession to autonomy from the Basel Mission in 1957 has all along resulted from power struggles. This article addresses the tensions resulting from persistent power struggles within the PCC. Such power struggles have often led to divisions and breakaway attempts within its governing structures, and this has negatively affected the growth of this Protestant denomination. Specifically, the paper investigates the 1985 Synod election crisis, discusses its manifestations, examines efforts towards it resolution, and highlights peacebuilding initiatives that followed. Its central argument is that North-West/South-West regional interests took precedence over collective concerns in the PCC, placing the church on the edge of ruin. It concludes that, historically, the North-West/South-West dichotomy has been the main factor in the power struggle and resultant tensions within the PCC. The crisis climaxed in 1985 when Synod elections allowed two North Westerners to occupy the two top posts of Moderator and Synod Clerk. The authorities of the church have managed to maintain the delicate balance of authority between the two regions by attempting to eliminate the dominance enjoyed by North Westerners through constitutional reforms.

Keywords: Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, power struggle, North Westerners, South Westerners, Synod Elections.

Rerouting the Imperialistic Parodies of African Cinemas. Get the full PDF

Aguugo, Barthelomew Gerald & Iloma Nyenwemaduka Richard……………66-80

Literary and cultural racism alongside the question of authenticity have been at the heart of much critical thinking about African Cinema. Prior and clearly during the colonial era, motion picture works about Africa effectively served to reinforce visions of the western world to the African aborigines. These imperialistic viewpoints pictured Africa as a wild and savage place existing outside the boarders of history. As filmmakers began to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s from nations of the continent, with a rising consciousness about the ideological damages facing Africa, the need to quickly merge ranks became apparent, as a wide spread opinion agreeing to the reality that imperialist representations of Africa were stereotypical and inauthentic crowned it all. This paper is focused on examining this ideological counter from the early African filmmakers, not only to know how they amount to decolonization of the African motion picture industry but also to bring to bear their efforts in the struggle. The question whether the African Cinemas have been indeed decolonized decades after the colonials left is also in the spirit of this paper. The research adopts a qualitative methodology of textual evaluation to arrive at its conclusion. Amongst its findings is the fact that African Cinema was stereotyped by colonial forces to strengthen their dominance on the African landscape. The study contributes to knowledge by exposing the defaming western ideologies on the African cinema, while encouraging a Pan-African and counteractive cinematic themes and techniques for the deconstruction of western stereotypes and parody.

Keywords: Decolonization, Colonization, African Filmmakers, African Cinema.

Appraisal of the Performance/Role of Women in the Teaching and Learning of Music Education in Nigerian Colleges of Education. Get the full PDF

Julius Oluwayomi oluwadamilare………………………………………………81-91

This study examined the pattern of performance/role of Women in the teaching and learning of Music Education in Nigerian Colleges of Education. The descriptive survey research was used for this study. The population for the study comprised of twenty female Music lecturers from eight Colleges of Education. The samples of the study consisted of eight Colleges of Education purposively selected from the Federal and State Colleges of Education from South – West, South – South, South – East, and North – Central covering four geo – political zones in Nigeria where music is offered as a course of study out of the six geo – political zones. Two hypotheses were tested and inferential statistics of ttest was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the study showed that Junior and Senior female music teachers in the Colleges of Education have favourable opinion about the pattern of performance (role) of women in the teaching and learning of Music Education in Nigerian Colleges of Education{t (df.18) =0.834; P>0.05}. Their perception and attitude to Music Education Programme in Nigerian Colleges of Education do not differ {t (df.18) = -0.364; P>0.05}. It is therefore recommended that more music personnel should be employed at the federal and State Colleges of education, especially the female music personnel to maintain gender balance, to enhance the smooth running of the single and double major music programmes, and also in order to ensure compliance with the NCCE Minimum Standard requirement on staffing.

Keywords: Music Education, Performance, Teaching & Learning.

The Journey Motif in Butakean Dramaturgy: Lessons for the Developing World. Get the full PDF

David Mba Tambu ……………………………………………………..……….92-108

This paper seeks to demonstrate in what perspectives the plays of Cameroonian prolific literary baobab, Bole Butake, could be relevant not only to his ancestral territory but also to continental and transoceanic geopolitical realms. Among several plausible matrixes, it examines the journey motif in his nine published plays, two collections of plays, two adaptations for cinema and stage performances to underscore salient beyond-border migratory phenomena characteristic of his craftsmanship. Taking Thomas Sebeok’s global semiotics, Sanders Peirce’s triads and Jack Child’s pansemiotics into account, the paper adopts as approaches theasemiotics and cinesemiotics in the critical study of the key constituents of paratextuality, dramatic composition, and performance features in Butake’s plays. Through this endeavour, the paper establishes a reliable continuum among different plays by the same author; it highlights the much acceptable taxonomy of Butakean drama as well as enkindles interest in the art world on Butake’s invaluable input to the definition and edifice of African dramaturgy – a dramaturgy that is simultaneously committed, functional and educative for a universal readership and audience

Keywords: Dramaturgy, signs, theatre, drama, theasemiotics, cinesemiotics, semiotics.

Critical overview of mutations in some Contemporary African Poetry. Get the full PDF

David Toh Kusi ………………………………………………………………….109-124

The state of contemporary African poetry today reflects the mutations it has undergone from the precolonial, colonial, to post-independence periods. Before colonization, African oral poetry (songs, rituals, incantations, etc) was peculiar and depended on the performer, the audience, and the context. Iyasere (2006:326) characterised this uniqueness as “a communal literature”. Over the years, this uniqueness has been permeated by some globalising wave of hybridity and cultural mutations giving rise to the complex contemporary African poetry we have today as exemplified in the works of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Nol Alembong and Oscar Labang. This paper, therefore, attempts a postmodern/postcolonial criticism of these selected poets to delineate the extent to which their poetry project an African consciousness at the expense of a consumerist multicultural set-up that privileges the subjugation of the African identity. It further demonstrates the nature of postmodern African poetry and reveals that contemporary African poetry is an offshoot of shifts in time and space confounded in experimentation, influence and the sublimation of personal experiences.

Keywords: Postmodern, Contemporary, Criticism, Poetry, African, Culture/al, Identity.

The Paradox of the Male in Patriarchal Settings: Reading the Plays of Emeka Nwabueze . Get the full PDF

Kelvin Ngong Toh & Walters Ncham Yong …………………………………..125-136

As patriarchy solidifies, women have been at the forefront to decry its injustices so that many have thought that men’s silencing is because they benefit from the system of patriarchy. In much of dramatic productions, women have equally been at the forefront of changing the derogatory perceptions about them in patriarchal societies since the rhetoric often portrays them as the vulnerable group. Interestingly, the marginalization of men in patriarchy is often given a lacklustre attention, and the playwright, Emeka Nwabueze, demonstrates in his plays that men are equally victims of patriarchy. Gayatri Spivak’s discourse of epistemic violence and consent oppression on the subaltern are
relevant postcolonial feminist tenets that enable us to contend in this paper that in patriarchal societies, subjugation is not only meted out to women by men, but women are equally benefiting on the system to oppress and silence men. The paper concludes that Spivak’s question whether the subaltern can speak therefore demands that systems – patriarchy like matriarchy should adopt inclusive trends to gender and sex.

Keywords: Matriarchy, Patriarchy, Postcolonial feminism, Subaltern, Violence.

Adapting the Cameroonian Oral Tale in the Funnel of Process Drama, Education and Wildlife Conservation. Get the full PDF

Victor Jong Taku………………………………………………………………. 137-151

Oral narratives have been at the centre of the moralizing and educational process in traditional African societies. Apart from uniting families by the fireside, the storytelling event has facilitated the transmission of oral tales from one generation to the next. As society evolves within the dictates of modernization, the storytelling event has lost its essence in society. Even in remote areas, the presence of a generator and a television screen is enough to pull families from the fireside and keep them glued to the television set. In urban areas, the cell phone has taken over family reunion and distanced parents from their children. This paper will evaluate the role of the classroom teacher in formal learning settings in filling the gaps created by the absence of the storytelling event. It will examine the role of Process Drama in transforming oral narratives to meet the current needs of the society. Our focus will be on wildlife conservation which has been a major source of conflict in traditional societies where the people have hitherto dependent on bush meat for their survival and social prowess. With the aid of adaptation and the dynamics of process drama, we will examine how the folktale is transformed into a play with the aid of the classroom teacher and the contributions of the learners. The performance context will reveal how the tale is ripped from its original state to a new version that addresses an urgent and universal concern such as poaching.

Keywords: Adaptation, Oral narratives, Process drama, Wildlife Conservation, and Storytelling Event.