Pictures (images) and construction of gender economic roles among the Nso’ of Cameroon

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