Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms
Mediating Legitimacy: Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms

Author: Jude Thaddeus Dingbobga Fokwang

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 9956558648

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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

Author: Jude Fokwang

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009-02-15

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 9956716006

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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.

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

Author: Peter W. Vakunta

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9956558893

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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

Author: Joyce Ashuntantang

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 995655829X

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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.

Cup Man and Other Stories
Cup Man and Other Stories

Author: Tikum Mbah Azonga

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9956558419

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This is a collection of eight fictional short stories on themes such as the intrigues of the civil service, drunkenness, theft, matrimonial relations and living as an African immigrant in the West.

Second Engagement
Second Engagement

Author: Nkwentie Nde

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009-05-15

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9956716774

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Second Engagement is an enthralling tale of triangular love and the quest for fulfillment. Framed around Gabby and Lizzy, the narrative unravels the secrets surrounding relationships of love. Susan Nde explores the pleasures and tensions of how two individuals in love handle the obstacles on their path to being together. In an exceptionally lucid and graceful style, she weaves an enduring tapestry of great human interest, from divergent dreams, which converge at the point of acceptance and tolerance.

Evil Meal of Evil
Evil Meal of Evil

Author: Kehbuma Langmia

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009-05-15

Total Pages: 62

ISBN-13: 9956715050

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An Evil Meal of Evil is a play about greed and its consequences. Set in the traditional African village of 'Ntisong', the play exposes the complexities of unravelling the issue of Death. Sunyin, the young wife of Dohbani epitomizes what is wrong with coerced marriages. A group of blood thirsty vampires popularly known in the village as members of 'Nda Saah' superstitiously kill targeted individuals purposely to enrich themselves. Sunyin, the protagonist in the play suffers from a premature widowhood simply because her father Njukebim forced her into marrying Dohbani. As the play unravels with the culprit of 'Nda Saah' brought to justice, questions still linger about the fate of 'Ntisong'. This play examines the advantages and disadvantages of 'black art' mysticism in Africa.

Voicing the Voiceless
Voicing the Voiceless

Author: Walter Gam

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 9956717878

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The history of the subalterns, also known as the history of the voiceless, took currency in the early 1980s in South East Asia and has been dominated by scholars from that region. Despite its popularity, the history of the voiceless has not gained the attention it deserves in Cameroon historiography. In other parts of Africa and beyond this type of history has already taken root and animated scholarly production and debate. Cameroon history has been replete with studies that focus mostly on political history and the actions and intentions of top politicians of the day, with scant regard for the historical importance of the everyday life of ordinary Cameroonians as makers and breakers. This book takes a bold step in the direction of subaltern studies in Cameroon, and makes a clarion call for the institutionalization of voicing the voiceless. Nkwi - innovative and stimulating in his blend of history and ethnography of the everyday - offers fresh insights into the contextual understandings of subaltern Cameroon between 1958 and 2009. This is a welcome contribution to closing gaps in social history, from a leader amongst a budding new generation of historians of Cameroon and Africa.

Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament
Gender, Discourse and Power in the Cameroonian Parliament

Author: Lilian Lem Atanga

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9956615463

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This book investigates gender and power relations in the Cameroonian parliament using a critical discourse analytical approach, which focuses on social issues and seeks to expose unequal relations within institutions. The study identifies different gendered discourses within the speeches of Members of Parliament and government ministers. Consciously or unconsciously, these participants within parliamentary debates draw on topics that construct women and men in specific ways, sometimes sustaining gender stereotypes or challenging existing conditions. The way men and women are constructed using language also is indicative of gender and power relations within this particular community. The study also looks at the way men and women are constructed using traditional discourses of gender differentiation and how some of these discourses get challenged, appropriated or subverted using progressive gendered discourses that advocate equal opportunities, gender equality and gender partnership in development.

Child of Earth
Child of Earth

Author: Tah Asongwed

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 9956715026

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Child of Earth is the story of Achu, a young African boy who loses his mother when he is still a baby. He is raised by his father in a household teeming with wives and children. Then the father dies and the task of raising Achu devolves on his aunt, his father's sister, who is married to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. But the aunt is jealous because Achu is doing better in school than her own children . . .