A collection of essays on Cameroon from the 1950s to the present. Subjects include the problem of 'identity' in West Africa, aspects of German colonialism, and Nso' warfare and religion. B/w illus, notes, bib, 207pp, UK. BERGHAHN BOOKS.

1996 1571819266 Paperback

Analyses the interplay of modern and traditional influences and constraints on African women’s access to political power. It identifies knowledge as central to the exercise of political power in Cameroon since pre-colonial times. It uses case studies of women’s organizations and protest movements to trace the processes by which women were incorporated intro national political parties. 260pp, USA. EDWIN MELLEN PRESS.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bamum court arts flourished when artists working exclusively for the palace created elaborate bead-covered thrones and stools, wooden sculptures, masks in human and animal form, architectural carvings, and fine objects in bronze, ivory, and clay. These vibrant works came to the attention of European museums and collectors after members of a German expedition reached the kingdom in the then German colony Kamerun in 1902 and encountered its youthful king Ibrahim Njoya (ruled 1886/7 to 1931). The book focuses on the history, iconography, and meaning of Bamum royal arts and introduces some of the lesser known art forms that thrived in the kingdom's villages. It also traces the activities of collectors of various backgrounds who were fascinated by the splendour of the royal court. 160pp, ITALY. FIVE CONTINENTS EDITIONS.

First published as a two-part essay in 1965 and 1967 in ABBIA Cameroon Cultural Review under the title Idea of Culture. Its main argument is that indigenous African cultures must be the foundation on which the modern African cultural structure should be raised; the soil into which the new seed should be sown; the stem into which the new scion should be grafted; the sap that should enliven the entire organism. This culture, the object of imperialist mockery and rejected, needs rehabilitation. 96pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

Analyzes a cinema that, after a series of state-controlled productions that aimed to create a fictitious image and consolidate a long autocracy, has been inaugurating some major thematic and aesthetic innovations for the last twenty years. 341pp, GERMANY. BAYREUTH A S.

Examines the history and ongoing transformation of ethnic and social relationships among four distinct communities - Bangando, Baka, Bakwele, and Mbomam - in the Lobeke forest region of south-eastern Cameroon. By slotting forest communities into ecological categories such as hunters and gatherers, previous analyses of social relationships in tropical forests have resulted in binary frameworks that render real-life relationships invisible and that have perpetuated correspondingly misleading labels, such as pygmy. Through rich descriptive detail resulting from field work among the Bangando, Stephanie Rupp illustrates the complexity of social ties among groups and individuals, and their connections with the natural world. She demonstrates that social and ethno-ecological relations in equatorial African forests are nuanced, contested, and shifting, and that the intricacy of these links must be considered in the design and implementation of aid policies and strategies for conservation and development. 304pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS.

Ethnographic study which looks at the ways in which the village community of Domaayo, in Northern Cameroon copes with cultural contradictions and social tensions. Index, refs, gloss, 175pp, USA. WESTVIEW,

Relatively recent Bantu-speaking migrants to central Cameroon, the Beti have had an eventful history. Based on extensive interviews and traditional Beti (Fang) poetry, in addition to German and French archival sources, this study recreates the social structure of the Beti and their self-perceptions in pre-colonial times, their disruptive encounters with first German (1880-1918) and then French (1918-1960) colonialism, until Cameroon’s independence. Index, bib, 160pp, UK. BERGHAHN BOOKS.

During the long dry season, Tupuri men and women in northern Cameroon gather in gurna camps outside their villages to learn the songs that will be performed at widely attended celebrations to honour the year's dead. The gurna provides a space for them to join together in solidarity to care for their cattle, fatten their bodies, and share local stories. But why does the gurna remain meaningful in the modern nation-state of Cameroon? This book explores the vitality of gurna ritual in the context of village life and urban neighbourhoods and shows how Tupuri songs borrow from political discourse on democracy in Cameroon and make light of human foibles, publicize scandals, promote the prestige of dancers, and provide an arena for powerful social commentary on the challenges of modern life. Illus, 272pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Jokes that touch about every domain of existence - from sex to religion, from births to deaths, from politics to the beer parlour, from the courtroom to the hospital. 166pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

Recounts the life of a pastoral nomadic Fulani with leprosy. Highly acclaimed by Claude Levi Strauss who called the French edition 'one of the masterworks of ethnographic literature'. Gloss, notes, b/w photos, map, xxi, 298pp, UK. BERGHAHN BOOKS, 1571818448

Explores the adaptation of witchcraft traditions to contemporary needs. Geschiere shows how perceptions defined by occult belief are to be found active at many levels of Cameroon society, for instance in politics and business, where sorcery is seen as both a tool and a threat. Notes, bib, index, 311pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

Argues that the relationship between civil society and the politics of belonging is more complex in Africa than Western donors and scholars are willing to admit: ethno-regional associations and movements are even more significant constituents of civil society in Africa than the conventional civil society organisations that are often uncritically imposed or endorsed. Shows how the politics of belonging, so pervasive in Cameroon, and indeed much of Africa, during the current neoliberal economic and political reforms, has tended to penetrate the entire range of associational life. 274pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

First book entirely devoted to the Cameroonian Werewere Liking, one of the most innovative artists of post-colonial Africa. The book includes a wide-ranging collection of essays by some of Liking's most perceptive critics addressing her life and work, from her earlier fiction and social criticism to her later experimental drama, which has been produced on stages around the world. 363pp, NETHERLANDS. RODOPI.

A wide ranging study of the cultural meaning and social dilemmas associated with fertility of the Bangangate women of the Cameroon. Illus, notes on pronunciation, refs, bib, index, maps, xxi, 257pp, USA . UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS.

1999 0472109898 Hardback

Based upon extended anthropological fieldwork and ethnohistorical reconstruction, this is a study of the precolonical political system of an acephalous society in West Africa. The Meta' are a sedentary farming people living in what is now the Republic of Cameroon. In the precolonial era, the Meta' had created a polity that was remarkable for its size, its relative peacefulness, and the effectiveness of its dispute settlement procedures. Located on the fringes of a regional trading network dominated by several strong chiefdoms, the Meta' polity was also notable for the degree to which ranking had developed in what remained an uncentralized political system. 328pp, USA. STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

An instructional tool, this collection aims to foster literacy, promote cultural awareness and create situations where learners share with one another their personal experiences and traditions. 128pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

Born in 1925 into the prominent royal family of Mankon in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon, Solomon Anyeghamotü Ndefru found himself ruler of the Mankon, at the dawn of Cameroonian independence. He was elected to parliament first as an Independent, and subsequently as a member of the Cameroon National Union. He has served as First National Vice-President of Paul Biya's Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement since1990. 148pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

A case study that clearly shows rural women in the Northwest Province of Cameroon involved in mass protests fighting for more democracy, and at the same time struggling to improve their participation in all fields of social action, from family level to the economic sphere and the political arena of local government. Bib, map, diags, 312pp, GERMANY. LIT VERLAG.

A detailed ethnographic study focusing on the chiefdom of Nso' in the Bamenda grassfields of the Cameroons. A very significant study of anthropology and gender, first published in 1952. Index, apps, notes, maps, xxiv, 220pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.