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Carrefour de la Joie: Popular Deconstruction of the African Postcolonial Public Sphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Basile Ndjio
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Abstract

African postcolonial rulers have made of the public sphere a space where through the production of violence and coercion they attempt to bring their subjects' bodies under an endless process of tight discipline, subordination and servitude.Moreover, they havemanaged to set up a politically structured sphere that not only restricts citizens' freedom of movement, speech and assembly, but also rationalizes their way of standing, speaking and walking. But the governmental claim to exercise full control over the public sphere is incessantly challenged by popular practices of insubordination and impoliteness. This paper which focuses on the carrefour de la joie (‘space for pleasure’) in Cameroon demonstrates how through ‘immoral’ and ‘indecent’ behaviour such as drunkenness, debauchery and indiscipline, Cameroonian subjects have been striving not only to evade the suffocating restrictions that the ferocious Cameroon People's Democractic Movement (CPDM) regime imposes on their rights, but also to formulate a sharp critique of this postcolonial power.

Résumé

Les dirigeants postcoloniaux africains ont fait de la sphère politique un espace dans lequel ils tentent, par un mécanisme de production de la violence et de coercition, d'astreindre le corps de leurs sujets à un processus sans fin de discipline, de subordination et de servitude. De plus, ils sont parvenus à mettre en place une sphère politiquement structurée qui non seulement limite la liberté de mouvement, d'expression et de réunion des citoyens, mais également rationalise leur façon de se tenir debout, de parler et de marcher. Or, des pratiques populaires d'insubordination et d'impolitesse remettent sans cesse en cause l'assertion du gouvernement selon laquelle il maîtrise totalement la sphère politique. Ce papier, qui se concentre sur le carrefour de la joie au Cameroun, montre comment les sujets camerounais, à travers un comportement ≫immoral≪ et ≫indécent≪ comme l'ivrognerie, la débauche et l'indiscipline, se sont efforcés non seulement d'échapper aux restrictions pesantes qu'impose sur leurs droits le redoutable régime du Mouvement démocratique du peuple camerounais (MDPC), mais aussi de formuler une vive critique de ce pouvoir postcolonial.

Type
Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , August 2005 , pp. 265 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2005

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