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Democracy and the Construction of Allogeny/Autochthony in Postcolonial Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Nantang Jua
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Extract

Since independence Cameroon has been a hegemonic state, evidenced by the 1966 introduction of a single party, the Cameroon National Union (CNU), which was purportedly created to foster national integration. This focus on national integration led to a de-emphasis of all other issues such as fundamental human rights. And because a select elite assigned itself the task of imagining the form the nation would take, this process was naturally accompanied by a contraction of the political space. Because the national integration project had paid minimal dividends after more than two decades, Cameroonians refused to legitimize it. They had realized that it simply served as a ruse for the ruling class to convert the state into a patrimonial one. Hence, people sought to regain their voices and participation through the democratic process. Reluctantly, the state capitulated to demands for political pluralism, passing the so-called Liberal Laws of 1990. However, by allowing multiparty politics, the government ruptured the facade of cohesion of the ruling class, which resulted in elites becoming increasingly preoccupied with maintaining their power and losing interest in the national integration project.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 29 , Issue 1-2 , 2001 , pp. 37 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001 

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References

Notes

1. Kofele-Kale, N., “Ethnicity, Regionalism and Political Power: A Post-Mortem of Ahidjo’s Cameroon,” in Schatzberg, Michael and Zartman, I.W. (ed.), The Political Economy of Cameroon (New York, US: Praeger, 1986), p. 77 Google Scholar.

2. Benjamin, W. as cited in Giorgio Agamben, “The Sovereign Police,” in Massumi, Brian (ed.), The Politics of Everyday Fear (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1993), p. 63 Google Scholar.

3. Cameroon Post, November 12, 1996, p. 2.

4. Cameroon Post, May 12, 1997, p. 3.

5. Nantang Jua (forthcoming), “SDF: Connecting with the South-West Province,” in M. Kreiger (ed.), Cameroon’s Social Democratic Front: An Opposition Work in Progress, Deadlock or Decline?

6. The Herald, January 25, 1995, pp. 1–2.

7. The Herald, January 23, 1996, p. 1.

8. Gerard Noiriel, “Petit histoire de l’intégration à la française” in Le Monde Diplomatique, January 2002, p. 4.

9. The Post, March 11, 1997, p. 4.

10. Circular L/N G39/02/431/153 from the Préfet of Kumba.

11. Following the arrest of more than 1,500 residents in Mutengene on June 3, 1997, the commanding officer brandished a copy of the governor’s order to arrest all nonindigenes, who were transported to police cells in Mutengene, Buea, and Limbe (Victoria). This presaged similar operations that were to be carried out in other towns in the province. See Cameroon Post, June 9, 1997, p.3.

12. Governor Peter Oben Ashu addressing a crisis management meeting of the Fako Elite at the Limbe Council Hall on May 29, 1997. Cited in The Herald, June 6, 1997, p. 2.

13. Membe, 1997.

14. Cameroon Post, May 12, 1997, p. 1.

15. In other words, “if somebody comes into your castle to fight you, what would you do?” cited in The Post, October 10, 1997, p. 2.

16. For further discussion, see Nantang Jua, “Spacialization and Valorization of Identities” (Mimeograph in author’s possession, 1999), p. 10.

17. Ibid.

18. Nantang Jua “Can Democracy Travel to Cameroon?” (Mimeograph in author’s possession, 1999), p.16

19. Ibid, pp. 16-17 for further details.

20. The Herald, May 9, 1997, p. 1.

21. The Herald, May 19, 1997, p. 1.