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| Title: | Elite Associations and the Politics of Belonging in Cameroon |
| Authors: | Nyamnjoh, Francis B. Rowlands, Michael |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
| Volume: | 68 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 320-337 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | ethnicity political elite Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161252 |
| Abstract: | The mobilization of regional elites for political purposes has been a consistent feature of postcolonial politics in Cameroon. In the 1990s this trend has been transformed as elite networks have developed to give political expression to fears of exclusion and conflict stemming from the impact of political liberalization. The consolidation of numerous elite groups into larger regional blocs has increasingly taken an ethnic tone as claims to indigenous origins and hostility to 'strangers' have become part of the rhetoric of exclusion. In order to understand different processes of urban/regional ethnic identification, the authors compare the role of elite associations in two regions of Cameroon; one in the Grassfields (Western Province), characterized by 'chiefly' titles and 'chiefdoms', the other on the coast (South Western Province), distinguished by more diffuse, acephalous polities. The authors argue that instead of the development of multipartyism the trend in Cameroon today is for local regional ethnic politics to compete for 'party' status and access to State resources. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |
