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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Levels of Historical Awareness: The Development of Identity and Ethnicity in Cameroon |
Author: | Vubo, Emmanuel Yenshu |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
Volume: | 43 |
Issue: | 171 |
Pages: | 591-628 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Cameroon |
Subjects: | ethnic identity Duala ethnicity Kedjon polity Ethnic and Race Relations History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics and Trade colonialism |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.1617 |
Abstract: | The development of a sense of history and collective identity has tended to vary depending on whether it was situated at the local community level or at the level of the nation-State. This affected the politics of identity in the colonial period and has continued to fashion postcolonial identity politics. There is evidently a contradiction between scientific and ideological constructions of history. This paper explores the formulation or reformulation of history, the development of identity, and identity politics in the Sawa and Kedjom communities of Cameroon. It demonstrates that history inspires different types of practices at different levels. Local level histories are essentially histories that ensure the cultural, psychosocial and political unity of a group, while regional level histories tend to portray intercommunity relations. The impact of colonial and postcolonial developments on historical awareness cannot be underestimated. The paper further describes how communities in the modern setting manage identity pluralism at different levels depending on the different meanings that are attributed to historical traditions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |