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| Title: | Crossing Rural-Urban Spaces: The Takumbeng and Activism in Cameroon's Democratic Crusade |
| Authors: | Fonchingong, Charles C. Tanga, Pius T. |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
| Volume: | 47 |
| Issue: | 185 |
| Pages: | 117-143 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | women's organizations secret societies protest political action Politics and Government Women's Issues Development and Technology Cultural Roles Sex Roles |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.6721 |
| Abstract: | The article focuses on the power women wielded within secret societies and other women's 'enclaves' in Cameroon and beyond. It shows how this power is continuously being transformed in the modern political landscape. Women's riots, protests and demonstrations have been recorded in various communities in Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa but this paper looks in particular at the 'Takumbeng' traditional women's society and its politicization in the context of multiparty politics and democratization. The paper examines the transformation of the group against the backdrop of collective agitation and how it impacted on a political environment which was marked by disenchantment with the undemocratic policies of the national government. The paper reveals the symbolism and metaphors, the cultural interplay and raison d'être behind the group's activism through the lenses of the actors in an urban environment. It concludes that the group enhanced the continuing struggle for democratization through its legacy of resistance, restoring the flame of social democracy, and raising political consciousness in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, a bastion of the opposition party, the Social Democratic Front. Bibliogr, notes, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
