Overview

The 2010 decade marked the 50th anniversary of decolonization and independence across the African continent. Cameroonians celebrated in chorus and pomp the historical threshold, but the memory of Cameroon's historical resistance to colonial rule continues to remain unsettled. Cameroon's silence on its troubled recent past and the lack of reflection on the role of collective memory and history in nation building are puzzling. Moreover, there has not been any rigorous assessment of the road traveled since its independence. The nation-state on the continent emerged in a particular context, which saw the euphoria of independence dashed by ""developmentalism,"" a conception of nation building that was repressive, both in the intellectual and the political sense. As a result, the elites of independent Cameroon negated the legacy of the struggles that led to the end of colonial occupation, setting the country on a forced march toward progress and modernity. The discourse, praxis and outcomes of this approach to nation building are the focus of this study. This book traces the roots of the current turmoil and sheds light on overlooked factors impacting nation building in post-colonial Cameroon. It demonstrates the urgency of cross-disciplinary work on African societies and the continued relevance of postcolonial criticism as a theoretical framework. It extends the postcolonial critique inaugurated by Homi Bhabha's Nation and Narration into twenty-first-century sub-Saharan Africa. It also reframes the question of modernity and development in this context, suggesting an approach with a bearing on people's lived experience. This interdisplinary study draws from a number of fields--political science, literature, history, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies--to demonstrate the limitations of a philosophy of nation building that turned into state consolidation. It is a timely study on Cameroon's current volatile situation that is applicable to other postcolonial contexts, in Africa and elsewhere.

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9781604979664

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Reviews

The book is urgent and necessary because it takes on what was a political crisis and has become a genocide from the cultural point of view, and that exactly is what makes the book necessary. This book is not just an addition to an existing literature, it breaks the ground of what has to be done in African studies: converse with cultural studies. This book lays the groundwork for such needed future research. --Professor Patrice Nganang, Stony Brook University This book is a valuable intervention in Cameroonian Studies specifically and postcolonial and African Studies more broadly. It is a cutting-edge book on Cameroon's currently volatile situation. It is very thorough and thoughtful and addresses issues that are timely. The book will be valuable to those already specifically interested in Cameroonian history, politics, and culture, but it is a study that is applicable to other postcolonial contexts, in Africa and even elsewhere. Another strength of this book is that it touches on a diversity of fields--political science, literature, history, cultural studies, and postcolonial and African Studies more broadly. While its primary audience will be professors and governmental and non-governmental organizations, it is a scholarly work that is accessible to graduate and undergraduate students due to its clear organization and style. --Professor Stephen Bishop, University of Minnesota

Author Information

Ramon A. Fonkoué is an associate professor of French and cultural studies at Michigan Technological University. He holds a PhD from the University of Oregon, an MA and a BA from the University of Yaoundé 1 and a Certificate of Political Science from the Institute of Political Studies in Lyon, France. His works have appeared in Terroirs. Revue africaine de sciences sociales et de philosophie, Nouvelles Études Francophones, and The French Review.

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