Modernising Traditions and Traditionalising Modernity in Africa

B. Nyamnjoh

Description

Chieftaincy in Africa has displayed remarkable dynamics and adaptability to new socio-economic and political developments, without becoming totally transformed in the process. Almost everywhere on the continent, chiefdoms and chiefs have become active agents in the quest for ethnic, cultural symbols as a way of maximising opportunities at the centre of bureaucratic and state power, and at the home village where control over land and labour often require both financial and symbolic capital. Chieftaincy remains central to ongoing efforts at developing democracy and accountability in line with the expectations of Africans as individual 'citizens' and also as 'subjects' of various cultural communities. This book uses Cameroon and Botswana as case studies, to argue that the rigidity and prescriptiveness of modernist partial theories have left a major gap in scholarship on chiefs and chieftaincy in Africa. It stresses that studies of domesticated agency in Africa are sorely needed to capture the creative ongoing processes and to avoid overemphasising structures and essentialist perceptions on chieftaincy and the cultural communities that claim and are claimed by it.

Sujets

• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 23 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956762798
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

MODERNISING TRADITIONS

MODERNISING TRADITIONS and TRADITIONALISING and TRADITIONALIS M ING ODERNITY in AFRICA Chieftaincy and Democracy in Cameroon & Botswana

MODERNITY in AFRICA

Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Modernising Traditions and Traditionalising Modernity in Africa: Chieftaincy and Democracy in Cameroon & Botswana Francis B. Nyamnjoh L a ng a a R esea rch & P u blishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com ISBN: 9956-762-07-5 ©Francis B. Nyamnjoh 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher

Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………v Chapter 1: Chieftaincy Studies in Africa: An Overview……………………………………………1 Chapter 2: Chieftaincy and the Game of Legitimacy in Cameroon…………………...…………. 17 Chapter 3: Chieftaincy and the Negotiation of Botswana’s Democracy………………………………..31 Chapter 4: Conclusion…………………………………57 References……………………………………………... 61

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