Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T21:06:45.029Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WELCOMING THE ‘FON OF FONS’: ANGLOPHONE ELITES AND THE POLITICS OF HOSTING CAMEROON'S HEAD OF STATE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2014

Rogers Tabe Egbe Orock
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article draws on a political ethnography of the hosting of state ceremonies to engage with erstwhile theoretical accounts of African politics as highly patrimonial and built on a social complicity between African rulers and their citizens. The article examines the patrimonial relationship between Cameroon's head of state, Paul Biya, and political elites of local ethno-regional communities who support the president within the framework of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) in Anglophone Cameroon. It approaches such elite politics of hosting as part of the vast cultural repertoire of patrimonial domination that emphasizes a spectacularization of proximity and intimacy between the head of state and his coterie of supporting elites as the latter seek development resources for their local and regional communities in exchange for their political support. To account for hosting as a practice of patrimonial elite politics, the article demonstrates the complex logics and pragmatics of ethnic and regional competition as well as the deployment of symbolic idioms of hierarchical relations, mutuality and interdependence in the cultural performance and legitimation of Biya's patrimonial domination of Cameroon.

Résumé

Cet article s'appuie sur une ethnographie politique de la tenue de cérémonies d'État pour traiter d'anciens récits théoriques de politique africaine comme étant hautement patrimoniaux et fondés sur une complicité sociale entre les dirigeants africains et leurs citoyens. L'article examine la relation patrimoniale entre le chef d'État camerounais, Paul Biya, et les élites politiques de communautés ethno-régionales locales qui soutiennent le Président dans le cadre du parti du Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC), dans le Cameroun anglophone. Il traite de la politique de tenue de réceptions par ces élites dans le cadre du vaste répertoire culturel de domination patrimoniale qui met en lumière une spectacularisation de la proximité et de l'intimité qui existent entre le chef d'État et sa coterie d'élites alliées en quête de ressources de développement pour leurs communautés locales et régionales en échange d'un soutien politique. Pour expliquer la tenue de réceptions en tant que pratique de politique d'élite patrimoniale, cet article démontre la logique complexe et la pragmatique de la concurrence ethnique et régionale, ainsi que le déploiement d'idiomes symboliques de relations hiérarchiques, de mutualité et d'interdépendance dans la manifestation culturelle et la légitimisation de la domination patrimoniale du Cameroun par M. Biya.

Type
Talking Power
Information
Africa , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , May 2014 , pp. 226 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bayart, J.-F. (1989) ‘Cameroon’ in O'Brien, D. C., Dunn, J. and Rathbone, R. (eds), Contemporary West African States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. (1993) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., Wacquant, L. and Farage, S. (1994) ‘Rethinking the state: genesis and structure of the bureaucratic field’, Sociological Theory 12 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Bratton, M. and Van de Walle, N. (1997) Democratic Experiments in Africa: regime transitions in comparative perspective. New York NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) (2010a) ‘Fallouts of the President Paul Biya's visit in Bamenda’, 15 December <http://www.crtv.cm/cont/nouvelles/nouvelles_sola_fr.php?idField=8494&table=nouvelles&sub=special>, accessed 10 February 2011., accessed 10 February 2011.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Cameroon+Radio+and+Television+(CRTV)+(2010a)+‘Fallouts+of+the+President+Paul+Biya's+visit+in+Bamenda’,+15+December+,+accessed+10+February+2011.>Google Scholar
Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) (2010b) Le Journal Télévisé de 20h30, 9 December.Google Scholar
Cameroon Tribune (2010) ‘Celebration day in Bamenda’, 8 December.Google Scholar
Cameroon Tribune (2013) ‘Cameroon: FCFA 200 million for reunification celebrations’, 5 May.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. (1981) The Politics of Elite Culture: explorations in the dramaturgy of power in a modern African society. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. (1964) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Eden (2011) ‘Tit bits from the All South-West Forum’, 31 January – 2 February.Google Scholar
Eyoh, D. (1998) ‘Through the prism of a local tragedy: political liberalisation, regionalism and elite struggles for power in Cameroon’, Africa 68 (3): 338–59.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. and Gupta, A. (2002) ‘Spatializing states: toward an ethnography of neoliberal governmentality’, American Ethnologist 29 (4): 981–1002.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. (1981) Negara: the theatre state in nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (1993) ‘Chiefs and colonial rule in Cameroon: inventing chieftaincy, French and British style’, Africa 63 (2): 151–75.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2009) The Perils of Belonging: autochthony, citizenship, and exclusion in Europe and Africa. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1967) Interaction Ritual: essays on face-to-face behavior. Doubleday NY: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Gotmann, A. (ed.) (2001) Le Sens de l'Hospitalité: essai sur les fondements sociaux de l'accueil de l'autre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Gupta, A. (1995) ‘Blurred boundaries: the discourse of corruption, the culture of politics, and the imagined state’, American Ethnologist 22 (2): 375–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackman, M. Z. and Johnson, C. E. (2002) Leadership: a communication perspective, 4th edition. Prospect Heights IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, K. F. (2003) ‘The politics of personal relations: beyond neopatrimonial practices in northern Cameroon’, Africa 73 (2): 202–25.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, M. (1997) Cultural Intimacy: social poetics in the nation-state. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Khayutina, M. (2002) ‘Host–guest opposition as a model of geo-political relations in pre-imperial China’, Oriens Extremus 43: 77–100.Google Scholar
L'Action (2012) ‘Golden jubilee of reunification: South-West elite raise CFA 74 million’, No. 843, 25 April.Google Scholar
Li, T. M. (1999) ‘Compromising power: development, culture and rule in Indonesia’, Cultural Anthropology 40 (3): 277–309.Google Scholar
Mbembe, A. (2001) On the Postcolony. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mbuagbo, O. T. and Akoko, R. M. (2004) ‘“Motions of support” and ethno-regional politics in Cameroon’, Journal of Third World Studies XXVIII (8): 83–98.Google Scholar
Mbuagbo, O. T. and Orock, R. T. E. (2012) ‘Urban governance policies in Cameroon and the crisis of political exclusion: a case study of the city of Kumba’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 47 (2): 176–89.Google Scholar
New Cameroon (2010) ‘50 years of army: heavy troop deployment panics Bamenda populations’, 13 December.Google Scholar
Ngomba, T. (2011) ‘The enduring allure of proximity-based political campaign communication strategies in Cameroon’, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 7 (3): 293–314.Google Scholar
Nkwi, P. N. (1997) ‘Rethinking the role of elites in rural development: a case study from Cameroon’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 15 (1): 67–86.Google Scholar
Nkwi, W. G. (2006) ‘Elites, ethno-regional competition in Cameroon, and the Southwest Elites Association (SWELA), 1991–1997’, African Study Monographs 27 (3): 123–43.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (1999) ‘Cameroon: a country united by ethnic ambition and difference’, African Affairs 98 (390): 101–18.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005) Africa's Media: democracy and the politics of belonging. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. and Rowlands, M. (1998) ‘Elite associations and the politics of belonging in Cameroon’, Africa 68 (3): 321–37.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B., Wete, F. and Fonchingong, T. N. (1996) ‘Media and civil society in Cameroon’, Africa Media Review 10 (3): 38–66.Google Scholar
Orock, R. T. E. (2013) ‘Manyu youths, belonging and the antinomies of patrimonial elite politics in contemporary Cameroon’, Cultural Dynamics 25 (3): 269–90. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0921374013495211.Google Scholar
Orock, R. T. E. (2014) ‘SWELA, ethnicity, and democracy in Cameroon's patrimonial state: an anthropological critique’, Critique of Anthropology (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Orock, R. T. E. and Mbuagbo, O. T. (2012) ‘Why government should not collect taxes: grand corruption in government and citizens’ views on taxation in Cameroon’, Review of African Political Economy 39 (133): 479–99.Google Scholar
Page, B. (2002) ‘Urban agriculture in Cameroon: an anti-politics machine in the making?’, Geoforum 33: 41–5.Google Scholar
Page, B., Evans, M. and Mercer, C. (2010) ‘Revisiting the politics of belonging in Cameroon’, Africa 80 (3): 345–70.Google Scholar
Pigeaud, F. (2011) Au Cameroun de Paul Biya. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, M. G. (1993) ‘Power, legitimacy, and democratisation in Africa’, Africa 63 (4): 445–61.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, M. G. (2001) Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: father, family, food. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
The Cameroon Buzz (2011) ‘Buea confronts Biya with a memo as he contemplates reunification venue’, 7 August.Google Scholar
The Herald Tribune (2010a) ‘Abakar, Ntumfor Halle, Asongwed, Choves … frontline men ahead of Biya's visit’, 2 December.Google Scholar
The Herald Tribune (2010b) ‘Interview: Fon of Mankon ahead of Biya's visit’, 2 December.Google Scholar
The Herald Tribune (2010c) ‘End-time signals for Biya? Security adviser dies, closest political admirer seriously sick, French court orders probe into his assets, SCNC threatens street protest in Bamenda’, 2 December.Google Scholar
The Post (2007) ‘Bad advice, ignorance ignited Oku-Bessa conflict – Fon’, 23 July.Google Scholar
The Post (2008) ‘Chief Tabetando urges CAMASEJ to purge charlatans’, 28 January.Google Scholar
The Post (2013) ‘Reunification updates: FCFA 20 billion spent already’, 11 June.Google Scholar
The Star (2010) ‘Fallout of presidential visit to North West’, 20 December.Google Scholar
The Sun (2010a) ‘Speech of His Excellency, Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cameroon armed forces’, 13 December.Google Scholar
The Sun (2010b) ‘50th anniversary of armed forces: Biya sedates Bamenda with promises’, 13 December.Google Scholar
The Vanguard (2010) ‘Reactions’, 15 December.Google Scholar
Van de Walle, N. (1994) ‘Neopatrimonialism and democracy in Africa, with an illustration from Cameroon’ in Widne, J. A. (ed.), Economic Change and Political Liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Van de Walle, N. (2003) ‘Presidentialism and clientelism in Africa's emerging party systems’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41 (2): 297–321.Google Scholar
Warnier, J.-P. (1993) ‘The king as a container in the Cameroon grassfields’, Paideuma 39: 303–19.Google Scholar
Warnier, J.-P. (2007) The Pot-king: the body and technologies of power. Leiden and Boston MA: Brill.Google Scholar
Yang, S.-Y. (2005) ‘Imagining the state: an ethnographic study’, Ethnography 6 (4): 487–516.Google Scholar
Yenshu-Vubo, E. (1997) ‘Democratizing development in sub-Saharan Africa: imperatives and possibilities’, Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies 16 (2): 5–23.Google Scholar
Yenshu-Vubo, E. (2006) ‘Management of ethnic diversity in Cameroon against the backdrop of social crises’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 181: 135–56.Google Scholar