Conclusion
In
Bamunka, socio-political institutions that once had a largely symbolic value
are being transformed to assume a more direct material significance and
occasion a competitive display of wealth. A case in point is the growing
interest in the acquisition of high status titles and the commutation from
payments in kind to payments in cash. Thus rather than offering items for
immediate consumption, they are adapting a customary system of redistribution
to the requirements of commodity exchange. Irrespective of their social
standing and the forces for change that continue to affect Bamunka, men in such
different positions as husband, brother, member of traditional and modern
'big men' groups are able to and do control women's labour
for their own changing social and material benefit. This is notwithstanding
the fact that capitalist market principles have become a more or less permanent
feature of the economy. Meanwhile a husband's control over his
wives' sexuality and fertility serve in the reproduction of control over
future bearers of human energy. In this way, women's subordination to
men is expressed in gender divisions and patterns which are socially and
historically determined and legitimized. This situation also enhances the
latter's prestige and political power to the detriment of the former.
Bibliography
Achebe,
Chinua, 1964:
Arrow
of God
,
(African Writers Series), London: Heinemann.
Ahidjo,
A., 1964:
Contribution
à la construction nationale
,
Paris: Presence africaine.
Aletum
Tabuwe, Michael, 1973:
Political
conflicts within the traditional and the modern institutions: a case study of
the Bafut-Cameroon
,
Louvain: Vander.
Aletum
Tabuwe, M., and C.F. Fisiy 1989:
Socio-Political
Integration and the Nso Institutions
,
Yaoundé: SOPECAM.
Ardener,
E., 1967: 'The Nature of Reunification in Cameroon', In: Arthur
Hazelwood (ed.)
African
Integration and Disintegration: Case Studies in Economic and Political Union
:
285-337, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ardener,
E., 1993: 'The 'personal enemy' in African Politics',
Journal
of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (JASO)
,
24,
2:
106-110.
Balandier,
Georges 1972:
Political
Anthropology
,
Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Barkindo,
M., 1985: 'The Mandara astride the Nigeria-Cameroon Boundary', In:
A.I. Asiwaju (ed.)
Partitioned
Africans: ethnic relations across Africa's International Boundaries
1884-1984
:
29-49, London: Hurst & Co.
Barnes,
J.A., 1962: 'African Models in the New Guinea Highlands',
Man,
62, 5-9.
Bayart,
Jean-François, 1979:
L'État
au Cameroun
,
Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques.
Bayart,
Jean-François, 1981: 'Le politique par le bas en Afrique noire',
Politique
africaine
,
1,
53-83.
Bayart,
Jean-François, 1989:
L'État
en Afrique. La politique du ventre
,
Paris: Fayard.
Biya,
Paul, 1987:
Communal
Liberalism
,
London: Macmillan Publishers.
Bouquiaux,
L., L. Hyman, and J. Voorhoeve (eds.), 1980:
L'Expansion
Bantoue (3 vols)
,
Paris: SELAF.
Bourdieu,
P., 1977:
Outline
of a Theory of Practice
,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cadman,
Hal, 1922:
Report
on Ancient Tribal Machinery in Cameroons Province 1922
,
National Archives Buea: Ja/a 1922/1.
Cameron,
D., 1937: 'Native Authority in Nigeria and Tanganyika',
African
Affairs - Journal of the Royal African Society
,
36,
Supplement:
3-29.
Cameron,
D., 1965: 'The Principles of Indirect Administration and their
Application in Nigeria 1900-1947', In: A.H.M. Kirk-Greene (ed.)
Principles
of Native Administration in Nigeria 1900-1947
,
London:
Cameroon
Anglophone Movement, January 1993: 'A memorandum addressed by CAM,
NorthWest Chapter, to a delegation of the European parliament fact-finding
mission to the North-West Province of Cameroon'.
Chem-Langhëë,
B., 1976:
The
Kamerun Plebiscites 1959-1961: Perceptions and Strategies
,
Ph.D., University of British Columbia.
Chem-Langhëë,
B., and M.Z. Njeuma 1980: 'The Pan-Kamerun Movement 1949-1961',
In: Ndiva Kofele-Kale (ed.)
An
African Experiment in Nation-Building: The Bilingual Cameroon Republic since
Reunification
: 25-64, Oxford: Westview Press.
Chem-Langhëë,
B., and V.G. Fanso, 1989: 'The transfer of power and authority in
Nto' Nso'',
Paideuma,
35:49-66.
Chem-Langhëë,
Bongfen 1989: 'Traditional and Modern Modes of Cooperation in Nso',
In: P. Geschiere, and P. Konings (eds.)
Proceedings/Contributions,
Conference on the Political Economy of Cameroon--Historical Perspectives, June
1988
(African
Studies Centre Leiden, Research Reports No. 35) , Leiden: African Studies
Centre.
Chia,
E.N., [n.d.]:
Socio-Political
Conflicts arising from the Processes of Change in the Chiefdoms of Kom and
Wimbum in the North-West Province, Cameroon
,
Doctorat, University of Yaoundé.
Chilver,
E.M. 1990: 'Thaumaturgy in Contemporary Traditional Religion: the case
of Nso in mid-century',
Journal
of Religion in Africa
,
20,
3:
226-247.
Chilver,
E.M., 1963: 'Native Administration in the West-Central Cameroons
1902-1954', In: Kenneth Robinson, and A. Frederick Madden (eds.)
Essays
in Imperial Government. Presented to Margery Perham
:
89-139, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Chilver,
E.M., 1966:
Zintgraff's
Explorations in Bamenda and the Benue Lands 1889-1892
,
Buea, Cameroon: Ministry of Primary Education & Social Welfare and W.
Cameroon Antiquities Commission Volume 2. (Previously circulated privately in
1961).
Chilver,
E.M., 1967: 'Paramountcy and protection in the Cameroons: the Bali and
the Germans, 1889-1913', In: P. Gifford, and W.R. Louis (eds.)
Britain
and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule
:
, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Chilver,
E.M., 1967: 'Paramountcy and protection in the Cameroons: the Bali and
the Germans, 1889-1913', In: P. Gifford, and W.R. Louis (eds.)
Britain
and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule
:
479-511, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Chilver,
E.M., 1989: 'Women Cultivators, Cows and Cash-Crops: Phyllis
Kaberry's Women of the Grassfields Revisited', In: P. Geschiere,
and P. Konings (eds.)
Proceedings/Contributions,
Conference on the Political Economy of Cameroon--Historical Perspectives, June
1988 (African Studies Centre Leiden, Research Reports No. 35)
:
383-422, Leiden: African Studies Centre.
Chilver,
E.M., and P.M. Kaberry 1963: 'Traditional Government in Bafut, West
Cameroon',
Nigerian
Field
,
28,
1:
4-30.
Chilver,
E.M., and P.M. Kaberry 1968:
Traditional
Bamenda: The Pre-colonial History and Ethnography of the Bamenda Grassfields
,
Buea, Cameroon: Ministry of Primary Education & Social Welfare and West
Cameroon Antiquities Commission, Volume 1.
Comaroff,
John, and Jean Comaroff, 1992:
Ethnography
and the Historical Imagination
,
Oxford: Westview.
Crowder,
M., 1966:
The
Story of Nigeria
,
London: Faber.
Davidson,
B. 1992:
The
Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State
,
New York: Times books.
DeLancey,
M.D.W., 1989:
Cameroon
: dependence and independence
,
Boulder: Westview.
Derrick,
Jonathan, 1989: 'Colonial élitism in Cameroon: the case of the
Duala in the 1930s', In: M.Z. Njeuma (ed.)
Introduction
to the History of Cameroon in the 19th and early 20th Century
:
106-136, London: Macmillan.
Dillon,
R.G., 1973:
Ideology,
Process & Change in pre-colonial Meta'
,
Philadelphia: Unpublished PhD; University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia.
Drummond-Hay,
J.C., 1925: 'An Assessment Report on the Clans of the Ndop Area in the
Bamenda Division of the Cameroons Province', Cameroon National Archives,
Buea (E.P. 1282).
Elango,
L.Z., 1985: 'The Anglo-French 'Condominium' in Cameroon
1914-1916: The Myth and the Reality',
International
Journal of African Historical Studies
,
18,
4:
657-673.
Engard,
R. 1988: 'Myth and Political Economy in Bafut',
Paideuma,
34: 50-89.
Fanso,
V.G., 1982:
Interfrontier
Relations and Resistance to Cameroon-Nigeria Colonial Boundaries 1916-1945
,
Doctorat d'Etat, Yaoundé.
Fardon,
R.O., 1988:
Raiders
and Refugees. Trends in Chamba Political Development 1750-1950
,
(Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Enquiry), Washington D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
Fauré,
Y. 1993: 'Democracy and realism: reflections on the case of Côte
d'Ivoire',
Africa,
63,
3:
313-330.
Fisiy,
C.F. 1992:
Power
and Privilege in the Administration of Law: Land Law Reforms and Social
Differentiation in Cameroon, Research Report No. 48
,
Leiden: African Studies Centre.
Fitzpatrick,
P. 1992:
The
Mythology of Modern Law
,
London & New York: Routledge.
Fohtung,
Maxwell Gabana, 1992: 'Self-portrait of a Cameroonian, taken down by
Peter Kalle Njie and edited by E.M. Chilver.' (Published version of
Portrait
of a Cameroonian: an Autobiography of Maxwell Gabana Fohtung
,
cyclostyled for private circulation, 1962),
Paideuma,
38: 219-48.
Fortes,
M., and E.E. Evans-Pritchard 1940: 'Introduction', In: M. Fortes,
and E.E. Evans-Pritchard (eds.)
African
Political Systems
:
1-23, Oxford: O.U.P. for the I.A.I.
Fowler,
Ian, 1990:
Babungo:
a Study of Iron Production, Trade and Power in a Nineteenth Century Ndop Plain
Chiefdom (Cameroons)
,
PhD, London.
Gailey,
H.A., 1971:
The
Road to Aba: a study of British administrative policy in Eastern Nigeria
,
London: University of London Press.
Gardinier,
D.E., 1967: 'The British in the Cameroons 1919-1939', In: Prosser
Gifford and William Roger Louis (eds.)
Britain
and Germany in Africa
:
413-454, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Gardinier,
David E., 1963:
Cameroon:
United Nations challenge to French Policy
,
Oxford: OUP for the Institute of Race Relations.
Geary,
C., 1981: 'The historical development of the chiefdom of We (Southern
Fungom)', In: C. Tardits (ed.)
Contribution
de la Recherche Ethnologique à l'Histoire des Civilisations du
Cameroun
:
383-392, Paris: CNRS.
Geary,
C.M., 1988: 'Arts and Political Process in the Kingdoms of Bali-Nyonga
and Bamum (Cameroon)',
Canadian
Journal of African Studies
,
22,
1:
11-41.
Geschiere,
P. 1993: 'Chiefs and Colonial Rule in Cameroon: Inventing Chieftaincy,
French and British Style',
Africa,
63,
2:
151-175.
Geschiere,
Peter, 1986: 'Hegemonic Regimes and Popular Protest: Bayart, Gramsci and the
State in Cameroon', In: W. van Binsbergen, R. Reyntjens, and G. Hesseling (eds.)
State
and Local Community in Africa
:
309-347, Brussels: Afrika Studie en Dokumentatiecentrum.
Goheen,
M. 1984:
Ideology
and Political Symbols: The Commoditization of Land, Labour and Symbolic Capital
in Nso'
,
PhD dissertation, Harvard University.
Goheen,
M. 1988: 'Land accumulation and local control: the negotiation of
symbols and power in Nso, Cameroon', In: R.E. Downs, and S.P. Reyna
(eds.)
Land
and Society in Contemporary Africa
:
280-308, Hanover and London: University of New Hampshire, University Press of
New England.
Goheen,
M. 1989:
The
Earth shall give Judgment: Land Leadership, and Political Legitimacy in
Highland Cameroon.
Boston
University, African Studies Centre, Working Paper No.143, Boston: African
Studies Centre.
Goheen,
M. 1990: 'The Ideology and Political Economy of Gender', In:
Christine Gladwin (ed.)
Structural
Adjustment and Gender
:
, Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Hart,
C. 1993: 'The Nigerian Elections of 1983',
Africa,
63,
3:
397-418.
Hawkesworth,
E.G., 1926:
Assessment
Report on the Bafut Tribal Area of the Bamenda Division
,
National Archives Buea: Ab 3.
Hertslet,
Edward, 1967 (1909):
Map
of Africa by Treaties
,
(Cass library of African studies. General studies no. 45), London: Cass.
Hobsbawm,
E., and T. Ranger (eds.), 1983:
The
Invention of Tradition
,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hook,
R.J., 1934:
An
Intelligence Report on the Associated Village Groups Occupying Bafut Native
Authority Area of the Bamenda Division of the Cameroons Province
,
National Archives Buea: Ab 3d.
Johnson,
Willard P., 1970:
The
Cameroon Federation: Political Integration in a Fragmentary Society
,
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Johnson,
Willard P., 1970:
The
Cameroon Federation: Political Integration in a Fragmentary Society
,
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Joseph,
R.A., 1975: 'The German Question in French Cameroon 1919-1939',
Comparative
Studies in Society and History
,
17,
1:
65-90.
Joseph,
R.A., 1977:
Radical
Nationalism in Cameroon: Social Origins of the U.P.C. Rebellion
,
Oxford: OUP.
Kaberry,
P.M. 1950: 'Land tenure among the Nsaw of the British Cameroons',
Africa,
20,
4:
307-323.
Kaberry,
P.M. 1952:
Women
of the Grassfields
,
London: HMSO.
Kaberry,
P.M. 1959: 'Traditional Politics in Nsaw',
Africa,
24,
4:
366-385.
Kaberry,
P.M., 1962: 'Retainers and Royal Households in the Cameroon
Grasslands',
Cahiers
D'Etudes Africaines
,
10,
282-298.
Kaberry,
P.M., and E.M. Chilver ,1961: 'An Outline of the Traditional Political
System of Bali-Nyonga, Southern Cameroons',
Africa,
31,
4:
355-371.
Kale,
Paul M., 1967:
Political
Evolution in the Cameroons
,
Buea: Government Printer.
Kennedy,
Paul, 1990:
African
Capitalism
,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kilson,
Martin, 1966:
Political
Change in a West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra
Leone
,
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Kofele-Kale,
Ndiva, 1986: 'Ethnicity, regionalism and political power: a post-mortem
of Ahidjo's Cameroon', In: I. William Zartman and Michael
Schatzberg (eds.)
The
Political Economy of Cameroon
:
53-82, New York: Praeger.
Kofele-Kale,
Ndiva, 1987: 'Class, Status and Power in Post-unification Cameroon: The
Rise of the Anglophone Bourgeoisie 1961-1980', In: I. Markovitz (ed.)
Studies
in Class and Power in Africa
:
135-169, Oxford: O.U.P.
Kofele-Kale,
Ndiva (ed.), 1980:
An
African Experiment in Nation-Building: The Bilingual Cameroon Republic since
Reunification
,
Oxford: Westview Press.
Koopman
Henn, J., 1986:
The
Material Basis of Sexism: A Mode of Production Analysis with African Examples,
Working
Papers in African Studies, No. 119, Boston: Boston University.
Kopytoff,
Igor, 1981: 'Aghem ethnogenesis and the Grassfields ecumene', In:
C. Tardits (ed.)
Contribution
de la Recherche Ethnologique à l'Histoire des Civilisations du
Cameroun
:
371-382, Paris: CNRS.
Le
Vine, V.T. 1964:
The
Cameroons from Mandate to Independence
,
Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Le
Vine, V.T., 1961: 'Calm before the Storm in Cameroon?',
Africa
Report
,
6,
5:
4.
Lonsdale,
John, 1989: 'African Pasts in Africa's Future',
Canadian
Journal of African Studies
,
23,
1:
126-146.
Lugard,
F.J.D., and A.H.M. Kirk-Greene (eds.), 1970 (3rd Edn.):
Political
Memoranda: revision of instructions to political officers on subjects chiefly
political, and administrative 1913-1918
,
London: Cass.
MacDonell,
Diane, 1986:
Theories
of Discourse
,
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Mbembe,
Achille, 1992: 'Provisional Notes on the Postcolony',
Africa,
62,
1:
3-37.
Mope
Simo, J.A., 1991a:
Gender,
Agro-Pastoral Production and Class Formation in Bamunka, North Western Cameroon
,
Ph.D, Norwich, University of East Anglia.
Mope
Simo, J.A., 1991b: 'Royal Wives in the Ndop Plains',
Canadian
Journal of African Studies
,
25,
3:
418-431.
Mudimbe,
V.Y., 1988:
The
Invention of Africa
,
London: James Currey.
Mzeka,
P. 1980:
The
Core Culture of Nso'
,
Agawam, MA.: Paul Radin.
Nebasina,
E.N., 1973:
The
Bafut Chiefdom: A study in Rural Geography
,
D.E.S. Thesis, University of Yaoundé.
Newbury,
C., 1967: 'Partition, Development and Trusteeship. Colonial Secretary
Wilhelm Solf's West African Journey', In: Prosser Gifford and
William Roger Louis (eds.)
Britain
and Germany in Africa
:
455-456, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Ngoh,
V.J., 1987:
Cameroon
1884-1985: A Hundred Years of History
,
Yaoundé: CEPER.
Nicolson,
I.F., 1969:
The
Administration of Nigeria 1900-1960: Men, Methods and Myth
,
(Oxford Studies in African Affairs), Oxford: OUP.
Njeuma,
M., and N. Awasum (eds.) 1989:
The
Fulani and the Political Economy of the Grassfields 1940 - 1960
,
(Proceedings/Contributions, Conference on the Political Economy of
Cameroon-Historical Perspectives, June 1988 (African Studies Centre Leiden,
Research Reports No. 35), Leiden: African Studies Centre.
Nkwi,
P.N, and J-P. Warnier 1982:
Elements
for a History of the Western Grassfields
,
Yaoundé: Publication of the Department of Sociology, University of
Yaoundé.
Nkwi,
P.N., 1979: 'Cameroon Grassfield Chiefs & Modern Politics',
Paideuma,
25,
:
99-115.
Nkwi,
P.N., 1979: 'Cameroon Grassfield Chiefs & Modern politics',
Paideuma,
25, 99-115.
Osuntokun,
A., 1975: 'Anglo-French Occupation and the Provisional Partition of the
Cameroons 1914-1916',
Journal
of the Historical Society of Nigeria
,
7,
4:
647-656.
Phillipson,
Sydney, 1959:
Financial
and Administrative consequences to the Southern Cameroons of separation from
the federation of Nigeria
,
Lagos: Government Printer.
Prescott,
J.R.V., 1971:
The
Evolution of Nigeria's International & Regional Boundaries 1961-1971.
(B.C.
Geog. Series No.13), Vancouver: Tantalus Research Ltd.
Ranger,
T., 1983: 'The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa', In: E.
Hobsbawm, and T. Ranger (eds.)
The
Invention of Tradition
:
211-262, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ritzenthaler,
Pat, 1966:
The
Fon of Bafut
,
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Ritzenthaler,
Robert and Pat 1962:
Cameroons
Village: an ethnography of the Bafut
,
(Milwaukee Public Museum Publications in Anthropology, 8), Milwaukee: Milwaukee
Public Museum.
Rowlands,
M.J., and J-P. Warnier, 1988: 'Sorcery, Power and the modern State in
Cameroon.',
Man
(n.s.)
,
23,
1:
118-132.
Rubin,
N., 1971:
Cameroon:
An African Federation
,
London: Praeger.
Rudin,
Harry R., 1938:
The
Germans in the Cameroons, 1884-1914: a case study in modern imperialism
,
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Throup,
D. 1993: 'Elections and Political Legitimacy in Kenya',
Africa,
63,
3:
371-396.
Um
Nyobe, R., 1989:
Ecrits
sous maquis, notes et introduction de J.A. Mbembe
,
Paris: L'Harmattan.
UNVDA,
1984: '
Information
for the 1984 Bamenda Agro-Pastoral Show
',
Press Union, Bamenda.
Vansina,
J. 1962: 'A Comparison of African Kingdoms',
Africa,
32,
4:
324-335.
Voorhoeve,
P., 1971: 'The linguistic unit Mbam-Nkam (Bamiléké, Bamum
and related languages)',
Journal
of African Languages
,
10: 1-12.
Warnier,
J-P., 1984: 'Histoire du peuplement et Genese des Paysages dans
l'Ouest Camerounaises',
Journal
of African History
,
25,
4:
395-410.
Warnier,
J-P., 1985:
Échanges,
développement et hiérarchies dans le Bamenda pré-colonial
(Cameroun)
,
Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Warnier,
J.-P., 1979: 'Noun-classes, Lexical-Stocks, Multilingualism & the
History of the Cameroon Grassfields',
Language
in Society
,
8,
:
409-423.
Wendi,
Bernadette, 1990 16-17th January 1990: The Cameroonian Woman in Development,
Newsletter
of the Association for Creative Teaching, North West Province
,
4, 1.
Young,
T. 1993: 'Introduction : Elections and Electoral Politics in
Africa',
Africa,
63,
3:
229-312.
Zang-Atangana,
J-M., 1989:
Les
Forces Politiques au Cameroun Reunifié
,
Paris: L'Harmattan.
Zeitlyn,
David, 1993: 'Introduction to Ardener's 'The 'personal
enemy' in African Politics'',
Journal
of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (JASO)
,
24,
2:
105-106.
Zimmerman,
Oskar, 1909:
Durch
Busch und Steppe vom Campo bis zum Schari, 1892-1902; ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Schutztruppe von Kamerun
,
Berlin: E.S. Mittler.
Zintgraff,
E., 1895:
Nord-Kamerun,
Berlin: Paetel.
Return to the Paideuma Contents page
Return to the 'Mama for story' page