Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:58:32.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chiefs and colonial rule in Cameroon: inventing chieftaincy, French and British Style

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Peter Geschiere
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Résumé

Etant donné la crise actuelle du véritable pouvoir de l'Etat dans le Cameroun (comme ailleurs en Afrique), les chefs sont parfois envisagés comme une possible alternative d'exercice de l'autorité. Toutefois la chefferie est un phénomène très variable, dépendant du contexte, même si son origine remonte seulement à la période coloniale. L'article illustre ce point en examinant les fortunes diverses de l a fonction de Chef au sein de deux sociétés camerounaises, les Maka (qui furent sous administration française) et les Bakweri (qui furent sous administration britannique). Dans aucun des deux cas, (mais pour des raisons différentes), la chefferie n'apparaît comme étant l'instance alternative, de moyen pouvoir, dont l'on aurait besoin.

Type
Foci for fresh powers?
Information
Africa , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 151 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1993

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

Alexandra, P. 1970a. ‘Chiefs, commandants and clerks’, in Crowder, M. and Ikime, O. (eds), West African Chiefs, pp. 2–14. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Alexandra, P. 1970b. ‘The problems of chieftaincies in French-speaking Africa’, in Crowder, M. and Ikime, O. (eds), West African Chiefs, pp. 24–79. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
van Allen, J. 1976. ‘Aba riots or Igbo women's war? Ideology, stratification and the invisibility of women’, in Hafkin, N. J. and Bay, E. G. (eds), Women in Africa, pp. 59–87. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ardener, E. 1956. Coastal Bantu of the Cameroons. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Ardener, E. 1962. Divorce and Fertility. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ardener, E. 1970. ‘Witchcraft, economics and the continuity of belief’, in Douglas, M. (ed.), Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations, pp. 141–60. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Ardener, E., Ardener, S., and Warmington, W. A. 1960. Plantation and Village in the Cameroons. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. 1958. ‘Banana co-operatives in the southern Cameroons’, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research: Conference Proceedings, Ibadan: NISER; reprinted Leiden: African Studies Centre, 1988.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. 1989. L'Etat en Afrique: la politique du ventre. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. 1991. ‘La problématique de la démocratic en Afrique noir’, Politique africaine 43, 5–21.Google Scholar
van Binsbergen, W. M. J. 1987. ‘Chiefs and State in independent Zambia’, in Nieuwaal, E. A. B. van Rouveroy van (ed.), Chieftaincy and the State in Africa, Special issue of Journal of Legal Pluralism 25 (6), 139–203.Google Scholar
Biya, P. 1986. Pour le libéralisme communautaire, Lausanne: Favre.Google Scholar
Brunschwig, H. 1983. Noirs et blancs dans l'Afrique noire française. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Cameron, D. 1934. The Principles of Native Administration. Lagos: Government Press.Google Scholar
M, Chapman. (ed.). 1989. Edwin Ardener: The Voice of Prophecy, and other essays, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chem-Langhëe, B. 1983. ‘The origin of the southern Cameroons House of Chiefs’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 16 (4), 653–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiabi, E. M. L. 1982. ‘Background to Nationalism in Anglophone Cameroon, 1916-54’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Santa Barbara: University of California.Google Scholar
Chiabi, E. M. L. 1989. ‘Administration britannique et nationalisme dans le “Southern Cameroon”, 1914-54’, in Njeuma, M. (ed.), Histoire du Cameroun, XIXe siècle-début XXe siècle, pp. 244–85. Paris: Harmattan.Google Scholar
Chilver, S. 1963. ‘Native administration in west central Cameroons’, in Robinson, K. E. and Madden, F. (eds), Essays in Imperial Government presented to Margery Perham, pp. 89–139. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Courade, G. 1982. ‘Marginalite volontaire ou imposée? Le cas des Bakweri (Kpe) du mont Cameroun’, Cahiers ORSTOM, Sciences humaines, XIX (3), 357–89.Google Scholar
Crowder, M. 1964. ‘Indirect rule, French and British style’, Africa 34 (3), 197–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crowder, M. 1968. West Africa under Colonial Rule. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Crowder, M. 1978. Colonial West Africa: selected essays. London: Cass.Google Scholar
Crowder, M., and Ikime, O. 1970. West African Chiefs. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Deschamps, H. 1963. ‘Et maintenant, Lord Lugard?’, Africa 33 (4), 293–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dongmo, J.-L. 1981. Le Dynamisme bamiléké. Yaounde.Google Scholar
Dorward, D. C. 1974. ‘Ethnography and administration: a study of Anglo-Tiv “working misunderstanding”’, Journal of African History 15 (3), 457–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
M, Douglas. (ed.). 1970. Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Fisiy, C. F. 1992. ‘Power and Privilege in the Administration of Law: land reform and social differentiation in Cameroon’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden; research report, African Studies Centre, Leiden.Google Scholar
Gardinier, D. E. 1967. ‘The British in the Cameroons, 1919-37’, in Gifford, P. and Louis, R. (eds), Britain and Germany in Africa, pp. 513–55. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Geary, C. 1976. We. Die Genese eines Haiiptlingstums im Grasland von Kamerun. Wiesbaden: Steiner.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. 1982. Village Communities and the State: changing relations among the Maka of south-eastern Cameroon. London: Kegan Paul, and Leiden: African Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P., and Konings, P. (eds). In press. Les itinéraires d'accumulation au Cameroun. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Gifford, P., and Louis, R. (eds). 1967. Britain and Germany in Africa. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goheen, M. 1984. ‘Ideology and Political Symbols in a West African Chiefdom: commoditization of land, labor and symbolic capital in Nso, Cameroon’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Guyer, Jane I. 1978. ‘The food economy and French colonial rule in central Cameroon’, Journal of African History 19 (4), 577–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyer, Jane I. 1985. Family and Farm in Southern Cameroon. Boston, Mass.: African Studies Center, Boston University.Google Scholar
Hafkin, N. J., and Bay, E. G. (eds). 1976. Women in Africa. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Henige, D. 1974. The Chronology of Oral Tradition: quest for a chimera. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Kale, Paul Monyongamo. 1939. A Brief History of the Bakweri. Lagos: Salvation Army School.Google Scholar
Lombard, J. 1967. Autorités traditionelles et pouvoirs eurapeens en Afrique noire: le déclin d'une aristocratic sous le régime colonial. Paris: Colin.Google Scholar
Matute, D. L. 1988. The Socio-cultural Legacies of the Bakweri of Cameroon. Buea: published by the author.Google Scholar
Mbake, S. N. 1975. ‘Traditional Authority among the Bakweri’, unpublished dissertation for the DES diploma in history, University of Yaoundé.Google Scholar
Miaffo, D., and Warmer, J.-P. In press. ‘Accumulation et ethos de la notabilité chez les Bamileke, in Geschiere, P. and Konings, P. (eds), State and Society in Cameroon. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Molua, H. 1985. ‘The Bakweri Land Problem, 1884-1961’, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Ibadan.Google Scholar
Nicolson, I. F. 1969. The Administration of Nigeria, 1900-60: men, methods and myths. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Njeuma, M. Z. 1989. Histoire du Cameroun, XIXe siècle-début XXe siècle. Paris: Harmattan.Google Scholar
Nkwi, P. 1976. Traditional Government and Social Change: a study of the political institutions among the Kom of the Cameroon Grassfields. Fribourg: Fribourg University Press.Google Scholar
Ottenberg, S. 1967. ‘Local government and the law in southern Nigeria’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 2, 26–43.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1983. Ijeshas and Nigerians: the incorporation of a Yoruba kingdom, 1890s-1970s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, K. E., and Madden, F. (eds). 1963. Essays in Imperial Government presented to Margery Perham. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rothchild, D., and Chazan, N. (eds). 1988. The Precarious Balance: state and society in Africa. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
B, van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal E. A.. 1987. ‘Chiefs and African states’, in Nieuwaal, E. A. B. van Rouveroy van (ed.), Chieftaincy and the State in Africa. Special issue of Journal of Legal Pluralism 25 (6), 1–47.Google Scholar
B, van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal E. A.. (ed.). 1987. Chieftaincy and the State in Africa. Special issue of Journal of Legal Pluralism 25 (6).Google Scholar
Seyert, H. 1939. ‘Quelques apercus biographiques sur la race maka’ (unpublished). Yaoundé: Archives IRCAM/MESIRES.Google Scholar
Siret, M. 1946–1949. ‘Monographic de la région du Haut-Nyong’ (unpublished). Yaoundé: Archives IRCAM/MESIRES.Google Scholar
Spittler, G. 1980. ‘Abstraktes Wissen als Herrschaftsbasis. Zur Entstehungsgeschichte burokratischer Herrschaft in Bauernstaat Preussen’, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 32, 574–604.Google Scholar
Spittler, G. 1981. Verwaltung in einem afrikanischen Bauernstaat. Das koloniale Französisch-Westafrika 1919-39. Weisbaden: Steiner.Google Scholar
Warmer, J.-P. 1985. Echanges, développement et hiérarchies dans le Bamenda précolonial (Cameroun). Stuttgart: Steiner.Google Scholar