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Urbanites and Urban Villagers: Comparing ‘Home’ Among Elite and Non-elite Bamiléké Women's Hometown Associations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg  and
Tiokou Ndonko
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Abstract

Most work on the political implications of hometown associations has focused on male elites. This contribution attends instead to the gendered varieties of hometown associations, exploring variations in the bases of shared identity among six Bamiléké women's hometown associations – hailing from Ndé Division, Western Province, and organized in both elite and neighbourhood-based non-elite associations – in Yaoundé, Cameroon. It suggests several ways to reconceptualize hometown associations and belonging. Addressing the situationally specific ways Bamiléké women use and interpret ‘home’, the unit of belonging, it differentiates among actors and associations by gender and status. Viewing the autochthony debate from the perspective of allogènes, it reveals that the emotions of memory, marginalization and recognition are central to belonging, understandings of home, and involvement in hometown associations. Finally, it suggests that differences in associations’ network structure affect both orientations and actions toward the home place, and at times an ‘ethnicization’ of ‘home’. The non-elite hometown associations exhibit the dense, bounded networks of ‘urban villages’ and strive to bring ‘home’ to the city. Members of elite hometown associations are urbanites, developing social networks consisting of more diverse and specialized ties, which may account for more universalistic discourse about bringing ‘development’ to the hometown.

L'essentiel des travaux menés sur les implications politiques des associations de ressortissants portent sur les élites masculines. Cet article s'intéresse, quant à lui, aux associations de ressortissants diversement sexuées, en examinant les variations de bases d'identité partagée, à travers six associations de ressortissantes bamiléké, originaires de Ndé dans la province de l'Ouest et organisées en associations de quartiers (élites et non-élites), à Yaoundé (Cameroun). Il suggère différentes manières de reconceptualiser les associations de ressortissants et l'appartenance. Considérant les manières (spécifiques aux situations) dont les femmes bamiléké utilisent et interprètent le « lieu d'origine », autrement dit l'unité d'appartenance, il différencie les acteurs et les associations par genre et par statut. Abordant le débat sur l'autochtonie du point de vue des allogènes, il révèle que les émotions de la mémoire, de la marginalisation et de la reconnaissance occupent un rôle central dans l'appartenance, les interprétations du lieu d'origine et l'engagement dans les associations de ressortissants. Enfin, il suggère que les différences de structure de réseau des associations affectent à la fois les orientations et les actions envers le lieu d'origine, et parfois une « ethnicisation » de l'origine. Les associations de ressortissants ne faisant pas partie de l’élite se présentent sous la forme de réseaux délimités denses de « villages urbains » et s'attachent à amener le « lieu d'origine » dans la ville. Les membres des associations de ressortissants qui font partie de l’élite sont des urbains qui développent des réseaux sociaux faits de liens plus divers et spécialisés qui peuvent expliquer le discours plus universaliste qui parle d'apporter le « développement » au lieu d'origine.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 371 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2010

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