Representations And Renegotiations Of The Nation In Anglophone Cameroonian Literature

Guided by postcolonial theory and the ideas of some Western and African philosophers this study's in-depth analysis of the novels of three Anglophone Cameroonian authors addresses the question of how principles of nation formation and nationalism are influenced by both colonialism and pre-colonial in situ constituents. The analysis focuses on how nations represented in the imaginary worlds constructed by the novelists are dominated by aspects such as ethnicity, corruption, authoritarianism, nepotism, solidarity and communitarianism which marginalize the masses, leaving them in misery and abject poverty. Tracing the historical settings of the novels from 1948 till present day, the study delineates the writers' representation of the Anglophones of Cameroon as being marginalized as well as suffering from self-marginalization and also demonstrates how postcolonial misery in Africa is not caused solely by colonialism but by several other aspects. This study reads the works of these Anglophone novelists not only as representing aspects in a nation but as tools of renegotiating a better society and a way forward for this nation.

The volume is the result of a Lecture Series on The Levant, Cradle of Abrahamic Religions, which engaged scholars on topics related to the cultural and religious diversity of the historical Levant. Like a jigsaw, the studies contained within showcase interlock fragments of the historical encounters between faiths, religions and societies in a rich Levantine and Oriental space, in an attempt to render them more accessible to readers today by focusing both on broader religious phenomena as well as on the practical, liturgical and social interaction between traditions and mentalities, features representative of both faith and society at large.

Y? Gorógoró Yaa: Dagaare Folktales in Parallel Texts is a relevant book on Dagaare oral literature and complements earlier works. The most innovative feature of the book is the application of Parallel Text Theory in the organisation and translation of the folktales. This satisfies both foreign and local readers who speak and write Dagaare. The book will revive research interest among Dagaaba scholars and reveal more about the nature of Dagaaba Oral Traditions and the rich cultural and traditional values of the Dagaaba of West Africa. Y? Gorógoró Yaa: Dagaaba Sensell? P?retaa tori ne la ba Yelkããyelli nang wa paale danw?? deme puori. A gane nga y?mpaalaa kpongi la o nang de p?retaa tieori kp? ne a sensell? wuobu ane a le?roo po?. A ngaa na kyaane la nembolle ane tembiiri gangkanema zaa nang wono ky? kanna Dagaare ninge. A gane na senge la Dagaaba ganzanne karegyugiri pe?repe?reb? g?nzuuro ane enno? po? ky? maaleng yuo y?l? yaga nang be ba ban??y?l? ane ba yip?ge esonne nang be a Afereka Luou s?ng nga. Mark Ali is a Lecturer in Dagaare at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana Adams Bodomo is a Professor of Afrcan Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria

This is a significant and timely book on the politics of belonging. It captures, with fascinating detail and insight, the current widespread disaffection with the sterile rhetoric of nation-building that has characterised much of postcolonial African politics. Until the liberation struggles of the 1990s, dictatorship only paid lip service to democracy with impunity, often by silencing those perceived to threaten national unity. Since then, individuals and groups have reactivated claims to rights and entitlements and nowhere more so than in Cameroon. The book articulates the experiences and predicaments of the country's Anglophone community trapped in a marriage of inconvenience pregnant with tensions and conflicts.

The book identifies and critically analyses Hausa contemporary films known as Kannywood. The focus is on video films with particular emphasis on sources in oral literature. How traditional theatres are re-enacted and re-framed during filmmaking, and how far are traditional traits captured, changed, or enriched in video film are some issues the book negotiates on. The harmony between orature and technology, as generated by means of the transported film medium is expressed in the book. The new medium is integrated into the ongoing traditional and cultural surroundings, where native narrative traditions have been adopted into the global film medium, which is in alignment with contemporary medial culture.

In 2009, Anglophone Cameroon literature celebrated its fifty years of existence. Now at the mature age of fifty plus this literature has a great deal to write home about even if it still has a lot to do in its pursuit of excellence. Part of its maturity resides in the fact that although the scale of literary creativity and literary criticism is skewed in favour of the former, Anglophone Cameroon literary criticism is gradually waking up from slumber in an attempt to catch up with the rapidly expanding creativity. The essays in this book comment practically on some aspects of all the genres of written literature that the Anglophone Cameroon creative writers have produced so far: the novel, drama, poetry, the short story, the essay and childrens literature. The essays, on the whole, are a testimony of the transition and reality from the apparent drought of Anglophone Cameroon literary paucity to the actual fruitful period of Anglophone Cameroon abundance of literary creativity. The Anglophone Cameroonians have appropriated an imperial language, English, to serve their postcolonial Cameroonian vision. Their various literary texts are vehicles of representations that are essentially cultural and ideological constructs. The works examined are initially anchored on Cameroonian experiences to take on social significance. As they are grounded on moving human experiences, these works necessarily make references to the immediate Cameroonian environment of their authors before taking on universal human significance. The book abundantly evidences and crowns Shadrach Ambanasoms achievements and reputation as a skilled pedagogue on the art of practical literary criticism.

This is a foundational text on the production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature. The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages. Ashuntantang shows that the pattern of production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature is not only framed by the minority status of English and English-speaking Cameroonians within the Republic of Cameroon, but is also a reflection of a postcolonial reality in Africa where mostly African literary texts published by western multi-national corporations are assured wide international accessibility and readership. This book establishes that in spite of these setbacks, Anglophone Cameroon writers have produced a corpus of work that has enriched the genres of prose, poetry and drama, and that these texts deserve a wider readership.