This book addresses Cameroons culture, education and language policies since independence, scholarship on and vigorous debate about them, their bearings on different visions of national development, and their place in the political struggle between autocracy and democracy since 1990. A synoptic view of half a centurys key experiences, issues and fault lines emerges.

In this unique volume, leading scholars examine how Cameroonians organize and experience their lives under Cameroonian leadership and local responses to that leadership. The volume offers essential case studies that allow us to examine the lives of ordinary people in post-colonial Africa through five lenses: politics, society and culture, economy, international relations, and migration. It places the nation’s contemporary challenges within a broader political, economic, and socio-cultural context, and uses that to make recommendations for future directions. The book also celebrates areas in which the country has done well and calls on its citizens to build on those achievements. This volume is forward-looking and as such raises important questions about issues of development, ethnicity, wealth, poverty, and class.

In this book, the reader is introduced to the concepts of politics, government, political theory and political culture with reference to Cameroon. Defined as human activity concerned with controversies over public questions and the resolution of those controversies, politics is concerned with the affairs of government and because government action deeply affects us, we take a lively interest in what governments do. We form associations and organize campaigns to articulate our demands. We negotiate with others and try to shape the goals that governments pursue. When we disagree with the policies of the government, we protest and organize demonstration to persuade our governments to change the existing laws. We passionately debate the actions of our representatives. In this way we look for the rationale underlying the prevalent chaos and decay, and aspire to create a better world. To sum up, politics arises from the fact that we have different visions of what is just and desirable for us and our society. Politics exist because we possess reason and the ability to reflect on government actions and communicate our innermost thoughts and desires with each other. Political theory has its roots in these twin aspects of the human being. Defined as a network of concepts and generalizations about political life involving ideas, assumptions and statements about the nature, purpose and key features of government Political theory systematically thinks about the values that inform political life - values such as freedom, equality, justice, nationalism, secularism, development etc. It explains the meanings and significance of these and other related concepts by focusing on some major political thinkers, theologians, kings, economists, sociologists, popes etc of the past and present. It also examines the extent to which freedom or equality are actually present in the institutions that we participate in everyday such as schools, shops, buses or trains or government offices and it looks at whether existing definitions and institutions are adequate or must be modified to become more democratic. The objective of political theory is to train citizens to think rationally about political questions and assess correctly the political events of our time. In applying political theory, some countries are more successful than others due to the variations in political culture. A country's degree of success in operating a governmental system that is democratic in character depends, to a very large extent, upon the nature and content of the political culture of that country. For democracy to work, the country's political culture must be compatible with and support the very concepts of constitutionalism, the rule of law, and representative democracy--as well as be consistent with and sustain the country's established, agreed-upon Constitution, including the constitutionally prescribed procedures for managing and resolving controversy over public questions, making and carrying out authoritative decisions on public policy, protecting the rights and liberties of citizens, and peacefully transferring governing authority from one group of political leaders to another. In all discussions examples are drawn from Cameroon and elsewhere in the world.

" Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF) was among the watershed challenges c.1990 by sub-Saharan Africa's democratization forces against autocratic regimes, but it crested in 1992 and has subsided since. Yet the party survives, participates in the National Assembly, maintains a grass roots structure, and prepares for a presidential ballot in 2011 that will likely determine its fate. The author conducted research four times in Cameroon, 1989-1999, focusing on the SDF since 1991, and maintains party contacts to the present. The book assesses its history and its prospects, covering the SDF in Africa-wide as well as Cameroonian terms. ""Krieger has given us the first, superbly researched, finely tuned analysis of the fortunes of a major contemporary African opposition party, Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF)."" - Victor Le Vine, Washington University, St. Louis, USA. ""The book goes far beyond its title and puts in context a daylight re-emergence of political opposition in Cameroon. To say that this long overdue history of the SDF party is a prolegomena to understanding contemporary Cameroon social forces is not an overstatement."" - Ambroise Kom, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. ""...a level-headed but provocative examination of the structure and workings of a major African country...the sobriety with which he evaluates institutions and leadership is commendable, yielding exceptional analysis that will stand the test of time."" - Toyin Falola, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Milton Krieger started teaching and research about sub-Saharan Africa in 1970. Nine trips there include four research visits providing two years time in Cameroon, 1989-99. The second, 1991, coincided with 'villes mortes' and turned his primary scholarship to the Social Democratic Front. Access to party documents, officials, and rank and file members included visitor status at the 1995 and 1999 national conventions. Party contacts continue to the present."

Cameroon is a land of much promise, but a land of unfulfilled promises. It has the potential to be an economically developed and democratic society but the struggle to live up to its potential has not gone well. Since independence there have been only two presidents of Cameroon; the current one has been in office since 1982. Endowed with a variety of climates and agricultural environments, numerous minerals and substantial forests, and a dynamic population, this is a country that should be a leader of Africa. Instead, we find a country almost paralyzed by corruption and poor management, a country with a low life expectancy and serious health problems, and a country from which the most talented and highly educated members of the population are emigrating in large numbers. To all of this is recently added a serious terrorism problem, Boko Haram, in the north, a separatist movement in the Anglophone west, refugee influxes in the north and east, and bandits from the Central African Republic attacking eastern villages. This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Republic of Cameroon.

Cameroon (officially regarded as the Republic of Cameroon) is a country with vast natural resources and a population of 22.8 million people. It is also culturally and geographically very diverse. Due to its geographical and cultural diversity, Cameroon is often referred to as Africa in miniature. This country is currently considered as a lower middle-income country by the World Bank through social indicators and levels of poverty, which are below those for comparing countries. However, the Government of Cameroon aims to achieve a state of higher middle-income by 2035. There exists a huge potential for economic growth and poverty reduction in Cameroon. Indeed, over the last decade, the country has been characterized by a positive economic growth, spurred by large public investments in infrastructure. However, to attain the higher middle-income status by 2035, growth needs to accelerate further. As the public sector alone cannot bring this about, much more private investments are necessary. Doing so also requires improvements in the business environment. However, despite more than a decade of economic growth, national poverty has remained almost unchanged. While Cameroon is urbanizing rapidly, poverty remains a rural phenomenon and is increasingly concentrated in northern Cameroon. The aim of the book is to provide an overview of the main issues, challenges, and prospects faced by Cameroon. The book is composed of conceptual and empirical studies of Cameroonian scholars gathered together in order to provide descriptions and explanations of the main issues as well as policy recommendations to support decisions-makers. These considerations are those of Cameroonians for Cameroon. The book is organized into two volumes. The first one, entitled Governance and Businesses, is devoted to issues relating to public governance, investment climate, insecurity, globalization, business development, and activities that are sources of employment in Cameroon. The second volume, entitled Environment and People, deals with issues concerning the management of cross cutting economic services, the conservation of forests, the sustainable development of agricultural activities, the role of women, the immobility of workers, problems of development and poverty alleviation, millennium development goals, the performance of microfinance institutions, multilingualism, and education in Cameroon.

Cameroon, or officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country with vast natural resources and a population of 22.8 million people. It is also culturally and geographically very diverse. Due to its geographical and cultural diversity, Cameroon is often referred to as Africa in miniature. This country is currently considered a lower-middle income country by the World Bank with social indicators and levels of poverty which are below those for comparator countries. However, the Government of Cameroon aims to achieve the state of a higher middle-income country by 2035. There exists huge potential for economic growth and poverty reduction in Cameroon. The aim of the book is to provide an overview of the main issues, challenges, and prospects faced by Cameroon. The book is composed of conceptual and empirical studies of Cameroonian scholars gathered together in order to provide descriptions and explanations of main issues as well as policy recommendations to support decisions-makers. These considerations are those of Cameroonians for Cameroon. The book is organised into two volumes. The first one entitled Governance and Businesses is devoted to issues relating to public governance, investment climate, insecurity, globalisation, business development, and activities that are sources of employment in Cameroon. The second volume entitled Environment and People deals with issues concerning the management of cross cutting economic services, the conservation of forests, the sustainable development of agricultural activities, the role of women, the immobility of workers, problems of development and poverty alleviation, millennium development goals, the performance of microfinance institutions, multilingualism and education in Cameroon.