This book is a descriptive and documentary analysis of the Mankon I-language and E-language mirrored through aspects of history, geography, flora and fauna. These aspects manifest in the taxonomic nomenclatures attributed to referents in society. Because these referents were hitherto transmitted orally from generation to generation, the author has painstakingly analysed and documented aspects of Mankon culture for posterity. The work focuses in particular on Mankon proverbs for insights into the structure and function of the language. As a vehicle of communication, language plays a primordial role in encoding and decoding 'metalinguistic' data. Through thorough scientific linguistic universals and principals, Chi Che has proposed orthography for Mankon pedagogy that is simple, tenable and practicable. This book is the answer to the international clarion call for societies to analyse and document their endangered indigenous cultures. Schools, linguists, sociolinguists, anthropologists, historians and others will find this book especially useful.

The king of Mankon (Cameroon) acts as a container of ancestral substances he distributes to his people. This book shows how the exercise of power in a contemporary African kingdom is based on the implementation of bodily and material technologies.

This book addresses the epistemological, ethical and methodological challenges faced by African scholars in their research practices. The epistemological domain addresses three interrelated topics: how African university students ethnocentric choice of research topics hampers the production of knowledge; researchers adaptation of their research methods to improve validity; and the challenge of knowledge production on community museums plagued by gross inertia, irregularities, uncooperative gatekeepers and inadequate funding. The methodological domain foregrounds issues around scientific rigour, the criteria for what counts as quality research, and reporting standards. Contributors contend that the use of mixed methods provides the best scope for the effective study and evaluation of social issues. They also detail how better-funded projects tend to improve the respect of ethical standards especially as they pertain to the protection of subjects confidentiality. Self-financed researchers on the other hand tend to be less compliant, a challenge that afflict especially younger and inexperienced researchers. This volume thus contributes not only to a critical understanding of the challenges faced by social scientists in contemporary Africa, but also the prospects and mechanisms on how to improve knowledge production processes.

This book brings and blends together a dozen scholarly articles published by the author since the 1970s. It sketches two different yet related stories: first, that of one of the most ancient and prestigious African civilizations, the antiquity and sophistication of which are becoming more and more prominent as field research unfolds their many facets. Second, the story of the researcher himself, who has had to alter and shift his approach to that civilization as he got to meet Grassfielders, colleagues, friends and scholars who changed his views about the Grassfields kingdoms and their people. This book bears witness to those many encounters. Historical and anthropological research is not only a question of relevant theories and methodologies. It is also a human endeavour made of networks and friendships.

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.

Dans Les seuils de l’intolérable, Musang, originaires des Grassfields, tombe amoureux d’Etonde du littoral. Bien qu’ils soient conscients des tensions existantes et de la méfiance injustifiée entre les deux camps, le couple est prêt à se marier lorsqu’à la dernière minute, le père d’Etonde rejette fermement la demande en mariage. Bien que traumatisé, Musang, enfin, considère le rejet comme un signe providentiel et reconsidère ainsi une idée persistante de vocation - le sacerdoce. Pendant ce temps, une Etonde dévastée, maintenant défi e des hommes et lutte pour retrouver son équilibre. Cependant, des années plus tard, à quelques mois à peine de son ordination sacerdotale, Musang, postulant exemplaire, se voit soudain offrir le choix déprimant d’aller en probation ou de quitter le séminaire ; il quitta.