Paper short abstract:

This paper maps out the way youth in Cameroon see elite politics under multiparty politics in Cameroon today, as largely a 'gerontocratic' play-field in which the old (and mostly men) control access not only to entry into this field, as well as explores how these youth seek to navigate this field.

Paper long abstract:

This paper maps out the way youth in Cameroon see elite politics under multiparty politics in Cameroon today, as largely a 'gerontocratic' play-field in which the old (and mostly men) control access not only to entry into this field but also to other crucial resources necessary for the full transition to adulthood such as jobs, contracts, etc, as well as explores how these youth seek to insert themselves in this field. How are the youth offering themselves and or are appropriated by their political elite and what motivations lie behind the desire of each to seek the other's support? This paper draws on field-work in Cameroon, among the people of Manyu in the South-West Region, focusing on the role of Manyu youth in the activities undertaken by its political elite between November 2010 and July 2011. These political activities, largely characterised by a fervent public performative element in which these elites encounter people from their ethnic group in various parts of the country in a 'town-hall' style, aimed at mobilizing support for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) of President Paul Biya. In examining these encounters the paper highlights the ways youth present themselves as well as makes a commentary on the elite-society relations in Cameroon in general, the precariousness of youth itself as an identity, and the role of local idioms of kinship and belonging as crucial resources upon which these youth draw to make claims on their political elite and or seek pathways into these elite networks of power and wealth, and adulthood.