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- Convenors:
-
Ben Page
(University College London)
BASILE NDJIO (University of Douala)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- KH105
- Start time:
- 30 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel seeks papers about contemporary urban life and theory from Cameroon. We will avoid rehearsing narratives about 'informality' and 'urban problems' and are looking for new stories and interpretations of the Cameroonian urban scene from anthropology, sociology, politics, geography & planning.
Long Abstract:
The particularities of Cameroonian politics, society, history, geography and dreams have produced cities that are a reflection of the country more widely. There is political stability - but it often feels more like stasis; the future is being perpetually deferred. There is frenetic activity, but (for many) limited social mobility. There is diversity of architecture, language, climate and identity yet the practices of urban government and the material spaces of the cities can seem homogeneous. There are elaborate urban planning regulations - but they serve a purpose other than planning. Cameroon's cities are intensely creative - but also profoundly constrained, both by social conservatism and political anxieties. There are dramatic new infrastructure projects - yet demands for more effective public services seem permanently unsatisfied. Land markets are fiercely competitive - but they are mired in debates about autochthony and tradition. Youth is everywhere in Cameroonian urban space - yet an older generation seem to have the city firmly under their control. People make homes in the city, but then vanish overnight to pop up in another urban milieu, to become bushfallers overseas or retreat to the countryside. In this panel we hope to move away from earlier, familiar invocations of 'informality and its problems' and instead are seeking papers that capture other stories of Cameroonian cities: what is new? What does current urban life tell us about how Cameroonian society is changing? What analytical tools do we need to interpret the new urban scene? What is distinctive about the Cameroonian urban condition?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Rachel Reynolds (Drexel University)
Paper short abstract:
Describes the recent social and economic development of Mvan, a peripheral neighborhood of Yaoundé, known for its diverse economy and high levels of employment. The paper describes how Mvan’s unique characteristics cohere community members for greater integration and quality of African urban life.
Paper long abstract:
As little as 20 years ago, Mvan, an amalgam of military and international NGO complexes, travel depots, and private boarding colleges near the airport, was considered a far away satellite of Yaoundé. Over time, however, this south side neighborhood has become a major economic engine of the city - transport and cargo, home supply and construction, clinics, educational services, a single large government office (the Office du Bac) and expat services all employ an unusually diverse group of residents who have flocked to the area to work and live because of opportunity, as well as the lack of barriers to their entering the neighborhood and its employment sectors. This paper contributes to the panel on conviviality and contradictions by experimentally mapping Mvan's unique characteristics and discussing how its particular local economy serves the city and the nation in surprising ways, by integrating urban stakeholders in maintaining Mvan as a lively enclave and socioeconomic alternative to the status quo of other kinds of well-off neighborhoods and employment centers in the greater Yaoundé area. In particular, the paper sets the stage to argue that in an era of flagging state employment and increased marginalization of the less powerful as resources for education and employment become stressed to near breaking, Mvan's particular situation can serve as a model for ways to cluster emergent institutions and livelihoods in new city neighborhoods to cohere communities for greater integration and quality of life across ethnic and other social and economic groups.
Humphrey Ngala Ndi (Cameroon High Commission)
Paper short abstract:
Study examines social considerations urban people make for their health care. It shall be carried out in Yaounde. Survey will be done by questionnaire. Expected results may indicate health seeking behaviours determined more by social than by financial and geographical factors.
Paper long abstract:
The rapport between providers and recipients of care in a health care delivery system is determined by the level of prevailing confidence amongst recipients in the system. Confidence derives from the existence of socially acceptable practices and the ability to offer high quality care. Despite health care planning, populations in Cameroon's cities do not generally relate with the system in the manner it is intended to be. This paper examines the social considerations urban people make for their health care (religions, cultures, traditions, and perceptions) vis-à-vis the national health care system. These behaviours affect the expected comportment of patients when they fall sick.
The study shall be carried out in Yaounde, the capital and second city in the country whose ethnically diverse population mimics the country. Data will be collected mainly through questionnaire surveys amongst the migrant urban dwellers with the purpose of understanding the social considerations they make for the use of the health care system. The questionnaire will be subjected to descriptive analysis in SPSS for patterns of social determinants.
Results should show the degree to which health seeking behaviours are determined by social considerations and the general perception of the health care system and not only the financial and geographical accessibility to health care, a cornerstone of the national plan. This indicates the ever-important need for social and anthropological considerations in the training and deployment of medical staff in the country's health facilities.
Keywords: social determinants, health seeking behaviour, health care, Bamenda, Cameroon.
Gishleine Oukouomi Djouonang (University of Ottawa)
Paper short abstract:
Cette communication vise étudier les contextes relationnels qui caractérisent les citadins de Yaoundé. Relations qui se matérialisent dans la production d'un discours d'altérisation porté par l'usage de mots du langage populaire traduisant un "nous" et un "eux".
Paper long abstract:
Les mots de la culture populaire font la particularité des villes au Cameroun. Toute personne qui y a vécu ou voyagé sait qu'il y existe une façon particulière et dynamique de parler français ou anglais. L'importance de ces mots aujourd'hui, (Mboa, Elobi, Muna tété, quartiezard, Bastos, Quetis, Ngata, etc..) se manifeste autant dans le domaine de la musique que celui de la mode, ou de l'information. Ils sont issus de la culture populaire, en même temps que leur utilisation permet d'enrichir en retour cette même culture populaire. Ils désignent à la fois une personne, un endroit ou on demeure ou d'où l'on vient, ou une façon d'être par rapport à l'endroit d'ou on vient ou demeure. Une forte prééminence dont de la composante géographique dans les registres de qualification de l'autre dans une ville bâtie sur le modèle centre -périphérie, avec des défis d'aménagement, d'inégalités d'accès aux services, etc.... Ce qui pose la question de savoir quelles relations et quels processus se cachent derrière ces mots ?
Nous poserons comme hypothèse générale que: les contextes d'emploi de ces mots conduisent a un processus de construction de communautés dynamiques de « nous » et de « eux » dans les villes, dont les relations s'expriment à la fois dans le conflit et la collaboration.
Giovanna Santanera (Università di Milano Bicocca)
Paper short abstract:
I will explore how Douala popular video production questions urban life. While I argue that the videomakers are committed to the promotion of social and moral change, I also contend that the hardships of their everyday life penetrate in their works, infusing a sense of immobilism and hopelessness.
Paper long abstract:
Douala is not only the economic hub of Cameroon, but it is also a lively cultural center. In addition to the internationally renowned public artworks sponsored by the ngo doual'art, it is stage for a myriad of more popular art initiatives -- low-cost digital films and TV series, theatre performances, musics and video clips -- made by ordinary people, such as teachers, petty-traders, bookkeepers, hairdressers, taxi drivers, and itinerant peddlers. In this paper, I will focus on digital films and TV series, locally known as "histoires de société" [stories of society], in order to show how they question and re-imagine collective life. While I argue that the film practitioners - like the public art promoters -- are committed to the construction of a better city, I also contend that the hardships of their everyday life penetrate in their works, undermining their efforts to visualize better prospects. Within this framework, I will first show that the videos denounce the local social desegregation, through didactic stories that screen the ruin of selfish characters, driven by economic interests; then I will take into consideration the lack of happy endings to claim that the videos fall short in indicating positive alternative ways of behaviors; I will conclude that the videos express both common people's dissatisfaction with the status quo and a widespread feeling of disillusion and hopelessness, which strongly resonates with the broader Cameroonian political scenery.