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It’s the first in-depth study on Cameroon that integrates the three ethnic groups (Grassfields societies, Mbororo and Hausa) in its historical and contemporary analyses.
The book stands out by its methodological approach of integrating performative and narrative dimensions in its analyses.
The book pursues a historically informed and gender-sensitive approach to ethnicity.
It is the first study to provide up-to-date information on the Hausa community in northwest Cameroon, a community largely neglected in the literature on the region.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Chapter 1. Setting the Scene: Cultural Difference and Political Rivalry in Times of Transition
Chapter 2. The Power of the Fon: Nchaney Political History
Chapter 3. From Pastoral Society to Indigenous People: Mbororo Identity Politics
Chapter 4. A Shift to Economic Competition? Farmer-Herder Conflict and Cattle Theft in the Misaje Area
Chapter 5. On Being Hausa: Consolidation of the Hausa Ethnic Category in the Grassfields
Chapter 6. Grassfielder by Birth, Muslim by Choice: Religious and Ethnic Conversion
Chapter 7. The Murder of Mr X: Legal Pluralism and Conflict Management in the Early 2000s
Epilogue Glossary
References
Index
About the author
Michaela Pelican is Junior Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne. She is also the director of the University of Cologne Forum "Ethnicity as a Political Resource: Perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe" and a member of the Cologne Global South Studies Center. She is the editor of a special issue, "Global African Entrepreneurs" (
Urban Anthropology 2014, 43), and the author of several articles on indigenous rights movements in Africa.
Summary
The Cameroon Grassfields, home to three ethnic groups - the Grassfields societies, the Mbororo, and the Hausa - provides a valuable case study for the anthropological examination of ethnicity and interethnic relations.
