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Cameroon, in Central Africa, has been called Africa in miniature. It is characterized by exceptional social and ethnic diversity, with more than 250 ethnicities now forming five major regional-culture groupings. This volume is the first to encapsulate Cameroon's rich indigenous and modern customs and traditions in depth. The narrative emphasizes those aspects that define its modern nation, its peoples, the unique societies, their institutions, and various lifestyles. The origins of Cameroon's diverse culture are traced back to the various ethnic groups and languages as well as the influence of European colonialism, Christianity, Islam, and other external factors, including globalization. In each topical chapter, examples from ethnic groups are presented to give some sense of the variety of experiences.

Cameroon has had a turbulent and eventful modern history with German, English, and French incursions, and students and general readers will be able to understand the current struggle for democracy post independence. The history colors the substantial coverage of the many topics examined, from education, to marriage and women's roles, sports, and holidays, daily life, the arts, and much more. This volume will stand as the definitive, accessible introduction to Cameroon and will be essential for building a well-rounded Africa collection.

Customer Reviews (3)

Better service than the College Bookstore!
I order this book online when my college bookstore told me they wouldn't be getting in more books in.Not only was purchasing this book from Amazon cheaper but it arrived in just a few days!

Great source of information
This is a great source of information on the people and culture of Cameroon. A great beginners guide for people who haven't had a chance to visit Cameroon yet.

Very good, no maps
This is the best book I have seen so far about the cultures and customs of Cameroon. There are over 250 ethnic groups in Cameroon. The mixture of the old and the new is very difficult to unravel. The author does a remarkable job of presenting the complexities of life in Cameroon. The author's description is in agreement with my experience with the life in the Cameroon Grasslands. I highly recommend this book. The only drawback is the lack of maps. ... Read more

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During the long dry season, Tupuri men and women in northern Cameroon gather in gurna camps outside their villages to learn the songs that will be performed at widely attended celebrations to honor the year’s dead. The gurna provides a space for them to join together in solidarity to care for their cattle, fatten their bodies, and share local stories. But why does the gurna remain meaningful in the modern nation-state of Cameroon? In Journey of Song, Clare A. Ignatowski explores the vitality of gurna ritual in the context of village life and urban neighborhoods. She shows how Tupuri songs borrow from political discourse on democracy in Cameroon and make light of human foibles, publicize scandals, promote the prestige of dancers, and provide an arena for powerful social commentary on the challenges of modern life. In the context of broad social change in Africa, Ignatowski explores the creative and communal process by which local livelihoods and identities are validated in dance and song. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2251 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods and Recipes of the World, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1119 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Provides comprehensive coverage of the foods and recipes of approximately 75 cultural groups from more than 60 countries. Entries provide 10-15 recipes for each group and include data on the agriculture and dietary habits of each group as well as an overview of each group's nutrition and health. ... Read more

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Chapters: Dance in Cameroon, Breast Ironing, Shum Laka, O Cameroon, Cradle of Our Forefathers, Public Holidays in Cameroon, Culture of Cameroon, Abbia: Cameroon Cultural Review, National Day, Unification Day. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Dance in Cameroon is an integral part of the tradition, religion, and socialising of the country's people. Cameroon has more than 200 traditional dances, each associated with a different event or situation. Colonial authorities and Christian missionaries discouraged native dances as threats to security and pagan holdovers. However, after Cameroon's independence, the government recognised traditional dance as part of the nation's culture and made moves to preserve it. Traditional dances follow strict choreography and segregate dancers based on age, occupation, sex, social status, and other factors. Some dances require special costumes and props such as masks or fans. Professional dancers make a living among some ethnic groups, and other professionals perform at national festivals and for tourists. Popular dance, wherein men and women dance together, is found in Cameroon's bars, nightclubs, and private parties. This style is closely tied with popular music, such as makossa, bikutsi, highlife, and hip hop. Dancing is an important avenue of social protest and political rallying in the country. Under Cameroon's colonial-era governments, German, British, and French regimes banned dances that they deemed a threat to their primacy. Meanwhile, Christian missionaries discouraged all kinds of dancing and forbade dances that they felt represented paganism or offended Christian sensibilities. Many of these dances have since died out. Other dances were forgotten when the rituals associated with them were outlawed for si...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=11285347 ... Read more

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Cameroon has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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This study explores the concepts of globalization, gender relations, and land tenure, and the intersection of these concepts in a globalizing project, represented by the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline project in selected communities in Cameroon. It questions the theories of globalization, the construction of women and men in the project, particularly as concern land resources. This work will appeal to scholars in social and management sciences, gender studies and environmental sciences in Africa, development agencies and multinational companies like the World Bank and petroleum consortiums, and policy makers. ... Read more

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It is in a plural perspective, an association of history, ethnography, stylistic analysis and aesthetics, that this work presents the artistic and cultural production of the small kingdom of Mankon on the high plateaux of western Cameroon: these objects, linked with rituals, of prestige or more ordinary ones are all charged with meaning, but also with identified characteristic shapes, all bearing the memory of the treasures of kings, notables and secret societies. This production of the arts plays a fundamental role in cultural continuity, protects evidence of the past and preserves objects used in rites for the well-being of society. This is why they form an essential part of the artistic and cultural heritage of the whole of Mankon. They are extraordinarily rich, both regarding the quality of the objects, by the diversity of domains they approach and by the variety of decorative patterns (men, animals, geometric and plant shapes etc.), styles and themes. ... Read more

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This book contains fourteen articles on current problems in maintaining two official languages, French and English, in a country where people speak 248 different indigenous languages. After an introduction describing the evolution of official bilingualism in Cameroon, six articles focus upon the challenges of teaching the official languages, especially in English-speaking areas. In Part II six articles describe linguistic interference between the two languages, especially the influence of French upon English in Cameroon. The concluding article suggests ways to promote French and English bilingualism in the country. ... Read more