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Voicing the Voiceless: Contributions to Closing Gaps in Cameroon History, 1958-2009
Author(s): Walter Gam (Author)
- Publisher: Langaa RPCID
- Publication Date: 1 April 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 200 pages
- ISBN-10: 9956616400
- ISBN-13: 9789956616404
Book Description
The history of the subalterns, also known as the history of the voiceless, took currency in the early 1980s in South East Asia and has been dominated by scholars from that region. Despite its popularity, the history of the voiceless has not gained the attention it deserves in Cameroon historiography. In other parts of Africa and beyond this type of history has already taken root and animated scholarly production and debate. Cameroon history has been replete with studies that focus mostly on political history and the actions and intentions of top politicians of the day, with scant regard for the historical importance of the everyday life of ordinary Cameroonians as makers and breakers. This book takes a bold step in the direction of subaltern studies in Cameroon, and makes a clarion call for the institutionalization of voicing the voiceless. Nkwi – innovative and stimulating in his blend of history and ethnography of the everyday – offers fresh insights into the contextual understandings of subaltern Cameroon between 1958 and 2009. This is a welcome contribution to closing gaps in social history, from a leader amongst a budding new generation of historians of Cameroon and Africa.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Walter Gam Nkwi is a historian who graduated from the University of Buea, Cameroon with a Masters in African History. He is currently a Research Fellow at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, where he is currently writing up his PhD on the “Social History of Communication Technology, Mobility and Social Hierarchies amongst the Kom of the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon from 1928-1998”. Nkwi, has published extensively and variously, including on ethnicity, football, art, social movements and elite associations in Cameroon.
