Political Philosophies & Nation-Building in Cameroon

written by Aseh Andrew

Grounds for Remaking the Postcolony

This is a comprehensive text on the function of thought in the history and political sociology of Cameroon. The book brings out how the “hidden hand of history” fashions a political thought which, in turn, creates its own history. Instead of Cameroonians making history, history makes Cameroonians. The book shows how political ideas are fashioned in a post-colonial context in which Europeans impose a superordinate arrangement on a people together with its philosophers. “Thinking the nation” in Cameroon on behalf of Europeans, especially after the leaders of the national liberation struggle were all eliminated, European philosophers put in place a “repressive machine” under which Cameroonians were subjected between 1958 and 1990. Repression gave way to a refined form of enslavement – a modernised version of slavery. Cameroonians joined the bandwagon and have been producing and reproducing Western industrial economies while day-dreaming of what they will never become. The whole idea of nation-building in post-colonial Africa is put in question. This book offers students of political studies, sociology, anthropology and history compelling evidence to grapple with questions as to whether Cameroon is a state or a nation and questions of sovereignty and citizenship.

Aseh Andrew

Aseh Andrew holds a Master’s degree in Political Sociology from the University of Yaounde 1. He lives and works in Buea, Cameroon.