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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Carrefour de la Joie: Popular Deconstruction of the African Postcolonial Public Sphere
Author:Ndjio, BasileISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:75
Issue:3
Pages:265-294
Language:English
Geographic term:Cameroon
Subjects:popular culture
protest
space
urban life
Politics and Government
History and Exploration
Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556749
Abstract:African postcolonial rulers have made of the public sphere a space where through the production of violence and coercion they attempt to bring their subjects' bodies under an endless process of tight discipline, subordination and servitude. Moreover, they have managed to set up a politically structured sphere that not only restricts citizens' freedom of movement, speech and assembly, but also rationalizes their way of standing, speaking and walking. But the governmental claim to exercise full control over the public sphere is incessantly challenged by popular practices of insubordination and impoliteness. This paper focuses on the 'carrefour de la joie' ('crossroads for enjoyment', or 'space for pleasure') in urban Cameroon, public arenas which have become one of the most vibrant expressions of popular culture in contemporary Cameroon. It demonstrates how through 'immoral' and 'indecent' behaviour such as drunkenness, debauchery and indiscipline, Cameroonian subjects have been striving not only to evade the suffocating restrictions that the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) regime imposes on their rights, but also to formulate a sharp critique of this postcolonial power. The paper is based on field research conducted in Yaounde between May 1998 and July 2001. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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