1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910797116603321

Autore

Nkwi Gam

Titolo

African modernities and mobilities : an historical ethnography of Kom, Cameroon, C. 1800-2008 / / Gam Nkwi

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bamenda, North West Region, Cameroon : , : Langaa RPCIG, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

9956-762-37-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (434 p.)

Disciplina

967.11

Soggetti

Ethnology - Cameroon

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Foreword / by Jean-Pierre Warnier -- Preface -- Acknowledgement -- Introduction : theory and progress of Kfaang -- Background and methodology -- Kom in global communication ecology, c.1800-c.2008b -- Roads, mobility and Kfaang, c.1928-1998 -- Motor vehicle (Afue'm A Kfaang) -- Church, Christianity and Kfaang in Kom (Ndo Fiyini Ni Iwo Fiyini Kfaang) -- School, schooling and literacy (ndogwali kfaang) 1928 to c.1980 -- Letters and letter writers (Ghelii-Do Gwa-Ali Kfaang) -- Plantations, coast (Itiini Kfaang), Bushfallers and returned migrants -- Ex-service men, (Ghiili-I-Wong-I-Kfaang) 1914-1946 -- Elite women (Ghii'ki Kfaang) : women and newness in colonial and post-colonial Kom, Cameroon since c.1930's -- From foot messengers to text messengers c.1800-1998 : change and continuity of Kfaang men -- Mobility and encounters with different worlds -- Conclusion : Kom identity as work in progress.

Sommario/riassunto

In this book Walter Gam Nkwi documents the complexities and nuances embedded in African modernities and mobilities which have been overlooked in historical discourses in Africa and Cameroon. Using an ethnographic historical approach and drawing on the intricacies of what it has meant to be and belong in Kom- an ethnic community in the Northwest Region of Cameroon - since 1800, he explores the discourses and practices of kfaang as central to any understanding of mobility and modernity in Kom, Cameroon and Africa at large. The book unveils the emic understanding of modernity through the history



and ethnography of kfaang and its technologies and illustrates how these terminologies were conceived and perceived by the Kom people in their social and physical mobilities. It documents and analyzes the historical processes involved in bringing about and making kfaang a defining feature of everyday life in Kom and among Kom subjects.