8 - The Emergence of Public Spheres in Colonial Cameroon: The Case of Palm Wine Drinking Joints as lieux de sociabilité in Bamenda Township
Corresponding Author(s) : Nicodemus Awesome Fru
Africa Development,
Vol. 35 No. 1-2 (2010): Africa Development: Special Issue on Language, Literature and Power in the Public Sphere
Abstract
Although Habermas might not have had Africa in mind when he pro- pounded his public sphere theory, we still find his basic premise useful in capturing the public sphere scenario in Africa where people like to periodically congregate in various sites to socialize and indulge in po- litical discourse while drinking. Using the case of colonial Bamenda township, this study examines the emergence and functioning of palm wine drinking joints as public spaces par excellence. These palm wine joints were comparable to European coffee shops and salons which were areas where various people could gather and discuss matters that concerned them. The palm wine joints were informal public spaces that emerged to respond to urbanization and cosmopolitanism, and stood out as one of the distinctive lieux de sociabilité. They were accessible to people of all classes and served as centres for drinking traditional liquor, gathering and spreading news and rumours, discussing politics and social issues, playing and dancing the ‘bottle dance’, and transiting to the ‘red streets’ to visit damsels after sucking in alcohol. The study relied on interviews and archival material as data for this article.
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- Akyeampong, E., 1988, Drink, Power, and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana , c.1800 to Recent Times, Portsmouth, Oxford.
- Awasom, N.F., 2003a, ‘Hausa Traders, Residential Segregation and the Quest for Security in 20th Century Colonial Bamenda Township (Cameroon)’, in Laurent Fourchard & Issac Albert, eds., Security, Crime and Segregation in West African Cities Since the 19th Century, (Ifra/Karthala).
- Awasom, N.F., 2003, ‘The Vicissitudes of Twentieth-Century Mankon Kings in Cameroon’s Changing Social Order’, in Wim van Binsbergen, ed., The Dynamics of Power and the Rule of Law, Leiden: African Studies Centre.
- Awasom, N.F., 2006, ‘The British Invention of Tradition and the Fai Ndzenzef Affair’, Occasional Paper, University of The Gambia .
- Benhabib, S., 1992, Models of Public Space, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge Mass. : MIT Press.
- Bryceson, D.F., 2002, ed., Alcohol in Africa: Mixing Business, Pleasure, and Politics, Portsmouth , N.H. : Heineman.
- Benjelid, A., 2006, ‘Le stade de football: un formidable lieu de sociabilité et integration des jeunes de la périphérie pauvre de l’Oran (Algerie)’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
- Cantome, C., 2006, ‘The contemporary mosque phenomenon as lieux de sociabilité: gender, identity and space’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
- Collins, J., 2009, ‘A Century of Changing Locations of Ghanaian Commercial Popular Entertainment Venues’, in Laurent Fourchard, Odile Goerg, MurielGomez-Perez, eds., Lieux de sociabiliteì urbaine en Afrique, Paris: l’Harmattan.
- Fancello, S., 2008, « Du village au temple : les assemblées pentecôtistes comme espaces de sociabilité en milieu urbain africain », in Fourchard L., Goerg O. (éds.), Lieux de sociabilité en Afrique, Paris, L’Harmattan, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) ».
- Fomin, E.S.D., 2004, ‘Understanding Banyang Women in Cameroon Urban Centres: Introspective and Perspectives’, Occasional Paper of the Department of History, University of Yaounde 1.
- Fourchard, L., 2006, ‘Sheben, sociabilité et pouvoir en Afrique du Sud au XXe siècle’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
- Freundlieb, D., Hudson, W. and Rundell, J., eds., 2004, Critical Theory after Habermas: Encounters and Departures, Leiden , Boston : Brill.
- Habermas, J., 1989, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Cambridge , Mass. : The MIT Press (trans.).
- Hauser, G., 1999, Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres, Columbia : Columbia University of South Carolina Press.
- Hirsch, B. and Fauvelle, F.X., 2004, ‘Cités oubliées. Réflection sur l’histoire urbaines de L’Ethiopie médiévale (xie-xvie siècle)’, Journal des africanistes, tome 74: 299-331.
- Hohendahl, P.U., 1982, “Critical Theory, Public Sphere, and Culture: Jürgen Habermas and His Critics.” pp. 242-280 in The Institution of Criticism. Ithaca (NY)/London: Cornell University Press.
- Holder, G., and Peatrik, 2004, ‘Cité, centre capitale: pour une anthropologie du statut politique de la ville’, Journal des africanistes, tome 74: 9-35.
- Madoeuf, A., 2005, ‘Feasts panoramas in town-spaces and times of the moulids of Cairo’, in Abdou Simone & Abdelghani Abouhani, eds., Urban Africa: Changing Contours of Survival in the City, Dakar: CODESRIA.
- Nyamnjoh, F.B. and Fokwang, J., 2005, ‘Entertaining Repression: Music and Politics in Postcolonial Cameroon ’, African Affairs, 104/415: 251-274.
- Nyerere, J.K., 1967, Socialism and Rural Development, Dar es Salaam : Government Printer.
- Scott Haine, W. , 1996, The World of the Paris Cafe: Sociability among the French Working Class, 1789-1914, Baltimore, MD. , and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Warner, M., 1992, The Mass Public and the Mass Subject, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge , Mass. : MIT Press.
- Warner, M., 2002, Publics and Counterpublics, New York: Zone Books.
- Willis, J., 2002, Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850- 1999, Nairobi : British Institute in Eastern Africa/Athens: Ohio University Press / Oxford : James Currey.
References
Akyeampong, E., 1988, Drink, Power, and Cultural Change: A Social History of Alcohol in Ghana , c.1800 to Recent Times, Portsmouth, Oxford.
Awasom, N.F., 2003a, ‘Hausa Traders, Residential Segregation and the Quest for Security in 20th Century Colonial Bamenda Township (Cameroon)’, in Laurent Fourchard & Issac Albert, eds., Security, Crime and Segregation in West African Cities Since the 19th Century, (Ifra/Karthala).
Awasom, N.F., 2003, ‘The Vicissitudes of Twentieth-Century Mankon Kings in Cameroon’s Changing Social Order’, in Wim van Binsbergen, ed., The Dynamics of Power and the Rule of Law, Leiden: African Studies Centre.
Awasom, N.F., 2006, ‘The British Invention of Tradition and the Fai Ndzenzef Affair’, Occasional Paper, University of The Gambia .
Benhabib, S., 1992, Models of Public Space, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge Mass. : MIT Press.
Bryceson, D.F., 2002, ed., Alcohol in Africa: Mixing Business, Pleasure, and Politics, Portsmouth , N.H. : Heineman.
Benjelid, A., 2006, ‘Le stade de football: un formidable lieu de sociabilité et integration des jeunes de la périphérie pauvre de l’Oran (Algerie)’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
Cantome, C., 2006, ‘The contemporary mosque phenomenon as lieux de sociabilité: gender, identity and space’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
Collins, J., 2009, ‘A Century of Changing Locations of Ghanaian Commercial Popular Entertainment Venues’, in Laurent Fourchard, Odile Goerg, MurielGomez-Perez, eds., Lieux de sociabiliteì urbaine en Afrique, Paris: l’Harmattan.
Fancello, S., 2008, « Du village au temple : les assemblées pentecôtistes comme espaces de sociabilité en milieu urbain africain », in Fourchard L., Goerg O. (éds.), Lieux de sociabilité en Afrique, Paris, L’Harmattan, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) ».
Fomin, E.S.D., 2004, ‘Understanding Banyang Women in Cameroon Urban Centres: Introspective and Perspectives’, Occasional Paper of the Department of History, University of Yaounde 1.
Fourchard, L., 2006, ‘Sheben, sociabilité et pouvoir en Afrique du Sud au XXe siècle’, Paper presented at Colloquium on « Les lieux de sociabilité urbaine dans la longue durée en Afrique (Afrique du Nord et Madagascar inclus) », Paris.
Freundlieb, D., Hudson, W. and Rundell, J., eds., 2004, Critical Theory after Habermas: Encounters and Departures, Leiden , Boston : Brill.
Habermas, J., 1989, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Cambridge , Mass. : The MIT Press (trans.).
Hauser, G., 1999, Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres, Columbia : Columbia University of South Carolina Press.
Hirsch, B. and Fauvelle, F.X., 2004, ‘Cités oubliées. Réflection sur l’histoire urbaines de L’Ethiopie médiévale (xie-xvie siècle)’, Journal des africanistes, tome 74: 299-331.
Hohendahl, P.U., 1982, “Critical Theory, Public Sphere, and Culture: Jürgen Habermas and His Critics.” pp. 242-280 in The Institution of Criticism. Ithaca (NY)/London: Cornell University Press.
Holder, G., and Peatrik, 2004, ‘Cité, centre capitale: pour une anthropologie du statut politique de la ville’, Journal des africanistes, tome 74: 9-35.
Madoeuf, A., 2005, ‘Feasts panoramas in town-spaces and times of the moulids of Cairo’, in Abdou Simone & Abdelghani Abouhani, eds., Urban Africa: Changing Contours of Survival in the City, Dakar: CODESRIA.
Nyamnjoh, F.B. and Fokwang, J., 2005, ‘Entertaining Repression: Music and Politics in Postcolonial Cameroon ’, African Affairs, 104/415: 251-274.
Nyerere, J.K., 1967, Socialism and Rural Development, Dar es Salaam : Government Printer.
Scott Haine, W. , 1996, The World of the Paris Cafe: Sociability among the French Working Class, 1789-1914, Baltimore, MD. , and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Warner, M., 1992, The Mass Public and the Mass Subject, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge , Mass. : MIT Press.
Warner, M., 2002, Publics and Counterpublics, New York: Zone Books.
Willis, J., 2002, Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa, 1850- 1999, Nairobi : British Institute in Eastern Africa/Athens: Ohio University Press / Oxford : James Currey.