The young people of the Cameroon Grassfields have been subject to a long history of violence and political marginalization. For centuries, the main victims of the slave trade, they became prime targets for forced labor campaigns under a series of colonial rulers. Today's youth remain at the bottom of the fiercely hierarchical and polarized societies of the Grassfields, and it is their response to centuries of exploitation that Nicolas Pandely Argenti takes up in this absorbing and original book. Beginning his study with a political analysis of youth in the Grassfields from the eighteenth century to the present, Argenti pays special attention to the repeated violent revolts staged by young victims of political oppression. He then combines this history with extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Oku chiefdom, discovering that the specter of past violence lives on in the masked dance performances that have earned intense devotion from today's youth. Argenti contends that by evoking the imagery of past cataclysmic events, these masquerades allow young Oku men and women to address the inequities they face in their relations with elders and state authorities today.

About the Author
Nicolas Pandely Argenti is a research lecturer in anthropology at Brunel University in England. He is coeditor of Young Africa: Realising the Rights of Children and Youth.

Reviews
"Nicolas Argenti succeeds in doing justice to the uncanny tension evoked by the youth masquerades of Oku and their haunting performances. He offers challenging contributions to the study of dance, the indeterminacy of memory, and the actuality of the slave trade." - Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226026121
Author Nicolas Argenti
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 595g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 15mm * 2mm