Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-07T21:01:09.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Islam or Christianity? The choices of the Wawa and the Kwanja of Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Résumé

Cet article tente de répondre à deux questions. Premièrement, il essaye d'expliquer pourquoi les Wawa et les Kwanja (deux groupes voisins situés au Cameroun) se sont convertis à l'Islam et au Christianisme dans les années 1960, et il suggère qu'ils l'ont fait dans le but d'adopter une identité respectée, jugée plus “moderne” et associée à l'identité nationale. Deuxièmement, l'article analyse les raisons ayant motivé les Wawa à se convertir à l'lslam alors que les Kwanja ont en majorite choisi le Christianisme, et il explique leurs choix principalement en fonction de la manière dont ils interagissent et définissent leur propre identité vis-à-vis des Foulbé voisins.

Type
Contextualising conversion: the political and the personal
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar, M. I. 1995. ‘African conversion from a world religion: religious diversification by the Waso Boorana in Kenya’, Africa 65(4) 525–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alpers, E. A. 1972. ‘Towards a history of the expansion of Islam in East Africa: the matrilineal peoples of the southern interior’, in Ranger, T. O. and Kimambo, I. N. (eds), The Historical Study of African Religion, pp. 172201. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. N. D. 1955. ‘Tropical Africa: infiltration and expanding horizons’, in Grunebaum, G. E. von (ed.), Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization, pp. 261–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Arens, W. 1975. ‘Islam and Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa: ethnographic reality or ideology’, Cahiers d'etudes africaines 59, XV (3), 443–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baeta, C. G. 1968. ‘Introductory review: the engagement of Christianity with African concepts and way of life’, in Baeta, C. G. (ed.), Christianity in Tropical Africa, pp. 123–19. London: Oxford University Press, for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Banadzem, J. L. 1996. ‘Catholicism and Nso traditional beliefs’, in Fowler, I. and Zeitlyn, D., (ed.), African Crossroads: intersections between history and anthropology in Cameroon, pp. 125–40. Oxford: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Barth, F. 1969. ‘Introduction’, in Barth, F. (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: the social organization of culture difference, pp. 938. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Baxter, P. T. W. 1966. ‘Acceptance and rejection of Islam among the Boran of the northern frontier district of Kenya’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa, pp. 275313. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Beidelman, T. O. 1974. ‘Social theory and the study of Christian missions in Africa’, Africa 44 (3), 235–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binsbergen, W. M. J. van and Buijtenhuijs, R. 1976. ‘Religious innovation in modern African society: introduction’, in Binsbergen, W. M. J. van and Buijtenhuijs, R. (eds), Religious Innovation in Modern African Society (special edition of African Perspective), pp. 711.Google Scholar
Blench, R. 1993. ‘An outline classification of the Mambiloi'd languages’, Journal of West African Languages, 23 (1), 105–18.Google Scholar
Bruce, R. 1982. ‘The growth of Islam and Christianity: the Pyem experience’, in Isichei, E. (ed.), Studies in the History of Plateau State, Nigeria, pp. 224–41. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bureau, R. 1968. ‘Influence de la christianisation sur les institutions traditionnelles des ethnies cotieres du Cameroun’, in Baeta, C. G. (ed.), Christianity in Tropical Africa, pp. 165–81. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Burnham, P. 1991. ‘L'ethnie, la region et l'etat: le role des Peuls dans la vie politique et sociale du Nord-Cameroun’, Journal des africanistes 61, 73102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmody, B. 1988. ‘Conversion and school at Chikuni, 1905-39’, Africa 58(2), 193209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chretien, J. P. 1993. ‘Conversions et crise de legitimite politique: Muyaga, poste missionnaire catholique, et la societe de Test du Burundi, 1896-1916’, in Chretien, J. P. (ed.), L'Invention religieuse en Afrique: histoire et religion en Afrique noire, pp. 347–71. Paris: ACCT-Karthala.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. B. 1980. ‘The methods and ideology of the Holy Ghost Fathers in eastern Nigeria, 1885-1905’, in Clarke, P. B. and Kalu, O. U. (eds), The History of Christianity in West Africa, pp. 3662. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. B. 1982. West Africa and Islam: a study of religious development from the eighth to the twentieth century. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. B. 1986. West Africa and Christianity. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. B. 1991. ‘Introduction to traditional religions’, in Sutherland, S. and Clarke, P. B. (eds), The Study of Religion: traditional and new religion, pp. 63–6. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1978. ‘Ethnicity: problem and focus in anthropology’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 1, 379403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulon, C. 1983. Les Musulmans et le pouvoir en Afrique noire: religion et contre-culture. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Dieu, M. and Renaud, P. 1983. Atlas linguistique de I'Afrique centrale (ALAC). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM). Published by the Agence de cooperation culturelle et technique (ACCT), Paris, Cerdotola, Yaounde, and DGRST, Yaounde.Google Scholar
Droogers, A. 1985. ‘From waste-making to recycling: a plea for an eclectic use of models in the study of religious change’, in Binsbergen, W. van and Schoffeleers, M. (eds), Theoretical Explorations in African Religion, pp. 101–37. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dupire, M. 1981. ‘Reflexions sur l'ethnicite peule’, in hindrances en pays peul et ailleurs: melanges a la memoire de Pierre-Francis Lacroix II, pp. 165–81. Paris: Societe des Africanistes.Google Scholar
Ekechi, F. K. 1971. ‘Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: the Igbo case, 1900-15’, Journal of African History 12 (1), 103–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabian, J. 1985. ‘Religious pluralism: an ethnographic approach’, in Binsbergen, W. van and Schoffeleers, M. (eds) Theoretical Explorations in African Religion, pp. 138–63. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fisher, H. J. 1973. ‘Conversion reconsidered: some historical aspects of religious conversion in black Africa’, Africa 43 (1), 2740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, H. J. 1985The juggernaut's apologia: conversion to Islam in black Africa’, Africa 55 (2), 153–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Froelich, J. C. 1966. ‘Essai sur les causes et methodes de l'islamisation de l'Afrique de l'ouest du Xle au XXe siecle’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa, pp. 160–73. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Gausset, Q. 1995. ‘Contribution a l'etude du pouvoir sacre chez les Wawa, Adamawa, Cameroun’, Journal des Africanistes 65 (2), 179200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gausset, Q. 1997a. ‘Les Avatars de l'identite chez les Wawa et les Kwanja du Cameroun’. Ph.D. thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Gausset, Q. 1997b. ‘Pouvoir et bilinearite chez les Kwanja’, Ngaoundere-Anthropos 2, 89104.Google Scholar
Gausset, Q. 1998a. ‘Historical account or discourse on identity? A re-evaluation of Fulbe hegemony and autochthonous submission in Banyo, Adamawa, Cameroon’, History in Africa 25, 93110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gausset, Q. 1998b. ‘Double unilineal descent and triple kinship terminology: the case of the Kwanja of Cameroon’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society 4 (2), 309–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilliland, D. S. 1991. ‘First conversion and second conversion in Nigeria’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 26 (3-4), 237–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grunebaum, G. E. von. 1962. Modern Islam: the search for cultural identity. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harries, L. P. 1954. Islam in East Africa. London: Universities Mission to Central Africa.Google Scholar
Hefner, R. W. 1993. ‘Of faith and commitment: Christian conversion in Muslim Java’, in Hefner, R. W. (ed.), Conversion to Christianity: historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation, pp. 99125. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hiskett, M. 1973. The Sword of Truth: the life and times of the Shehu Usuman Dan Fodio. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hiskett, M. 1984. The Development of Islam in West Africa. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Horton, R. 1971. ‘African conversion’, Africa 41 (2), 85108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horton, R. 1975On the rationality of conversion’, Africa 45 (1), 219–35, and Africa 45 (2), 373-99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurault, J. 1975. ‘Histoire du lamidat de Banyo’, Comptes rendus trimestriels de I'Academie des sciences d'outre-mer 35 (2), 421–65.Google Scholar
Ifeka-Moller, C. 1974. ‘White power: social-structural factors in conversion to Christianity, eastern Nigeria, 1921-66’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 8 (1), 5572.Google Scholar
Dcenga-Metuh, E. 1987. ‘The shattered microcosm: a critical survey of explanations of conversion in Africa’, in Petersen, K. H. (ed.), Religion, Development and African Identity, pp. 1127. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Janzen, J. M. 1985. ‘The consequences of literacy in African religion: the Kongo case’, in Binsbergen, W. van and Schoffeleers, M. (eds), Theoretical Explorations in African Religion, pp. 225–52. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Johnston, H. A. S. 1967. The Fulani Empire of Sokoto. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kirby, J. P. 1994. ‘Cultural change and religious conversion in West Africa’, in Blakely, T. D.Beek, W. E. A. van and Thomson, D. L. (eds) Religion in Africa, pp. 5771. Oxford: James Currey; Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. 1958. Adamawa, Past and Present. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kouanda, A. 1989. ‘La religion musulmane: facteur d'integration ou d'identification ethnique? Le cas des Yarse du Burkina Faso’, in Chretien, J. P. (ed.), Les Ethnies ont une histoire, pp. 127–34. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Laburthe-Tolra, P. 1983. ‘De la conversion chez les Beti, Cameroun: ambigui'tes dans le transfert d'une religion a l'autre’, Cultures et developpement, 15 (1), 310.Google Scholar
Laburthe-Tolra, P. 1988. ‘Christianisme et ouverture au monde: le cas du Cameroun, 1845-1915’, Revue francaise d'histoire d'outre-mer 75 (279), 207–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laburthe-Tolra, P. 1993. ‘Intentions missionnaires et perception africaine: quelques donnees camerounaises’, in Thoveron, G. and Legros, H. (eds), Melanges Pierre Salmon: histoire et ethnologie africaines (special issue of Civilisations XLI, 1-2), pp. 239–55.Google Scholar
Laburthe-Tolra, P. 1996. ‘La conversion au catholicisme en Afrique noir’, Afrique contemporaine 178, 30–9.Google Scholar
Lacroix, P. F. 1952. ‘Materiaux pour servir à l'histoire des peuls de l'Adamawa’, Etudes camerounaises 5 (37-8), 3-61, and 6 (39-40), 5-40.Google Scholar
Lacroix, P. F. 1966. ‘L'Islam peul de l'Adamawa’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa, pp. 401–7. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Last, M. 1974. ‘Reform in West Africa: the Jihad movements of the nineteenth century’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds), History of West Africa II, pp. 129. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lacroix, P. F. 1979. ‘Some economic aspects of conversion in Hausaland, Nigeria’, in Levtzion, N. (ed.), Conversion to Islam, pp. 236–46. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Levtzion, N. 1979a. ‘Towards a comparative study of Islamization’, in Levtzion, N. (ed.), Conversion to Islam, pp. 123. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Lacroix, P. F. 1979b. ‘Patterns of Islamization in West Africa’, in Levtzion, N. (ed.), Conversion to Islam, pp. 207–16. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Lacroix, P. F. 1985. ‘Slavery and Islamization in Africa’, in Willis, J. R. (ed.), Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa, pp. 182–98. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Lewis, I. M. 1966. ‘Introduction’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.) Islam in Tropical Africa, pp. 4125. London: Oxford University Press, for the International Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Lode, K. 1990. Appeles a la liberte: l'histoire de I'Eglise evangelique lutherienne au Cameroun. Amstelveen: Improceps.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1981. ‘African ideology and belief: a survey’, African Studies Review 24 (2-3), 227–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, J. C. 1956. The Kalela Dance: aspects of social relations among urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: Manchester University Press, for the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.Google Scholar
Moerman, M. 1965. ‘Ethnic identification in a complex civilization: who are the Lue?American Anthropologist 67 (5), 1215–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moerman, M. 1967 ‘Being Lue: uses and abuses of ethnic identification’, in Helm, J. (ed.), Essays on the Problem of Tribe, pp. 153–69. Washington WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Mohammadou, E. 1978. Fulbe hooseere: les royaumes fulbe du plateau de I Adamaoua au dix-neuvieme siecle. Tibati Tignere, Banyo, Ngaoundere. African Languages and Ethnography VIII, Tokyo: Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).Google Scholar
Moerman, M. 1981. ‘L'implantation des Peul dans l'Adamawa: approche chronologique’, in Tardits, C. (ed.), Contribution de la recherche ethnologique a l'histoire des civilisations du Cameroun I, pp. 229–47. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Moerman, M. 1991. Traditions historiques des peuples du Cameroun Central II. African Languages and Ethnography XXIV, Tokyo: Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar
Monteil, V. 1980. L'Islam noir: une religion a la conquete de I'Afrique. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1997. ‘“Merci a vous, les blancs, de nous avoir liberes!” Le cas des Dii de l'Adamaoua, Nord-Cameroun’, Terrain 28, 5972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagata, J. A. 1974. ‘What is a Malay? Situational selection of ethnic identity in a plural society’, Americal Ethnologist 1 (2), 331–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagata, J. A. 1982. ‘Particularism and universalism in religious and ethnic identities: Malay Islam and other cases’, in Maybury-Lewis, D. (ed.), The Prospect for Plural Societies, pp. 121–35. Washington DC: American Ethnological Society.Google Scholar
Nicolas, G. 1993. ‘La reduction “religieuse” des visions traditionnelles du monde et ses effets politiques contemporains: la cas du Nigeria’, in Chretien, J. P. (ed.), L'Invention religieuse en Afrique: histoire et religion en Afrique noire, pp. 445–75. Paris: ACCT-Karthala.Google Scholar
Nock, A. D. 1933. Conversion: the old and the new, from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nyigandji Ndi, S. 1993. ‘Pourquoi les Kirdi du Nord-Cameroun ont-ils prefere le Christianisme a l'lslam? Le cas des “Habe” de Bankim’. Master's thesis, Faculte de theologie protestante de Yaounde.Google Scholar
Okamura, J. Y. 1981. ‘Situational ethnicity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 4 (4), 452–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okorocha, C. C. 1987. The Meaning of Religious Conversion in Africa: the case of the Igbo of Nigeria. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Oswald, B. 1994. Vers la liberation: R. P. Jean Bocquene et les Kwanja. Small booklet published by the Catholic mission of Nyamboya.Google Scholar
Ottenberg, S. 1971. ‘A Moslem Igbo village’, Cahiers d'etudes africaines 11 (2), 231–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, O. 1975. ‘Context and choice in ethnic allegiance: a theoretical framework and Caribbean case study’, in Glazer, N. and Moynihan, D. P. (eds), Ethnicity: theory and experience, pp. 305–50. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1973. “The religious transformation of Africa in a Weberian perspective’, in Metamorphose contemporaine des phenomenes religieux?, pp. 339–52. Lille: CNRS/Editions du Secretariat de la Conference internationale de sociologie religieuse.Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1977. ‘Conversion and tradition in two African societies: Ijebu and Buganda’, Past and Present 77, 108–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. 1978. ‘The Christianization of African society: some possible models’, in Fashole-Luke, E.Gray, R.Hastings, A. and Tasie, G. (eds), Christianity in Independent Africa, pp. 443–54. London: Rex Collings.Google Scholar
Price, T. 1968. ‘The missionary struggle with complexity’, in Baeta, C. G. (ed.), Christianity in Tropical Africa, pp. 101–19. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O. 1978. ‘The Churches, the nationalist State and African religion’, in Fashole-Luke, E.Gray, R.Hastings, A. and Tasie, G. (eds), Christianity in Independent Africa, pp. 479502. London: Rex Collings.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O. 1987. ‘Concluding summary: religion, development and identity’, in Petersen, K. H. (ed.), Religion, Development and African Identity, pp. 145–63. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O. 1993. ‘The local and the global in southern Africa religious history’, in Hefner, R. W. (ed.), Conversion to Christianity: historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation, pp. 6598. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranger, T. O. 1994. ‘Protestant missions in Africa: the dialectic of conversion in the American Methodist Episcopal Church in eastern Zimbabwe, 1900-50’, in Blakely, T. D.Beek, W. E. A. Van and Thomson, D. L. (eds), Religion in Africa, pp. 275313. London: James Currey; Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O. and Kimambo, I. N. 1972. ‘Introduction’, in Ranger, T. O. and Kimambo, I. N. (eds), The Historical Study of African Religions, pp. 126. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Rigby, P. J. A. 1966. ‘Sociological factors in the contact of the Gogo of central Tanzania with Islam’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa, pp. 268–95. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Salamone, F. 1975. ‘Becoming Hausa: ethnic identity change and its implications for the study of ethnic pluralism and stratification’, Africa 45 (4), 410–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilder, K. 1993. ‘Local rulers in north Cameroon: the interplay of politics and conversion’, Africa Fokus 9 (1-2), 4372.Google Scholar
Schilder, K. 1994. Quest for Self-esteem: state, Islam and Mundang ethnicity in northern Cameroon. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Schultz, E. 1980. ‘Perceptions of ethnicity in Guider town’, in Scultz, E. A. (ed.), Image and Reality in African Interethnic Relations: the Fulbe and their neighbors, pp. 127–49. Studies in Third World Societies 11. Williamsburg VA: Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary.Google Scholar
Schultz, E. 1984From pagan to Pullo: ethnic identity change in northern Cameroon’, Africa 54 (1), 4663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, R. and Stewart, C. 1994. ‘Introduction: problematizing syncretism’, in Stewart, C. and Shaw, R. (eds), Syncretism/Anti-syncretism: the politics of religious synthesis, pp. 126. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Simensen, J. 1987. ‘Religious change as transaction: the Norwegian mission to Zululand, South Africa, 1850-1906’, in Petersen, K. H. (ed.), Religion, Development and African Identity, pp. 85102. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Smith, M. G. 1966. ‘The Jihad of Shehu Dan Fodio: some problems’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), Islam of Tropical Africa, pp. 408–24. London: Oxford University Press, for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Trimingham, J. S. 1959. Islam in West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warnier, J. P. 1985. Echanges, développement et hiérarchie dans le Bamenda pré-colonial, Cameroun. Studien zur Kulturkunde 76. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar