The article introduces a themed section in the journal on hometown associations in Cameroon. It outlines the impact of ten years’ work in this field and argues that notions of autochthony remain central in understanding Cameroonian politics. However the three articles go on to argue that some of the claims about home, belonging and politics are difficult to reconcile with the hazier reality observed on the ground. The articles aim to disturb any universal, inevitable or overly tidy segue between questions of belonging and claims of political segmentation. Too often the existing literature moves too quickly to an analysis that foregrounds only the worrisome dimensions of a politics of belonging, thus leaving little space for other interpretations. To explore this dilemma the article continues by exploring a land dispute in Bali Nyonga, north-west Cameroon. It shows (1) how ideas of belonging remain central to the practice of politics; (2) how the politics of belonging has changed over time; and (3) how it is possible to foreground an alternative ‘politics of conviviality’, which would otherwise be shaded out by the dominance of the politics of belonging within the literature.

Most work on the political implications of hometown associations has focused on male elites. This contribution attends instead to the gendered varieties of hometown associations, exploring variations in the bases of shared identity among six Bamiléké women's hometown associations – hailing from Ndé Division, Western Province, and organized in both elite and neighbourhood-based non-elite associations – in Yaoundé, Cameroon. It suggests several ways to reconceptualize hometown associations and belonging. Addressing the situationally specific ways Bamiléké women use and interpret ‘home’, the unit of belonging, it differentiates among actors and associations by gender and status. Viewing the autochthony debate from the perspective of allogènes, it reveals that the emotions of memory, marginalization and recognition are central to belonging, understandings of home, and involvement in hometown associations. Finally, it suggests that differences in associations’ network structure affect both orientations and actions toward the home place, and at times an ‘ethnicization’ of ‘home’. The non-elite hometown associations exhibit the dense, bounded networks of ‘urban villages’ and strive to bring ‘home’ to the city. Members of elite hometown associations are urbanites, developing social networks consisting of more diverse and specialized ties, which may account for more universalistic discourse about bringing ‘development’ to the hometown.

People's participation in hometown associations reveals a deep sense of belonging to their home place. It has been argued that promotion of this ‘primary patriotism’ by associations is potentially divisive as it may engender parochialism, increase the focus on autochthony, and enhance ethnicization of the political landscape. Contrasting views, however, do not see hometown associations as necessarily inimical to wider social and political cohesion, but as potential sites for civic engagement and citizenship formation at different levels, reflecting the shifting identity that individuals hold. The article explores these issues among the two main tiers of association in Manyu Division, South-West Province, Cameroon. It briefly describes their history and activities, then considers how the identities mobilizing them are constructed in three interlinked ways: geohistorical and genealogical; neotraditional; and national political. It concludes that while these associations occasionally engage in divisive politics in different spheres, analysis needs to balance this against their other activities and relationships. Most hometown associations continue in their original, social role of mutual support among rural–urban migrants, although their expansion into development at home has had more mixed results. Furthermore, concerns about parochialism are often hard to reconcile with the multiple levels of associational life observed.

In Akropong-Akwapim, south-eastern Ghana, memories of a sorrowful or conflict-laden past are accessed by verbal and visual strategies that are allusive in nature. The name-response that a mother gives to her child, sites marked in the ritual landscape and a chief's gold-covered linguist staff with a carved narrative image are all sites of memory pertaining to the identity of persons or groups. Formalized, repetitive and felt to be obligatory, they commemorate continuity with a dangerous and/or painful past and simultaneously deny it. This essay concerns memory, ritual, and the deliberate obscurity of reference.

In spite of the universality of clientelism, it is often seen as a peculiar aspect of Third World politics, one which inevitably stifles development. This study examines clientelistic relationships in south-western Nigeria and their possible impact on rural development, with a special focus on Ibadan. It finds that rural clients attract the attention of the political class to promote the exchange of goods for loyalty through associations that afford clients a sort of cohesive power and a common front, the basis of their relevance in the political-clientelistic chain. This clientelistic chain also serves as the channel through which development projects are conceived and implemented. But since the projects provided only serve symbolic purposes, they easily collapse: clients may have the opportunity of changing patrons, but they remain subservient to the political/economic elite. Thus rural underdevelopment persists in spite of a continual inflow of development projects (and goods).

In recent years there has been an outpouring of Kenyan scholarship on the ways popular musicians engage with politics in the public sphere. With respect to the rise in the 1990s and 2000s of gospel music – whose politics are more pietistic than activist – this article challenges how to ‘understand’ the politics of gospel music taken from a small speech community, in this case the Meru. In observing street performances of a new style of preaching, ‘lip-synch’ gospel, I offer ethnographic readings of song lyrics to show that Meru's gospel singers can address moral debates not readily aired in mainline and Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. Critical of hypocrisy in the church and engaging with a wider politics of belonging and identity, Meru gospel singers weave localized ethnopoetics into their Christian music, with the effect that their politics effectively remain concealed within Meru and invisible to the national public sphere. While contesting the perceived corruption, sin and hypocrisy in everyday sociality, such Meru gospel singer groups cannot rightly be considered a local ‘counter-public’ because they still work their politics in the shadows of the churches.