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Faith, Power and Family Christianity and Social Change in French Cameroon

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Faith, Power and Family Christianity and Social Change in French Cameroon RELIGION IN TRANSFORMING AFRICA Faith, Power and Family In this original and compelling study, Charlotte Walker-Said illuminates how Christianity inspired and moved its converts, not simply in their faith practice, but also in their efforts to construct moral and ethical Christian worlds that could serve as a bulwark against the arbitrary interventions of colonial rule. … This book is essential reading for those who are interested in Christianity, colonialism, and 20th-century African history. Emily Lynn Osborn, University of Chicago A very useful book for a social history of Africa course ... and because the exposition is so lucid and the comparative case so interesting, for historians of gender, religion, and law in colonial contexts. Barbara Cooper, Rutgers University Between the two World Wars, African Catholic and Protestant evangelists repurposed Christianity to challenge local and foreign governments in the French-administered League of Nations Mandate of Cameroon. In this book, Walker-Said shows how African catechists, pastors, priests, nuns, and other Christian leaders transformed foreign missionary societies into profoundly local religious institutions with indigenous ecclesiastical hierarchies and devotional social and charitable networks, devising novel authority structures to control resources and govern cultural and social life. Contesting forced labour and authoritarian governance as threats to family stability and community integrity, these men and women renovated doctrines on conjugal complementarity, social equilibrium, and family stability to forge local spiritual and charismatic movements to renew family and community structures. Casting new light on the ways in which family intimacies and kinship ties WALKER-SAID CHARLOTTE constituted the force of community resistance to the devastating changes colonialism wrought in the private sphere, this history also demonstrates the relevance of faith in the midst of a tumultuous series of forces arising out of the colonial situation. Charlotte Walker-Said is Assistant Professor, Department of Africana Studies, John Jay College, City University of New York (CUNY). Cover image: Mosaic above the altar at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires de Yaoundé, designed by the Reverend Father Engelbert Mveng, S.J. Faith, Power and Family (Charlotte Walker-Said) Christianity and Social Change in French Cameroon CHARLOTTE WALKER-SAID www.jamescurrey.com RELIGION IN TRANSFORMING AFRICA FaithPF_ppc_aw02.indd 1 19/06/2018 22:22 Faith, Power and Family Christianity and Social Change in French Cameroon Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 1 18/06/2018 11:29 Series information: RELIGION IN TRANSFORMING AFRICA ISSN 2398-8673 Series Editors Barbara Bompani, Joseph Hellweg, Ousmane Kane and Emma Wild-Wood Editorial Reading Panel Robert Baum (Darmouth College) Dianna Bell (Vanderbilt University) Ezra Chitando (University of Zimbabwe) Martha Frederiks (Utrecht University) Paul Gifford (SOAS) David M. Gordon (Bowdoin College) Jörg Haustein (SOAS) Paul Lubeck (Johns Hopkins University-SAIS) Philomena Mwaura (Kenyatta University, Nairobi) Ebenezer Obadare (University of Kansas) Benjamin Soares (University of Florida & University of Amsterdam) Abdulkader I. Tayob (University of Cape Town) Stephen Wooten (University of Oregon) Series description The series is open to submissions that examine local or regional realities on the complexities of religion and spirituality in Africa. Religion in Transforming Africa will showcase cutting-edge research into continent-wide issues on Christianity, Islam and other religions of Africa; Traditional beliefs and witchcraft; Religion, culture & society; History of religion, politics and power; Global networks and new missions; Religion in conflict and peace-building processes; Religion and development; Religious rituals and texts and their role in shaping religious ideologies and theologies. Innovative and challenging current perspectives, the books provide an indispensable resource on this key area of African Studies for academics, students, international policy-makers and development practitioners. Please contact the Series Editors with an outline or download the proposal form at www.jamescurrey.com. Dr Barbara Bompani, Reader in Africa & International Development, University of Edinburgh [email protected] Dr Joseph Hellweg, Associate Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Florida State University [email protected] Professor Ousmane Kane, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion & Society, Harvard Divinity School [email protected] Dr Emma Wild-Wood, Senior Lecturer in African Christianity & African Indigenous Religions, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh [email protected] Previously published titles in the series: Violent Conversion: Brazilian Pentecostalism and Urban Women in Mozambique, Linda Van de Kamp (2016) Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian & Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town, edited by Insa Nolte, Olukoya Ogen and Rebecca Jones (2017) Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 2 18/06/2018 11:29 Faith, Power and Family Christianity and Social Change in French Cameroon CHARLOTTE WALKER-SAID Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 3 18/06/2018 11:29 James Currey is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) www.jamescurrey.com and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue Rochester, NY 14620-2731 (US) www.boydellandbrewer.com © Charlotte Walker-Said 2018 First published 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. The right of Charlotte Walker-Said to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library ISBN 978-1-84701-182-4 (James Currey cloth) ISBN 978-1-84701-183-1 (James Currey Africa only paperback) The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate This publication is printed on acid-free paper Typeset by Double Dagger Book Production in 9.5/13pt Georgia Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 4 18/06/2018 11:29 For Maher Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 5 18/06/2018 11:29 Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 6 18/06/2018 11:29 Contents List of Illustrations viii Note on the Cover Image ix Acknowledgments x List of Abbreviations xiv Maps xv 1 Introduction: Marriage at the Nexus of Faith, Power, and Family 1 Part I French Rule, Social Politics, and New Religious Communities, 1914–1925 2 Christian Transmission and Colonial Imposition 53 3 African Catechists and Charismatic Activities 79 4 Evaluating Marriage and Forming a Virtuous Household 101 5 Faith, Family, and the Endurance of the Lineage 141 Part II Labor, Economic Transformation, and Family Life, 1925–1939 6 African Church Institutions in Action 173 7 African Agents of the Church and State: Male Violence and Productivity 209 8 Ethical Masculinity: The Church and the Patriarchal Order 237 9 The Significance of African Christian Communities Beyond Cameroon 271 Bibliography 285 Index 309 Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 7 18/06/2018 11:29 Illustrations Maps 1 The Equatorial Forest Zone xv Source: Derek Bruggeman, Patrick Meyfroidt, and Eric F. Lambin, “Production Forests as a Conservation Tool: Effectiveness of Cameroon’s Land Use Zoning Policy,” Land Use Policy 42 (January 1, 2015): 151–64 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.07.012) 2 Major roads and railroads in Cameroon, 1914–1944 xvi Source: Achille Mbembe, La Naissance Du Maquis Dans Le Sud- Cameroun, 1920–1960 : Histoire Des Usages de La Raison En Colonie (Paris: Karthala, 1996), 63 and 75, and ANOM Série Service des Travaux Publics et Chemins de Fer, 427/4 3 Regional boundaries and administrative centers of Cameroon, 1944 xvii Source: Eugène Guernier and René Briat, Cameroun, Togo, Encyclopédie de l’Afrique Française (Paris: Éditions de l’Union Française, 1951), 33, 36, and 41 4 Political boundaries of French Cameroon, 1922–1960 xviii Source: Cameroun, État Fédéré Orientale, Journal Officiel, October 1, 1961 (Yaoundé: Imprimerie Nationale) 5 Primary Catholic mission stations and larger secondary mission outposts in the French-governed Cameroon territory, 1914–1939 xix Source: ACSSp. 2J1.9a3, “Vie du Diocèse de Douala,” “Vie du Diocèse de Yaoundé” 6 Primary and secondary Catholic missions in the Yaoundé region, 1914–1939 xx Source: ACSSp. 2J1.9a3, “Vie du Diocèse de Yaoundé” 7 Presbyterian missions in the French-governed Cameroon territory, 1914–1939 xxi Source: Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 112th Annual report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, 1949 (New York: Presbyterian Church, USA, 1949), 12 Z00 WalkS Book B.indb 8 18/06/2018 11:29 Note on the Cover Image The image on the cover of this book is of the altar mosaic in the Notre Dame des Victoires Cathedral in Yaoundé, Cameroon, which was designed by Father Engelbert Mveng, S.J. Mveng, a Cameroonian Jesuit priest, as well as a his- torian, anthropologist, artist, philosopher, and theologian, is credited with conceiving of the “theology of life,” which
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