Cette recherche traite de la réinvention de la tradition qui a pour but de modifier l'attractivité territoriale et l'imaginaire touristique du pays bamiléké au Cameroun. Le questionnement porte sur la réinvention de la tradition et la patrimonialisation qui contribuent à faire des chefferies et des funérailles bamiléké des attractions touristiques. Ce travail analyse les logiques et les stratégies des acteurs dans la mise en place des projets touristiques en pays bamiléké. Les chefferies sont depuis plusieurs années marquées par des logiques de mise en patrimoine et de mise en tourisme. Ces actions modifient profondément leur organisation, leur fonctionnement et les rapports qu'elles ont avec leur population locale et leurs ressortissants. Ces transformations font actuellement de la chefferie bamiléké une attraction touristique pour les touristes internationaux. Par contre, le territoire de cette chefferie projette une image négative chez les Camerounais. Selon ces derniers c'est un territoire sacré, avec des interdits et est associé à un imaginaire du mystique. Cet imaginaire a longtemps éloigné les Camerounais des chefferies bamiléké. De nos jours, ces institutions traditionnelles sont devenues l'objet des politiques de développement touristique à travers la décentralisation et les différentes coopérations internationales. La réinvention de la tradition dans les festivals et les funérailles bamiléké contribue à améliorer l'efficacité de l'attractivité et de l'imaginaire touristique du pays bamiléké. Les logiques et les stratégies mises en place par les différents acteurs ne sont pas les mêmes. Si pour les uns il s'agit d'une logique purement socioculturelle et économique (les acteurs du développement touristique), pour les autres, la logique reste une recherche du prestige (les organisateurs de funérailles). De cette étude, nous avons retenu deux principales conclusions : bien que les traditions soient réinventées par les acteurs du développement touristique dans les chefferies bamiléké, elles restent peu attractives pour les touristes nationaux. Les musées, et les cases d'hôtes dans les chefferies bamiléké ne sont pas perçus comme des attractions touristiques par les nationaux. Ce sont surtout les festivals et les funérailles qui attirent de plus en plus les Camerounais en pays bamiléké. Les organisateurs des funérailles et des festivals mettent en place différentes logiques d'actions innovantes pour attirer de plus en plus les Camerounais dans le pays bamiléké. / Our research deals with the new invention of a tradition meant to alter the territorial attraction and tourist imagination of the bamileke land in Cameroun. Our questioning is about that new invention of the tradition and the patrimonialization which help make the bamileke funerals and chiefs palaces tourist attraction. This work highlights the logic and strategies of the actors in setting up tourist projects in bamileke areas. For man y years, the chiefs palaces have been marked with the logic of patrimony or tourism. Those actions deeply modify their organization, their functioning and their relationships with the local population and their nationals. These changes presently make the bamileke chiefs palace a tourist attraction for foreign tourist. Nevertheless the area ruled by chief casts a negative image to a Cameroonians. For the latter, it is a sacred territory full of taboos and associated with a mystical imagination. For a long time, that imagination estranged the Cameroonians from those lands ruled by bamiléké chiefs. Nowadays, those traditional institutions are targeted by the policy of tourist development through decentralization and different international cooperation. The new invention of the tradition in bamileke festivals and funerals help improve the efficacy of the attraction and of the tourist imagination of the bamileke land. The logic and strategies set up by the different actors are not alike. If for some the logic is purely sociocultural and economic (the actors of tourist development) for others, that logic is about the research of prestige (funeral planners). In this survey, two main conclusions are to be considered; although the tradition has been invented anew by the promoters of tourist development in the bamiléké areas, they are hardly attractive for national tourist. The museum and guest huts are not considered as tourist attraction by the nationals. Only festivals and funerals draw more and more Cameroonian toward bamileke lands. Different logic of innovation action has been set up by the festivals and funerals planners in order to attract a great number of Cameroonians to the bamileke areas.

Au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale, une coalition d'un corps expéditionnaire militaire franco-britannique se partage le protectorat allemand d'Afrique centrale : l'actuel Cameroun. Des années 1920 aux années 1950, la domination franco-britannique aggrave les injustices liées à l'organisation hiérarchisée de la société Bamiléké. Lesdites injustices favorisent la naissance du syndicalisme suivi de celle du nationalisme. Les nationalistes réclament l'unification et l'indépendance du Cameroun britannique et du Cameroun français. L'historiographie de ce processus de décolonisation s'est surtout penchée sur le rôle et le sort des élites pro-françaises et des leadeurs du comité directeur du parti nationaliste. L'objectif de cette thèse est de connecter l'histoire de cette élite et celle des subalternes Bamiléké, particulièrement oubliés, en démontrant que certains jouèrent des rôles déterminants dans la création, l'implantation et l'animation des syndicats et du parti nationaliste, tout comme dans le sabotage des activités desdites organisations. Par l'approche de l'« histoire d'en bas », nous explorons les cas d'injustices, de résistances passives ou d'accommodements des subalternes des sociétés hiérarchisées Bamiléké sous ladite domination. Nous revisitons l'accommodement des indicateurs de police et des agents provocateurs. Cette approche a pour but d'élucider la transition de la résistance passive à l'insurrection en juin 1956 afin de mieux comprendre l'éruption de violence dans la région Bamiléké lors de la décolonisation. -- During the First World War, a Coalition of a Franco-British military expeditionary forces shared the German protectorate in Central Africa: Present-day Cameroon. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Franco-British domination increased the injustices associated with the already hierarchical organization of Bamileke society. These injustices led to the emergence of unions, followed by nationalism. The nationalists demanded the unification and independence of British and French Cameroon. This decolonization process historiography has focused on the role and fate of the pro-French elites (chiefs, notables, and colonial intermediaries) and the leaders of the nationalist party's steering committee. The objective of this thesis is to connect the history of this elite with the history of the African subalterns, notably the Bamileke, who have so far been at the historiographical margins of histories of Cameroon's decolonization, by demonstrating how some of them played determining roles in the creation, implementation and animation of the trade unions and the nationalist party, as well as in the sabotage of these organizations' activities. Using a "history from below" approach, I explore cases of injustice, passive resistance, or accommodation of the subalterns within Bamileke hierarchical societies under French domination. I revisit Police informant and agent provocateur collaboration. I adopt this method to elucidate the transition from passive resistance to insurrection in June 1956 to better understand the eruption of violence in the Bamileke region during decolonization.

In a statistical report of the year 2005, Brå informs that the Middle East and North African immigrants are overrepresented in crime in Sweden. Also, in a previous study in Cameroon, I realized that the Bamileke folk (originating from the West Cameroon) is mostly represented in the minor district of the Central Prison of Douala - Cameroon. In an attempt to understand crime perpetrated by migrants, scholars have suggested the unpleasant context of migration, the strain encountered by the migrants as a result of social exclusion, the fact that migrants live in disorganized area where it is more likely to find criminals and the clash of culture between migrants and the natives of the society where they settle. The aim of my research is to find out, on the basis of these four parameters, if it could be possible to understand how the process of criminalization of migrants, in the society where they settle, occurs. In this research, I focus on juvenile delinquency. In order to perform the research and attempt to answer the question, I made of use documentary analysis backed up with data gathered from experience, unstructured observation and interviews I performed among the minority groups. The results of my research do not support that the unpleasant context of exit might be a factor leading to criminalization in the particular case of minority’s youth. It also suggests that it is not the minority’s culture that makes them to be labelled as criminals; it is rather the essentialized perception of the minority group’s culture as being a threat to the dominant group’s values and interests, which contributes in labelling a minority group as criminals. In return, labelling people of the minority group as criminals contributes to their discrimination in the society, thus making them to develop criminal attitudes in order to escape the strain they encounter through discrimination; as this occurs, the young migrant may internalize the idea that he is criminal as a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Discrimination contributes also in making the minority group to settle in disorganized areas where criminal activities are more likely to occur among youths. These findings are important because it might help to understand the risk of criminalizing some actions as belonging to a minority group’s culture. Indeed, doing so seems to reinforce the labelling of people of the minority group as criminal without proper analysis that may explain why they chose to act the way they act. It furthers their discrimination in the society which in turn may force them to use illegal ways to respond to the strain they encounter through discrimination.

In a statistical report of the year 2005, Brå informs that the Middle East and North African immigrants are overrepresented in crime in Sweden. Also, in a previous study in Cameroon, I realized that the Bamileke folk (originating from the West Cameroon) is mostly represented in the minor district of the Central Prison of Douala - Cameroon. In an attempt to understand crime perpetrated by migrants, scholars have suggested the unpleasant context of migration, the strain encountered by the migrants as a result of social exclusion, the fact that migrants live in disorganized area where it is more likely to find criminals and the clash of culture between migrants and the natives of the society where they settle. The aim of my research is to find out, on the basis of these four parameters, if it could be possible to understand how the process of criminalization of migrants, in the society where they settle, occurs. In this research, I focus on juvenile delinquency. In order to perform the research and attempt to answer the question, I made of use documentary analysis backed up with data gathered from experience, unstructured observation and interviews I performed among the minority groups. The results of my research do not support that the unpleasant context of exit might be a factor leading to criminalization in the particular case of minority’s youth. It also suggests that it is not the minority’s culture that makes them to be labelled as criminals; it is rather the essentialized perception of the minority group’s culture as being a threat to the dominant group’s values and interests, which contributes in labelling a minority group as criminals. In return, labelling people of the minority group as criminals contributes to their discrimination in the society, thus making them to develop criminal attitudes in order to escape the strain they encounter through discrimination; as this occurs, the young migrant may internalize the idea that he is criminal as a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Discrimination contributes also in making the minority group to settle in disorganized areas where criminal activities are more likely to occur among youths. These findings are important because it might help to understand the risk of criminalizing some actions as belonging to a minority group’s culture. Indeed, doing so seems to reinforce the labelling of people of the minority group as criminal without proper analysis that may explain why they chose to act the way they act. It furthers their discrimination in the society which in turn may force them to use illegal ways to respond to the strain they encounter through discrimination.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris 1, 2005. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 522-557).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris 1, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 522-557).

La société bamiléké de l’Ouest Cameroun, marquée par une structure sociale hiérarchisée basée sur des références coutumières en cours d’évolution, est traversée par des conflits repérables dans les rapports sociaux. Ces tensions se cristallisent à l’occasion des cérémonies telles que le deuil d’un roturier, terrain des observations de cette thèse. L’analyse sociologique et ethnologique de ces conflits et des modalités de leur gestion pratique, en vue du déroulement du deuil dans son intégralité, mobilise l’outillage théorique de la négociation et des transactions sociales dans l’élaboration permanente de compromis, ce que ce travail analyse tout au long du processus de deuil. Les sources et méthodes empiriques croisées avec l’appareillage théoriques donnent à voir que, chez les Bamiléké, les parties prenantes, en termes de jeux d’acteurs et en relation avec différents cadres de contraintes (coutumier, socio-économique, temporel…), s’organisent pour gérer les conflits à travers des dynamiques de négociation ou de transactions qui conduisent à des compromis toujours relatifs et provisoires. D’abord marqués par le temps du deuil, ces compromis participent plus largement de la recomposition locale des relations sociales et du rapport tradition/modernité dans la société bamiléké. / The Bamileke society of Western Cameroon, marked by a hierarchical social structure based on customary references in the course of evolution, is crossed by conflicts that can be identified in social relations. These tensions crystallize on the occasion of ceremonies such as the mourning of a commoner, field of the observations of this thesis. The sociological and ethnological analysis of these conflicts and the modalities of their practical management, with a view to the unfolding of mourning ceremonies in its entirety, mobilizing the theoretical tools of negotiation and social transactions in the permanent elaboration of compromises, what this work analyses throughout the grieving process. The empirical sources and methods crossed with the theoretical references show that, relatives of the deceased, in terms of sets of actors and in relation to different frame of constraints (customary, socio-economic, temporal...) organize themselves to manage conflicts through negotiation or transactions dynamics that always lead to relative and temporary compromises. At first marked by the time of mourning, these compromises participate more widely in the local recomposition of social relations and the relationship between tradition and modernity in Bamileke society.