Levels of historical awareness: The development of identity and ethnicity in Cameroon

The development of a sense of history & collective identity that is consequent on it has tended to vary depending on whether this is situated at the local community or the level of the framework of the modern nation-state in the making. This affected the politics of identity in the colonial period & has continued to fashion that of the postcolonial situation. There is evidently a contradiction between scientific & ideological constructions of history. The paper explores the formulation or reformulation of history, the development of identity in the Sawa & Kedjom communities of Cameroon. The paper demonstrates that history inspires different types of practices at different levels with the politics of identity being only one of the levels. Local level histories are thus essentially histories that ensure the cultural, psychosocial, & political unity of a group while regional level histories tend to portray intercommunity relations. The impact of colonial & postcolonial developments on the awareness of history with diverse groups obliged to cohabit within one single space is not to be underestimated as this triggers off tensions. The paper also describes how communities manage identity pluralism at different levels depending on the different meanings that are attributed to historical traditions & argues that this is quite possible in the modern nation-state that brings together a variety of historic communities. However, historical depth would be an important factor in the formation of historical awareness & the management of identity pluralism. 67 References. Adapted from the source document.