Work

Black Skins, European Masks: Transforming the Collective Unconscious in Cameroon

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Over the last decade, Cameroon has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups surfaced calling for secession—the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. The failure to resolve the crisis peacefully through dialogue has resulted in a spiral of violence between armed separatists and the military. Building on the work of Frantz Fanon, this paper offers an analysis of the construction of these identities before and after European colonisation. In mapping the contours of Francophone and Anglophone assimilation it seeks to explore how the current crisis might be resolved through what Fanon describes as a transformation of the collective unconscious and what the Nigerian philosopher Cyril Orji describes as a psychological transition away from prejudice against the Other.

Source: Genealogy

DOI: 10.3390/genealogy9040113

Author: Daniel John Pratt Morris-Chapman

Institution: Stellenbosch University

Language: English

Topic: African history and culture studies

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,689