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What does it mean to be marginal? For residents of Cape Town's Langa Township, being considered marginal is subject to a host of social, physical and sometimes materialistic qualifications - not least of which is owning a mobile phone. Through various presentations of unique aspects of township life revealed through ethnographic snapshots, this book reveals the complex realities of marginalization experienced by some residents in Langa Township, located in Cape Town, South Africa. Mobile phones have been embraced and accommodated by both local South Africans and African immigrant residents living and working in Langa. Among other things, the technology has become a way of challenging (real and imagined) marginalities within the township in particular and South Africa in general. The book provides empirical data on the role of technology in regards to migration and notions of belonging; specifically the ways that technology has mitigated distance for residents, provided opportunities for development, facilitated the negotiation of various marginalities, and offered new ways of belonging for Langa residents.

This study raises awareness to the emergence of a new genre in world literature-hybridized literature. It rejects the assumption according to which literatures written in less commonly taught languages should be subsumed into one universally accessible global idiom. Instead, Vakunta challenges literary scholars and readers of literature to regard untranslatability as the key to cross-cultural engagement. The book's multiple approaches and innumerable sources generate complex interdisciplinary connections and provide an excellent introduction to a complex literary phenomenon alien to literati resident outside the officially bilingual multicultural and multilingual Republic of Cameroon.

On March 8, 2007, one of Cameroon's foremost scholars died in a ghastly traffic accident barely hours after launching his most forthright and acerbic collection of poems: Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus. Dr. Bate Besong was a social activist, a critic, troubadour, and playwright; an avant-garde, steeped in the tradition of the absurd, who fought against the corrupt system of governance that transmuted Cameroonians into a comatose and apathetic citizenry neutered by fear engendered by the workings of an existing Gestapo. For the first time, Emmanuel Fru Doh has gone beyond an analysis of Besong's plays into giving an in-depth appraisal of his poems which have, for a long time, held back critics because of their opacity. Doh examines each of Besong's plays and collections of poems in separate sections and succeeds in setting Besong's work in perspective-mindful of their concerns and the nation's history-as informed by a succinct political vision and an already established technique modified only by genre. The Obasinjom Warrior, which amounts to a brief look at the scholar's life and a detailed study of his works, is a befitting tribute to a true patriot and scholar who died fighting the forces of evil, in positions of power, which have transformed his native Cameroon into a province of hell. This is a careful, detailed, and authoritative study of one of the most significant literary figures ever to emerge from Cameroon.

This book provides insight into the experiences of mobility and migration in contemporary South Africa, contributing to a field of literature about multiculturalism and urban public space in globalizing cities. It takes into consideration the greater international political and local socio-economic factors that drive migration, relationships and conviviality, and how they are intertwined in the everyday narrative of "insiders" and "outsiders". The Bellville central business district demonstrates the realities of interconnected local and global hierarchies of citizenship and belonging and how they emerge in a world of accelerated mobility. The book further demonstrates how the emergence of conviviality in everyday public life represents a critical field for contemplating contemporary notions of human rights, citizenship and belonging.

How does one think about the form of the State in its management of conflicting ethnic groups in positive light in Africa in the present and in the future? Ethnic reality in Africa continues to be the principal determining factor of individual and collective existence, constituting an obstacle to the normal operation of its States, which often fail or collapse. In the global era, the re-organisation of power and of thought in plural societies leads to socio-political and geopolitical stabilisation. The author here argues for the implementation of 'deliberative democracy' or 'governance under the tree' as a synthesis of liberal and republican democracy based on the 'win-win' principle, different from majoritarian democracy where the 'winner takes all'. The theory of the multinational state thus proposes a constitutional, political and conceptual innovation in the plural societies of the 21st century: it entails restructuring the imagination to allow a global shift in African political thought, its needs, desires, quests, expectations and hopes.

This book is a succinct account of the role immigrants from French Cameroon played in the Reunification politics in the Southern Cameroons. The study reveals that these "strangers" organised themselves in Pressure Groups in order to fight for equal opportunities with the indigenes and when such opportunities were not coming, they initiated the Reunification Idea, propagated it and converted many reluctant Southern Cameroonians. They militated in pro-reunification political parties such as the KNC, KNDP, UPC and OK and successfully shifted the reunification idea from the periphery to the centre of Southern Cameroons decolonisation politics. The immigrants convinced the UN through petitions and reunification which was the most unpopular option for independence became one of the two alternatives at the 1961 plebiscite. They and the reluctant KNDP campaigned and voted for it. The Reunification of Cameroon was therefore the handiwork of French Cameroon immigrants.

When a young girl's dreams are cracked like a mirror and children are caught between two fathers harbouring teenage grudges we wonder at life's surprises. These are short stories that present a cross section of an African society presenting life in the village, life in town, portraits of teenagers and adults we encounter every day. These are stories about our struggles with the inevitable forces of life, providing some subtle and interesting insights to these struggles. They have been told by a woman who has, in these stories, proven to be a keen observer who mentally records the thrills, frustrations and idiosyncrasies of the people she encounters. We would wonder, laugh and sympathise with the characters she has so vividly recreated.

The Lock on My Lips foregrounds gender, narrative and identity in its representations. It tells the story of a woman who defies traditional patriarchal boundaries that deny women their rights, most especially the right to landed property and buys land in her name. Discursive constructions, 'travelling concepts', metaphors, multiple perspectives, narrative, imagery, folklore, anthropological objects, and mixed-genre plot structure (narrative-(poetic)-drama), combine to tell the story of gendered beings and thus pave the way for exploring the interdisciplinary potentials of the play-text. Land and genre are gender markers. Land is definable through power and authority, constitutes the material with which masculinities are constructed, and thus becomes a space where women are excluded. The play equates land with patriarchal ideology of male virility and supremacy, but creates a mixed-genre fragmentary structure to disrupt the very patriarchal power erected through the metaphor of land.

Population growth and the drop in the returns from the major cash crop (coffee) for small farmers are the main drivers that have influenced the farming systems and mobility of farmers in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The main objective of the research that led to this book was to determine the interactions between farming systems and human mobility in this region of Cameroon. A comparative study was conducted through household and field surveys in three villages and conceptualized based on the systems approach. The different types of mobility were influenced by household social factors, the quest for 'high valued' farm plots and hired labour. Urban-rural migration contributed to occupation diversification and social mobility. The sustainability factor was a function of land use intensity, intensity of off-farm inputs, the household adjustment factor and mobility of the household. The sacred groves were rich in plant diversity of varied ecological and economic importance. Nitrogen mining was common at all levels of the farming system. These determinants and types of mobility claims are pertinent to the research area; the sustainability results of the farming systems reflect the reality on the ground; the nutrient flux evaluated at the crop and farm levels constitute a valuable database for future research.

This book is an opportune warning that alienation, estrangement and intentional diminishment serve as a cancer upon those who disburse it. The outsider suffers by being alone; the insider suffers even more by being forever known as a hypocrite who perpetuates dystopia. It uses literature as a hothouse for poisonous potted plants, the workings of a mind in turmoil and the exploration of a society or societies that seems to derive pleasure from others' ruin. Fears, Doubts, and Joy of Not Belonging considers themes that are biblical in scope from different societies and historical epochs. It is a sobering spiritual enlightenment of a child's "silent treatment" in adult form. The text complements language engineers and social scientists who are on a quest or search for how the individual responds to pressure that is unexpected, ill-conceived and in desperate need of alleviation. Not only does this particular type of cancer differ from the type a surgeon can treat, the stage at which this malady is diagnosed causes far more problems than if it were dealt with head on. Pursuing numerous examples of estrangement, this diverse text delves into a wide spectrum of human behavior while coming to the realization that these problems are universal and have been with us for a long, long time. The purpose of resistance, individuality and personal identity is to rise above these obstacles without losing hope, resilience or optimism.

This is a touching play that interrogates certain traditional mores by revisiting the archetypal themes of love, deceit, and regret. It depicts a society in which people do not have the right to express themselves and their emotions. The play is a tragedy that ends with some cleansing of a land ruined by greed and individualism.