Chieftaincy Politics and the Explosion of the Anglophone (Ambazonian) Crisis in Cameroon
This chapter is a continuation of my efforts to investigate and elaborate on the intercalary position of traditional rulers in Africa, specifically those in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon (Fokwang, 2005, 2009, 2011). Many scholars and activists continue to see traditional rulers as ‘decentralized despots’ (Mamdani, 1996) with little to offer other than acting as brokers for political capital between an unpopular centralized state machinery and a largely dispossessed rural peasantry (Fisiy, 1995; Jua, 1995).
