Anthropologist
As you may or may not know, I’m an ethnographic filmmaker with a passion for telling African stories that would otherwise not be heard or seen. In 2016, I released my debut documentary film, Something New in Old Town. It has played at film festivals in the USA, Switzerland and Nigeria, where last year, it won the best documentary film at the inaugural Lekki International Film Festival in Lagos.
In this lecture, I examine some of the theoretical models that have dominated the anthropological debates on development. In the course of this exploration, we will demonstrate the privileged insights that anthropological approaches can bring to bear on our understanding of culture and the human quest for peace. Three key theoretical approaches are examined – namely, modernization, dependency theory and post-development. I discuss the basic tenets of each of the models and provide brief critiques, substantiating them with ethnographic examples from Africa, including my own fieldwork in Cameroon.
About the Film Set in the sprawling community of Old Town, the cradle of the modern city of Bamenda (Cameroon), Something New in Old Town explores a unique approach to grassroots development and communal empowerment. This intimate documentary, filmed over … Continued
