La nation passe par la femme: Global influences and local interpretation in the Islamic fundamentalist discourse in North Cameroon

Dr José van Santen is a lecturer at the University of Leiden’s Department of Cultural Anthropology. From 1986 onwards she has regularly carried out research in North Cameroon into the processes of Islamization and migration. From 2001 to 2003 she was the scientific coordinator of the Centre d’Etude de l’Environnement et du Développement au Cameroun, a scientific research institute in this region. She is currently working on processes of fundamentalism.

Islamic rulers in North Cameroon not only had political hegemony in the pre-colonial period, due to indirect rule in colonial times, but customary power was fused as local chiefs had to cooperate with the colonial ruler. This situation continued in a similar vein after independence, though the Christian Southern influence increased after a Christian Southerner president replaced the first Muslim president. Though processes of democratization are, in theory, part of the present political context, citizens still respect local – state approved and inaugurated – rulers who in turn support the political party in power.

In this context, the reception of a Muslim purifying wave in an area that is culturally as well ethnically related to the Nigerian Northern States where Sharia law has been adopted is intriguing. Bearing in mind the worldwide protest against the condemnation of a woman who was supposed to have committed adultery, one wonders whether similar discussions are taking place in North Cameroon and if fundamentalist tendencies are characterized by a control over women, as is the case in many fundamentalist communities.

Discussions that took place during a workshop to sensibilize traditional political and religious Muslim leaders on a gender approach will be taken as a point of departure when analysing these questions, while relations with the political arena will also be given attention.