Ben Nantang Jua

I am a 'Maitre de Recherche' at Cameroon’s Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research and taught at the University of Buea between 1993-1999.

Whereas no active fieldwork has been going on in the Ministry since the closure of the Institute of Human Sciences, I still do research on social transformations and democratization in Cameroon. At the same time, I am the Assistant Coordinator of Ethno-Net Africa (ENA), a Network of African scholars that monitor and study ethnic conflicts and conviviality in Africa.

During my stay in Leiden, I would work on a book length manuscript on Social Transformations and Democratization in Cameroon. Essentially, it would examine the construction of the hegemonic state in Cameroon, the role of youths and women in the democratization process as well as primordial role of ethnicity. At the same time, I am also working on some contributions to the Encyclopedia of the Developing World and on article on death that now occupies a prominent place on the African research agenda since the controversy over the burying of O’tieno.