a prince by any other name? identity and politics in Highland Cameroon

Abstract

Small public acts carry with them the keys to the cultural and institutional worlds in which they occur. To understand why a particular person in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon changed his name, and thereby the symbol of his public identity, this study presents the cultural and political context in which such an act makes sense. This context includes the historical relations between the two Grassfields chiefdoms of Nso and Nseh, as well as the relations of each with the national economic and political systems.