LA DYNAMIQUE HISTORICO-ANTHROPOLOGIQUE DES INSTITUTIONS SOCIO-POLITIQUES TRADITIONNELLES BAMILEKE : LE CAS DES MENDZONGS DANS LE GROUPEMENT BAFOU DE L’OUEST-CAMEROUN

Abstract

Contrary to the assumption that tradition is static, a sociohistorical and anthropological approach demonstrates that tradition is sensitive to change or evolution. It is by concentrating on the concrete case of the Bafou traditional kingdom, like other Bamileke traditional kingdoms of Cameroon that we realise that a sociopolitical structure like that of the MENDZONGS for instance, were assigned many tasks after their creation. These tasks especially those linked with ancient tribal wars have not remained static, but have been dynamic. Following the disappearance of endemic wars, the MENDZONGS have reconstructed and reorganised their selves under the duress of state modernity, by becoming the bedrock for development and selfdevelopment through the resolution of Bafou grouping problems in many domains, such as financial, material or physical. This testifies the sense of their permanent and perpetual dynamism due to the fact that these structures have found themselves in a dual dialectic of destruction and reconstruction. Here, they were first of all composed by historical positions, which were later decomposed and in recent times, they have been recomposed, with the main goal of surviving and adapting to the mutations and social changes in order to be up to date with current events to sustain their traditional army and the kingdom‟s sociopolitical statute in this period of modernity.