Les Pionniers Locaux de l'animation Radio au Nord-Cameroun: Entre Subalternité et Mobilité Sociale (1958-début des années 2000)

Abstract

This article deals with the place and status of radio local pioneers in the making and the evolution of Northern Cameroon's media landscape and social space. Drawing from history from below, it uses bourdieusian sociology and subaltern studies theories as entries to question the emergence and the social (re)positioning of the first radio local actors in Northern Cameroon's social space. As radio hosts assigned to the production of programs in local languages, these pioneers were second class professional who emerged in the framework of mutations induced by colonization. Thanks to their recruitment in Radio-Garoua - the first radio implanted in the region in 1958 - they constituted a new socio-professional category/class, in a society apportioned between tradition and modernity. Through empirical data provided by three biographies (Ahmadou Abdou, Adam Alhadji and Haoua Siddiki), the study reveals that the trajectories of these pioneers were determined by the French (neo) colonial policies and the perpetuation of Muslim hegemony under Ahmadou Ahidjo's regime (1960-1982). This sociopolitical context contributed in making their social status ambivalent. Benefiting from the cultural capital conferred on them by their belonging to the Muslim community, they integrated the modern society where they were looked upon as subalterns whereas this integration valued their image and status in the traditional society.