The Politics of Personal Relations in Ngaoundere, experiencing neo-patrimonalism

This paper deals with political culture in northern Cameroon. By analysing two happenings, an arrival of a minister in his home town and his speech to the traditional elites in town, we discover how neo-patrimonial politics is experienced in a given locality. Important aspects of neo-patrimonialisme such as personal distribution of public resources and confronting different moral obligations resulting in a sort of appearance of illusions, are described and analysed. Yet, the complexity of symbols, illusions, behaviours and attitudes outlined in these two happenings suggest that we have to go beyond the neo-patrimonial model of thinking if we want to understand politics in Cameroon.