Research Focus

Agricultural history, Slavery, Colonial economic policies, Land conflicts

Selected Publications

• Kengo, Emmanuel E. 2021. The raffia palm: A neglected economic tree crop of the North West Region of Cameroon. Asian Journal of Social Science and Humanities 10 (2): 37-51.
• Kengo, Emmanuel E. 2018. The demise of the coffee industry of the North West Region of Cameroon. In Takougang, Joseph and Julius Amin (eds.) Postcolonial Cameroon: Politics, Economy and Society. Maryland: Lexington Books, 133-153
• Kengo, Emmanuel E. 2015. Bamenda coffee farmers and the unfulfilled expectations of unification, 1961-1971: A decade of disappointed hopes. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 4 (1): 88-107.
• Kengo, Emmanuel E. 2010. The Post-World War II British economic policies and the coffee industry in Bamenda, 1945-1961. African Journal of Social Sciences 1 (1): 146-157.
• Kengo, Emmanuel E. 2010. Colonial policies and indigenous response: The difficult origins of coffee in the North West Region of Cameroon. Epasa moto: A Bilingual Journal of Arts, Letters and the Humanities 5 (1): 185- 2011.

Summary of research topic in the CL&CK Project 

(Mis)representation of Southern Cameroonians in colonial communications

Colonialism relied on knowledge of the colonized for dominance, effective administration and exploitation. And so, effective colonial administration required a good knowledge of the colonized.   The British logically started their colonial administration of Southern Cameroons, with studies that culminated in Intelligence and Assessment Reports on the various groups of people, correspondences on various subjects etc. aimed at understanding the colonized. Taking a close examination of some of these colonial reports and the ensuing correspondences lodged at the Cameroon National Archives in Buea, this paper examines the representation of the colonized in these communications and also looks at attempts by some of the colonized groups to contest colonial misrepresentation in the postcolonial state. It intends to show how colonial representation or misrepresentation influenced identity construction and contestation in the colonial and post-colonial state. The paper argues that in spite of the numerous anthropological studies carried out (Assessment and Intelligence Reports), the colonizer did not quite understand the colonized which led to some errors of judgment.