The Union Des Populations Du Cameroun, from Vilification to National Recognition: The Evolution of State Discourses on the Nationalist Political Party in Post-Colonial Cameroon

Abstract

Similarly to historiography, war crimes trials, novels or movies, the press can be considered as a ‘vector’ of collective memory (Wood, 1999). Maurice Halbwachs (1992) sees collective memory as performative — that is, a reconstruction and an appropriation of the past used to meet or influence present needs. Accordingly, collective memory emerges at specific times and places often through institutionalised memorial activities such as special observances meant to mark an important social or historical event. The press, then, is one of the primary modes through which collective memory is transmitted across generations. The media, as agents of diffusion of social memory, can participate in the regulation of its strength and intensity in the public space. It is not only a primary means of revitalisation and enrichment of collective and individual memories but it can also be a potential source of frustration. Owing to their role as channels of memory and agents of information, the media play an important role in memory construction as collectors and transmitters of past and current events, and perhaps more importantly, the interpretation of those events. The diachronic analysis of state discourse and articles published in the Cameroonian state-affiliated and controlled newspapers enables one to apprehend the evolution of the historical and political representations of the radical nationalist party called the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) and the political use of its past by the political authorities from 1960 onwards.