Traditional chiefdoms between tradition and modernity

Traditional chieftaincies are tools of transmission between central power and the local population, because they have faced up to modernity and developed survival strategies from the period of colonisation to the present day, including the period of democratisation in Africa since 1990. From this perspective, the Bamoun kingdom is now considered to be one of the most authentic traditional structures to have endured and preserved its traditions and customs while adapting to modernity. Our work requires us to show as we go along the transformations undergone by the Bamoun kingdom from the political, economic and social points of view, and it is on this basis that it has been constructed in two parts totalling 137 pages. The first part is entitled "Un royaume adossé à la survivance des traditions" ("A kingdom based on the survival of traditions") and the second part is entitled "Un royaume stratégiquement réceptif au modernisme" ("A kingdom strategically receptive to modernism").