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Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon xv The Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon highlights the efforts of the leadership of a typical African country like Cameroon in mobilizing the youths through the National Youth Day to participate in the country’s development initiatives. It examines youth governance as an international problem as well as the role of the Youth Day as an international policy advocacy tool. It also describes the development of a national youth policy in Cameroon as well as the origin and development of the National Youth Day as a vehicle for ideology, the creation of domain consensus by the masses, and the articulation of government policy. The study not only compiles the various messages to the youths, but also documents and analyses their themes and their relevance to the country’s leadership. Finally, it reflects on the relevance of the Cameroon National Youth Day and its messages to the wider issue of leadership as the foundation for African Renaissance. The Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon, however , does not address the reactions, perceptions, and actions of the youth to these messages and government policies towards them, which could be the subject of another study. It nevertheless lays the foundation for such a study which might be an important indicator in assessing youth governance in the continent. The book’s significance comes from the observation that Cameroon, «Africa in Miniature», is one of the few countries in the continent where the celebration of a National Youth Day has been institutionalized for the past 45 years. With the adoption in 2008 of 1st November as the African Youth Day to be celebrated every year, barely eight years after the celebration of 12 August as the International Youth Day in 2000, there is no doubt that experiences like those from Cameroon could help in a meaningful celebration of the African Youth Day in the continent. With a Prologue and an Epilogue, the study itself is divided into two parts. The first part, with two chapters, provides the global policy framework for youth governance and the celebration of the Youth Day, as well as provides an understanding of the policy environment and context in which the Youth Day is celebrated in Cameroon. The second part, with five chapters, presents the youth messages across different stages of the country’s political history: the Colonial Period (1949-1960), the West Cameroon Period (1960-1967), the Federal Youth Day Period (1968-1972), the Ahidjo Unitary State Period (1972-1982), the One-Party Democracy New Deal Period (1982-1992), and the period of the New Democratic Order (1992-2009). The study ends with a description of efforts by the ECA, OAU, and AU in developing a continental youth agenda between 1963 and 2008. It also provides the basis for a deeper reflection of the critical role of the youths in forging an African renaissance. The Youth and National-Building in Cameroon is however the personal reflections of someone whose heart beats with the Cameroon nation. The reflections of a man who was born in Great Soppo, Buea, during the ‘‘Re-unification Week’’ Prologue Churchill Ewumbue-Monono xvi of February 1961 when Cameroon gained international attention as ‘‘an experiment in nation-building’’ because of the re-unification through the UN Plebiscite of 11 February 1961, of the French and English parts into a Federal republic. Like any other child of that generation attending Primary School in Buea, Tombel, or Tiko between 1966 and 1973, the National Youth Day, 11 February, was just a youth festival. It was a day of festivities, fanfare and spectacles, a day of leisure, sports and cultural distractions, and a day of friendly reunions in youth organizations like the Boys Scout and the Junior Red Cross. We never knew it was a day for any serious reflection by the leadership, and we had no time for thinking. It was only in my last years in St. Joseph’s College Sasse and during my High School days in CCAS Kumba (1978-1980) as a late adolescent that debates were introduced as part of the youth day activities, and most of the debate topics had nothing to do with the official Youth Day themes selected by the leadership. In fact, in CCAS Kumba, such debates were even organized by the Debate and UNESCO Clubs which and merely brought in the lecturers as mediators. Even at this stage, the National Youth Day still remained a Festival Day, and though during march past there was...

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