The Bakundu of Cameroon Yesterday and Today: a Study in Tradition and Modernity

This study is essentially about culture and culture change in Bakundu society. Culture and culture change have assumed a new importance in recent years with the coming of globalisation, giving currency to phrases like ?culture wars? and most famously, Huntington?s ?clash of civilisations?, the latter symbolised by the current confrontations between radical Islam and a post-Christian, post-modern secular West. This work examines the various dimensions of change in Bakundu belief system and practices. It shows how the process of modernization became irreversible because it was eventually embraced and sustained by new social classes which emerged through elite formations like the Bakundu Students? Union.