WHEN THE PAST BECOMES THE FUTURE

This work was done in a context where groups for §culture revitalization sprang all over Cameroon. By §focusing on the actors, means and challenges of §culture revival, it aims to describe the outcome of §a process of de-tribalisation during which ethnic §groups had to relinquish their traditions in order to subscribe to modernization. The revitalization of §the Gbaya Culture within the Sirta group, works §against this trend; tradition is made relevant and §used in the current context as a tool for §respectability, social element for identity §reconstruction and ethnic cohesion.§This study deals with the struggle for adaptation to §a changing environment and the (re) invention of §tradition. The book also highlights hindrances §pertained in that process. §By placing this debate in the global context of §encounters between civilizations, this book reveals §dilemmas that occur in people s lives, choices that §are to be made, and mainly the state of bewilderment §in which members of ethnic groups find themselves in §Africa and more specifically in Cameroon.