La comunicazione Politica nel Camerun oggi

Political communication in Cameroon today The 2011 pluralistic Presidential elections Having passed the whole period of my academic studies in Italy, I strongly desired to return to my African roots in general and more specifically to Cameroon by choosing the above subject for my research work. My studies concentrated primarily on mass media communication, its complexity and how it finds application in Westernized societies. Therefore, travelling back and looking at the complexity of the African territories from an academic point of view was an exceptional opportunity which I accepted with gratitude after years of diploma studies that had kept me away from home. Through my research work on The Political Communication in Cameroon I was able to acquire in depth knowledge on the pillars of political communication: the local mass media (radio, television, print media, etc.), the political system (institutions, political parties, politicians) as well as the electioral system (citizens as voters). The situation of political communication in Cameroon is quite similar to that of many African countries. Typically we find four key elements that characterize the political communication there and still prevent it from functioning effectively. First of all, the mass media of communication in Cameroon are only of marginal importance for the Democratic process. In Westernized societies, by contrast, the mass media are strongly involved and play a key role in social as well as political life of the nations, mainly because of their capacity to influence public opinion and the electors' vote. On a worldwide scale, political communication started developing strongly since the venue/introduction of the television in the '50s. It brought along a shift from Mazzoleni's “pubblicistic dialogic model” and mass media having an insignificant role, to the "model of mediatic political communication” that recognizes the strategic importance of mass communication means for political life. Indeed, it is nowadays the leading concept for almost all democratic countries in the West. Cameroon, however, continous sitting with the previous communication model. Secondly, all political communication in Cameroon is strongly influenced by local habits and traditions: as explained in my studies, we find political communication associated to expressions such as “Politique du ventre” and “Politics Na Njangui”. As a third distinctive element can be considered the fact that the institutions supposed to grant impartiality of political life and communication are totally controlled by the regime. Finally, and certainly it is not least important, Cameroon cannot be considered a democracy by any standard of definition. President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982, and following a costitutional change in 2008 that abolished limits to réitération of mandates, he might stay in power a lifetime. On October 9th, 2011, presidential elections took place. They served as a field example collecting empiric material for determining the mechanisms of political communication in Cameroon and its effects on democracy. In addition, it is important to note that Cameroon is hardly more than a pseudo democracy: although all institutional structures of democracies are existing in the country, democratic reality is still far from target as long as citizens' democratic rights are continuously ignored.