Air Youth: Performance, Violence and the State in Cameroon

Abstract

This article examines responses to state violence by youth groups in the Cameroon Grassfields with special reference to Air Youth, a dance group from the kingdom of Oku. The role played by masquerades and their embodiment of animality is first examined. Air Youth, which incorporates a modernist aesthetic and eschews masks in favour of costumes reminiscent of the national gendarmerie, is then described. This military aesthetic is compared with that of other groups of youths throughout the history of the region to demonstrate that the appropriation of the material culture of armed force marks a longestablished regional means of confronting colonial and state violence. It is further argued that this form of appropriation reveals a continuity with the techniques used by masquerade groups. An interpretation of Air Youth performances in terms of mimesis is finally suggested as a means of highlighting the ways in which these performances may offer a means of transforming memories of oppression. Finally, emerges a battalion of the army. How wonderful! How it enchants me to see that! I'm not sure how rich the dress, no? But the soldiers of the battalion are much superior in their dress to anybody! They wear pants and boots to the knee of pure gold, all in gold, everything. They are armed and theyform up. And I try to raise myself [and he pauses] ... so that I too can sing with them, and dance with them, me too ...