The French heritage of “francophone African political science”: The case of Cameroon

This article analyses the influence of French heritage on African political science. Using Cameroon as an example, it seeks to understand the process by which French political science has taken root in sub-Saharan African countries. How can we understand the relationship between French legacy and African political science? What impact has this legacy had on the development of the discipline in Africa? How does African political science express its territorial specificity? Since political science was institutionalized in Africa, it has been marked by “the weight of French cultural heritage”: it is the political science of the ruler. This enterprise of perpetuation has a whiff of paternalism because of its situated referents. However, this process of universalization, inherent to the evolution of the world, is meeting with mixed reactions in the different territories onto which the discipline has been grafted, with consequences for political science’s influence in Africa. These attempts to reappropriate the discipline give us a glimpse of the gradual construction of a Cameroonian and African political science. The methodology combines qualitative and quantitative data, collected through analysis of documentaries, interviews, and opinion polls. This article draws on neo-institutionalism and Bourdieu’s Concept of Field.