"Bamileke Chief Authorities: The Challenges of Ancestral Customs in the Face of Christianity in a Multiculturalist Context"

Today, we observe a strong penetration of Christianity and new religions revealed in the country in general and in particular in the Bamileke community. This is a phenomenon that contrasts with the Bamileke social organization which remains based on the chieftaincy and ancestral customs. This situation leads to the emergence of new phenomena or even paradigms in the social sphere, thus undermining the old order. This inevitably leads social actors either to redefine a new social contract, or bogs them down in a kind of ostracism, a vector of conflicts. It is therefore appropriate to analyze the foundations of Bamileke chieftain authority to better understand the way in which the traditional chief and the traditional chieftaincy organize themselves in the face of Christianity in a multiculturalist environment. Therefore, what are the challenges facing the Bamileke traditional chief in such a situation? The shock of the encounter between old values and new archetypes, beyond the brutality of the echo produced, plunges the Bamileke chieftain universe into a permanent exercise of reappropriation and reaffirmation of both the authority of the traditional chief and the ancestral values on which the Bamileke chieftaincy is based. From an essentially constructivist perspective, it is a question of analyzing the context of the encounter of cultural models and the mechanisms of construction of new cultural references which are deployed and which certainly establish social cohesion. The data collection for this research took place within the Batoufam chieftaincy in the Koung-khi department. The study thus results: firstly in a hybridization of chieftain authority and cultural references; then in the reconquest of a lost cultural authenticity with its share of avatars; and finally in the catharsis of a true intercultural dialogue which imposes itself as a guarantee of peaceful coexistence.