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This work is an analysis of the strategies and methods used by a leader to wield power and maintain peace in a community prone to con lict, power and leadership crisis. The process of state formation or nation building in Africa has its own peculiarities. They differ from one community to the other depending on the practices of the people. The lifespan of the state also depends on the mechanism and strategies applied by the leader to manage con licts encountered by his administration. In Bafut, traditional authority, governance and power politics revolve around the position of the Fon. He is at the head of a centralised polity made up of people from diverse origins speaking different languages. These people were brought together through conquest and assimilation by the ancestors of the Fon who succeeded in creating a ruling dynasty over the groups of people in the area. This led to the emergence of a complex political structure whose administration under the dynasty was suffocated by power tussles. Thus, for the people to remain strong and united and for statehood to be sustained, the Fon at the head of the dynasty had to adopt some political mechanisms and strategies to contain pressure from his opponents or detractors as well as maintain the various groups under his control. In fact, he is said to command the instrument of con lict management, resolution and mediation in his community. Through books, memoirs, thesis and interviews, we concluded that con lict is a characteristic of power politics and no system is free from it given the ‘omnipresence’ of ambitious detractors. Thus, the ability the Fon to hold Bafut together under his control makes the fondom a perfect example of unity in diversity and master of the politics of peaceful coexistence.

Cameroon: Fonship and Power Politics in State Formation in Bafut