FRANCIS BENG NYAMNJOH (PhD)
| Address: | Department of Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences |
| University of Botswana | |
| Private Bag UB00705 Gaborone, Botswana | |
| Phone 1 | (267) 3552763 (Work) |
| Phone 2 | (267) 319282 (home) |
| Phone 3 | (267) 71655649 (mobile) |
| Fax | (267) 585099 |
| Email 1 | Nyamnjoh@mopipi.ub.bw |
| Email 2 | Nyamnjoh@yahoo.com |
| Date and Place of Birth: | 14-12-1961, Lakabum-Bum (Cameroon) |
Education| School/Institution | Date | Degree/Diploma |
| University of Yaounde, Cameroon: | 1984 | BA (Hons)/Licence (Mention Assez-Bien) Sociology |
| University of Yaounde, Cameroon: | 1985 | MA (Hons)/Maîtrise (Mention Bien) Political Anthropology. Disertation: Change in the Concept of Power Amongst the Bum, supervised by Prof. Jean-Pierre Warnier. |
| University of Leicester, United Kingdom: | 1990 | PhD Sociology of Communication. My Thesis, titled, Broadcasting for Nation-building in Cameroon: Development and Constraints, was supervised by Professor J.D. Halloran, Director of Centre For Mass Communication Research (CMCR) and President of the International Association of Mass Communications Researchers (IAMCR) from 1972 to 1990. |
Linguistic Skills| Languages Spoken and Written |
| English, French, Pidgin English and Native tongues |
Further Research| Date | Details |
| 1985: | Was member of a team of researchers who studied Farmers' adaptability to agricultural innovations commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and conducted by the groupement SEDA-IDET CEGOS, BP 1596 Yaounde, the final report of which was published in October 1985 under the title Etude sur la Connaissance des Besions des Agriculteurs au Cameroun. |
| 1-30 April 1991: | Carried out for UNICEF with Atelier Materiel Audio-Visuel (AMA) Yaounde, a Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) study in the Far North Province (Mayo Sava), as part of the nationwide campaign on the Eradication of the Guinea Worm. |
| April - May 1993: | Supervised, jointly with Dr Pierre Titi Nwel, the fieldwork of 19 students of the Catholic University in two village communities of the Mbalmayo region, which ended in a report titled Autopromotion et Développement. |
| 1993-1994: | Was part of a comparative study between Cameroon and Sierra Leone of Attitudes of the Young and Unemployed towards the Forest, Forest Exploitation and Conservation. I was in charge of studying attitudes in the South-West province and consumption of forest products in Yaounde. The study was conducted under the auspices of the University College London, and funded by the British government. |
| April - May 1995: | Supervised, jointly with Dr Pierre Titi Nwel, the fieldwork of 24 students of the Catholic University in Limbe, on The Social Organisation of Fishing and Fishing Communities, which ended with a report on L'Organisation de la Pêche dans le Fako. |
| October 1994 - November 1995: | National coordinator for Cameroon, in a three-country comparative study (Cameroun, Côte d'Ivoire et Sénégal) on Communication and the Environment, initiated by the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Communication (CERCOM) of the National University of Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan. |
| April - May 1996: | Supervised, jointly with Dr Pierre Titi Nwel, the fieldwork of 29 students of the Catholic University in Yaounde, on the phenomenon of abandoned children in urban settings, which ended with a report on Le Phenomene de l'Abandon d'Enfants en Milieu Urbain. |
| April 1997: | Supervised the fieldwork of 13 students of the Catholic University in the village community of Ossoessam (Mbalmayo region), which ended in a report titled Développement et Autopromotion à Ossoessam. |
| April 1998: | Supervised, jointly with Dr Marie-Thérèse Mengue, the fieldwork of 26 students of the Catholic University in Oyomabang (Yaounde), on urban poverty in Cameroon, which ended in a report titled Pauvreté Matérielle et Morale à Yaoundé: Oyomabang face à la crise économique. |
| April 1999: | Supervised, jointly with Dr Marie-Thérèse Mengue, the fieldwork of 35 students of the Catholic University in Yaounde, on urban Health in Cameroon, which ended in a report titled Ville et Santé à Yaoundé. |
Teaching
Experience| Date | Details |
| December 1985: | Recruited to teach Sociology at the Institut National de la Jeunesse et de Sports (INJS) Yaounde. |
| 1985-1986: | Recruited as Monitor for the Department of Sociology, FLSS, UNIYAO. See Chancellor's Decision No 360/UY/AF of 14 February 1986. |
| 1992-1999: | Visiting Lecturer ('Chargé de Cours') of Media and Communication Studies, of Research Methods, and of Communication Analyses at la Faculté de Sciences Sociales et de Gestion, Université Catholique de l'Afrique Centrale, Yaoundé. |
| November 1993 - September 1999: | Permanent Senior Lecturer with the University of Buea, (Cameroon) and Head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology. |
| April 1999: | Visiting Lecturer, MA course in Social Anthropology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. |
| 25 June 1999: | Offered appointment as Professor in the Department of Anthropology & Sociology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa. |
| 22 October 1999: | Assumed duty as Senior Lecturer with the Department of Sociology, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana |
Supervision| Have satisfactorily supervised a total of 12 MA dissertations, the last 6 being in the Catholic University (October 1998), wherein the students passed with distinction (Mention Bien). |
External
Examining| Date | Details |
| January 1998: | External examiner for a Doctoral thesis titled Are Africa's Development Failures due to Cultural Irrationality or the Development Manner?: Towards a Theory of Sustainable Community Development through Communication, by Emmanuel Kasongo, Centre for Cultural and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Natal, South Africa. |
| June 2000 | Appointed External Examiner for the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. |
Consultancies| Date | Details |
| 1993 - 1998: | Have served as consultant on different aspects of the media and communication in Cameroon (professionalism and ethics among journalists, needs, training programme, work plan and organisation of seminar-workshops for journalists, newspaper publishers and technicians for 1994, 1995, etc.) with the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, P.O. Box 11939 Yaounde, (tel. (237) 21 29 96/21 52 92 Fax (237) 21 52 74) Cameroon. |
| May - June 1996: | In collaboration with Dr C.L. Boyomo Assala of ESSTIC, University of Yaounde II), conducted for the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Cameroon, a study titled: Journalism Training in Cameroon: Curricula Evaluation. |
| June 9 - 18, 1997: | Did an evaluation of a local Cameroonian NGO -- Centre for the Environment and Rural Transformation (CERUT), for the attention of Broederlijk Delen, Brussels - Belgium. (25 page Report). |
| November 24 - December 7, 1997: | Did, in collaboration with Mr Kodzo Kotsoni Akemakou -- (Directeur Général de la Fédération des Unions Coopératives D'Epargne et de Crédit du Togo (FUCEC-TOGO) et Président du Conseil d'Administration de la Fédération des ONG du Togo (FONGTO)) -- an evaluation of the National Director of INADES-Formation Cameroun, Mr Appolinaire Etono Ngah, for the attention of Président et membres du CA d'INADES-Formation Interna-tional, Président et membres du CA d'INADES-Formation Cameroun, Directeur Général d'INADES-Formation International. (20 page Report). |
Fellowships| (i) | Awarded a three months visiting research fellowship to Saint Anthony's College Oxford England, by the Rhodes Chair Committee for Race Relations and African Studies, from October - December 1997. While at Oxford, I worked on "Politics, Witchcraft and the Occult in Cameroon" |
| (ii) | Awarded an eight months visiting research fellowship (July 1998- March 01 1999) by the Management Team of the African Studies Centre at Leiden Holland, to work with Dr J.J. Piet Konings of the Conflict, Conciliation and Control cluster on a common project entitled: "Political Change and Regionalism in Cameroon". |
| (iii) | April 15 - May 14, 1999: Visited, lectured and had discussions with staff and students of the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and the Western Cape (South Africa), in and around the theme of: Culture in Anthropology and Cultural Studies in Africa: Divergences and Convergences towards Synthesis. The visit was sponsored by the Pan African Association of Anthropologists (PAAA) - Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa (AASA) Exchange Programme. |
Membership of
Professional Associations| (i) | Founding member of l'Institut Africain pour le Développement Economique et Social Cameroun known under the acronym INADES-Formation Cameroun (IFC). I was elected member of Board of Governors on December 18, 1996 for three years. |
| (ii) | Member of the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE) and was elected 2nd Vice-President during the 10th Biennial Conference which took place in Cape Town, South Africa in November 1996. Re-elected at the 11th Biennial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, October 9-15, 1998. |
| (iii) | Founding member of the Cameroon Indigenous Knowledge Organisation (CIKO), with Headquarters in Buea. |
| (iv) | Since 1997, Editorial Board member for Critical Arts, journal published by the Centre for Cultural and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Natal, South Africa. |
| (v) | Since 1997, Editorial Board member for Ecquid Novi, Journal of Journalism in Southern Africa, published by the Instituut vir Kommunikasienavorsing, Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir CHO, South Africa. |
| (vi) | December 1998, appointed Editorial Board member for International Journal of Comic Art, published by the Third World Media Associates, Drexel Hill, USA. |
| (vii) | Elected Member of Council for the London-based International African Institute (IAI) to serve for three years from January 1999 to December 2001. |
| (viii) | Elected Secretary General of the Pan-African Association of Anthropologists (PAAA) in Yaounde, September 1st, 1999. |
Service to
Botswana Community| (i) | Jointly with Mr Tdimane Ntsabane and Dr Onalenna Selolwane facilitated a Workshop on Youth, Democracy and Political Participation in Botswana. held at Gaborone Sun on 20th and 21st January, 2000. |
| (ii) | Currently conducting together with Dr Onalenna Selolwane, a study on Chieftaincy and Democracy in Botswana and Cameroon, funded in part by the University of Botswana. |
| (iii) | Co-authored with Prof. T.T. Fako, a paper titled: "Waiting for Botswana Television (BTV): Who benefits, for how long and with what consequences?" (Forthcoming in Media Development (London). |
| (iv) | June 2000: Served as internal examiner for a Department of Politics and Administrative Studies MA Dissertation by Sechele Teleka Sechele titled: 'Deepening Democracy or Creeping Authoritarian Rule?: Media/Government Relations in Botswana in Historical Perspective'. |
| (v) | Designed, together with Dr Onalenna Selolwane and Mrs Christine Stegling, a regional workshop on Cartoon Journalism and Democracy in Southern Africa scheduled for November 8th - 10th 2000 in Gaborone, for which we have already secured funding from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in London. |
This page was created by Ian Fowler