See Me, Know Me – Cultural Expressions of Cameroonian Women.

Abstract

This photo-essay focuses on the expression of African culture and identity through photographic representations of Cameroonian women within different situations. These situations are informed by a socio-cultural self-knowledge that reveals the women’s re-definition of their role in a gender-divided society, a role that establishes not only their autarchy, but their significance as cultural producers. The womens knowledge in conjunction with the corporeal action they perform in each picture situates them as an agent in a particular material context, which constitutes the nature of “being” itself (Merleau Ponty 1962, Dant, 2007). Thus, this photo collage offers alternative dimensions that define and inform the diverse identities of the Cameroonian woman in relation to the creation and production of art and culture, and thus the establishment of their very own identity.