A Council of Notables is a political body comprising persons of note in a community who are chosen by the governing authority in the region for their special knowledge, experience, skills, status or accomplishments. Such councils have existed in many regions and countries throughout the world. "Whether in village, province, or capital, there is, a conclave of local authorities of whose opinion the ruler — be it conqueror, governor, or sovereign — is bound to take account, though he is not bound to obey their decisions." A Council of Notables was one of many

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...

bodies established by the French in

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

Cameroun Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

between the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and Second World Wars. Each of the colony's nine administrative areas had its own Council. These local

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

institutions comprised the people whom the French deemed to be the

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. ...

of the region. The colonial commissioner chose the members of each council from lists supplied by local officials.Ngoh 133. By establishing these bodies, the colonial regime hoped to reign in some of Cameroun's

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

and pro-

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...

sentiment.DeLancey and DeLancey 89. The Councils were expected to uphold and support French policies. Other duties included acting as liaisons between the administration and local populations and alerting the regime as to the status of local projects such as tax collection and the construction of road and rail. In return, the Council members received a cut of taxes collected, exemption from some obligations, and a stipend for supervising road construction.

Notes

References

*DeLancey, Mark W., and DeLancey, Mark Dike (2000): ''Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon'' (3rd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press *Ngoh, Victor Julius (1996): ''History of Cameroon Since 1800''. Limbe: Presbook. French Cameroon Government of Cameroon {{government-stub

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