This book compromises 26 well-researched essays in honour of Professor Verkijika G. Fanso, who retired in 2011 after over 36 years of distinguished service at universities in Cameroon. Contributors include colleagues, former students and close collaborators in Cameroon and beyond. Contributions cover a wide range of issues related to the contested histories, politics and practices of boundaries and frontiers in Africa. These are themes on which Fanso has researched, published and taught extensively, and earned international recognition as a leading scholar. The book explores, inter alia, indigenous and endogenous practices of boundary making in Africa; as well as colonial and contemporary traditions, practices and conflicts on and around frontiers. In particular focus, are disputed colonial boundaries between Cameroon and its neighbours. Issues of intra- and inter-disciplinary frontiers, politics and cultures are also addressed. The volume is crowned by a farewell valedictory lecture by Fanso. Like Fanso and his rich repertoire of publications, this bumper harvest of essays is without doubt, truly immortalising.

The papers in the collection are divided into two main areas: nation building and regional integration: problems and prospects; and the 'weird wind of democratisation and governance'. Some examples of topics covered are: the effects of the foreign debt burden on saving ratios in the CEMAC Zone; the Nepad initiative as a basis for fostering economic recovery in the CEMAC Zone; foreign states' elites and the DRC conflicts 1997- 2002; traumas, memories and 'modern' politics in Central Africa; and human rights abuses in the Central Africa sub-region: the case of children.