Urbanisme de rattrapage, marquage territorial populaire et conflits d’odonymies dans les quartiers de Yaoundé (Capitale du Cameroun)

Abstract

This paper examines the sources and stakes of the conflict of referents in the naming of roads and neighbourhoods in Yaoundé. This observed polyphony is attributed to the coexistence of popular and official registers of urban production. The first one overrides and precedes official urban planning in marginal, interstitial or non aedificandi zones. Toponymic referents of popular register are associated with practical reference points for orientation. They express the memory or perennity of appropriate places and symbols of urbanity for city-dwellers in populated areas. This urban toponymy of vernacular practice can clash with the functional and memory-oriented toponymic projections of official register. In a remedial urban planning situation, places and districts are renamed according to various referents and symbols which recall official power, history and culture. This disorientation and subjugation of city-dwellers brings about the rejection of official odonymy, resulting in the dualism which is observed.

Keywords

• popular urbanism
• remedial urbanism
• naming
• odonymy conflict