In their recent book Conspiracy Narratives from postcolonial Africa: Freemasonry, Homosexuality and Illicit Enrichment Rogers Orock  and Peter Geschiere tackle a key challenge to academics: how to deal with the rampanty growth of conspiracy theories in the present-day world. If attempts to refute them only make the believers more convinced, the challenge might rather be how to explain why these often quite unorthodox ideas acquire such a hold over so many people.

In their book, the authors try to understand why after 2005 Cameroon became abruptly one of the most homophobic countries in Africa. The historical  key in this case is the popular resentment of  Freemasonry and other secret societies being omnipresent  among the national elite and currently associated with homosexuality and enrichment. The challenge is to understand why around 2005 these elements were suddenly combined in a powerful denunciation of  the national regime for corrupting the nation from the inside. 

This idea of a “click” – disparate elements being suddenly linked into a frame that worked –  makes this study of more general relevance for understanding the sway of conspiracy thinking over the present-day world. Achille Mbembe and Rachel Spronk will discuss the wider relevance of this case study. Francio Guadeloupe will act as moderator.