Wavering Coordination and Hosting of University Games in Cameroon, 1985-2017

The University Games in Cameroon like elsewhere in the world has been annual events integrated in higher education public policy where students from different institutions of tertiary learning converge and compete in different sports discipline. Like any evolving activity, the games have not been consistent in their coordination and organization since 1985. This paper analyzes the origins, wavering management structures and organization of the University Games in Cameroon from 1985 to 2017. It argues that from the origins of the university games in Cameroon; its agenda vacillated between yielding to statutory missions of promoting inter- university dialogue through sports and succumbing to the pressure of uncontrollable socio-economic and political circumstances. Informed by primary and secondary sources and employing a qualitative analytical approach, the paper establishes that, the origins and oscillations in the summoning and organization of the university games was consistent with the ambient social climate in the university institutions as well as the socio-economic, political opportunities and constraints that characterized Cameroon especially from 1985 to 2017. These developments largely shaped the protocol and dimension to which the University Games were organized in the country.