Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:37:07.126Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting the Politics of Belonging in Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Ben Page ,
Martin Evans  and
Claire Mercer
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article introduces a themed section in the journal on hometown associations in Cameroon. It outlines the impact of ten years’ work in this field and argues that notions of autochthony remain central in understanding Cameroonian politics. However the three articles go on to argue that some of the claims about home, belonging and politics are difficult to reconcile with the hazier reality observed on the ground. The articles aim to disturb any universal, inevitable or overly tidy segue between questions of belonging and claims of political segmentation. Too often the existing literature moves too quickly to an analysis that foregrounds only the worrisome dimensions of a politics of belonging, thus leaving little space for other interpretations. To explore this dilemma the article continues by exploring a land dispute in Bali Nyonga, north-west Cameroon. It shows (1) how ideas of belonging remain central to the practice of politics; (2) how the politics of belonging has changed over time; and (3) how it is possible to foreground an alternative ‘politics of conviviality’, which would otherwise be shaded out by the dominance of the politics of belonging within the literature.

Cet article présente une rubrique thématique de revue consacrée aux associations de ressortissants au Cameroun. Il décrit brièvement l'impact de dix années de travaux dans ce domaine et soutient que les notions d'autochtonie demeurent centrales pour comprendre la politique camerounaise. Or, les trois articles affirment qu'il est difficile de concilier certaines assertions concernant le lieu d'origine, l'appartenance et la politique avec la réalité plus floue observée sur le terrain. Ces articles cherchent à troubler toute articulation universelle, inévitable ou trop ordonnée entre les questions d'appartenance et les assertions de segmentation politique. La littérature existante s'empresse trop souvent de proposer une analyse qui ne met en avant que les dimensions préoccupantes d'une politique d'appartenance, ne laissant ainsi que peu de place à d'autres interprétations. L'article étudie ensuite ce dilemme à travers un contentieux foncier à Bali Nyonga, dans le Nord-Ouest du Cameroun. Il montre (1) comment les idées d'appartenance demeurent centrales dans la pratique de la politique, (2) comment la politique d'appartenance a évolué au fil du temps et (3) comment il est possible de mettre en avant une autre politique, une « politique de convivialité », que risquerait d’éclipser la prépondérance de la politique d'appartenance dans la littérature.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 345 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bali Nyonga Development and Cultural Association (2008) ‘The naked truth behind the Bawock people's desertion of their village on or before the night of Tuesday 6th March 2007’, statement issued by the Bali Traditional Council, 〈http://bandeca.org/〉.Google Scholar
Bangeni, B. and Kapp, R.(2005) ‘Identities in transition: shifting conceptions of home among “black” South African university students’, African Studies Review 48(3): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayart, J-F. (1993) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. New York NY:Longman.Google Scholar
Boone, C. (2003) Political Topographies of the African State: territorial authority and institutional choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broch-Due, V.(ed.) (2005) Violence and Belonging: the quest for identity in postcolonial Africa. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Castles, S. and Davidson, A. (2000) Citizenship and Migration: globalization and the politics of belonging. Basingstoke: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceuppens, B. and Geschiere, P. (2005) ‘Autochthony: local or global? New modes in the struggle over citizenship and belonging in Africa and Europe’, Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 385–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chabal, P. and Daloz, J-P. (1999) Africa Works: disorder as political instrument. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Chilver, S. (1964) ‘A Bamiléké community in Bali-Nyonga: a note on the Bawok’, African Studies 23 (3–4): 121–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chilver, S. (1967) ‘Paramountcy and protection in the Cameroons: the Bali and the Germans, 1889–1913’ in Gifford, P. and Louis, W. R.(eds), Britain and Germany in Africa: imperial rivalry and colonial rule. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chilver, S. and Kaberry, P. (1961) ‘An outline of the traditional political system of Bali-Nyonga’, Africa 31(4): 355–71.Google Scholar
Chilver, S. and Röschenthaler, U. (eds) (2002) Cameroon's Tycoon: Max Esser's expedition and its consequences. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Croucher, S. L. (2004) Globalization and Belonging: the politics of identity in a changing world. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Crowley, J. (1999) ‘The politics of belonging: some theoretical considerations’ in Geddes, A. and Favell, A. (eds), The Politics of Belonging: migrants and minorities in contemporary Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Dafinger, A. and Pelican, M. (2006) ‘Sharing or dividing the land? Land rights and herder–farmer relations in a comparative perspective’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 40 (1): 127–51.Google Scholar
Dieckhoff, A. (ed.) (2004) The Politics of Belonging: nationalism, liberalism, and pluralism. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Englund, H. (2004) ‘Introduction: recognizing indentities, imagining alternatives’ in Englund, H. and Nyamnjoh, F. B. (eds), Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Englund, H. and Nyamnjoh, F. B. (eds) (2004) Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Eyoh, D. (1998) ‘Through the prism of a local tragedy: political liberalization, regionalism and elite struggles for power in Cameroon’, Africa 68(3): 338–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyoh, D. (1999) ‘Community, citizenship and the politics of ethnicity in postcolonial Africa’in Zeleza, P. and Kalipeni, E. (eds), Sacred Places and Public Quarrels: African cultural and economic landscapes. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Fardon, R. (2006) Lela in Bali: history through ceremony in Cameroon. Oxford:Berghahn.Google Scholar
Fonchingong, C. C. (2005) ‘Exploring the politics of identity and ethnicity in state reconstruction in Cameroon’, Social Identities 11(4):363–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fonjong, L. (2004) ‘Changing fortunes of government policies and its implications on the application of agricultural innovations in Cameroon’, Nordic Journal of African Studies 13 (1): 13–29.Google Scholar
Fortier, A-M. (2000) Migrant Belongings: memory, space, identities. Oxford:Berg.Google Scholar
Gabriel, J. (1999) ‘Cameroon's neopatrimonial dilemma’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 17 (2): 173–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geary, C. (1988) ‘Art and political process in the kingdoms of Bali-Nyonga and Bamum (Cameroon Grassfields)’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 22 (1): 11–41.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2004) ‘Ecology, belonging and xenophobia: the 1994 forest law in Cameroon and the issue of “community”’ in Englund, H. and Nyamnjoh, F.(eds), Rights and the Politics of Recognition. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2005) ‘Funerals and belonging: different patterns in southern Cameroon’, African Studies Review 48 (2): 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2009) The Perils of Belonging: autochthony, citizenship and exclusion in Africa and Europe. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. and Gugler, J. (1998a) ‘The urban–rural connection: changing issues of belonging and identification’, Africa 68 (3): 309–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. and J., Gugler (eds) (1998b) ‘The politics of primary patriotism’ Africa (special issue) 68 (3): 309–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. and F., Nyamnjoh (1998) ‘Witchcraft as an issue in the “politics of belonging”: democratization and urban migrants’ involvement with the home village’, African Studies Review 41 (3): 69–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2000) ‘Capitalism and autochthony: the seesaw of mobility and Belonging’, Public Culture 12 (2): 423–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2001) ‘Autochthony as an alternative to citizenship: new modes in the politics of belonging in postcolonial Africa’ in Kurimoto, Eisei (ed.), Rewriting Africa: toward renaissance or collapse? Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.Google Scholar
Gilroy, P.(2005) ‘Melancholia or conviviality: the politics of belonging in Britain’, Soundings 29 (1): 35–46. Available on line at [http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/articles/gilroy.html].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gugler, J. (2002) ‘The son of a hawk does not remain abroad: the urban–rural connection in Africa’, Africa Studies Review 45 (1): 21–41.Google Scholar
Hammer, A. (2002) ‘The articulation of modes of belonging: competing land claims in Zimbabwe's northwest’ in Juul, K. and Lund, C. (eds), Negotiating Property in Africa. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Hickey, S. (2002) ‘Transnational NGDOs and participatory forms of rightsbased development: converging with the local politics of citizenship in Cameroon’, Journal of International Development 14 (6): 841–57. Hickey, S. (2004) ‘“Hometown associations” as social movements for citizenship: a case study from northwest Cameroon’ (Revised version of paper presented at 47th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, New Orleans LA, 11–14 November 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickey, S. (2007) ‘Caught at the crossroads: citizenship, marginality and the Mbororo Fulani in northwest Cameroon’ in Hammett, D., Nugent, P. and Dorman, S. (eds), Making Nations, Creating Strangers: states and citizenship in Africa. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, M. (1996) ‘There's no place like home: the politics of belonging’ in Dunant, S. and Porter, R. (eds), The Age of Anxiety. London: Virago.Google Scholar
Jua, N. (2005). ‘The mortuary sphere, privilege and the politics of belonging in contemporary Cameroon’, Africa 75 (3): 325–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabki, M., Mazzucato, V. and Appiah, E. (2004) ‘“Wo benanε a εyε bebree”: the economic impact of remittances of Netherlands-based Ghanaian migrants on rural Ashanti’, Population, Space and Place 10 (2): 85–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klopp, J. M.(2002) ‘Can moral ethnicity trump political tribalism? The struggle for land and nation in Kenya’, African Studies 61 (2): 269–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kofele-Kale, N. (1981) Tribesmen and Patriots: political culture in a poly-ethnic African state. Washington DC: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Konings, P. (2001) ‘Mobility and exclusion: conflicts between autochthons and allochthons during political liberalization in Cameroon’ in de Bruijn, M., van Dijk, R. and Foeken, D.(eds), Mobile Africa: changing patterns of movement in Africa and beyond. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Kristeva, J. [trans. C. Pajaczkowska] (1995) ‘Proust in search of identity’ in Nochlin, L. and Garb, T. (eds), The Jew in the Text: modernity and the construction of identity. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Lentz, C. (2006) ‘First-comers and late-comers: indigenous theories of landownership in West Africa’ in Kuba, R.and Lentz, C. (eds), Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Lentz, C. (2007a) ‘Land and the politics of belonging in Africa’ in Chabal, P., Engel, U. and de Haan, L. (eds), African Alternatives. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Lentz, C. (2007b) ‘Youth associations and ethnicity in northern Ghana’ in Tonah, S. (ed.), Ethnicity, Conflicts and Consensus in Ghana. Accra: Woeli Publishers.Google Scholar
Lonsdale, J. (1992) ‘The moral economy of the Mau Mau: wealth, poverty and civic virtue in Kikuyu political thought’ in Berman, B. and J., Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley: conflict in Kenya and Africa, Volume 2: Violence and Ethnicity. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Lonsdale, J. (1994) ‘Moral ethnicity and political tribalism’ in Kaarsholm, P. and Hultin, J. (eds), Inventions and Boundaries: historical and anthropological approaches to the study of ethnicity and nationalism. Roskilde: Institute for Development Studies, Roskilde University.Google Scholar
Marshall, R. (2006) ‘The war of “who is who?”: autochthony, nationalism, and citizenship in the Ivoirian crisis’ in P. Geschiere and S. Jackson (eds), ‘Autochthony and the Crisis of Citizenship’, African Studies Review (special issue) 49 (2): 9–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, D. (1993) ‘Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place’ in Bird, J., Curtis, B., Putnam, T., Robertson, G. and Tickner, L. (eds), Mapping the Futures: local cultures, global change. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Massey, D. (1994) ‘A global sense of place’ in Massey, D. (ed.), Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Massey, D. (2006) ‘Space, time and political responsibility in the midst of global inequality’, Erdkunde 60 (2): 89–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazzucato, V., Kabki, M. and Smith, L. (2006) ‘Transnational migration and the economy of funerals: changing practices in Ghana’, Development and Change 37 (5): 1047–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbuagbo, O. T. and Akoko, R. M. (2004) ‘“Motions of support” and ethnoregional politics in Cameroon’, Journal of Third World Studies 21 (1): 241–60.Google Scholar
Mercer, C., Page, B. and Evans, M. (2008) Development and the African Diaspora: place and the politics of home. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohan, G. (2006) ‘Embedded cosmopolitanism and the politics of obligation: the Ghanaian diaspora and development’, Environment and Planning A 38: 867–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ndjio, B. (2006) ‘Intimate strangers: neighbourhood, autochthony and the politics of belonging’ in Konings, P. and Foeken, D. (eds), Crisis and Creativity: exploring the wealth of the African neighbourhood. Leiden: Brill 66–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nkwi, P. N. (1997) ‘Rethinking the role of elites in rural development: a case study from Cameroon’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 15 (1): 67–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nkwi, P. N. and A. Socpa (1997) ‘Ethnicity and party politics in Cameroon: the politics of divide and rule’ in Nkwi, P. and Nyamnjoh, F. B. (eds), Regional Balance and National Integration in Cameroon: lessons learned and the uncertain future. Yaoundé: African Studies Centre/ICASSRT.Google Scholar
Nkwi, W. (2006) ‘Elites, ethno-regional competition in Cameroon, and the Southwest Elites Association (SWELA) 1991–1997’, African Study Monographs 27 (3): 123–43.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (1999) ‘Cameroon: a country united by ethnic ambition and difference’, African Affairs 98 (390): 101–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2002) ‘“A child is one person's only in the womb”: domestication, agency and subjectivity in the Cameroonian Grassfields’ in Werbner, R. (ed.), Postcolonial Subjectivities in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005) Africa's Media, Democracy and the Politics of Belonging. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2006) Insiders and Outsiders: citizenship and xenophobia in contemporary Southern Africa. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2007) ‘“Ever diminishing circles”: the paradoxes of belonging in Botswana’ in de la Cadena, M. and Starn, O. (eds), Indigenous Experience Today. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. and Rowlands, M. (1998) ‘Elite associations and the politics of belonging in Cameroon’, Africa 68 (3) 320–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orvis, S. (2001) ‘Moral ethnicity and political tribalism in Kenya's “virtual democracy” ‘, African Issues 29 (1/2): 8–13.Google Scholar
Page, B. (2007) ‘Slow going: the mortuary, modernity and the hometown association in Bali-Nyong'a, Cameroon’, Africa 77 (3): 419–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelican, M. (2008) ‘Mbororo claims to regional citizenship and minority status in north-west Cameroon’ Africa 78 (4): 540–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roff, M. C. (1974) The Politics of Belonging: political change in Sabah and Sarawak. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Santa Council (2008) ‘A brief history of Santa Council’, ‹http://santacouncil.org/santa%20history%20page.htm›.Google Scholar
Savage, M., Bagnall, G. and Longhurst, B. (2005) Globalization and Belonging. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schipper, M. (1999) Imagining Insiders: Africa and the question of belonging. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Shack, W. A. (1979) ‘Introduction’ in Shack, W. A. and Skinner, E. P. (eds), Strangers in African Societies. Berkeley CA: University ofCalifornia Press.Google Scholar
Titanji, V., Gwanfogbe, M., Nwana, E., Ndangam, G. and Lima, A. S. (eds) (1988) An Introduction to the Study of Bali Nyonga: a tribute to His Royal Highness Galega II, traditional ruler of Bali-Nyonga from 1940–1985. Yaoundé: Stardust.Google Scholar
van den Bersselaar, D. (2005) ‘Imagining home: migration and the Igbo village in colonial Nigeria’, Journal of African History 46 (1): 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westwood, S. and Phizacklea, A.(2000) Trans-nationalism and the Politics of Belonging. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yenshu, E. V.(2003)‘Levels of historical awareness: the development of identity and ethnicity in Cameroon’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 171: 591–628.Google Scholar
Yenshu, E. V.(2006) ‘Management of ethnic diversity in Cameroon against the backdrop of social crises’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 181: 135–56.Google Scholar
Yenshu, E. V.(2008) ‘On the viability of associational life in traditional society and home-based associations’ in Yenshu, E. (ed.), Civil Society and the Search for Development Alternatives in Cameroon. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Yenshu, E. V. and Ngwa, G. A. (2001) ‘Changing intercommunity relations and the politics of identity in the northern Mezam area, Cameroon’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 161: 163–90.Google Scholar
Yuval Davis, N. (2003) ‘Belonging: from the indigene to the diasporic’ in Ozkirinli, U. (ed.), Nationalism and Its Futures. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Yuval Davis, N.(2004) ‘Borders, boundaries and the politics of belonging’ in May, S., Modood, T. and Squires, J. (eds), Nationalism, Ethnicity and Minority Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yuval Davis, N.(2006) ‘Belonging and the politics of belonging’, Patterns of Prejudice 40(3): 197–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar