Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:51:10.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mbororo Claims to Regional Citizenship and Minority Status in North-West Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Michaela Pelican
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Discourses on autochthony, citizenship and exclusion have become popular in Cameroon as well as in other parts of Africa, and lately even in Europe. This article considers the case of the Mbororo (agro-pastoral Fulbe) in north-west Cameroon (also known as the Western Grassfields) and their recent claims to regional citizenship and minority status.

The Mbororo are a minority in the region. They are perceived as strangers and migrants by local Grassfields groups who consider themselves their hosts and landlords. The Mbororo have long entertained host–guest and patron–client relations with their Grassfields neighbours. However, in the context of Cameroon's democratization and the constitutional changes of the 1990s, they have changed their political strategies, aiming at direct representation to the state. In 1992 MBOSCUDA (the Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association) was founded and gradually developed into a nationally influential ethnic elite association. While confirming the Mbororo as regional citizens, it successfully portrayed them as an ‘indigenous people’ both nationally and internationally. Moreover, many Mbororo of the younger generation have gradually developed emotional bonds with their home areas. Neighbouring groups have mixed feelings about these developments, as they may generate new conflicts.

Les discours sur l'autochtonie, la citoyenneté et l'exclusion sont devenus populaires au Cameroun comme dans d'autres régions d'Afrique, et plus récemment même en Europe. Cet article s'intéresse au cas des Mbororo (agropasteurs Foulbé) du Nord-Ouest du Cameroun (région d'herbages également connue sous le nom de Grassfields de l'Ouest) et leurs récentes revendications à une citoyenneté régionale et à un statut minoritaire.

Les Mbororo constituent une minorité dans la région. Ils sont perçus comme des étrangers et des migrants par les groupes locaux des Grassfields qui se considèrent comme leurs hôtes et propriétaires fonciers. Les Mbororo entretiennent depuis longtemps des relations hôte-invité et patron-client avec leurs voisins des Grassfields. Cependant, dans le contexte de la démocratisation du Cameroun et des changements constitutionnels des années 1990, ils ont changé leurs stratégies politiques en visant une représentation directe au Gouvernement. L'association MBOSCUDA (Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association), créée en 1992, s'est peu à peu développée en association d'élite ethnique influente sur le plan national. Tout en confirmant les Mbororo en tant que citoyens régionaux, elle a réussi à les présenter comme un « peuple indigène », tant sur le plan national qu'international. De plus, de nombreux Mbororo de la jeune génération ont peu à peu développé des liens affectifs avec leur région d'origine. Les groupes voisins sont ambivalents à l'égard de cette évolution récente, car elle est susceptible de générer de nouveaux conflits.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 540 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2008

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

Awasom, N. (1984) ‘The Hausa and Fulani in the Bamenda Grasslands 1903–1960’. PhD thesis, University of Yaoundé I.Google Scholar
Awasom, N. (2003) ‘From migrants to nationals, and from nationals to undesirable elements: the case of the Fulani (Mbororo) Muslim graziers in Cameroon's North West Province’ in Coquery, C., Goerg, Vidrovitch O., Mande, I. and Rajaonah, F. (eds), Etre étranger et migrant en Afrique du XXe siècle. Enjeux identitaires et modes d'insertion. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F., Geschiere, P. and Nyamnjoh, F. (2001) ‘Autochtonie, démocratie et citoyenneté en Afrique’, Critique Internationale 10: 177–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boutrais, J. (1984) ‘Entre nomadisme et sédentarité: les Mbororo à l'Ouest du Cameroun’ in Blanc-Pamard, C. (ed.), Le développement rural en question: paysages, espaces ruraux, systèmes agraires. Paris: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Boutrais, J. (1995/1996) Hautes terres d’élevage au Cameroun. Paris: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Breedveld, A. and de Bruijn, M. (1996) ‘L'image des Fulbe: analyse critique de la construction du concept de pulaaku’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 36 (144): 791–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, P. (1972) ‘Racial classification and ideology in the Meiganga Region: North Cameroon’ in Baxter, P. and Sansom, B. (eds), Race and Social Difference: selected readings. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Ceuppens, B. and Geschiere, P. (2005) ‘Autochthony: local or global? New modes in the struggle over citizenship in Africa and Europe’, Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 385–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. L. (2001) ‘Naturing the nation: aliens, apocalypse and the postcolonial state’, Journal of Southern African Studies 27 (3): 627–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. L. (2007) ‘Nations with/out borders: neoliberalism and the problem of belonging in Africa, and beyond’, public lecture in the interdisciplinary lecture series ‘Border Crossings: Grenzverschiebungen und Grenzüberschreitungen in einer globalisierten Welt’, University of Zürich, 21 June.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
Davis, L. (1995) ‘Opening political space in Cameroon: the ambiguous response of the Mbororo’, Review of African Political Economy 22 (64): 213–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dognin, R. (1981) ‘L'installation des Djafoun dans l'Adamaoua camerounais: la djakka chez les Peul de l'Adamaoua’ in Tardits, C. (ed.). Contribution de la recherche ethnologique à l'histoire des civilisations du Cameroun. Paris: Editions du CNRS.Google Scholar
Duni, J., Fon, R., Hickey, S. and Salihu, N. (2005) ‘NGOs, social movements and paralegal extension in North West Cameroon: from clientelism to citizenship at the margins?’, draft paper prepared for the Conference ‘Winners and Losers from Rights-Based Approaches to Development’, IDPM, University of Manchester, 21–22 February 2005. (http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/conferences/documents/Winners%20and%20Losers%20Papers/Hickey.pdf), accessed 4 July 2007.Google Scholar
Fisiy, C. and Goheen, M. (1998) ‘Power and the quest for recognition: neo-traditional titles among the new elite in Nso, Cameroon’, Africa 68 (3): 383–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frantz, C. (1986) ‘Fulani continuity and change under five flags’ in Adamu, M. and Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. (eds), Pastoralists of the West African Savanna. Manchester: Manchester University Press.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. (2005a) ‘Autochthony and citizenship. New modes in the struggle over belonging and exclusion in Africa’, Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy 18: 9–24.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2005b) ‘Funerals and belonging: different patterns in Southern Cameroon’, African Studies Review 48 (2): 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, P. (2007) ‘Lord Lugard in the present: indirect rule and present-day struggles over autochthony and exclusion’, Lugard Lecture presented at the AEGIS/ECAS conference, Leiden, 12 July 2007. (http://ecas2007.aegis-eu.org/Lugard%20Lecture.pdf), accessed 26 June 2008.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. and Nyamnjoh, F. (2000) ‘Capitalism and autochthony: the seesaw of mobility and belonging’, Public Culture 12 (2): 423–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goheen, M. (1996) Men Own the Fields, Women Own the Crops: gender and power in the Cameroon Grassfields. Madison WI and London: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Harshbarger, C. (1995) ‘Farmer-herder conflict and state legitimacy in Cameroon’. PhD thesis, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Hickey, S. (2002) ‘Transnational NGDOs and participatory forms of rights-based development: converging with the local politics of citizenship in Cameroon’, Journal of International Development 14: 841–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickey, S. (2004) ‘“Hometown associations” as social movements for citizenship: a case study from north-west Cameroon’, paper presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, November 2004, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Hickey, S. (2007) ‘Caught at the crossroads: citizenship, marginality and the Mbororo Fulani in north-west Cameroon’ in Hammet, D., Nugent, P. and Rich-Dorman, S. (eds), Citizenship in Africa. Leiden: Brill Publishers.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations and states. Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, D. (2000) ‘Introduction: comparative perspectives on the indigenous rights movement in Africa and the Americas’, American Anthropologist 104 (4): 1037–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konings, P. and Nyamnjoh, F. (2000) ‘Construction and deconstruction: anglophones or autochthones?’, African Anthropologist 7 (1): 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, A. (2003) ‘The return of the native’, Current Anthropology 44 (3): 389–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonhardt, A. (2006) ‘Baka and the magic of the state: between autochthony and citizenship’, African Studies Review 49 (2): 69–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lutz, E. (2007) ‘Introduction: home stretch’, Cultural Survival Quarterly 31 (1) (15 March), (http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1951), accessed 4 July 2007.Google Scholar
New Internationalist (1996) ‘End piece: dry words’, (http://www.newint.org/issue277/endpiece.htm), accessed 4 July 2007.Google Scholar
Njeuma, M. and Awasom, N. (1988) ‘The Fulani in Bamenda Grasslands: opportunity and conflict 1940–1960’ in Geschiere, P. and Konings, P. (eds), Conference on the Political Economy of Cameroon: historical perspectives. Leiden: African Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Njeuma, M. and Awasom, N. (1990) ‘The Fulani and the political economy of the Bamenda Grasslands, 1940–1960’, Paideuma 36: 217–33.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. and Rowlands, M. (1998) ‘Elite associations and the politics of belonging in Cameroon’, Africa 68 (3): 320–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelican, M. (2004) ‘Frauen- und Männerfreundschaften im Kameruner Grasland: ein komparativer Ansatz’, Afrika Spectrum 39 (1): 63–93.Google Scholar
Pelican, M. (2006) ‘Getting Along in the Grassfields: inter-ethnic relations and identity politics in north-west Cameroon’. PhD thesis, Martin-Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg.Google Scholar
Riesman, P. (1977) Freedom in Fulani Social Life. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Socpa, A. (2002) Democratisation et autochtonie au Cameroun: trajectoires regionales divergentes. Leiden: Leiden University Press.Google Scholar
Socpa, A. (2006) ‘Bailleurs autochtones et locataires allogènes: enjeu foncier et participation politique au Cameroun’, African Studies Review 49 (2): 45–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takougang, J. and Krieger, M. (1998) African State and Society in the 1990s: Cameroon's political crossroads. Boulder CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Tchoumba, B. (2006) ‘Indigenous and tribal peoples and poverty reduction strategies in Cameroon: project to promote ILO policy on indigenous and tribal peoples’ (PRO 169). Publication of the International Labour Organization, (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/norm/egalite/itpp/activity/cameroon/tchoumba.pdf), accessed 4 July 2007.Google Scholar
Virtanen, T. (2003) Performance and Performativity in Pastoral Fulbe Culture. Helsinki: Helsinki University Printing House.Google Scholar