Land Dynamics, Ethnocracy and the Challenge of Ethnocultural Integration in Cameroon
This article analyses, in the Cameroonian context, the commodification and expropriation of land that impoverish indigenous populations and generate conflicts. This agrarian capitalism, facilitated by administrative and judicial mismanagement, benefits a rich minority made up of civil servants and business people. They acquire land by violating legal dispositions, while those who buy land honestly may later see their property rights contested by other families for a variety of reasons. This situation causes interfamilial quarrels and confrontations between « natives » and the buyers, who are sometimes qualified as « foreigners » and « invaders ». Land issues pave the way for xenophobia and retreat into ethnic and regional identities under the banner of indigeneity and ethnic minorities. Big cities, like Yaounde, are very representative of this situation linked to the unequal distribution of wealth and ethnic polarizations in state governance.