Sons and Daughters of the Soil

written by Walter Gam Nkwi

Land and Boundary Conflicts in North West Cameroon, 1955-2005

This book makes a rare and original contribution on the history of little documented internal land conflicts and boundary misunderstandings in Cameroon, where attention has tended to focus too narrowly on international boundary conflicts such as that between Cameroon and Nigeria.

The study is of the Bamenda Grassfields, the region most plagued by land and boundary conflicts in the country. Despite claims of common descent and cultural similarities by most communities in the region, relations have been tested and dominated by recurrent land and boundary conflicts since the middle of the 20th Century. Nkwi takes us through these contradictions, as he draws empirically and in general on his rich historical and ethnographic knowledge of the tensions and conflicts over land and boundaries in the region to situate and understand the conflicts between Bambili and Babanki-Tungoh – the epicenter of land and boundary – from c.1950s – 2009. Little if any scholarly attention has focused on this all important issue, its pernicious effects on the region notwithstanding.

This book takes a bold step in the direction of the social history of land and boundary conflicts in Cameroon, and demonstrates that there is much of scholarly interest in understanding the centrality of land and boundaries in the configuration and contestation of human relations. In his innovative and stimulating blend of history and ethnography, Nkwi points to exciting new directions of paying closer attention to relationships informed by consciousness on and around land and boundaries.

Walter Gam Nkwi

Walter Gam Nkwi holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He has published in peer review journals, book chapters and encyclopedias. He is currently the Faculty Officer in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology and also Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Buea, Cameroon.