To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Protectors or Enablers? Untangling the Role of Traditional Authorities and Local Elites in Foreign Land Grabbing in Cameroon
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. (Human Geography)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6217-4522
Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Cambridge, USA.
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
2022 (English)In: Development Policy Review, ISSN 0950-6764, E-ISSN 1467-7679, Vol. 40, no 3Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Motivation: In Cameroon, most land earmarked for allocation to foreign investors is communally owned. The state, however, considers such land as "empty" or "underutilized"-a faulty designation that confers upon the Cameroonian state and state representatives sweeping authority to allocate lands to potential investors without full consultation with communities whose livelihoods depend on them.

Purpose: The article addresses the following questions: who are traditional authorities in the context of Cameroon? What is their place in the complex dynamics of neopatrimonial governance, and how does this influence their allegiance to state versus the people they ought to represent? How do they collaborate to enable state actions during land grabbing against their people?

Methods and approach: The study is based on interviews, group discussions, and field observations conducted as part of a larger project on land grabbing in Cameroon; and supplemented with secondary sources through critical reading of published and unpublished scholarly and technical sources, including reports from national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Nature Cameroon as well as Green Peace, the World Bank, and other bodies.

Findings: It argues that land grabbing in Cameroon should be understood as an outcome of the state's strategic and/or opportunistic choice, within a neopatrimonial dispensation, to enforce its political power over land and related resources. Local traditional authorities paradoxically play the role of state facilitators in the process, rather than serving as custodians of the populations they represent.

Policy implications: The article concludes that such pernicious land acquisition would not have been successful without the active collaboration of traditional authorities (so-called state enablers) who act as "brokers" and facilitators of land deals-sometimes using threats, intimidation, and force on villagers. There is a need for policies to tackle the accountability problems arising from the ambivalent role that local traditional authorities play in Cameroon's neopatrimonial order-doubly serving as de facto representatives of local peoples, and at the same time as proxy enablers of large-scale land acquisition.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Publishing, 2022. Vol. 40, no 3
Keywords [en]
Cameroon; foreign land acquisition; land dispossession; livelihoods; neopatrimonial transactionalism; traditional authorities
National Category
Social and Economic Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-89108DOI: 10.1111/dpr.12572ISI: 000707482000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85116964706OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-89108DiVA, id: diva2:1523944
Note

Funding agencies:

Örebro Universitet

University of Melbourne 381285

Available from: 2021-01-29 Created: 2021-01-29 Last updated: 2022-09-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Ndi, Frankline Anum

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ndi, Frankline Anum
By organisation
School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
In the same journal
Development Policy Review
Social and Economic Geography

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 218 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf