Caught At The Crossroads: Citizenship, Marginality And The Mbororo Fulani In Northwest Cameroon

Chapter Summary

This chapter reveals how the social histories and structures of particular groups combine with wider trajectories of state formation and politics in ways that shape citizenship rights and status. It aims to show that the case of the Mbororo'en resonates with the key dimensions and dynamics of citizenship debates within Cameroon, and perhaps suggests a need to rethink the contours of these debates, particularly regarding the role of marginal groups as an internal ?other' against whom dominant notions of citizenship are formed, and the importance of the ?native-stranger' divide within the local and national politics of citizenship. In terms of citizenship formation amongst the Mbororo'en, the first decades of postcolonial rule after 1961 were in part characterised by a return to the margins. The Fulani Council collapsed, and the traditional leaders of the Grassfields Mbororo'en would not gather as a collective again for nearly thirty years.

Keywords: Fulani council; Mbororo'en citizenship