CONFLICT AND LAND OWNERSHIP IN CAMEROON; FARMERS AND HERDERS IN THE SABGA HILLS

ABSTRACT

This study examined, “conflict over land ownership in Cameroon; the Case of Farmers and Herders in the sabga hills”. The study was guided by three research objectives: to investigate the extent the causes of farmers-herders conflict over landownership in sabga hills, to evaluate the extent to which inter-ethnic affects between farmers and herders in sabga hills  and to examine the measures put in place to resolve farmers-herders conflict over land ownership in the sabga hills. The research objectives were later transformed into research questions. The study adopted the descriptive cross sectional research design. The sample sizes of the study consisted of 50 people from Nkoukitunja Division. A sample of 50 respondents. A closed and open-ended questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were analysed using descriptive statistical method of frequencies and percentages. The findings revealed that; cattle rustling and banditry is a course of farmers-herders conflict in sabga hills, Famine is experienced by the population of the area due to crop destruction by animals before harvest, and that initiatives are put in place by the Government to remedy this conflict. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made.

CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to Study

The fight between farmers and cattle graziers over the control of land has resulted in serious conflicts in the Sub-Saharan Africa. It was introduced in the Northern part of Cameroon by the Fulani cattle rearers and it spread to the Southern part of the Country in 1919 (Njeuma and Awasom 1989:459), the local chiefs immediately welcomed the Fulani cattle graziers as they saw them as useful clients who were really willing to pay taxes in cows and cash. With this it was really beneficial to the local economy (traditional institutions). However, some anthropologists who studied this phenomenon in the South discovered that those who paid the cost of cattle grazing were the food crop cultivators who were largely small scale farmers (Fisiy 1992). The farmers had to compete with graziers for the same fertile lands that had abundant pastures for the feeding of cattle. This situation placed the farmers in a difficult situation because as they were tilling the soil and planting crops for their families, the cattles were walking around and feeding on their crops without compensation.

The effects of this situation to create conflict was very high. Farmers who could not rely on their local chiefs, who in the first place had offered the land to the graziers on the basis of self-improvement, were forced to take confrontational tactics against the graziers. Often supported by their children and relatives, the farmers ended up in violence with the grazies whenever cattle destroyed their crops. In 1951, the people of Mezam, Wum and Bui Divisions who had experienced serious farmer-grazier conflicts (Buea Archives 1951) resulting from the above had to rely on the cattle control officers in Bamenda to calm a crowd of angry farmers. The cattle control clerk who was moved by the administration to look at the damages caused by the cattle caused an outrage when he lightly examine the huge damages caused by cattle and loss of lives in the region. The attitude. Here, Kaberry reported that when she visited the southern parts of Cameroon provinces between the periods 1945–1948 and 1958–1959, she actually saw, felt and understood the struggles that women were facing with the cattle graziers in the Area.

  Kaberry was not an observer r; she identified genuine problems faced by women in the area, such as the financial (taxes) and economic considerations that work against the women. The women, about 200 in number, were ready to confront the cattle graziers of these officers must be situated, however, within a context of a civil service dominated by elites committed to the idea that farmers should not access land on equal terms with cattle graziers (Fisiy 1992:249). It was no surprise that the farmers felt that the administration was collaborating with the Fulani graziers to chase them (the farmers) away from their fertile lands.

With such a negative assessment of the situation, the farmers had to look for alternative ways to maintain control over their usufruct. Since they could not find fast justice within state institutions, they took matters into their own hands and started to actively further their control of land. Furthermore, to put their energies into more meaningful actions, the female farmers employed the Anlu,5 a powerful female association in the northwest region to protect their land interests specifically in Kom. Also in 1981, women from Wum organised themselves and attacked the Fulani grazier

 Further, The Fulanis were accused of working g with the administration to use their wealth to have large portions of fertile indigenous land thereby depriving the indigenous population of their right to access land for farm use. The female farmers who did not want the graziers anywhere near their land resorted to serious violence involving the burning down of Fulani huts. In response to this act, the administration sent police and gendarmes to the area and they opened fire and killed a number of the villagers (Nkwi 1985; Chilver 1989:402). In a study carried out in the Kom area, a female party leader in the area bitterly denounced the handling of farmer-grazier disputes by the administration. The administrators were accused of discrimination and incompetence, because the farmers were not satisfied with the manner in which the matters were resolved. They concluded that the cattle graziers were favoured because of their status in the society. Thus is due to the fact that the cattle crazier were able to convince the local administrators there by buying huge lands. (Nkwi and Warnier 1982:474). Anlu was a women’s uprising in Kom formed in 1958 to put in place new farming techniques imposed by agricultural officers. Later, it championed all women’s collective grievances, including farmer-grazier problems. This group remained as an appropriate female unifying factor for handling collective social issues in the northwest region. For a more detailed analysis of the Anlu group, see Nkwain 1963.

 The cattle graziers were noted for using their wealth to buy and register land in the area at the expense of the indigenous women who merely had usufruct right over the land as indigenes. This incident brings into play conflict between the poor and the rich on landownership. See Nkwi and Warnier 1982Competition over landownership. Where it occurs, power, wealth, and survival are measured by ownership and control of land as a vital resource needed for sustenance (Kaberry 1959). Conflict between farmers and cattle graziers has been a continuous and perennial problem in the South West and North West Region including Sabga hills, making legal protection against conflict over landownership imperative (Fisiy 1992:1) Landownership is often the primary cause of Farmers-Cattle Rearers conflict, and, given that the survival of most Cameroonians depends on land struggle for its control engages people at all rungs of society (Havnevik et al. 2007:33). Putting in mind the socioeconomic importance of land, it is not surprising that social or ethnic conflicts over land are accompanied by uneven control over land (Moyo 2008:26).

In the North West Region of Cameroon, areas such as Bui, Wum, and Sabga hills which will be a primary forcus of the study, indigenous elites, bureaucrats, and cattle graziers use their positions and wealth to amass large tracts of land, on which they establish cattle ranches and plantations. In many cases, their activities stop the rural population of parcels of land on which their subsistence hinges (Rhoda 1991:59).

The farmers affected by the above dynamics must often walk long distances in search of farmland or risk cultivating on grazing lands, which may lead to conflict with pastoralists. It is on this basis that this study seeks to situate the continuous farmer-grazier conflicts in the northwest region of Cameroon within a class difference analysis framework, most often interrogating questions of power – who benefits and whose rights are proscribed. The study will analyse a historical evolution of land conflict between farmers and the cattle graziers as well as identify some of the causes and effects of conflict over landownership between the farmers and cattle graziers in Sabga. It will also examine if the existing laws are sources of the conflict or not. Finally, it will analyse the existing adaptation measures of the conflict and assess the coping strategies of such conflict.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Conflict over land ownership existed as early as the post-colonial era in which European colonial masters influence socio-cultural activities of the African ethnic groups by favouring some tribes and disfavouring others (Jean Hatzfeld 1995 to 1998). It was the case in Northern Cameroon between the farmers and herdsmen leading to population movement in the 19TH Century (Njeuma and Awasom 1989:459). Thus, the north west region is not being an exception have witness the same situation since then due to the present of people with difference ethnic characteristics and cultural differences between farmers which are mostly Christians and cattle rearers who are Muslims and mbororos.

1.3 Objectives

1.3.1    Main Objective

• To investigate the extent to which conflict over land affects farmers and cattle rearers in Sabga Hills.

1.3.2    Specific Objectives

• To investigate the causes of inter-ethnic conflict between farmers and cattle rearers in Sabga hills.
• To examine the effects of inter-ethnic farmers and cattle rearers in Sabga hills.
• To evaluate the measures put in place to resolve farmers-graziers conflict in Sabga hills