Power and privilege in the administration of law : land law reforms and social differentiation in Cameroon

The objective of this study is to determine to what extent the land law reform which was implemented in Cameroon in 1974 caused dislocations of local norms, and to what extent it gave the State better control and management of land. More specifically, the author's aim is to examine how different categories of people reacted to the land reforms, and how the new laws have affected other normative and value systems that governed land tenure before the reform. The study focuses on North-West Province (NWP), but a comparison is made with South-West Province (SWP). After a survey of the evolution of land law reforms in Cameroon, the author deals with land use practices in NWP, the responses of different groups to the 1974 land reform, situations of legal pluralism, the role of the State elite in land tenure reforms, the responses of businessmen, the traditional elite, women and peasants, and land registration trends in SWP as compared with those in NWP. In conclusion, the author assesses the value of such theoretical concepts as 'legal pluralism' and 'semi-autonomous social fields' for the subject studied