Multifaceted Crises and Family Disintegration in the Far North of Cameroon
This study analyzes displaced families’ disintegration amidst multifaceted crises in the Far North Region of Cameroon. The focus is on displaced families in four divisions where host communities along the border of Nigeria have fled Boko Haram, due to sociopolitical instability and environmental degradation. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses show how insecurity and precarity have resulted in disintegrating, dispersing and sometimes recomposing the traditional structure of the family institution by disrupting marriage traditions, gender roles and intergenerational relations. Such shifts in the family occurred as a result of the challenging contexts in their hometowns, during flight and after settling in the host towns. The findings demonstrate the effects of the multifaceted crises, which created intergenerational, but also inter- and intra-community rifts that are challenging to repair amidst mass distrust and continued insecurity. This study contributes especially to understanding how these crises affect family cohesion and intergenerational relations as part of dynamics of great social change.
About the author(s) / editor(s)
As associate professor and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden, Lidewyde Berckmoes investigates long-term and cyclical dynamics of conflict and peace in the Great Lakes Region, particularly Burundi and Rwanda.
Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Lidewyde uses anthropological lenses in combination with insights from peace and conflict studies, migration studies, psychology and psychiatry to come to new insights about the long-term and intergenerational effects of conflict on children, young people and families. She recently published a photo-ethnography entitled TRACES with photographer Marieke Maagdenberg, a book that points to conflict-affected cultural repertoires as reflecting how the history of war in Burundi affects second-generation migrants in Europe. She is the principal investigator of two ongoing projects; in Rwanda concerning intergenerational resilience and anticipatory practices in conflict and natural disaster, and in Burundi exploring entanglements of cyclical conflict and mental health problems and care. Lidewyde is also the convenor of the ASCL Collaborative Research Group (CRG) Conflict continuities.
Posted on 4 June 2025, last modified on 4 June 2025