The Anglophone Cameroon-Nigeria boundary: opportunities and conflicts
Title | The Anglophone Cameroon-Nigeria boundary: opportunities and conflicts |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2005 |
Authors | P.J.J. Konings |
Secondary Title | African affairs : the journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume | 104 |
Issue | 415 |
Pagination | 275 - 301 |
Date Published | 2005/// |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication Language | eng |
Keywords | boundaries, Cameroon, conflict, Nigeria |
Abstract | Recent studies of African boundaries have tended to focus either on the growing number of border disputes between States or on frontier regions that are said to offer local inhabitants a wide range of economic opportunities. This article combines both approaches and demonstrates the ambiguous nature of the Anglophone Cameroon-Nigeria border. On the one hand, the border has been subject to regular skirmishes between Cameroon and Nigeria, culminating in a protracted war over the sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula - an area rich in oil reserves. On the other hand, it has for historical and economic reasons never constituted a real barrier to cross-border movements of labour and goods. The large Nigerian migrant community in Anglophone Cameroon, in particular, has been able to benefit from formal and informal cross-border trade for a long time. Unsurprisingly, its dominant position in the host community's commercial sector has been a continuous source of conflict. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
IR handle/ Full text URL | http://hdl.handle.net/1887/3500 |
Citation Key | 652 |