Chieftaincy and privatisation in Anglophone Cameroon

This chapter examines the opposition of Bakweri chiefs in Anglophone Cameroon to the government announcement, on 15 July 1994, of the privatization of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), one of the oldest and largest agroindustrial parastatals of the country. The chiefs claimed Bakweri ownership of CDC lands and felt betrayed at not having been consulted about the privatization of CDC. The chapter demonstrates that the current resistance to CDC privatization is part of the chiefs' long-standing struggle for the return of the vast Bakweri lands that were expropriated during German colonial rule and, later, leased by the British Trust Authority to the newly created CDC. In this endeavour, the chiefs have always been supported by the Bakweri 'modern' elite. This alliance of 'modern' and 'traditional' elites has forced the government to postpone the privatization of CDC and to enter into negotiations with the original landowners. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]