Year: 2005
Type: article
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 attempts to combine both approaches and to demonstrate 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.
Source: African Affairs
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adi004
Author: P. Konings
Institution: African Studies Centre
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2003352695