Land Struggles in Rural Fako Division between the Bakweri and the Government of Cameroon

Abstract

This article illustrates how changes in land ownership and institutions attributable to colonial heritage and other global forces can engender land disputes. Results of case studies reveal the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) to be the main source of land disputes (for example exceeding boundaries, reneging on earlier contractual arrangements and non-respect of tenancy). In the case study, village disputes are perceived to be ethnically-, gender- and age sensitive, with a negative effect on investment in land, the use of farm inputs, farm output and access to infrastructure. Implications for public policy point to the need to recognise the land rights of locals and to involve them in decisions related to the use, expropriation or transfer of land for developmental purposes in rural Cameroon.