- Emmanuel Yenkong Sobseh, PhD* & Collette Ngweka Nguimkie, PhD
- IKR J. Art Humanit. Soc. Sci. | Page: 68-78
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23831594
This
article provides a comprehensive historical exegesis of the transmutation of
land ownership paradigms and the concomitant proliferation of agrarian
conflicts between 1930 and 2020 in Santa Sub-Division, Mezam Division, North
West Region of Cameroon. It advances the central thesis that the inexorable
incursion of the cash crop economy, epitomized first by Coffea arabica and
subsequently by intensive market gardening, precipitated a profound ontological
metamorphosis of land from a communally sacralized patrimony governed by
elastic customary jurisprudence to a highly monetized, fiercely contested and
assiduously litigated commodity. Anchored in a robust qualitative methodology
encompassing semi-structured interviews, and archival hermeneutics, the study propounds
a pentagonal typology of conflicts. These include intra-familial and
inheritance-related, boundary and demarcation, farmer-grazier, inter-village
territorial, and commodification-driven disputations. It critically
deconstructs intervention mechanisms encompassing traditional authorities,
civil society organizations, administrative apparatus, and the Land
Consultative Board, demonstrating that entrenched legal pluralism and pervasive
elite capture engendered fragmentary, contradictory and ultimately
inefficacious outcomes. It further elucidates the contradictory socio-economic
ramifications of commercialization, revealing simultaneous processes of
accumulation and dispossession, social mobility and structural marginalization.
The article concludes by advocating for comprehensive institutional
restructuring that harmonizes statutory and customary epistemologies while
restoring legitimacy, equity and accessibility as foundational principles of
sustainable land governance.
