Ethnic groups across Nigeria–Cameroon border territories: contested autochthony and contentious ethnic identities in Mambilla Plateau, Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT While extant literature has examined how autochthony claim-making and narratives account for violent conflicts, they neglect how ethnic groups traversed by Nigeria–Cameroon boundaries manipulate autochthony claim-making and generate ethnic identity crises in the Mambilla Plateau. Using the qualitative dominant mixed-method approach, this paper describes the various ways in which people have come to understand themselves and deploy the autochthony narratives to construct group identities in the Mambilla Plateau. It also examines how the couching of these autochthony narratives and their politicization reinforce contested territorial ethnic claims and generate ethnic identity crises in the region. Relying on social identity thesis, the study argues that extreme ethnic in-group and out-group divides undermine peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups, drive identity crisis as well as fuels ethnic hostilities and population displacements in the Mambilla Plateau. The study concludes that nuanced and inclusive autochthony claim-making presents an opportunity for reducing inter-ethnic hostilities and promoting the peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups in the Mambilla Plateau and other multi-ethnic societies in Africa.