Why recognition? Deciphering justice claims in 2016 Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Scholars attribute the 2016 Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon to systematic marginalisation of the English-speaking minority whose rights are constitutionally guaranteed but remain violated. However, marginalisation fails to explain why the peaceful-Independent Anglophone Elites (IAEs), consisting of lawyers, teachers, civil society organisations and Anglophone associations at home and abroad, who stood behind the 2016 Crisis, refused to bolster claims over economic redistribution or political representation. Instead, in 2016 they chose to engage in the struggle for self-determination and recognition of the Anglophone identity. Through Nancy Fraser's identity model and in-depth interviews with IAEs, we show that they perceived the recognition claim and a return to a federal state as a guarantee not only to the survival of the IAEs, but also to the solution of other forms of injustices, such as misrepresentation, misrecognition, and maldistribution.

KEYWORDS:

• Anglophone Crisis
• independent Anglophone elites
• Fraser’s social justice
• recognition
• redistribution
• representation, Cameroon

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the journal team and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback. We are also grateful to Sakina Shakil Gröppmaier, Emine E. Sülün, and Ali Rıza Taşkale for their comments on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

List of interviewees

1. Interviewee #1 (Scholar, Political Scientist and Activist, ACSS, USA), interview data, March 21 2022.

2. Interviewee #2 (Senior Advocate, Political Opponent, BAR, Bamenda), interview data, November 22 2021.

3. Interviewee #3 (Scholar and Policy Expert, Nkafu Policy Institute, Yaounde), interview data, February 17 2022.

4. Interviewee #4 (Journalist, Political Analyst, Author, Chicago), interview data, December 27 2021.

5. Interviewee #5 (Commission Member and Political Expert, NCPBM Commission, Yaounde), interview data, November 21 2021.

6. Interviewee #6 (policy Expert and Senior Associate, NDI, USA) interview data, February 17 2022

7. Interviewee #7 (Scholar and Writer, PAID-WA, Buea), interview data, March 21 2022.

8. Interviewee #8 (Lawyer and Policy Analyst, BAR, Douala), interview data, March 21 2022.

9. Interviewee #9 (Lawyer and Activist, BAR, Bamenda), interview data, February 17 2022.

10. Interviewee #10 (Political opponent and Activist, CAMNAFAW Douala), personal communications, January 21 2022.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. At the beginning of the 2016 Crisis, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), which became the first official voice in the Anglophone Crisis, also demanded a federation (Okereke 2018). After multiple abuses from the government military forces, and ensuing backlash from the public known as the “Coffin Revolution” (Caxton 2017), the Consortium leaders picked up the call for self-determination (Okereke 2018). Subsequently, its rebranded version SCACUF declared Independence of the State of Ambazonia (Chothia 2018). The alleged “State of Ambazonia” consists of the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. They constitute a fifth of Cameroon’s population and host considerable agricultural lands and massive petroleum resources (INS 2015).

2. Within the political context of the 2016 Crisis, self-determination took various forms and attracted different groups. However, our research shows that the majority of IAEs, which consist of peaceful activists, see a federal solution with strong autonomy as the most viable possibility. There are other groups, some of which are more militant, that strive for full independence. The IAEs, as defined here, translate self-determination into a two-state federal solution.

3. Fraser’s justice theory can also be applied to the issues of Anglophone refugees in neighbouring Nigeria for which transnational justice could be applied. Although some opposition leaders fled abroad, we analyse the 2016 Crisis from the Westphalian frame since the conflict possesses limited transnational impact and is mainly present in Cameroon itself.

4. Taylor’s notion of recognition refers to acknowledging a group or a person’s dignity and is responsible for shaping collective and individual identities, whereas a lack of such acknowledgement is perceived as misrecognition or non-recognition that can both inflict psychological trauma and change a group or person’s way of existence (Taylor 1992).

5. Barrister Bobga Harmony Mbuton, a former President of the Northwest Lawyers Association (NOWELA), draws a clear distinction between common law and civil law as follows.

“Common law is essentially rules for regulation of human society tapped from the passed decisions of judges and tested over time. The consistency in these practices provides law review as well as law reform, while civil law is a top-down process where the ruler provides the basis for human behaviour and this is enshrined into codifications which project what types of conducts can be expected, how it can be violated and what kind of rules can be used and how it can be regulated. This distinction is what outlines the processes in the administration of the rule of law as expected in Cameroon (Mbuton 2017c).

Additional information

Funding

The contribution of Assel Tutumlu was prepared within the framework of the grant financing project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Problems of interaction of ethnic communities at the local level in Kazakh society (2014-2021): dynamics of interethnic clashes and ways to prevent the escalation of violence” (Registration Number: AR 14869488).

Notes on contributors

Nancy Ngum Achu

Nancy Ngum Achu is a PHD Candidate at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Near East University, TRNC. She received her master’s degree in international relations at Eastern Mediterranean University, TRNC. Her interests involve social and critical theory, conflict studies, identity politics, social justice and ethno-national conflicts within contemporary authoritarian regimes across Africa. She works as a volunteer Gender Committee Coordinator for an NGO called VOISCYPRUS. Her works have been published in ICECI-Bosnia 2018 conference proceedings, Eastern Mediterranean University Institutional Repository and Hungarian Journal of African Studies.

Assel Tutumlu

Assel Tutumlu is an Associate Professor in Political Science at Near East University, Northern Cyprus. Her research explores the nature of authoritarian regimes. She appeared on Al-Jazeera, BBC, TRTWorld, and France24. Her work was published in Europe-Asia Studies, Central Asian Survey, Security Journal, Journal of Eurasian Studies, Problems of Post-Communism.