https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6615-3665
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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.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. No such study exists on the Kaka, Kambu and Panso ethnic groups; rather they are presumed or taken to be immigrant population from Cameroon who migrated to the Mambilla Plateau after Nigeria’s attainment of independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960.
2. Mambilla Gazetteers, http://staff.anthro.ox.ac.uk/zeitlyn-david/mambila-gazetteer/ (accessed 11 September 2020)
3. Interview with a Kambu person in Nguroje in June 2019
4. Conversation with a Kaka person in Maisamari in May 2014
5. The place Tiv settled is called Bem. The name of the place has not been changed.
6. Conversation with an elder who claimed that Mayo Mbilla was one of the last points Mambilla ethnic group settled before moving to the Plateau. The word Mayo is Fulani term for river and Mbilla was an ethnic identity. Put together it literarily means the Mbilla ethnic group settled by a river (Mayo). Mayo Mbilla still exists in the Bamnyo.
7. The word Mabirib originates from two Mambilla native words, Ma and Birib, meaning Ma (build) and Birib (unite). Mabirib translates literarily to mean ‘come let us build and unite together.’
8. Field observation of the Mambilla ethnic group and Jukun shows no similarities.
9. Like members of other ethnic groups, Mambilla people straddle between Nigeria and Cameroon daily and both ways get integrated easily.
10. The Mfumte Kaka groups are spread from the Nwa sub-division in Cameroon to the Inkiri, Antere, Ncha and Amba axis of Nguroje in the Mambilla Plateau
11. The Yamba Kaka groups constitute principal villages of Warkaka, Ndum-Yaji and Sakaka.
12. Several conversations suggest that Kambu and Panso people are migrants from the Cameroons as such have no ethnic homeland in Mambilla Plateau.
13. Several conversations with different Mambillapeople resonate with the foregoing assertion.
14. Information generated from some people who identified themselves to be Kambu in Nguroje.
15. Tanya is both Kaka and Kambu, which in the languages of these ethnic groups, Tam means ‘to shoot’ and Nyar is ‘animal’. Put together, the word Tamnyar is a generic word that refers to ‘a place use for the hunting of animals.’ It may be that the name of the place is coincidental, but have not been established by the Kambu people in the area.
16. Mbamnga and Warwar are terms in the Panso language, meaning Nga hill and sand or gravel respectively.
17. Interviews with Kambu and Panso informants revealed that it was through them Kola nut and Coffee was brought to the Mambilla Plateau. They traded from the Mambilla Plateau to other places in Nigeria.
18. Interview with an elder recounting experience of the people during the period approaching the plebiscite in Gembu on June 2014
19. A plebiscite is like any election; it is meant to decide on important matters. After the plebiscite concluded, winners and losers share in the outcome of their decision as equal citizens.
20. His Royal Highness, Dr Shehu Audu Baju II, the Paramount Chief of Mambilla Plateau, admitted that the Kaka, Panso and Kambu people played positive roles in the plebiscite of 1961 by ensuring the Mambilla Plateau become a part of Nigeria.
21. Information generated from a Mambilla person in Gembu on April 2014.
22. Personal communication with a Fulani elder in Gembu in June 2014.
23. Information generated from a victim of the 1982 crisis in Gembu, now resident in Nguroje, 11 July 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nsemba Edward Lenshie
Nsemba Edward Lenshie teaches Political Science at Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria. He received his MSc in Political Science with specialization in Political Economy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is currently a doctorate candidate at the same University. His articles have appeared in Africa Development; Identity, Politics, and Culture: an Afro-Asian Dialogue; Journal of International Politics and Development; European Journal of International and Security Studies, Conflict Studies Quarterly, and Small Wars and Insurgencies. The author can be reached at this email address: [email protected].
Christian Ezeibe
Christian Ezeibe PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Climate Change Studies, Energy and Environment, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Collins Ugwu
Collins Ugwu PhD is a lecturer in the Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nigeria. Email: [email protected]