Land Use and Land Conflicts on the Volcanic Ashes of Moungo (Cameroun)/Occupation Du Sol et Conflits Fonciers Sur Les Cendres Volcaniques Du Moungo (Cameroun)

Abstract Most of the ethnic groups living in Africa had already established territories before the European colonisation. The land they occupied therefore was theirs. But since one of the aims of European colonisation on this continent was the search for fertile agricultural soil, they dispossessed native people of their land where natural conditions were favourable for cash cropping. In fact, during the colonial period, ail metropolitan governments encouraged in their African colonies the creation of industrial agricultural companies in order to develop cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, banana, oil palm and hevea. These companies were often set up on several thousands of hectares of very fertile agricultural land which belonged to autochthonous populations. European colonisation in Africa therefore gave birth to the superposition of modern law (based on that of Western countries) and the traditional, customary or religious regulations of land ownership. In Africa, as far as management of land ownership is concerned, several laws co-exist, depending on each country's history. In principle, modern law over-rides other systems. But in practice, there is cohabitation between modern and traditional law. That is the case in Cameroon. Already during the colonial era, certain regions of this country were overpopulated, whereas in others like the Mungo basin, the population was small in relation to the available land. Good climatic conditions and rich volcanic soils favoured dense colonisation of the Mungo. This modern valorisation, characterised by the delimitation of the export farming peripheries, has monopolised the most fertile lands of the central part of this area in the form of a corridor. In others, to solve the problem of manpower in the plantations, some small farmers were transformed into agricultural labourers on their own land, whereas many other people left their villages and migrated to this pioneer front. This situation has given rise to land conflicts on peripheral lands. The arrival of migrants has not only accelerated demographic growth, it has also created and maintained confrontations between natives and migrants on marginal lands. It is on these undesirable soils that many new comers acquired parcels of land to cultivate and live on. However, it is also on these marginal lands that there is an imposed necessity for populations to practise at the same time subsistence agriculture and cash cropping. By tradition, land in Africa belongs to autochthonous people; so, the original inhabitants usually end up reclaiming their land. These reclamations more often lead to conflicts among many categories of actors. This article is aimed at understanding land conflicts in Africa, especially in the rich agricultural area of Moungo in Cameroon, where three types of conflict situations have been identified, i.e. the protesting and reclaiming discourse of the indigenous communities and the authoritarian dis- course of the state; conflicts between migrants and autochthones; and conflicts between natives and foreigners. The study demonstrates that from the colonial to post-colonial period, lands quarrels have often degenerated into inter-tribal confrontations in this pioneer front, and constitute a thorny problem that must be resolved in order to achieve a sustainable development of this region where rural activities and urbanisation are growing rapidly. Resume Avant la colonisation europeenne, la plupart de groupes ethniques vivant en Afrique avaient deja cree des territoires. Les terres qu'ils occupaient etaient leurs proprietes. Le but majeur vise par la colonisation europeenne sur ce continent etant la recherche des terres agricoles fertiles, les coloris avaient depossede les populations locales de leur patrimoine foncier la oU les conditions naturelles etaient favorables pour entreprendre les cultures de rapport. Presque tous les gouvernements metropolitains encourageaient dans leurs colonies africaines la creation des compagnies agro-industrieltes pour developper les cultures de rente tels que le cafe, le cacao, le tabac, la banane, le palmier a huile et l'hevea. …

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