ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that how the concept of sons of the soil (SoS) conflicts in the quantitative literature and the largely qualitative literature on autochthony have overlapping focus and logics. Demographic shifts are seen as the backbone of SoS conflicts, as are the perceptions of threat and uncertainty associated with shifting demographic landscapes. Discourses of autochthony have been observed as a prominent feature of contemporary politics and contemporary conflicts around the world, and autochthony has particularly become an incendiary political slogan in many parts of Africa. As tensions mounted, ethnic distinctions and the distinction between autochthons and allochthons, national and foreigner, became blurred, and the polarization into north/south or a Muslim/Christian division took center stage. The notion of ivoirite, a program of identification of the population into allochthons or autochthons, solidified a north-south cleavage. The autochthons, according to the ivoirite discourse and ideology, were particular ethnic groups from the south.
