The Fulani Land/Settlement Question in British Southern Cameroon, 1916–1960 1

Colonialism and ethnic favoritism is a common theme in the historiography of colonial Africa. It entailed colonial preference for particular ethnic groups for sociopolitical and economic reasons, and the results were often bad. German support for Bali-Nyonga over surrounding village-groups during their colonial rule in Cameroon (1884–1916), for example, led to arbitrary demarcation of boundaries that have had devastating effects on the region to this day. ² The French, during their tenure in Ivory Coast, assigned particular territorial spaces to favored groups for various reasons. ³ During the Anglo-French negotiations in the first half of the twentieth century to amend their boundary over Togo, a colonial offi cial was noted to have observed that the French were eager to include the Konkomba group within their boundary “because they are good fighting men and may prove good recruits for their black army.” ⁴ The Belgian's support and preference for the Tutsi over the Hutu in Rwanda and Burundi invariably led to the 1994 genocide.