In the last century or so, many people have migrated within West African countries in search of economic opportunities or greater security. As land pressures have increased over time, these movements have sparked disputes over who has the right to the land. In countries such as Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, groups have appealed to the idea of “autochthony”—their native belonging to a particular area—to claim an exclusive right to the land, a claim that immigrants, some of whom have been in the same area for decades, have contested. Vlavonou’s well-researched study focuses on the struggles related to autochthony in the Central African Republic, where non-Muslim groups claim to be the real natives and have tried to deny that status to Muslim groups, leading to bloody conflict. Although Islam has been spreading from the north of the continent progressively southward over centuries, Vlavonou convincingly argues that many Muslim groups have a legitimate claim to indigeneity. Interestingly, he notes that the country’s conflicts have really focused not on land but on identity, with different political elites and warlords all too willing to weaponize autochthony to assert their power.
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Source link : https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/belonging-identity-and-conflict-central-african-republic
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Publish date : 2024-02-20 03:00:00
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