Land Restitution and Conflict in Cameroon: the case of The Bakweri
基于2018年访谈，分析喀麦隆西南地区自2003年起将国有种植园土地归还给巴克维社区的过程，揭示该计划如何削弱地方反对力量、巩固政府权力，并对比新庇护主义与政治解决方案两种分析框架。
ABSTRACT Land that was appropriated in the colonial period is only rarely returned to African claimants. Drawing largely on interviews from 2018, this article examines a process of surrendering parcels of state-managed plantation land to Bakweri communities in the South-West Region of Cameroon, which has been operating since 2003. The article not only analyses the national political effects of the scheme, but also engages with debates about interpretive frameworks by contrasting neopatrimonial and political settlements (PS) approaches. The article argues that the original intention of the land restitution scheme may have been to benefit some local communities, but it also reduced effective opposition to the national government by undermining Bakweri institutions and unity. It sustained established national political arrangements by generating significant rents, which are distributed among the government’s supporters in exchange for loyalty. The article argues that this part of the argument would align with the neopatrimonial framing, but that PS address some of the criticisms levelled at neopatrimonialism particularly in relation to the explanations for and limits to clientelism.