INDUSTRIAL LOGICS, STRUCTURING PROJECTS AND LAND CONFLICTS IN CAMEROON: THE CASE OF THE CITY OF KRIBI (2010-2021)
INDUSTRIAL LOGICS, STRUCTURING PROJECTS AND LAND CONFLICTS IN CAMEROON: THE CASE OF THE CITY OF KRIBI (2010-2021)

Summary/Abstract: The advent of major structuring projects in Cameroon is the daughter of major structural and geo-economics changes induced by public policies of sectorial development such as thinking by great ambitions and carrying by great achievements whose strategic city of Kribi embodies the implementation, and the materialization of national growth. Indeed, starting from this prism amounts to being part of cultural spatial imaginaries and the logic of land power of which land is the base and the issue that fuels conflicts between actors. The natural resource potential available to Cameroon, in general and the city of Kribi in particular, to induce the State to set up structural projects there (the industrial-port complex of which the deep-water port of Kribi is a component, the construction of the Kribi II natural gas power plant and the construction of roads and especially the Lolabé-Kribi highway). Since 2010, the city of Kribi has been at the centre of all attention (international and national); this because of the said structuring projects. In such a context of development, the earth is in the foreground, as a material support that shelters these projects. The State, the economic stakes and the populations coming from the four corners of the national triangle have enormous needs in land to make their capital grow. This research has led to intensive land speculation in the city of Kribi, with local populations and buyers of plots of land as the main actors. This reflection aims to highlight the land disputes arising from the establishment of such projects in the city of Kribi. Data analysis was based on a methodological approach that was both diachronic and synchronic, based on a variety of documentation consisting of articles, dissertations, theses and books; passive observations and interviews carried out in the districts of Kribi I and II. The establishment of structuring projects in the city of Kribi has given rise to a vast network of interaction around land between customary owners, canvassers, buyers, speculators and the administration. It emerges from this analysis that structuring projects are vectors of land disputes in the city of Kribi. However, to address these disputes that cause land insecurity, there is an urgent need to reform the land management system in Cameroon. This is in order to prevent potential clashes between different groups and especially that development projects are no longer interrupted because of said disputes.

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