MIGRATION AND IDENTITY IN SOUTHWEST REGION OF CAMEROON: THE GRAFFIE FACTOR, C.1930S-1996

Abstract

This article focuses on the dynamics of internal migration taking the case of Bamenda Grassfielders’ migrants in coastal Cameroon and stresses on how such migrations gave rise to the identity puzzle between those who were branded as the graffie and their host. It questions how the politicization of identity can be understood within the historical and political dynamics of Cameroon. The article further maintains that at the onset of the British colonial rule many people from this region migrated to the industrial complex of coastal Cameroon as plantation labour as well as auxiliary labour in other colonial services. After work in these services they retired and became enterprising to the chagrin of their host. They were thus derogatorily branded as graffie. Using the concept of identity in migration the article questions why and how the graffie have coped with their identity in heterogeneous spaces like the South west region of Cameroon.