United Nations Recognition of Indigenousness Against the Social Realities of the Mbororo’s of Cameroon: an Epistemological issue Surrounding the Conceptualisation of local Imageries

This paper analyses the UN recognition of autochthony in the light of the socio-cultural and politico-economic realities of the Mbororos of Cameroon. In fact, during the 20th century, for various reasons that can be linked to the will of the colonialist, the State and the quest for security, the settlement of normadic societies appeared as an important phenomenon. In Cameroon, this settlement took place through changes in their ways of life. Against the backdrop of the deterministic and miserable approaches to indigenous Mbororo people, this study draws on the theories of the decoloniality of power (Capucine and Fatima Hurtado, 2009; Dussel) and Raymond Boudon’s methodological individualism (1977) to demonstrate that the definition and identifying criteria of autochthony established by the UN are unsuiteddo not suit the Mbororo people’s imagination and their propensity for settlement.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].