ABSTRACT:
Boundaries or border zones in Africa, and the inter-state and inter- community relations generated across them, have been major sites for the inter-play of various social, economic and political dynamics. This paper reflects on the dialectics of the state-society relations within the socio-economic prism in the context of the Nigeria/anglo-Cameroon border. Situating the analysis in the post-independence period, the paper examines critically the socio-economic challenges and paradoxes confronting the two independent states of Nigeria and Cameroon Republic in regard to the legitimacy of the Bakassi Peninsula border zone that divides an area despite its extremely high level of cultural homogeneity. The paper shows that, as a fluid cultural zone informed by strong historical ties, the Nigeria/anglo- Cameroon borderland area has not only been a site of intense inter- state relations, but also an arena of possibilities for the local communities. As the paper makes clear, Africans, in many ways, turn the boundaries of their modern states from rigid barriers between countries to flexible frontiers of mutual contact and cooperation. The implication of this for the need to establish local mechanisms to promote trans-border cooperation, and ensure that “the partitioned Africans” of the affected border communities do not suffer unduly, becomes obvious.
