Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses violent encounters between pastoralist Fulani and agriculturalist Kwanja at different scales (inter-personal, village level and inter-ethnic) and argues that, despite major differences in the object, frequency and level of violence, all these conflicts share the same roots.

Paper long abstract:

Are genocides barbaric, inhuman and irrational acts? Or are they just up-scaled versions of smaller conflicts? The present paper analyses violent encounters in Cameroon between pastoralist Fulani and agriculturalist Kwanja at different scales (inter-personal, village level and inter-ethnic) and argues that, despite major differences in the object, frequency and level of violence, all these conflicts share the same roots: a lack or a failure of legitimate institutions to manage conflicts relating to different livelihoods, customary laws, ethnic and religious identities. Understanding large-scale and small-scale conflicts within a same (fractal) social structure makes it easier to grasp the complexities of large-scale conflicts and opens up for new ways of thinking about conflict prevention, focusing on social interactions and social structure, on the longer-term and at a variety of scales simultaneously rather than focusing on rarer episodes of violence at the highest level (the approach adopted by the international criminal court, for example).