Paper short abstract:

This presentation critically examines the concept of delinquency as a mode of political engagement through the perspectives of ex-members of armed separatist groups.

Paper long abstract:

The Anglophone Crisis is a conflict between the Cameroonian state and separatist groups from the Anglophone minority, affecting the North-West and South-West regions. It developed out of decade-long tensions between the majority-francophone state and an oppositional movement criticising it for the alleged marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroonians. Following state violence against protestors in 2016, separatist voices gained popularity, and the movement developed an armed flank. Hailed by some as liberation fighters, the groups have been criticised for their treatment of civilians.

Regarding earlier waves of radical youth groups in Cameroon, and Africa more broadly, which were likewise accused of hijacking political causes for personal opportunity, Bayart has argued that the disenfranchised "cadets" appropriating the violence and perceived self-enrichment of the elites through delinquency is in itself a form of disruptive political engagement.

Taking delinquency seriously as an activist form, I will locate it within the contemporary context of Cameroon’s narrow civic space for non-violent activism. At the same time, I am arguing that, though radicalism and delinquency are intertwined, the relationship is more complex than causal. Through ethnographic interviews with ex-members of armed separatist groups, I observe that, in appropriating elite powers, fighters are simultaneously buying into the elite's patrimonial hegemonies they mobilised to oppose. To illustrate this pattern, I will discuss the aspects of (often questionable) consent in recruitment, members’ perspectives on the relationship between separatist ideology and strategies, and their struggles with infantilisation and dependency before, during, and after their time in the armed groups.