ELITE ASSOCIATIONS AND THE POLITICS OF BELONGING IN CAMEROON

The development of elite associations has been a consequence of the gr owth of multi-partyism and the weakening of authoritarian state contro l in Cameroon in the 1990s. The attachment of electoral votes and righ ts of citizenship to belonging to ethnicised regions has encouraged th e formal distinction between 'natives' and 'strangers' in the creation of a politics of belonging. The article argues that this development has also led to the replacement of political parties at the local leve l by ethnicised elite associations as prime movers in regional and nat ional politics.