According to Oscar Njiki, the Constitution guarantees equality among citizens. Rights do not depend on origin but on citizenship. Autochthony is a cultural identity, not a legal privilege.
1) Are you autochthonous everywhere in Cameroon as a Cameroonian citizen?
No. Autochthony is not a universal quality granted by citizenship. It is rooted in memory, lineage, and history. Owning a piece of land, settling there, and investing in it does not make one autochthonous. Indigenous peoples maintain an ontological relationship with their lands: the land is an extension of their identity. The customary rights they hold cannot be transferred through a simple market transaction; they disappear at the moment of sale.
One cannot be autochthonous everywhere.
2) Does one need to be autochthonous to feel at home?
No. Citizenship transcends autochthony. Every Cameroonian is at home anywhere in Cameroon. The legitimacy of one’s settlement does not depend on origins but on belonging to the national community. Being Cameroonian means having the right to reside in Yaoundé, Bangangté, Maroua, and elsewhere without any condition of autochthony.
Every Cameroonian citizen is at home everywhere in Cameroon.
3) Is an autochthonous person at home everywhere in their village?
No. Even within the village, space is structured by property. Each person owns their land, houses, and fields. Autochthony does not authorize home invasion or appropriation of others’ property. An allogenic owner is at home in the autochthonous person’s village because possession establishes a right recognized by law.
Autochthony does not grant all rights to autochthones, and allochthony does not remove rights from allogenes.
4) Does an autochthonous person have more rights in their village than an allogenic person?
No. The law is one and indivisible. The Constitution guarantees equality among citizens. Rights do not vary by origin but by citizenship. Autochthony is a cultural identity, not a legal privilege.
Autochthones and allogenes are equal before the law.
5) Exception: the law reserves certain positions—such as mayor of a city or president of the regional council—for autochthones. But for other elective offices, such as deputies, mayors, and councilors, no autochthony condition is required.
The law reserves two positions for autochthones, but all other elective posts are open to all citizens, whether autochthonous or allogenic.
Ultimately, the debate over autochthony and allochthony leads nowhere. It locks citizens into fragmented identities and diverts attention from what truly matters: our shared future. What counts is not competition over origins but the convergence of destinies. Autochthony and allochthony should not be weapons of division; they are cultural realities integrated within a single, indivisible Republic.
We must look together in the same direction, as children of one nation, not as rival micro-states within the country. Cameroon’s future will not be built in fragmentation, but in unity, solidarity, and a shared awareness of a common destiny.
OSCAR NJIKI
