PhD project
Between duress and interconnectivity: Mbororo refugees at the Cameroun-CAR border
French title: Entre la “détresse’’ et l’inter-connectivite : le case de Mbororo réfugies sur les frontières Cameroun-Centrafrique. This research project investigates the meaning of duress in the lives of nomadic refugees in Cameroon and investigates if and how the accessibility of new ICT’s allow them to better navigate this duress.
- Duration
- 2012 - 2016
- Contact
- Amadou Adamou
- Funding
-
NWO VICI
Over the past 15 years many Mbororo have fled the Central African Republic due to very harsh circumstances related to kidnappings and to being attacked and looted by rebels. Many heads of cattle, vital to the livelihood of the Mbororo were lost in attacks and in administrative conflicts.
Now these nomadic people find themselves in refugee camps in the neighboring Cameroun where they are dependent on International Organizations for their survival and need to find new livelihood strategies to adapt to a more sedentary lifestyle. In this context, by use of life histories and visual methods I study how people adapt to this difficult situation and how access to new ICT’s play a role in their ways of navigating this duress. The focus of this project lies particularly on ethnic organizations that aim to organize and improve the situation of the Mbororo refugees while at the same time seem to create division and conflict. ICT’s are central to their (dis)functioning.