Africa is the region with the sparsest overall population, but to infer that Africa has no problems of rural land shortage would be quite wrong. The continent has the highest and fastest-rising rate of population growth—lately over 3 per cent annually—and the distribution of people across the continent is quite uneven. At least as far as rain-fed lands are concerned, some of its local densities already count among the world's highest. Several of its nations—for instance Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria—encompass within their borders a full spectrum from range land or desert with fewer than five per square kilometre to better-watered settlements of over 500 per square kilometre, where domestic groups have space for little more than kitchen gardens.

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This article investigates the nature and structure of linkages between the urban elite and local institutions in their home villages in the Nso' area of north-west Cameroon. It argues that indigenous institutions provide a frame of reference for the negotiation of identity and the provision of security in a context where state institutions seem to have lost their raison d'être. The notion of a home village has become a defining factor in the urban–rural nexus which allows the elite to acquire resources from external sources which they in turn invest in the production of social and symbolic capital. The materialisation of this capital is manifested in the acquisition of neo-traditional titles. Under conditions of dire financial and material hardship some local traditional authorities have started to ‘commodity’ what was previously earned through merit and service to the group.

Control over and access to land in Nso, Cameroon, has always depended on social identity. Control over land is a central symbol of leadership, both historically and today. Since the mid-1970s the Cameroonian state has instituted land ordinances and stressed privatisation and land titling, while Nso ideology has continued to emphasise access to land as a right of Nso citizenship. The contradictions set up by these two differing views are exacerbated by disputes between the Fon Nso and his sub-chiefs, in this case the Fon Nseh, over the right to control access to land. This prerogative, represented by the licence to collect taxes for the people farming on the land, is further complicated by the relationship of the two rulers and their constituents to the national state. Each Fon reinvents tradition by reinterpreting a series of historical events to buttress his claim, the Fon Nso stressing rights in people and the Fon Nseh stressing rights in territory by virtue of his ritual obligation to the ancestors residing there. This article examines the complex relationships and the distribution of power among these traditional rulers, the new elites and the national state.RésuméLe contrôle et l'accession à la terre à Nso, au Cameroun, a toujours dépendu de l'identité sociale. Le controle de la terre symbolise l'idée de chef, à la fois dans le passé et encore de nos jours. Depuis le milieu des années 1970, l'état camerounais a établi des arrêtes fonciers et renforce la privatisation et le droit foncier, alors que l'idéologie Nso a continué à accentuer l'accession à la terre comme un droit de citoyenneté Nso. Les contradictions produites par ces deux points de vues différents sont encore plus exacerbées par les désaccords entre le Fon Nso et ses sous-chefs, dans ce cas le Fon Nseh, sur le droit de controler l'accession à la terre. Ce privilege, representé par le droit de percevoir les impôts payables par les fermiers travaillant sur la terre, se complique encore davantage quant au rapport des deux chefs et de leurs partisans à l'état moderne. Chaque Fon réinvente la tradition en dormant une nouvelle interpretation à certains événement historiques pour étayer sa revendication: le Fon Nso met en valeur les droits du point de vue des gens, alors que le Fon Nseh renforce les droits dans la perspective du territoire en vertue de l'engagement rituel qu'il porte envers les ancêtres qui y résident. Cet article analyse les rélations complexes et la repartition du pouvoir parmi ces chefs traditionnels, les nouvelles élites et l'état moderne.

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