Recent studies of African boundaries have tended to focus either on the
growing number of border disputes between states or on frontier regions
that are said to offer local inhabitants a wide range of economic opportunities.
This article attempts to combine both approaches and to demonstrate
the ambiguous nature of the Anglophone Cameroon-Nigeria
border. On the one hand, the border has been subject to regular skirmishes
between Cameroon and Nigeria, culminating in a protracted war over the
sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula — an area rich in oil reserves. On the
other hand, it has for historical and economic reasons never constituted a
real barrier to cross-border movements of labour and goods. The large
Nigerian migrant community in Anglophone Cameroon, in particular, has
been able to benefit from formal and informal cross-border trade for a long
time. Unsurprisingly, its dominant position in the host community’s
commercial sector has been a continuous source of conflict.