Land Surrender and Post-Surrender Problems in Buea Sub-Division: The Case of Muea Court Area
Ngome Elvis Nkome
E-mail: ngome.elvis@ubuea.cm / nkomengome@yahoo.co.uk
Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management /History and African Civilizations, University of Buea
Abstract
Land issue that began originated from the German colonial period in Cameroon was succeeded by the post-colonial state with significant ramifications on the inhabitants of Buea sub -division in diverse ways. The local inhabitants and victims of colonial land appropriation and grabbing, had developed a sense of nostalgia about their land and this pushed them to galvanize themselves together in order to mount pressure on the government and the CDC to retrocede some parcels of the land to them. This has resulted in partial surrender of the disputed lands to some identified villages in Buea sub-division including Muea and its environs. The central objective of the paper is to examine the rationale of the land surrender, the processes of land surrender and the problems associated with land surrender and resultant impacts it has created over time. The paper contends that land surrender has created social and political problems of significant dimension that are still negatively affecting the people of Muea Court Area today. The paper followed a mixed research methodology to mine the sources for the study. In this regard, primary and secondary data for the study were exploited in the Buea National archives, the university of Buea library and other private libraries and research centers in Cameroon. In these research centers or venues, I consulted books, articles in journal, magazines and petitions written by parties were consulted. These were complemented by oral interviews conducted randomly with resource persons in the area of study.
Keywords: Land Surrender, Muea Court Area, German Rule, Appropriation, CDC, retrocede
Submission Date: 15/09/2025 Acceptance Date: 23/11/2025
Volume 5 Number 4 (November 2025)
Published: 2025-11-30
HISTORY AND AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS
To cite: Nkome (2025) Land Surrender and Post-Surrender Problems in Buea Sub-Division: The Case of Muea Court Area. Journal of Tertiary and Industrial Sciences, JTIS, 5(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17782933 or https://jtis-htttcubuea.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Nkome-LAND-SURRENDER-AND-POST-SURRENDER-PROBLEMS-IN-BUEA-SUB-DIVISION.pdf