Kinship Network Survival Strategies of Plantation Workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation in the Context of Anglophone Armed Conflict

ABSTRACT

Violent conflict kills, injure and disables people. Violent Arm conflicts are known to be destructive in nature, eroding most if not all livelihood base of strategic importance with a tendency of putting a disproportionate challenge on affected victims. The destruction of productive assets weakens the access of individuals and households to their sources of livelihood and economic survival. This study explores the influence of kinship network survival strategies of plantation workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) in the context of the Anglophone Armed Conflict. It specifically examined how plantation workers explore kinship network and the ethnodemographic household composition as strategies for survival. The study employed a qualitative research design with purposive sampling of participants. Data collection comprised of conducting ethnographic field work through in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Observations with sixty (60) participants drawn from two distinct camps. Data obtained was analysed using in-depth descriptions and narrations from interviewees according to theme and sub themes. The study revealed that all participants relied on endogenous survival strategies that revolved around subsistence and economic farming, sales of firewood and exchange in the form of solidarity and reciprocity and that kinship determined and influenced their choice and efficiency.