Toward a Progressive Politics of Belonging? Insights from a Pastoralist "Hometown" Association

"Hometown" ethnic-development associations are accused of deepening the factional politics of belonging in Africa, and of being too easily coopted by the political forces that civil-society organizations should in theory be challenging; however, their capacity to operate on and across multiple registers of citizenship formation means that they may be capable of achieving more progressive forms of politics. This possibility is explored through an association established to protect the rights and culture of a marginal pastoral group in Cameroon. Although the association's success remains uneven and contested, its origins in a struggle for rights, and the nonterritorial basis of its mobilization, give it an "alternative" character, which may offer clues to more progressive forms of politics in contemporary Africa.