This study, based on research spanning 25 years, focuses on the shifting patterns of social assimilation and exclusion that have characterised the inter-ethnic relations of this region for almost two centuries. The analysis is brought right up to the 1990s when the decline of the Cameroon state, linked with World Bank structural adjustment policies as well as the growing importance of ethnic associations, NGOs and international bodies has had a major impact on ethnic conflicts and political mobilisation in the region. Engaging in current debates on the 'invention' of tradition, the deconstruction of ethnicity and the nature of the modern African state, this book makes a major contribution to the analysis of ethnic politics, and the risks and possibilities of democratisation, in Africa.