Legacies of Violence From the Union Des Populations Du Cameroun (Upc) Conflict: Grievance and Opposition in Cameroon

How do the effects of victimization from political violence reverberate in repressive post-conflict environments? Scholars have clarified the politicizing and mobilizing legacies of violence in politically liberal environments. Our study extends the analysis of victimization to an understudied autocratic context: Cameroon. Southern Cameroon was the site of an extended conflict between the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC) and the colonial French administration. Crucially, the UPC lost, and the newly implanted French-aligned Union camerounaise instituted a draconian legal regime that inhibited citizens from speaking publicly about the trauma they experienced during a conflict that frequently targeted civilians. Through the 1980s, speaking publicly about victimization risked severe state retribution. We fielded an original survey to measure potential legacies of violence and document patterns consistent with the intergenerational transmission of political beliefs. We find that perceptions of inter-ethnic and state-based discrimination are higher among individuals in communities that the historical record identifies as having been exposed to violence. Furthermore, this sense of grievance is associated with greater opposition to the ruling party, a derivative of which has been in power since the 1960s.