Contribution to the Study of the Local Law Applied to the Customary Court of Mbe (Northern Cameroon): the Case of the Rural Conflicts among the Dii

Abstract

This paper analyses the regulations and consequences of the social conflicts (marital disputes, debts, witchcraft and land disputes) which are considered at the Customary Court of Mbe, in the regions of the Dii population in northern Cameroon. As demonstrated in this brief study, in many cases the Dii customs have been preserved in the Cameroonian secular law of western inspiration. A major observation emerges from this study: the cases submitted to the Customary Court of MBE are indicative of the orientation of their values: matrimonial independence of the woman; monetization of the economy; the education and dissemination of European cultural models have profoundly altered the social relationships in these traditional rural communities.