Saibou Issa

Historian, Department of History, University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon.

Research priorities: Security, Conflict, Ethnicity, Resource and Interstate Relations
Research areas: Chad basin; Central Africa
-Maitrise and DEA (Master’s) in History at the University of Yaounde I . Dissertations on the impact of the Chadian crisis on Northern Cameroon, and violence and ethnic conflicts in the southern part of Chad basin.
-Ph.D in 2001 in Yaounde I. Dissertation on Conflict and security issues in Chad basin between the XVIth and the XXth centuries.
-Joined the University of Ngaoundere in North Cameroon in 1997 as Assistant Lecturer; Senior Lecturer within the same University since January 2002.
Co-ordination of research teams:
-Cameroon model of peaceful coexistence: 19 researchers from the Universities of Ngaoundere and Yaounde I.
-Urban security in Central Africa: 11 researchers from Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Congo and Central African Republic
-Observatory of Change along the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline, 9 researchers from the Universities of Ngaoundere and N’Djamena
Book in progress: Cross-border aquifers, conflict and cooperation between Cameroon and its immediate neighbours
Research agenda during my stay at ASC (5th October-20th December 2004): Complete a draft of a book on Highway banditry in Chad basin with a focus on North Cameroon. Change and continuity since the precolonial era, techniques of aggression, profile of bandits, banditry and accumulation, banditry and politics, “social banditry”, sharing the booty, transmigration of criminals, dissemination of light weapons, role of women and traditional rulers, economy of crime, struggle against the gangs, etc. are some of the orientations. The study is based essentially on colonial archives, archives of the gendarmerie, interviews with inmates and “retired bandits”, interviews with victims and elders, analysis of songs and ballads, fieldwork in border zones.