The study rests on a two-step methodology. First, the authors
conducted a review of the conceptual literature around the state-ethnicity diversity conundrum in
postcolonial Africa, especially in terms of struggles for access to state resources and opportunities.
Second, the authors used these conceptual insights to ground the historical and critical
analysis of primary (newspaper articles, computed statistics from public records, national laws,
long-term unobtrusive observations of everyday inter-ethnic struggles as a result of the authors’
permanent stay in Cameroon) and secondary (local and international publications on the subject)
sources.