Owners vs. non-owners?
A critical discourse analysis of print media representations of territorial ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula border
This study investigated lexical labelling of people and their actions in terms of ownership and non-ownership of territories by the Nigerian and Cameroonian newspaper reports on the Bakassi Peninsula border conflict, with a view to uncovering ideologies underlying the representations. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis which relates discursive practices to social and psychological dimensions was used to analyse instances of labelling in three Nigerian and three Cameroonian English-medium national newspapers. The analyses revealed that the newspapers generally labelled Nigerians in Bakassi as both owners (natives and indigenes) and non-owners (inhabitants and residents). Specifically, the Cameroonian news reports deployed more labels of non-ownership to project Nigerians in Bakassi as mere tenants and occupants of the region while the Nigerian news reports employed more labels of ownership to depict Nigerians as aboriginals and owners of the peninsula. The ideologies of economic interests and ancestral roots motivated the labelling of territorial ownership and non-ownership in both nations’ newspapers.
References
Asiwaju, Anthony
1996 “
The Bakassi Peninsula Crisis: An Alternative to War and Litigation.” Paper presented at the
1996 Conference of the International Boundaries Research Unit
, University of Durham.
Chiluwa, Innocent
2011 Labelling and Ideology in the Press: A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Study of the Niger Delta Crisis. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
De Koning, Ruben
2008 “
Bearing Bakassi: Local Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management under Military Stalemate.”
[URL].
Egede, Edwin
2008 Bakassi: Critical look at the Green Tree Agreement. Nigerian Daily Independent Newspaper.
[URL] (accessed 10, October, 2012).
Fairclough, Norman
2003 Analyzing Discourse and Text: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge.
Kirchner, Stefan
2001 “
Water, Oil and Blood: The Cameroon – Nigeria Boundary Dispute Regarding Bakassi Peninsula and Lake Chad and Threat of War over Water Resources.” Paper presented at
An International Law Seminar at Utrecht University in 2001
.
[URL]
Konings, Piet
2005 “
The Anglophone Cameroon-Nigeria Boundary: Opportunities and Conflicts.”
African Affairs 104 (15): 275–301.
LeFebvre, Rebecca
2014 “
Interests and Identities in Peace Negotiations: Nigeria, Cameroon, and the Bakassi Peninsula.”
African Social Science Review 6 (1): 83–94.
Lukong, Hilary
2011 The Cameroon-Nigeria Border Dispute: Management and Resolution, 1981–2011. Bamenda: Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group.
Matheson, Donald
2005 Media Discourses: Analysing Media Texts. Berkshire: Open University Press.
Mbaga, Jean, and Zachée Njo
2007 “
Globalisation and New Resource Wars: Armed Conflicts over the Bakassi Peninsula between Cameroon and Nigeria.”
[URL].
Mbuh, Justice
2004 “
The Bakassi Peninsula Dispute.” In
International Law and Conflict: Resolving Border and Sovereignty Disputes in Africa, ed. by
Justice M. Mbuh, 1–29. London: Universe Inc.
[URL].
Milano, Enrico
2004 “
Territorial Disputes, Unlawful Territorial Situations and State Responsibility.”
The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 31: 1–6.
Nwachukwu, C
2008 “
Cameroon, Nigeria to Discuss Offshore Oilfield Boundaries.”
The Punch, March 13, 2008.
Nwobi, Chika
2006 “
Nigeria-Cameroon Conflict over Bakassi Peninsula: The Implication for the Local Population”. M.A. thesis, University of Ibadan.
Oduntan, Gbenga
2006 “
The Demarcation of Straddling Villages in Accordance with the International Court of Justice Jurisprudence: The Cameroon – Nigeria Experience.”
Chinese Journal of International Law 5 (1): 67–78.
Ogen, Olukoya
2010 “
Ethnic Irredentism, Oil Politics and Historical Deconstruction in the Gulf of Guinea: The Bakassi Crisis and the Abuse of History.” Paper presented on 25 May,
2010 at the Department of History and International Studies
, Osun State University Ikire Campus. Osogbo.
Omede, Adedoyi
2006 “
Nigeria’s Relations with Her Neighbours.”
Studies Tribes Tribals 4 (1): 7–17.
Omoigui, Nowa
2004 “
The Bakassi Story.” Retrieved March 4, 2009.
[URL].
Omoniyi, Tope, and Dipo, Salami
2004 “
Identity Constructs in a Contested Borderland: The Bakassi Peninsula.” In
Nigeria and Globalization: Discourses on Identity, Politics and Social Conflict, ed. by
Duro Oni,
Suman Gupta,
Tope Omoniyi,
Efurosibina Adegbija, and
Segun Awonusi, 171–193. Lagos: Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation.
Onomerike, Emmanuel
2008 “
International Diplomacy and the Resolution of Cameroon –Nigeria Boundary Dispute.” M.A. thesis, University of Ibadan.
Ushie, Joseph
2010 “
The Niger Delta Crisis: Origins and Neo-Colonialist Complications.” Paper presented at the
Territorial Origins of African Conflicts Conference
, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, January 29–30, 2010.
van Dijk, Teun
1997 Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage.
van Dijk, Teun
2001 “
Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis.” In
Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader, ed. by
Margaret Wetherell,
Stephanie Taylor, and
Simeon J. Yates, 300–317. London: Sage.
Wodak, Ruth
1997 Gender and Discourse. London: Sage.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Igwebuike, Ebuka Elias
2022.
Invaders, Attackers and Destroyers: Trespassing-related Terms and Representations in Nigerian Newspaper Headlines.
English Studies at NBU 8:1
► pp. 117 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.