HOW ARE HOSTILE IDENTITIES FORMED: A CASE STUDY OF KENYA & CAMEROON

This paper sets out to examine exclusion and state predation, mistrust in state institutions, and negative attitudes about democracy as potential drivers of negative/hostile attitudes by members of particular ethnic groups towards the state. It addresses three questions. First, can the exclusion and predation by a state on a particular ethnic group cause members of that ethnic group to form negative attitudes towards said state? Second, can mistrust in state institutions and negative attitudes about democracy also move members of a particular ethnic group to form negative attitudes towards the state? And, finally, can those negative attitudes be mobilized in such a way that it leads to the formation of a hostile identity group? I will be using Afrobarometer data on Kenya and Cameroon to argue that marginalized ethnic groups, which refers to ethnic groups that have been shut out of the neo patrimonial systems that exist in Kenya and Cameroon will be more likely compared to ethnic groups that have historically been included in the patronage system in their respective states to form negative attitudes towards those states.