Behind the cell door: life and survival in shared prison cells

Abstract

This article argues that the shared prison cell is the central arena of carceral existence in Cameroon, where survival is compressed into endurance and proximity becomes a structuring force shaping dignity, power and relational life. Based on five years of incarceration in Kondengui Principale Prison and over one hundred formal and informal interviews with inmates, visitors and administrators, it develops a series of tightly observed case studies to show how intimacy, violence, moral ambiguity and informal governance are negotiated under conditions of extreme congestion. Beyond its empirical contribution, the article advances an analytical argument: that the shared cell offers a critical lens into broader social dynamics, where scarcity, relationality and uncertainty produce forms of coexistence that are simultaneously solidaristic and dangerous.