The day Ghana was playing against Uruguay in the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup, people across the African continent were holding their breath. They were folding their hands with tearful eyes, and praying. They wanted to live the big moment – Ghana in the semifinals, then in the finals and make history by winning the World Cup.

At the hotel lobby where the match was being showed on a large LCD screen, there were moments of wild jubilation and dampening disappointments. People from different nationalities across the African continent were relishing the special moment of an African team playing in the quarter finals for the first time. There were westerners as well. People were singing songs in chorus: it will be Ghana, Ghana.

And then, suddenly, towards the end of the match, Ghana won a penalty. But nobody in the lobby was ready to accept it as such. To them Ghana had already won. It was a goal. The ball had crossed the goal line. To them the intentional hand ball by a Uruguayan player was null and void. Simply unacceptable. But the referee had his say already. Ghana took the penalty and it missed. African dreams were smashed just as the ball smashed the crossbar. Eventually, even as Uraguay won in the penalty shoot out, there was a denial. African people can hardly ever accept the bitter truth that Ghana finally lost the match.

I asked a Nigerian man how he explains this sentiment when nations and tribes across Africa were fighting each other like almost no one else in the world today. He took pains to explain, “Look, that is something which is internal, just like you have strained relations within a family”, and he continued, “but when it is somebody else versus your family, you will, obviously, stand by your family.’

And there is another side to the story. When any South American team plays with a European or North American team, Africans, by and large, side with the South Americans. African people largely supported Uruguay – which had defeated Ghana the other day - when it played against Netherlands in the semi finals. Whether we can call it skin politics or what, one can’t be really sure.

To be able to host a successful World Cup is a matter of high pride among Africans today. That despite the fact that South Africa too didn’t do too well at the World Cup. In Cameroon, there is a sense of sadness that its football team was knocked out from the contest in the very first stage. Yet the country loves to play football like ever before. Any stadium, any free land and you will see people playing quality football all around.

My month-long work in Cameroon on economic and vulnerability needs assessment in the country for an international development agency provided some valuable insights. This is a country which is often described as a ‘haven of peace and stability’ amid an unstable region in central Africa. Compared to some of its neighboring countries, like Chad, Nigeria, Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR), it has a good degree of political stability and governance.

Cameroon was basically a Portuguese and German colony, but after Germany’s defeat in World War I, the country became a League of Nations Mandate Territory and was split into French Cameroon and British Cameroon in 1919. It gained independence from France and British in 1960 and 1961 respectively after a long guerilla war. Cameroon is today an overwhelmingly French speaking country. Some regions in the south and the west speak English as well.

The country is quite rich in minerals and forests. It is perhaps the greenest country I have seen anywhere in the world. Forests are, in fact, one of the main sources of the country’s income. Large swathes of territories have been leased out to foreign countries for lumbering.

Drinking water supplies and electricity is privatized throughout the country. One of my works in the country was to analyse the qualitative impact of privatization of these facilities in the country. It appears that despite establishing a stringent tariff collection system the common people are barely able to see a qualitative and quantitative difference as compared to pre-privatisation days. The private companies, mostly owned by foreign entities, with a certain financial stake of the Cameroon government, are seen to be unaccountable and unresponsive.

The country has so much of free land that bringing all that under agriculture remains a daunting challenge. Now foreigners, mainly the Chinese, are buying or obtaining land on lease. The Chinese are introducing large scale farming, using large machines, and making money for themselves and for Cameroon.

Unlike the eastern and southern African countries, Cameroon has a miniature Indian population. However, that miniature population is controlling some of the biggest urban businesses in the country. Cameroon’s largest retail supermarket chain is run by an Indian company. And those supermarkets are just everywhere.

Like with almost all African countries, Cameroon’s international borders are completely porous. They are as porous as state borders in India. But such porous borders has costs - social as well as developmental. For instance, effective immunization campaigns against disease and epidemics within the country are rendered ineffective as people cross the borders at free will from and to the neighboring countries.

Climate change is a big issue in Cameroon. Although the country has a bounty of fresh water resources, the far north has problems of drought as well. Communities in the country are experiencing climate change in profound ways – often manifested in uneven seasonal cycles, erratic rainfall and increased temperatures. All these phenomena are impacting livelihood activities based on ecological resources, primarily agriculture. Lesser agricultural yields and droughts are a reality today, which farmers across the country say was not the case before.

The free flow of small arms into Cameroon from the neighboring countries undermines human security in vast swathes of the country’s northern region. Free flow of arms from the neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic has given birth to sophisticated armed robberies and inter-tribal conflicts in some parts of the country’s north. Such arms prevalence is impacting government’s development goals in the northern region, because of concerns related to access.

Cameroon is a highly taxed country. Costs of living are much higher than, say, India. I asked many colleagues if it wouldn’t better sense to lower taxes and encourage better compliance and wider tax net. But I learnt that the base of the taxable sectors in the country is not too broad. Higher taxes in the country, thus, are inevitable. This is generally the case across Africa – where governments struggle to find revenues to run the countries. Even as there are environmental concerns about lumbering by foreign companies, yet little can be done about it, I was told. It was the country’s bread and butter. 

(The columnist is Online Editor with Greater Kashmir. This article is part of the author’s regular Sunday column. Feedback at arjimand@greaterkashmir.com)

Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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