Is graft the central problem? Could rural Cameroonians get ahead if it weren’t for that?
Thanks,
Rob
What do you (personally) mean by usable scale. Microfinance is always small scale and there are certainly national “caisses” as I saw (although c. 2007 last time) operating.
That is not actually very bad.
And welcome to the world of formal business, which is what major money requires.
And as well the deadly effect of the so-called “social” engagement of the state.
Better to see them bastards off and liberalise the economy.
It is useful to highlight that the informality helps enable this, as ‘traditional’ ( I question their genuine ‘traditional’ roles) fees are pretty much paid because one can’t enforce proper rights (“non traditional” but then precious bloody few of the traditional rights would stand to proper scrutiny)
I’m moving to the DR Congo and living like a king~
What do you mean by “major”? It doesn’t always have to require formal paperwork. I worked alongside a Swedish microfinance organisation after the tsunami in 2005, and they worked in a much more trust-based manner. They recorded ID cards as much as possible, but were aware that a) many survivors had lost all their paperwork, and b) there were going to be criminals exploiting them, but they felt the benefit outweighed the moral outrage. When I visited them two years later, they reported an overall 80% repayment rate, including interest, which seemed pretty reasonable.
Spam reported.
Graft is indeed a huge problem, permeating every part of society. There is no telling what rural Cameroon would be like without it- it’s such a part of society that a world without it would be unimaginable.
I just mean accessible to the people I lived around. Maybe there were programs around that I didn’t know about, but either they didn’t have the publicity or the reach to be usable by the people in my area. As for the loan terms, they may be generous, but they are not possible for people in my area. There are few business projects- especially ones that farmers can do- that are going to return the principle plus 20% in six short months.
Why would you doubt the traditional roles? Cameroon’s Lamidos go back to the Sokoto Caliphate and have acted as the most powerful leaders until very recently. The French didn’t really bother to do much colonizing in my area, so local power structures and ways of life remained pretty much unchanged until the 1960s. Even today in many areas the traditional rules hold more power than the state appointed ones.
You really don’t want to wake up in many parts of the Congo. Although it was not well covered by US media, their civil war by far was the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the past 30 years. Some 4 million have died since 1998.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Generally speaking, it’s best not to think of one silver bullet which can create a transition to sustainable growth. Developed countries have lots of things that go properly, not just one or two. Focusing exclusively on corruption or lack of capital or microfinance is probably a mistake.
Personally, I have a soft spot for vaccination and health clinics, but that’s not a panacea either. Others have argued that serious infrastructure investment can be a real game changer and have dismissed microfinance as a poverty maintenance program.
Reread what I wrote.
Just because the Lamido or whatnot existed doesn’t mean every “traditional” right excercised now existed in 1800 or that the right had the same meaning. Tradition is exploited.
And as someone with actual experience with Lamidos, personal friends who are Lamidos, a pretty advanced understanding of the political history of the area gained from modern scholarly sources as well as historical primary sources, I’m going to tell you outright that you know nothing about this particular subject and in this case you are wrong.
The traditional leader system in Fulbe-controlled areas of Northern Cameroon in particular are part of a thriving modern feudal parallel government that is part of an unbroken and in some cases largely unchanged trans-national feudal system dating back to the Fulbe conquests of the area and with roots in the Sokoto empires and the Kano empire before that. Colonial powers- which departed a scant forty years ago- had little desire to spend their energy ruling these remote and barren regions, so for the most part they left local traditional systems intact.
It is true that the French did favor the organized feudal Fulbe kingdoms over the smaller indigenous states, pushing many Fulbe-resistant ethnic groups into the hills, where to this day they live extremely traditional lives and fight against the Fulbe-ization of their societies. No doubt that helped solidify and fortify the Lamido kingdoms’ grip on the area. But that’s been going on a while. Since the formation of the modern state, the power of the Lamidos have been slow to erode. Many still run private armies, personal prisons, and control things just like they did when they were semi-autonomous kings. The political government would be pleased to be rid of these rival powers. But they simply don’t have the credibility or presence that the traditional leaders have. So the two systems live uneasily together.
And while there are certainly people who are resistant to the rule of Lamidos, they are most likely objecting to Fulbe rule of traditionally non-Fulbe territory, and the increasing pervasiveness of Fulbe culture. Many do view the Fulbe as colonizers. But this goes back more than a hundred years to the original Fulbe jihads. There has been no modern power grab by people faking tradition. There is no need for it, because frankly most Lamido rule was a colonial power grab to begin with. That is the tradition.
That said, most Lamidos I knew genuinely cared about their people and understood that their power depended on their ability to maintain credibility with their people. Furthermore, most of the time Lamido is a semi-elected position (they are chosen from a panel of people of eligible heritage) so they have some motivation to keep things under control. That said, there are reports of abuse in some Lamido kingdoms, such as the infamous prison in Rey Bouba and the vigilante squads in Banyo.
Sorry guys, for this hijack. Hopefully it was somewhat interesting. I just get sick of certain posters questioning every darn thing I say when they have absolutely no experience with the subject. I’m no expert by far (though I hope to be.) But I know more than nothing.
As my comment was not about the Lamidos as such, … well I hope you enjoyed your rant. It did not address my point, however, at all as it was not about any of the history you kindly went through. Reread what I wrote.
How about you don’t assume that what you wrote was perfectly understandable, and take the time to actually to re-explain what you meant? Or are jerkish posts better?