By Adama Muye*
Tole is a small cosmopolitan village at the foot of Mount Cameroon, about three kilometres away from Buea in the Southwest Province.
It became famous for its vast tea plantations, which occupy some 453 hectares of land.
The name Tole originated from a nearby Bakweri village where the cultivation of tea actually started in Cameroon.
When the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, set up a camp and factory in that area in 1928, it called it Tole Tea Estate.Though the land belongs to the Bakweri people, northwesterners form a majority of the population, as the indigenes are less than one hundred of a population of about two thousand people.
Life In Tole Before, After CDC
Tole Tea Estate was run by the CDC until its privatisation in 2002 to a sole proprietor, Ahmadou Danpullo Baba, under the Cameroon Tea Estate, CTE. Most Tole dwellers The Post talked to, recounted with nostalgia the heydays of life under the CDC. They said the camp used to be buoyant, especially during payday.
They recalled how CDC used to pay its workers in time, bore the responsibility of the sick; even evacuating some patients out of the country for treatment.Some of them said the CDC provided free accommodation, free electricity, free transportation during transfers of workers and transportation of corpses to workers' villages.
"CDC even paid some special workers who took care of workers' children when they went out to work on the fields," one of them said.Besides recreational facilities, playgrounds in Tole hosted some of the most famous holiday inter-quarter competitions for youths in Buea.
After the privatisation of the tea sector, coupled with protests by the tea workers following their untimely sack by the new management, many workers left Tole Tea Estate. Some, though, who could not leave have stayed on.
Life in Tole thereafter, The Post learnt, has been a call for concern.According to Joseph Mbole, life has been very difficult since the privatisation of the plantation. Working conditions have become very poor; workers have been stripped off social amenities like free housing, free electricity, recreational facilities like the workers' social club, and the health post.
As a result, many workers have died out of frustration; some have gone back to their villages, while a majority of the population have settled in Bwiyuku, a nearby village, as farmers.
Mbole said he resorted to farming following his sack after the 2005 upheaval at the tea estate, which he said was aimed at fighting for salary increase.With the new dispensation, wages have been drastically slashed with the price per kilo of harvested tea down to FCFA 25 as opposed to FCFA 32 for permanent and FCFA 35 for contract workers, as was during the days of CDC.
The camp now lies in ruins with roofs of workers' houses ripped off, and planks sold out cheaply.
Tea Production
Paul Meneki, one of the sacked CTE workers, said the quality of tea has dropped; it is void of the aroma and taste it had before.According to him, experienced workers have been sacked and replaced with Nordists (northerners), who know little or nothing about tea production.
Some CTE administrators confirmed that working conditions are deplorable. They added that tea is usually harvested in a particular style (two leaves and a bud). But with the newly introduced harvesting machines, grass is harvested alongside tea. At the factory, the whole stuff is ground and the end product has been a shadow of what was known as Tole Tea.
Deteriorating Health Situation
The health situation in the tea estate is another problem altogether. Some workers told The Post that the death rate in Tole has been on the increase. They attribute the high death rate to the lack of medical facilities for workers.
Said Meneki; "When Baba took over this farm, the first thing he did was to close down the long existing health post, which had saved many lives." He said the stipend they get now cannot save a single life in case of any serious health problem.To him, this is contrary to CDC, whose primary concern was its workers' health.
Dog Meat Myth
Tole denizens believe that dog meat, commonly known as "404" is a cure for malaria, filaria and general body disorder.About three-quarters of the population there also consider it a delicacy. They say it is prepared with medicinal leaves like "massepo, fever grass, azem and barks of certain trees."
404 business is common in Tole. Peter Agun is a popular pepper soup 404 seller. It is said he has been in this business for more than 20 years.
The Post learnt he has successfully educated his children with proceeds from the business.
Stephen Kome and Roland Ngeke, all Tole inhabitants, said they prefer
404 to any other meat. They said a friend would have lost his life due
to malaria, but got cured by drinking 404 soup.
Teenage Life
Girls start off well in their education since Tole has two nursery
schools, three primary schools and three secondary schools, but usually
get entangled in teenage pregnancy.
This has led to high birth rate, single parenthood and co-habitation.
Meanwhile, most boys drop out of school at an early age. Most of them
are jobless; they idle away their lives gambling and smoking Indian
hemp.Tole, by all standards, is a world of its own.
(UB Journalism Student On Internship)
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