Cameroonians Protest Land Sales to Foreigners

 

Originally published on the Voice of America

Rural people in several parts of Cameroon are protesting a government policy that allows the government to sell or lease vast parcels of arable land to foreign investors.

Supporters say the deals could bring much-needed investment to agriculture. But critics warn that the policy could lead to more subsistence farmers losing their lands -- their only source of food and income.

A traditional chief in Bafang -- some 200km north of Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala -- decided to lease a parcel of farmland about 15 kilometers square to an Italian NGO. But the plan backfired. Local inhabitants call the deal “unilateral” and “shady” and say that it will eventually deprive them of their farmlands without compensation.

The Bafang incident is not isolated. Similar tensions have arisen in other parts of the country – for instance, in Nanga Eboko, northeast of the capital, Yaounde; and Kribi, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. In those areas Chinese agro-industry companies are gaining access to massive swaths of arable land. Elsewhere, irate groups have set up roadblocks to demand transparency in the land sales, which are usually conducted behind closed doors.

Government supporters welcome the initiative, saying most farmers lack the means to mechanize agriculture on a large scale. In Cameroon, over 72,000 square kilometers are available for farming, yet only a fraction is being cultivated.

A man who refused to reveal his identity says the land deals could attract investment to rural areas. He says they represent a huge contribution to the fight against poverty because the incoming multinationals will set up industrial-scale plantations, create new jobs and ensure food security in the country by selling their produce on the national market. He says the policy will reduce heavy imports of rice and other foodstuffs.

But critics say the farmland deals are generating fear and a nationalist backlash.

In Nanga-Eboko, a Chinese multinational called Sino-Cam has obtained a 99-year lease on a huge tract of productive land. The company specializes in the production and commercialization of rice, maize, cassava, fruits and vegetables. Fuming inhabitants say they had been told the company would hire local employees and sell its produce on the domestic market.

But a lobby on behalf of local farmers, The Association for the Defense of Collective Interests, ACDIC, says all of the company’s permanent staffers are Chinese. It says young Cameroonians recruited as temporary employees earn two US dollars, working 10 hours per day to grow food that is exported.

Guy Parfait Songue is a political science lecturer at the University of Douala. He’s the main speaker at ongoing public debates on the new scramble for African farmlands organized by ACDIC. He says the shortsighted policy will eventually plunge the country into chaos:

“Our government needs to see exactly what our population needs in the future. Our generation does not yet see the problem but I think that the next generation [will face very serious problems] that we need to prevent now.”

The sale of farmland to foreigners, a fairly recent practice, is not specific to Cameroon. Observers say it’s rooted in the global food crisis of 2007 and 2008 that sparked sharp hikes in food prices worldwide. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization says these sales increased because of pressure from growing populations, particularly in Asia, and because of climate change.

As a result Tanzania, Mali, Zambia, Ethiopia, the DRC, Sudan, Kenya, Madagascar and many other countries with cheap and under-utilized fertile farmland are attracting investors from wealthier countries like China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The African Union warns that the huge land deals can exploit Africans, who have a weaker bargaining position.

The ACDIC says the land transactions are contracted in secret and include a neo-colonial element. Jacob Kotcho is the association’s permanent secretary.

He says Cameroon needs to make sure that its populations will gain in these contracts, “We’re not against the contracts, but we want to make sure that their contents preserve our development and are guided by specific targets of our development.”

ACDIC is calling on the government to rethink its agriculture development policies designed to attract nationals, especially by encouraging subsidies for local investment and easing access to loans. Nearly 70 percent of Cameroon’s 18 million people depend on farming for their food and income.

The association says the demonstrations against the land deals in Cameroon are a reminder of events in Madagascar. A popular uprising there overthrew the former government, which had planned to cede over one million hectares of arable land led to foreign interests.
 

Comments

[Va Boy]

Southern Cameroonians should be on the lookout for these kinds of shady deals. They are already selling drinking water to us.

[Bob Bristol]

No rationally thinking person will lobby in support of a complete baring to the sales of land to investors of any origin. What is needed is transparency with terms and conditions arrived at after consultations with the local population. What government policies have been put in place to regulate the sales of land to foreign investors?

[Chief Ayuk Arrey]

Africans will Never Learnt.

Useless Gov't what else can they do? No land should be sold to the so-call foreign Investors.
Never in my life have I seen Useless, Dull and Stupid Leaders like those of Africa. I am not convince if Africans had learnt anything from Colonization.

If our lands are being sold,what then is left for the future generation? When will Africans stop making themselves a Laughing stock in the World ?
The Bakweri people of Fako Division have atleast had an experience on the naive sold of their lands, this should serve as an eye opener to all Cameroonians.

Pres.Robert Mugabe is there fighting to reclaimed Zimbabwean lands from Foreigners while some Useless African Leaders are there selling the peoples lands with impunity.
S.Cameroonians should not be deceived to sell their lands.

Woe to those people conniving with foreigners to sell the peoples lands.

[mathew]

Hello,i have been trying to get a loan from the bank,i could not find one..but by the help of this loan agency(Ocean Finance and Mortgages Loan Limited)i was able to be credicted with $200,000.For more contact via:[email protected]

[Hope Kale Ewusi]

On December 13th,2009 I posted a poem at this site decrying the wanton sale of land to foreigners. For those who did not read it, here it is

Ewusi Kale

Globalization by inundation-
Gravitas of the nouveau riche
Roils hope for the wretched of the earth.
Here comes the orient express-
Chugging gung-ho across Africa….
Tugging boat loads of minted Yuan;
Nothing is beyond negotiation…
Beyond the scope of coercive take over.

Spurred by a frenzied mercantilist zeal
To leap - frog her western juggernauts…
Confucian capitalism is on the loose.
Anointed with cryptic endorsements
By malevolent African Coco nut heads;
Chinese moguls blithely brandish
Licenses to operate massive cesarean operations…
Africa – spread eagle; they incise……
Scrape – abort fetal gems - commodities galore!

What’s going on? Africa, talk to me!
Who ate the fruit that bequeathed this broken Eden?
Sliced and diced by European conquistadors….
Sucked to the bone….hung out to dry
Like a dirty rag for the next marauder to wipe his feet-
Trapped though in the throes of these assaults…

Here come the orient express……….
Spreading yellow fever across the land,
Compromised systems bereft of immunity-
This brand new pathology, alas may hasten doom;
Yet there are those who taut Sino-African alignment
As the way out of our economic doldrums-
Conscious autochthons however, query the merits
Of this pseudo symbiosis…………..
An all African initiative they claim, is the rightful
Way forward…stay tuned for Afro-vision

[Hope Kale Ewusi]

YELLOW FEVER

Ewusi Kale

Globalization by inundation-
Gravitas of the nouveau riche
Roils hope for the wretched of the earth.
Here comes the orient express-
Chugging gung-ho across Africa….
Tugging boat loads of minted Yuan;
Nothing is beyond negotiation…
Beyond the scope of coercive take over.

Spurred by a frenzied mercantilist zeal
To leap - frog her western juggernauts…
Confucian capitalism is on the loose.
Anointed with cryptic endorsements
By malevolent African Coco nut heads;
Chinese moguls blithely brandish
Licenses to operate massive cesarean operations…
Africa – spread eagle; they incise……
Scrape – abort fetal gems - commodities galore!

What’s going on? Africa, talk to me!
Who ate the fruit that bequeathed this broken Eden?
Sliced and diced by European conquistadors….
Sucked to the bone….hung out to dry
Like a dirty rag for the next marauder to wipe his feet-
Trapped though in the throes of these assaults…

Here come the orient express……….
Spreading yellow fever across the land,
Compromised systems bereft of immunity-
This brand new pathology, alas may hasten doom;
Yet there are those who taut Sino-African alignment
As the way out of our economic doldrums-
Conscious autochthons however, query the merits
Of this pseudo symbiosis…………..
An all African initiative they claim, is the rightful
Way forward…stay tuned for Afro-vision

[Va Boy]

Chinese government will arm the tiff tiff class that has ruled Africa since forever to kill the people in case of resistance. The way the Chinese government brutalizes its own people is an abject lesson. If they can treat their own that way, what makes anyone think they give a damn?

[Dr A A Agbormbai]

These sort of backdoor agreements are very dangerous. Behind closed doors, Paul Biya and his cronies will sell away the whole country to foreigners.

We've got to be very careful here, or we are going to end up in big trouble.

The people have every right to fight back, particularly if their livelihoods are threatened.

Any land sale must have clear benefits to Cameroonians.

[Mburli]

Paul Biya Kparanaka oboso.
The one and only who has cameroonians at heart

[OPPORTUNISTIC INFECTIONS]

CAMEROON - ON THE ROAD TO MADAGASCAR...

Again, this is why Southern Cameroons must search for its own future. We would forever be subject to all these destructive winds blowing from Yaounde and these people of the equatorial forest. That's why I find the divisions between Southern Cameroonians so baffling. How will you not begin to console yourself of the fact that you have the citizenship of another country, when so much senselessness is happening in your country, and you have detractors that would drum the regime on, until the country gradually settles in the banana republic that's Madagascar today?

It won't be long that Madagascar would cease being a 'quartier' in Cameroun. It would be the country itself, with garbage all over the cities and the fertile lands of the countryside in the hands of foreign agricultural corporations.

Biya, thank you for giving so many Cameroonians foreign citizenship! You can do whatever you care with that animal farm until it is done.

[Jesco]

Mathew, this is not a site for scammers. Don't fool Cameroonians with your getting a loan blablah! A credible financial institution will never have a hotmail account. Either you are throwing your scamming net or the whole institution is not credible at all!!

People Beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OPPORTUNISTIC INFECTIONS]

Mathew's some mean little thieving idiot somewhere. Instead of using his education to find a decent job, he will rather throw little tattered nets to catch other idiots unwary and filch from their pockets.

These are the products of Biya's regime and of devil's with bright teeth like Bababgida and Abatcha. Mathew, 419 is like a habit. Once you're into it, only DEATH will be your medicine.

And it will come. Start counting your days, worthless soul.

[Va Boy]

Matthew should be ignored. He is one of those who troll sites placing little ads at the expense of website owners. .

[shlomo smiezes]

Paul Martin Samba, alian Dipoko, the master mantra lead singer

[nji]

No land should be sold to foreigners as my friend said we must learn from our pass stupidity
not repeating the same mistake over and over.I still strongly opposed any sales of land to any foreigner, infact we must start to educate our people about the danger of doing this lets stand as one people and say no to this potential eveil.