Do you remember a while back, I promised to write a really depressing journal entry about poverty?
Well, here we go!!
I’ve been jotting down notes, recording my thoughts, trying to get a handle on what I’ve experienced in the past year living in Cameroon, focusing, as simplistic as it may sound, on trying to gain an understanding of what it means to be ‘poor’. After I’d written 12 pages, a couple of thoughts came to me: First, not many people would take an interest in reading a journal entry 12 pages long about poverty; second, I wasn’t even half way done.
I came very close to discarding my notes altogether and writing a journal entry about how home decorating in Cameroon very frequently resembles a tribute to floral patterns (it’s Grandma Heaven!!). However, I decided to compromise, edit my notes, and give you all a bit of an idea what the standard of living is like for many of the Cameroonians here in the general region where I am living.
The floral thing would have been funnier.
To help with your perspective, try to imagine your own hometown looking like what I’m describing below, keeping in mind Bamenda is a city of a half million people.
Enjoy!!
- In Bamenda, only one street has overhead lighting, and that is the main commercial road. I’m told that these lights have not worked in years. There is one set of traffic lights in the entire city, at one end of the same street. They are smashed beyond repair, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who has ever seen them in working order. Other than roundabouts at major intersections, there are no traffic controls in this city whatsoever. Not even one stop sign.
- The cliché, ‘where the streets have no name’, rings true here. Only the main streets are named, although there are no signs; you just have to get to know the street names by asking around.
- Some of the main roads in Bamenda were once paved (all of the side streets are dirt roads), but most have deteriorated to a point where it’s impossible to travel more than a few kilometres per hour in some areas. Traffic jams are commonplace, not because there is so much traffic, but because the vehicles have to slow down to a crawl in some areas, due to the condition of the roads.
- There are no buildings in Bamenda over 4 stories. One of the buildings in the main commercial area has an elevator, but it is always out of service. Given the frequent power outages here, it’s probably better that way.
- Many of the shops along the main commercial street are converted metal shipping containers, placed side by side along the sidewalk (the only sidewalk in the entire city).
- There is a really nice park, located about 15 minutes outside of Bamenda. I don’t know of any parks in the city.
- There are no ‘slums’ or ‘shanty towns’ in Bamenda. This one is difficult to comprehend. There are plenty of run-down houses with no private plumbing or proper kitchens, but they are not concentrated in one area. I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing; I’m just curious to find out why slums have evolved in some deprived cities, but not others.
- There are no ambulances or fire trucks (or fire hydrants – there must be a fire department, but I’ve seen no evidence of it). Occasionally, I’ll see a police car, but even those sightings are rare. Usually the police are too busy standing along the streets bribing the taxi drivers, so they don’t have time to drive cars or practice law enforcement.
- It’s happened a couple of times in the year I’ve been here that council staff have had to go 2 or 3 months without being paid (it’s a common occurrence with many businesses here). In recent interviews I’d conducted for my work, one of the questions I asked the staff was what they enjoyed about working for the Santa Council. Several of them responded, ‘the regular pay’. It would be an outrage in Canada if a company went 2 or 3 months without paying its staff. Here, as long as the money comes eventually, that’s good enough.
- One of my best friends, Patrick, lives in a small place with a pit toilet and cook shack out back (meals are cooked over wood burning fire). One of the two rooms in the house, the living room, is a mimbo house (a bar) that his wife operates. Patrick, his wife, and five children share the bedroom (7 people in 2 beds), which patrons of the mimbo house pass through when they need to pee outside (there is a large drape hanging from the ceiling of the bedroom, which serves as a partition for the family’s privacy). I know people in Santa who live in more meagre conditions than this. Patrick has never asked me for anything. He and his family are some of the happiest people I’ve ever known.
- Patrick’s salary comes to about $4 per day, plus the revenue generated by his wife’s mimbo house. Approximately 3 billion people (about half the population of the world) live on less than $2.00 per day, and 1 billion of those people live on less than $1.00 per day. My buddy Patrick makes twice the income of half the population of the world. Leads me to wonder what their houses look like. (here’s an interesting bit of trivia for you: there are 225 billionaires in the entire world. Their combined wealth is greater than the annual income of the 3 billion poorest people).
- GDP per capita in Cameroon is just over $2,000 per annum. In Canada, where I’m from, it’s almost 20 times higher, at about $40,000. The cost of living is significantly higher in Canada, compared to Cameroon, but not by 20 times. Items like petrol, cell phones and computers are only slightly cheaper than they are in Canada.
- Occasionally, a stranger will stop me on the street to ask for money. Some are beggars, but others are people who obviously have a home, and probably a job.
- I could fill a 747 with all the people who’ve asked me to take them with me when I go home. They refer to my home country as ‘over there’. That is, they don’t know or care where I’m from, and some of them wouldn’t be able to find Canada on a map of the world. They just want out of Cameroon, and ‘white man country’, wherever that is, is all they want.
- Cameroon is not even one of the 50 poorest countries in the world. People are not starving in the region where I live. In fact, food is abundant in this part of the country (evidenced by the number of overweight people I’ve seen). Shelter, education and health services are available (with varying levels of quality), and with some exceptions, there is reasonable access to clean water.
- Cameroon is rich in resources: petroleum, minerals, and agriculture. There are a myriad of reasons why the people do not benefit from this, but the most obvious is that distribution of wealth is close to nonexistent.
- Cameroon is known around the world, as many African countries are, for its corruption. It would take multiple journal entries to discuss that one, so I’ll just let it go for now, and say that I see signs of it every day. It’s the biggest problem faced by people here, from my perspective (second place is the infrastructure).
The other obvious detriment here is the lack of choice. Necessary and frivolous items, consumer goods, food, recreation & entertainment, jobs, education, you name it, there’s not much to choose from. In Canada, if someone chooses to leave the country to live elsewhere, it’s because the opportunities availed to them in their life have provided them the choice to move. In Cameroon, if someone wants to leave the country, it is the lack of opportunity that has made them wish to leave. It’s that same lack of opportunity that forces them to stay.
I hope you can appreciate that I’m not trying to impress you with how I manage to live in these challenging conditions. We’re all capable of withstanding what people face here (even the rich Cameroonians have to drive on these roads and deal with the lack of amenities). I am definitely homesick, and Cameroon has taken its toll on me, but that isn’t why I wrote this. I am not complaining, or trying to be condescending toward the people here.
I’ll confess I find it a bit frustrating that the most common response people have to stories of poverty is, “it reminds me of how lucky I am.” My request is that you stop thinking about how lucky you are, and give some thought to how unlucky a large part of the world population is.
I suppose that last comment would suggest that I’m getting a bit preachy, but that’s only because I am. If you’re offended, then I’m ok with it, because it means I’ve struck a nerve. Obviously, it’s up to you what you’d like to do with this information, although I’d be happy to provide you with one or two suggestions.
Cheers!!
eb
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