Though Helah and I have been coming to the Sandaga market on a daily basis for the last two and half weeks, we only ventured into the depth of the Sandaga market this past Wednesday, exposing all of our senses to Sandaga’s hidden corners. Adelaide Foute Tega, UCOMAS (Union des Commerçantes du Marché Sandaga) president, took some time off from her daily responsibilities at the restaurant to guide us throughout this intertwined labyrinth of small shops and restaurants, where street kids find refuge in the midst of poison braisé (grilled fish), and plump watermelons. From the outside, those improvised boutique created out of wooden sticks and metal do not look like much; however, once inside you can tell that the shop owner dedicates herself to keeping things extremely well organized and clean.

Sandga Market in Douala, Cameroon

There are various reasons, some obvious and others less so, why Helah and I did not venture on our own in the Sandaga market. First of all, tourists have had their cameras broken while taking pictures at Sandaga. Understandably so, market traders do not appreciate random strangers taking pictures of their difficult working conditions so that they can show how “genuine” their African experience was. Second of all, since we have been coming to the Sandaga market on a regular basis for the last 3 weeks, people automatically associate us as supporters of UCOMAS women traders. UCOMAS has received fierce opposition from the established ASCOMSAD (Association des Commerçants du Marché Sandaga) because UCOMAS is challenging the status quo. The women traders are tired of the manipulation, intimidation and verbal/physical harassment they have to endure on a daily basis; they want a space where they can express and fill their grievances. That we want it or not development is a political act; we must assume our subjectivity. Thirdly, because of her incredible aura and charisma, Adelaide Foute Tega was able to convince women who would have been otherwise skeptical about our presence at Sandaga to take part in the documentary. More importantly, involving women traders in the documentary who are not part of UCOMAS executive bureau creates a sense of ownership. Their expertise is sought out; their opinion is valued and respected.

The day before, we had the opportunity to attend UCOMAS General Assembly and meet some of those newer members as well as the women who are still unsure about the benefits of joining UCOMAS. UCOMAS General Assembly enabled women market traders to express their opinions about UCOMAS current and future activities and discuss some of the parameters of UCOMAS’ actions. As such, here is a snapshot of some of the projects discussed: (1) cleanliness project: women traders are given brooms to clean their shops, restaurants and other spaces for their merchandise; it is hoped that this initiative will have a multiplier effect throughout the Sandaga market; (2) rehabilitation of toilets: a proposal was sent out to the US embassy self-help project –we are still waiting for a response; (3) the creation of a microfinance initiative to enable women’s access to credits at a reasonable interest rate; (4) the installment of a cold chamber to preserve fruits and vegetables; (5) the creation of daycare –though decried upon as utopia during the General Assembly, this service is much needed; (6) enhancing women traders capacity to advocate for themselves –especially as it to relates to gender and leadership.

UCOMAS General Meeting

What emanated from the UCOMAS General Assembly was the women trader’s thorough knowledge and understanding of the issues at stake and their incredible capacity to come up with an action plan in order to address their problems. Now is a crucial time for UCOMAS, a tipping point really. As the Vital Voices grant comes to an end, it is imperative not to lose the momentum and the feeling of empowerment the women acquired through the training they have received as part of the AMA Women project sponsored by Vital Voices. In its nature, UCOMAS is such a nascent initiative and will require a lot of nurturing –financial and technical- in order to carry on. There is also an incredible danger that if weakened, UCOMAS might not resist the pressure from other groups within the market who are firmly opposed to these women’s initiative. We hope that the communication tools we are developing will help in strengthening the UCOMAS initiative and enable the women traders to carry out their economic activities in dignity as every human being deserves to do so.

Sandga Market in Douala, Cameroon

People often ask me whether, after thirteen years as a French expat in the US, I feel more French or more American; I usually reply both. I associate my Frenchness with my mom’s incredible cooking talents and her precise and poetic use of our mother tongue, my dad’s passion for debate and eclectic knowledge as well as my own personal memories of a very sweet and blessed childhood in Montpellier. I associate my Americaness with my academic career where I have always been encouraged to think outside the box and to be involved in a worthy cause. Being in Africa is giving me a completely new understanding of what it means to be French.

Back in 2003 when I was traveling throughout southern Mexico with a close friend of mine, being French was praised upon while being American was constantly criticized. How ironic! Today, being American in Africa is admired. “Ah, You voted for Obama right? We love Obama!” Whereas, when I say that I am from France, most Cameroonian are cautious and reserved… You might wonder…how come? Isn’t France helping its former colony come out of the vicious cycle of poverty?

While searching for information on business practices, I stumbled upon the following excerpt from an online African business magazine:

What is the number one problem in Africa?

•    Excessive taxation
•    Corruption
•    Bureaucracy
•    CFA
•    France

Let’s think for a second and try to connect ideas in a preliminary manner! Former colonies inherited the rigid French bureaucracy. Various African leaders who have attempted to establish a national currency other then colonial money (CFA) have been promptly eliminated. In a volatile environment, French patrons seem to highly benefit and partake in the corruption and bribery that is embedded into everyday transactions. While there is a complex and entangled web of reasons (historical, political, economic, social and many more) for the concentration of the bottom billion in Africa, we must start holding western powers accountable for their complicity in promoting poor governance initiatives on the African continent.

In many development textbooks I have read throughout my first year of graduate studies, there is usually an introductory chapter (or perhaps a disclaimer) emphasizing that we must stop blaming slavery and colonization for all of Africa’s problems. That is true but only to a certain extent. Yes, indeed African leaders must be held accountable to the people, break the cycle of corruption and implement good governance policies. Nonetheless, the sequels of colonization transpire until today in Cameroon. Undeniably so, France still has a very strong hold and many economic interests in Cameroon for example. Françafrique is a reality that must be addressed and reformed. From Francis Bois, a French company exporting precious Cameroonian wood to the PMU (a French gambling company) enticing poor people to spend their lifesavings in chimers, various French government policies impedes Cameroonians’ socio-economic well-being.

As an aspiring development practitioner, I must understand what it means to be a French national and the heavy baggages I carry with me once I set foot on the African soil. Thankfully, Eric and Annick (my colleagues from the AMA Women Project) are more than willing to explain the influence of French foreign policy on the life of Cameroonian citizens. Both communicate their insights in an objective manner, devoid of resentfulness. But before sharing their insights, let’s start with what I have observed until now. First, in the Akwa neighborhood where Helah and I are hosted, you seldom see “un blanc ou une blanche.” The great majority of expats, as they are called here, live in Bonapriso, a gated residential community. Because I needed to register at the French consulate, I visited Bonapriso a couple of days ago and had my first encounter with a French expat, the latter was far from pleasant. A long story short, I was unable to register because I only had copies of my passport and my entry visa. Thus, I have to return to the French consulate once more with my actual passport in the midst of extremely packed workdays. Helah, in contrast, was able to register on the American consulate website. Ah, French bureaucracy and rigidity!

But that’s just a funny story I will be able to share with my children one day. The most problematic was the attitude of the French official towards Cameroonians. In the midst of my imploring the French official to accept my photocopies, the phone rang. The French official transferred the call to his supervisor emphasizing –in a very demeaning manner– that he could not understand a thing the man on the line said because he had a thick Cameroonian accent! Aren’t we in Cameroon for goodness sake? Isn’t it us who have the thick French accent? Thereafter his supervisor called back the French official standing before me to let him know that he had not properly transferred the call. The French official simply responded: “Tant pis pour lui!” (too bad for him). While this might be an isolated incident, it is unacceptable for a French official to be so dismissive of Cameroonian people. Leaving the consulate, I felt ashamed.

A week ago, les femmes du Marché Sandaga were still mysterious and foreign to me. Though Helah and I had partaken in a major meeting between UCOMAS (l’Union des Commerçantes du Marché Sandaga) and STRATEGIES! –a local management organization spear-headed by Kah Walla, a Vital Voices alumni– this week, our work with the women traders became close and personnel characterized by laughs and tears, tales of heartaches and successes.

UCOMAS Meeting at STRATEGIES!

Witnessing the meeting between UCOMAS and STRATEGIES! was nonetheless extremely revealing: though Ms. Kah Walla played a decisive role in terms of guiding the discussions and reframing the issues at times, the women traders know what they want and have defined very specific objectives for the betterment of women’s condition at the Sandaga market. During the meeting, each one of them stood up and shared their ideas about UCOMAS membership; funds to ensure that women have a small pension once they are no longer able to come to the market due to old age or in the case of illness; and the possible creation of a microfinance initiative to ensure an easier access to credit for women traders. I cannot fully convey the responsibility upon us to ensure that this very nascent organization moves forward. I am also humbled by the women traders’ courage and perseverance to embark on this adventure and challenge the status quo.

Thanks to the incredible legwork carried out by the AMA Women Project, the latter being essentially embodied by Eric and Annick who are two unbelievably knowledgeable and committed young Cameroonians, Helah and I have been able to start building the trust necessary to conduct our project in Douala. Our work with the AMA Women project consists of three main pillars: create a brochure and launch a Google site on behalf of UCOMAS, produce a short documentary about the situation of women traders in the Sandaga market, and carry out ICT trainings in order to ensure that the women traders will be able to maintain the communication tools we are setting up once we leave.

So what does being a woman trader at the Sandaga market involve you might wonder? Well, if you or I were a woman trader at Sandaga, we would most likely wake up at 4am every day except perhaps Sundays; wash ourselves with or without running water; prepare the food for our husband and children and quickly head to the market. There, we would have to rush towards farmers’ makeshift trucks, which made their way to the market earlier in the day from the surrounding rural areas. Here, among all the other women and men traders, the struggle to get a fair price would begin. Because you and I are women, we are most likely going to pay a higher price for a basket of tomatoes in comparison to the men. Because you and I are women we are most likely going to be insulted, pushed aside and possibly brutalized. After having acquired the fruits and vegetables necessary for our sales, you might be lucky enough to have a small wooden stand were you will be able to organize your goods neatly. I, in contrast, will be sitting on the floor where I will have laid out my merchandise on a carpet surrounded by dust and trash. Rain or shine, you and I are both going to be here at the Sandaga market hoping that we will be able to sell all the merchandises we acquired in the morning. Because there are no fridges, my left-over tomatoes and your left-over papayas will be lost. Around 6pm, we will be heading home in order to prepare the food for our respective families before finally being able to rest. 

This window into the world of the women traders does not fully do justice to the constant struggle women traders endure. Eric always says: “quand les femmes arrivent au marché, elles entrent au front” (once the women enter the market, they enter a battle field). Not only must women traders constantly be on the lookout for the acquisition and the protection of their goods, women traders have to carry out their activities in a climate of insecurity due to the presence of street children roaming Sandaga, themselves desperately hoping to acquire enough food to make it to the next day. Though unconceivable for us, women traders do not have access to bathrooms and as they themselves simply explain “nous ne pouvons pas nous mettre à l’aise” (we can’t put ourselves at ease). Fortunately today, UCOMAS members are ready to take on those challenges. In the past, a man could chase a woman through simple intimidation; today, the women traders are working tirelessly to ensure that their cause is heard and acted upon locally and that the rest of the women traders in the Sandaga market are given the opportunity to carry out their businesses in dignity.

UCOMAS Meeting at STRATEGIES!

According to official statistics from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, there are currently 27, 5% of the total population living on $1.25 a day in Cameroon. Based on simple observations as well as exchanges with our colleagues at AMA Women project, the accuracy of this data is questionable. In fact, the extreme levels of poverty that I have witnessed here in Douala get deep under my skin. Last week in the later part of the afternoon, a little girl with a washed-out and ripped dress was trying to sell cola nuts at the Sandaga market while walking barefoot in a mish mash of mud, urine and rotten fruits. Just by walking on boulevard de la Liberté, which is one of Douala’s central artery, clusters of unemployed young men congregate at almost every street corner. Because there is such unemployment among young men, women are forced to step up in order to provide for their families. Various organizations, both local and international, now recognize that investing in women not only benefits their children but can contribute to the advancement of the community as a whole.

Interviews with UCOMAS executive bureau members

Three days have passed since Helah and I landed in the land of the Untamed Lions –Cameroon’s national football team and the pride of its inhabitants. The importance of the Lions was felt as soon as we stepped out of the airport: children were playing barefoot in the dirt on the side of the road and posters of the national football team were suspended in the air. On our way to the “Procure des Missions Catholiques de Douala,” that is the place we would call home for the next 5 or so weeks, I was replaying in my head the images of our departure from Brussels to the moment we arrived at Douala International Airport. Throughout the duration of our flight, I witnessed astonishing landscapes: flying over the French Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, reaching the coast of Africa and scrutinizing the Sahel desert to finally reach the lush green land of Cameroon. Our passage of the customs was expedient as the agent barely looked at our visa and proof of yellow fever vaccine. Getting our luggage was quite a challenge as young Cameroonian men rushed towards us and kept asking us whether we needed help with our luggage. Thankfully, our trainer from Vital Voices had forewarned us about the hustlers at the airport. After a lot of pushing and negotiating we were finally able to make it out of the airport and were relived at the sight of a sign stating our names and held by a tall African man, Eric, himself surrounded by 2 smiling African women, Annick and Adelaide. We had made it safely to Cameroon and our colleagues from the AMA women project were here to welcome us.

La Procure des Missions de Douala

The next day, I was awaken at 6:30am by the somewhat comforting sound of mass emanating from the chapel situated on the first floor of the Procure. Eric came to pick us up and guided us throughout the street of Akwa, our new neighborhood and the center of Cameroon’s economic capital. We meandered among the speeding cars, rushing motorcycles and staring street vendors to make our way to the Sandaga market where the majority of our work will take place for the next six weeks. Walking through the Sandaga market you can observe traders selling papayas, watermelons, onions, yams as well as small makeshift restaurants selling traditional Cameroonian food. At first glance, two major problems stood out in the market: the sanitary conditions in the market are insalubrious due to the sheer amount of trash and the lack of functioning latrines; street kids addicted to glue are constantly roaming the market praying on easy targets.

Eric lead the way towards the AMA women project office, a very humble space with two huge fans and a few chairs around a wooden desk, which is usually used by merchants to sell their products. We spent most of the morning discussing the reasons for and the purpose of the AMA women project. There are currently 1300 traders at the Sandaga market including 800 women traders. As explained by the AMA women project, the main issue women face is a lack of access to information about the workings of the markets especially in terms of paying “le droit de place” (right of space) and other taxes for cleaning purposes for example amounting to a total of 200 African francs (approximately 50 cents) on a daily basis. Major abuses emanate from the fact that women are unaware about how much they should pay for their taxes and to whom. As such, women traders from the Sandaga markets are forced to pay higher fees; and they are often intimidated and harassed by men who demand sexual favors in exchange for a woman’s right of space. From a discussion with Eric an embedded hierarchy within the Sandaga market started to emerge. Officially, the Communauté de Douala (Douala community) has a contract with the “concessionaire,” basically a middleman, who is in charge of managing the market and facilitating relationships among traders. Under him, the “regisseur” assigns the spaces to the traders and the “percépteur” collects money on a daily or monthly basis from the traders (the latter amounting to 3000 African Francs or approximately $6 per month). Nonetheless, another layer of complexity is added to the equation. The Association des Commerçants de Sandaga (ASCOMSAD) composed by a total of 42 traders including at the moment one sole woman is interfering with the distribution of space and favoring specific traders.

The main goal of the AMA women project, whose main actors have been Eric and Annick, is to reinforce leadership among women traders as well as increase their capacity to efficiently manage their businesses. Since its inception, the AMA project has led ten workshops informing the women traders about taxes, management, business plan and much more. A couple of month ago, the women traders decided to form their own organization called UCOMSA (Union des Commerçantes du Marché Sandaga), which goal is to represent and advocate on behalf of the women traders. At the moment there are 10 members constituting the executive bureau whom we met during our stroll through the Sandaga market. You will soon get to know them very well but in the meantime here a couple of names I have been able to memorize: Janet, Adelaide, Anna, Therese, Didi, Frida, and “la douce.” Finally, the AMA project organized a three day retreat for the women traders around the themes of gender, leadership and planning in the coastal village of Limbé. Thus far, I have witnessed the incredible warmth and hospitality from the women traders. Working alongside these women and sharing their story will be a privilege and a tremendous responsibility!

After various weeks of preparations, my fellowship is becoming tangible in all of its aspects: I have undergone the various vaccines and acquired the appropriate malaria medicine, accumulated the various documents destined for the visa application, bought my ticket to Douala via Brussels, reassured my parents that I would not wander into “la brousse” where wild animals roam, convinced my loved one to come and spend a week-end in DC prior to my departure for Africa and said my goodbyes to supportive friends.

More than ever, I have experienced a bitter sweet feeling upon my departure from San Francisco last night. A mix of sheer excitement and unprecedented longing for the comfort, warmth and tranquility of home. A little less than 7 years ago, I was heading off to Mexico for a semester abroad not even thinking that I would miss my family. This time it feels very different. Nonetheless, I am constantly reminded of the tremendous privilege it is to be able to fly out to Africa for the summer and support a local human rights organization. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid’s words, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and the speaker of honor during my graduation from Mills College, resonate into my head… with education come responsibility to self and to others.

One of our main responsibilities as a Peace Fellow is to “tell the story” of the local organizations we will be supporting throughout the summer through blogs, pictures, videos and more. Prior to leaving for DC, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my shelf and collecting dust throughout the school year -Unaccustomed Earth by Jumpa Lahiri. I have been so inspired by Lahiri’s ability to capture the intricate workings of human nature and the way in which she describes the complexity of the mind and hearts in such humble manners. As an apprentice blogger I will attempt to capture the lives and experiences of the people I meet in Cameroon in a compelling and truthful manner. Your guidance, comments and recommendations are always appreciated.

Thank you for reading my first post. Merci!

Woman Trader in Sandaga Market in Douala, Cameroon