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| CTE tea from Tole |
As I sit down to enjoy a cup of seemingly fair trade tea on
this cold and rainy day in Buea, the Southwest regional capital of of Cameroon,
the fresh and fragrant aromas are appealing but I can only taste the struggles
that have gone into its past production.
I am currently stationed in a nearby village, Tole, to work on Malaria
and HIV/AIDS initiatives for the community where the health clinics have not
been fully funded by the government. The population is comprised of nearly
9,000 people and close to 1,000 work for
the Tole tea plantation owned by Cameroon Tea Estates (CTE). This means one out
of nine people work on this plantation, and with most Cameroonian families
being quite large, at least one person per family is involved with the
production. When something happens to the plantation or the workers, it creates
a domino effect for the entire village.
In it’s height, the Tole tea plantation offered its
employees adequate housing, healthcare and salary. It was a great employment
opportunity in a country that has a soaring unemployment rate. However in the
turnover from government ownership to privatization in 2002, many salaries and
benefits were compromised and the plantation gradually began to crumble.
Promised bonuses and compensations were consistently being put on hold. I have
seen the way the houses and health care centers have been left with minimal to
no upkeep.
In a depressingly publicly known and accepted corrupt
society, social justice is rarely obtained, especially worker’s rights. Many
people have the general apathetic attitude that nothing can be done, “What
slips through the cracks by higher officials can not be governed by ordinary
citizens like us” my neighbor once told me.
Respecting and following protocol is an integral part of Cameroonian
society. It makes it difficult to contest what is taking place around you.
In early 2012 however, the CTE workers organized a sit-in at
the Department of Labor office in Buea to make officials aware that they have
had enough. Their lack of payments and benefits were creating a plethora of
human rights dilemmas; health issues were not being treated since there was no
upkeep of the clinics, not being paid meant not sending your kids to school,
youth not in school created higher crime rates, women not getting paid lead to
forced prostitution. A protest was arranged in 2006 that led to the arrest of
many of its citizens but had an outcome of nine. The community of Tole was not
willing to stand for this injustice any longer.
More than 500 people camped outside the offices of the
ministers to make these injustices been seen and heard. The officials were not able to continue their
daily work without addressing these issues. The case has since been sent to the
Cameroonian high court in the capital city of Yaounde and workers have slowly
been seeing the effects. A large victory for the CTE workers in Tole.
After three years of living in Cameroon, I have worked on
many community projects ranging from building wells, organizing now legalized
water cooperatives, creating school gardens and other projects. But this is the
most radical case of community mobilization I have seen in Cameroon. I am
paired up with a group of individuals who have created their own health care
clinic to supplement where CTE officials has abandoned in Tole. The community has stood up for their beliefs and have made changes happen through community mobilization. It has been a great opportunity getting to learn how this community has shaped itself.
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| Workers in the tea plantation of Tole |
