Return to Maga

People have been hugely welcoming on my return to Maga. Doubla, the national volunteer with whom I work, did a great job on cleaning my house before my return and in particular clearing the droppings of a large population of bats. He also cleared the garden of weeds, which grow strongly in the rains and give good cover to snakes and scorpions. He told me that he had found a scorpion in my bedroom just after I left in June. He tried to block the holes where the bats come in and succeeded in reducing the population from its alarming level, but some still get through and even an owl has made it through to my living room through a circuitous route in the roof. An ex-guardian also turned up to clear the weeds and finding that Doubla had already done so, he cut down an ornamental shrub that the owner had planted. I headed off a bigger group of council workers who planned to turn up at 6.00 a.m. one morning to do similar work. Some others have talked of building a sort of shelter in my garden so that I may work there in the shade when it is very hot and may also sleep outside on very hot nights.

While I was in Ireland Atapassing, a friend with whom I work on projects, got married. Although he is in his mid-thirties his father chose his wife. Although Atapassing had not previously met her he was quite happy with this arrangement. By all accounts it was a huge wedding, with around 3,000 guests over four days. They live in a remote village and whole neighbouring villages arrived together. They killed two cows and 67 goats for the occasion (his father practises traditional medicine, and evidently he derives a good remuneration from this). Since I was not there they kept a goat for my return.

While in surrounding areas the rains have been heavier and have continued later than usual this year, strangely Maga has had much less rain than usual. This has begun to cause problems with crops, particularly millet which is used to make a gooey dough (called “couscous” in Cameroon) which forms the basis of most people’s diet. Prices have begun to rise and this will have a direct effect on families which can barely afford food, or indeed on many families which already do not have enough food. Millet is also used to make a local brew called “bilbil” and since a very large quantity of millet is used to make a small quantity of bilbil there are calls for it to be banned this year. There is another beverage, called l'arki, which is much stronger and rather like Irish poteen. People reputedly use it to power their motos. One of my initiatives has been to get the council to collect taxes on the sale of these beverages.

The range of foods available in Maga since my return is more restricted than I can remember, but happily I go to Maroua at week-ends and Aicha provides for me there. The lake was closed to fishing (officially at any rate) from June to September but although it is now open few fish have been caught and I rarely find fish in the market. Fishing in the Logone has also been poor.

There is cholera in the North and Far North of Cameroon, including some villages not far away, with 51 deaths so far. Dirty water and flies, which are in abundance at this time of the year, are blamed for the spread and because some of the foodstuffs in the market come from the areas affected I have to soak things like tomatoes in bleach for over 30 minutes, even if I intend to cook them. They said on the radio that Cameroon has had only four cases of swine flu but did not say in what region. As usual at this time of year, a lot of people have malaria and there have been many deaths. A dog in Maga was found to have rabies last week after he had bitten other dogs and was put down. There are fears that this may spread.

In a news bulletin on Radio France International I heard that "coupeurs de route", as they call the bandits who hold up buses and other vehicles, had killed five people at Waza. The same day Cameroon's radio station, CRTV, reported that police had killed several bandits at Waza. The RFI report appears to be the correct one, which is bad news since I have visited the wildlife park in Waza a couple of times and would like to go there again.

There has been good progress with my action plan in my absence but some big problems have arisen also. The steering committee met each month from June to September, which is no mean feat given the logistical problems in the rainy season. The biggest success was with increasing the tax take. I did workshops for the tax collectors and made an action plan for increasing the tax take before leaving, including ways in which all council employees could lend a hand. There was a big jump in the tax take in June, boosted by the rice harvest, and the mayor used part of the increase to pay one month’s arrears of salary. July and August are always very lean months for tax because of the rains, the closure of the lake to fishing, etc. Towards the end of August a quarterly subvention from the state was received and this is usually used to pay arrears of salary. However on this occasion the mayor paid a lot of bills and paid only one month’s salary. Thus the employees effectively had the month already paid clawed back and their arrears grew by a further month. This led to a strike (although most of them never do any work anyway) and a blockade of the council buildings. The mayor was away at the time and the Sous Préfet intervened and got the Secrétaire Général to pay an additional month. However the conflict continues, morale is very low and an opportunity to harness the commitment of employees in continuously assisting and controlling the tax collectors appears to have been blown. There was also a conflict which I had to mediate between two senior officials which threatened to bring serious sanctions on the commune. Before the mediation they were not talking and refused to go into each other’s office. After the mediation they went together hand in hand, smiling broadly, into one of the offices.

While I was away the government of Cameroon published a bill on transfer of resources from central departments to councils. Cameroon’s legislation on decentralisation was published in 2004 but without this component, which is a prerequisite. Hopefully we will not have to wait another five years for this bill and the 2004 legislation to be implemented.

There has been good progress with the projects which I have been assisting with the help of the funds donated by my friends in Ireland. The signs are good for the projects to build roads to isolated villages (if we succeed, the state will invest over €2 million, which is huge by local standards) but I am told that I will have to send somebody to Yaounde to lobby when the annual scheduling of programmes takes place. We have promises of equipment such as tricycles for some of the handicapped in the county and are approaching various organisations for help for the others. This week I paid for a representative of the Ministre des Energies et de l’Eau to come and survey 10 sites for deep wells (a survey has shown that over 200 deep wells are needed in the county, and this will be a very serious problem if cholera spreads). He also inspected some villages that want to be connected into the electricity grid. He was very supportive and we are sending proposals to the minister with his endorsement.