The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

Cameroon-Nigeria Trade Relations

An Engine for CEMAC-ECOWAS Inter-regional Cooperation

Trade between Cameroon and Nigeria has grown significantly since the 1960s. Whilst a significant proportion of the cross-border trade is informal, the exchange of goods and services between these two nations nutures a real catalyst for broader cooperation between the Central African region and West Africa for which these countries are respectively lion-giants in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) and the Economic Community of West African States.
 
By Joe Eyong Assoua

“The dynamism of trade has transformed international economic relations and particularly the patterns of regional interactions… the rise in trade among these regions in an increasingly globalize economy has been accompanied by rapidly rising cross-border FDI flows” (Loser 2009). ‘African countries have made many attempts to create various cooperative organizations in order to increase trade and promote industrialization through integration” (Vylder 2007). “While it is difficult to get an accurate overview of the extent of informal cross-border trade in sub-Saharan Africa, reviewed surveys suggest that such trade still represents a significant proportion of regional cross- border trade” ( Lesser and Leeman 2009). According to Schiff and Winters (2003), “The growth of regional trade blocs has been one of the major developments in international relations in recent years.

SDF: Looking for what to do

While the political garden of the people lies fallow

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

In other circumstances, one would let sleeping dogs lie. But the present circumstances are so central to our political life that it is difficult to let them just lie by. There are conflicting signals all around us, like: there will be no elections organised by ELECAM; the SDF is in the Supreme Court to nullify the activities of ELECAM; the SDF is calling on the people not to register to vote; the SDF has forced Paul Biya to legalise ELECAM; the SDF is going to Geneva...the SDF is calling “on Cameroonians to take their responsibilities.... and do what others have done under similar circumstances...”!

Book Review: Indigenization of the English Language in Omotoso’s 'The Combat'

Reviewer: Peter Wuteh Vakunta

Contemporary African fiction seems to harbor seeds of a literary revolution discernible in the stylistic choices made by creative writers.  In an attempt to call colonial legacy and cultural imperialism into question, the ex-colonized tend to write in a domesticated version of the imperial language. No African novel illustrates this literary phenomenon better than Kole Omotoso’s The Combat (1972). Omotoso tends to indigenize language in his text by employing appropriative strategies in ways that undermine the sacrosanct canons of the English Language. Like Achebe (Morning Yet, 1975)[i], he feels the urge to use this European language in a manner that would carry the burden of his indigenous worldview and imagination as the following example shows: “He began to dress; his pants, his singlet— it had large black patches of dirt under the armpits—then his khaki pair of trousers; over it he put a green dansiki which was torn on the shoulders” (3). Omotoso resorts to indigenous language words in a bid to fill in cultural gaps. The vernacular term dansiki is used in this novel to describe a traditional loose-fitting robe worn in many different regions of Africa, especially in West Africa. This robe reaches to the ankles and is either open at the sides or stitched closed along the edges. Wearing a dansiki is a way of making a statement about the value of African heritage.

The Africanization of poverty: A retrospective on ‘Make poverty history’

Graham Harrison

This article explores the ways in which the British campaign coalition Make Poverty History represented Africa throughout 2005. Focusing particularly on the G8 Gleneagles summit, Make Poverty History (MPH) asserted a series of justice claims which had no geographical reference. Nevertheless, as a result of internal tensions within the coalition, and especially as a result of the ways in which MPH interacted with other political agencies as the summit approached, MPH’s messages became increasingly interpolated by references to Africa as a result of the emergence of government, media, and celebrity involvement. The result of this was that global poverty increasingly became an African issue. As 2005 became the ‘Year of Africa’, the justice messages that constituted MPH were largely effaced by the more familiar imperial legacy which represents Africa as a place of indigence in need of outside assistance...More

The Entrepreneur NewsOnline Book Club: Book of the Month for October, 2010

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith (Order)

 Review by E. Quinones

This book is great. Smith shares a set of ten brief-but-essential thoughts and habits that, when practiced and Mastered, cause a person to experience financial wealth instead of mere short-term comfort. He simply and bluntly lays out critical factors that separate those who tend to succeed financially and those whose actions yield mediocre results. These simple ideas include long-term focus over immediate gratification; generosity over stinginess; talking about ideas that make a difference instead of talking about other people and trivial things.

Notice I said these ideas must be practiced on a consistent basis and MASTERED to yield noticeable results; exposing one's self to them one time and making a cursory mental understanding of them won't do much good. Reading this book once will not make a lazy person rich, and Smith doesn't claim this will happen.

Now, if you've read a book in the past like "Rich Dad Poor Dad" or "Think And Grow Rich" and felt ripped off because it lacked specifics on how to get rich, then you probably won't find much value in this book, either, so I wouldn't recommend it because it would probably feel like a waste of $10-$15, honestly.

Revisiting the politics of belonging in Cameroon

By Ben Page, Martin Evans and Claire Mercer

The authors revisit hometown associations in Cameroon, and argue that notions of autochthony remain central in understanding Cameroonian politics. They also argue that some of the claims about home, belonging and politics are difficult to reconcile with the hazier reality observed on the ground. They rebuff any universal, inevitable or overly tidy segue between questions of belonging and claims of political segmentation. Too often the existing literature moves too quickly to an analysis that foregrounds only the worrisome dimensions of a politics of belonging, thus leaving little space for other interpretations. To explore this dilemma the authors explore a land dispute in Bali Nyonga, north-west Cameroon; and show (1) how ideas of belonging remain central to the practice of politics; (2) how the politics of belonging has changed over time; and (3) how it is possible to foreground an alternative ‘politics of conviviality’, which would otherwise be shaded out by the dominance of the politics of belonging...More