Plantation Labourers and the Resilience of Agro-Industrial Complexes in Central Africa amidst the Storm of a Scourging Economic Crisis: The Case of a Throbbing Sacrifice in the Cameroon Development Corporation through a Historical Autopsy, 1985-2002

By the mid-1980s there was glaring evidence that many countries in West and Central Africa were under the weight of a scourging and prolonged economic crisis which was compounded by the devaluation of the franc CFA in the 1990s. Given that these countries depended mostly on the exportation of agricultural produce which suffered from instability and fluctuation in prices in the world market, this sector became the most affected. As such, a number of Agro-Industrial undertakings found it difficult to survive as some were forced to reduce their labour force, or embrace privatization as a panacea. One of such undertakings which felt the excruciating brunt of the crisis was the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC). The CDC which was and is still one of the biggest industrial complexes in Central Africa, unlike others, was able to survive because its labour force accepted to make numerous sacrifices to keep the Corporation afloat during the most trying moments of its very existence. Using a historical approach and with the help of both published and unpublished sources, this study seeks to examine the role played by the labour force to prevent the Corporation from taking a nose dive and its eventual and ultimate collapse due to the crisis. It reveals that without the sacrifices, both material and financial, of the labourers, the CDC would not have survived the economic plague.

Keywords: Plantation, Labourers, Resilience, Agro-Industrial Complexes, Economic Crisis, Cameroon Development Corporation, Central Africa.