One month in and I’m starting to feel settled into a routine. Roads are becoming more familiar, prices are starting to be fixed in my head, and my schedule is slowly having a rhythm. I have made many hard decisions, have relied on many different people, and am still surprised by all of the situations that I am faced with. Despite all that I have ahead of me I can look back at this past month and see many tangible results of my work.
Now that I have been here a while, I feel like I can start to formulate generalizations about Cameroonian culture. Something that has drastically struck me is the corruption. Before going to Cameroon I was warned that the President (Paul Biya) is one of the most corrupt in the world. Unsure of what this statement was based on, and cognizant that this is often the reality in Africa, I didn’t think this would affect me in any great measure. How wrong was I…
As corny as it may seem, to take the line “attitude reflects leadership, Captain,” from the movie Remember the Titans, captures the sentiments of many Cameroonians. As leader of the country for over 30 years, President Biya’s actions have impregnated in the general public that corruption is the norm and is passably acceptable. It is common knowledge that every government run facility functions mainly on bribes and favoritism. I somewhat expected this, but what has surprised me is the extent of general public who also participate in this behavior. I could name at least five situations that I have either witnessed or heard secondhand that involve blatant bribing and/or cheating. In the interest of space I will recount two experiences I have had: one involving a government official and one involving a teacher at my school.
The first week of class was unusual by Noula school standards because we received three Ministry of Education officials of different ranking in the course of two days. On Tuesday I was caught unawares when the regional Ministry of Education inspector came to call (this is the second from the top to the entire ministry). David was out running errands and Papa Jean our bookkeeper was gone, so I was left to receive the inspector on my own. Thankfully our Pedagogic Advisor was there to help me answer some of the questions they asked of me.
In explaining what was happening at our school that week it was clear that the inspector was not pleased at all with our week of revision before placing students with their teacher for the year. Our problem, we explained, was that we couldn’t set kids in their classes yet because we didn’t know how many would be in each grade, thereby determining if we needed to pair any grades together and thus eliminate a teacher. Still unconvinced she moved on to our administration. Becoming incensed at the fact that David, the director had no formal training in the educational field, the inspector repeated that we had better get him to leave the school otherwise she hinted we could get shut down. While trying my best to reason with this woman, our Pedagogic Advisor interrupted me to ask me into the side room. He explained that the only way to calm her down was to pass off 5,000 CFA, with the explanation of “gas money for the travel.” Too overcome by this reality and unsure how to handle this type of bribery, I asked the Advisor to do it. The scene unfolded as he predicted; upon receiving the money the inspector stopped raising her voice, she left all of her complaints aside, became somewhat pleasant, and decided she could leave. I showed her out the door with her saying, “you should look into finding a new director, I’m not sure the present man is appropriate.” Situation immensely diffused? I think so.
A few days after the scene of the bribe the school fell victim to a teacher trying to take advantage of our orphan reduction policy. This woman, the most senior at our school and making significantly more than everyone else, came to David and I with a new family. She was a friend of theirs and the man was recently widowed, meaning one of his kids under our policy was applicable for a 1/3rd tuition reduction. The teacher told us that even this was too little, “this man is having a really hard time, I don’t think he can pay so much for all of his kids to come to school here.” She then went on to insinuate that if we didn’t give him a bigger reduction he had threatened to go to another school. We explained that he himself would need to come talk to us further if we were to go beyond our typical policy. The teacher kept saying “no, no, he has to work.” Trying all manner of guilting, anger, and demand for compassion, we gave the teacher our final number and said to send this father to talk to us. She responded like an spiteful child saying, “fine, I’ll tell him you won’t be flexible and we’ll see if he even decides to bring his children here.”
After this exchange David went and spoke with the kids of the parent in question (they were already attending school, just without having been registered). He found out that their father had never once suggested that the kids go anywhere else except Noula and that he also was of a means to not need extenuating tuition reductions. As David repeated this back to me, he also reported that he had seen that our teacher had had registration money in her hand while talking to us, further proving that this father had sent her to register the kids regardless.
The next day the teacher returned and said that the number we had given was too high, the father had said he needed 10,000 CFA less (approx ~$25). When I stood firm on my decision, reiterating that things could change if he himself came, she broke down and said, “fine, just register the kids already.” The sum she gave me on this family’s behalf was almost the entire total of the registration and tuition fees for all of the children! The ability to give a large sum of money at one time is pretty rare and again spoke to the fact that the teacher was hoping to take the money saved from the extra reduction and pocket it for her own.
This example of corruption outside of the government greatly disturbed me. Not only was this our own teacher (someone who we are soon to fire anyways), but she had been with our school for 8 years! While this is only one person, other stories of Cameroonian friends’ acquaintances have illustrated similar mentalities. I will never say that most Cameroonians are corrupt, however the frequency of these occurrences and the conclusive statement being that “this is what Cameroonians are like,” has made me acutely aware of what happens when a government breaks down and starts a chain of actions repeated and tolerated by its people.
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