Women and the arts of smuggling in western Cameroon

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Periodical article

Title:	Women and the arts of smuggling in western Cameroon
Author:	Niger-Thomas, Margaret
Year:	2000
Periodical:	CODESRIA Bulletin
Issue:	2-4
Pages:	45-61
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Cameroon
Subjects:	women entrepreneurs illicit trade women
Abstract:	For many women in Africa smuggling is a coping mechanism, an opportunity to engage in some trade other than prostitution. In this article, by means of case studies of the activities of women in the Mamfe area on the Manyu River in the South West Province of Cameroon, where it borders Nigeria, the way in which women who are largely involved in the smuggling of fuel develop as entrepreneurs is revealed in some detail. The activities of these women are then compared to the entreprises of the so-called Batcha Boys, an all male group, who also smuggle goods from Nigeria to Cameroon in the Mamfe area and those of the Egbekaw Beach Workers, a similar group, working from yet another beach on the Manyu River. Attention is also paid to what has become known as the Ikom Trade Line, operated by women entrepreneurs from the town of Ikom in the Cross River State of Nigeria. Besides revealing an elaborate informal economic circuit, the article shows that smuggling itself is both developmental and non-developmental. It undercuts State revenues, but those who are engaged in it have been able to accumulate capital and have become economically empowered. The opportuntiy for profit is thus transferred from the State to the individual. Notes, ref.