Rural Transport and the Breakdown of the Development Dynamic for Women in West Cameroon
by Vivien Meli

The notion of gender is a social appropriation of biological sex.  More than that, gender is a global approach by social sciences to the collective constructions arising from sexual relationships.  In Africa, in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, gender studies are dominated by women’s relationship of dependency on men.  In terms of transport, it cannot be otherwise.  Women are effectively the weak link – in the broad sense of the term – in transport.  The book entitled   Balancing the load: women, gender and transport edited by Priyanthi Fernando and Gina Porter illustrates the discrimination against and the exclusion of women from appropriate means of transport.  And yet, they are central to local, subsistence economies, particularly agricultural economies, where the necessity for mobility and transport is a determining factor.

Women in West-Cameroon are still deeply rooted in their traditional role in society.  The culture of the Bamileke (the ethnic group of West-Cameroon) is somewhat conservative where women’s’ social status is concerned.  Outside of the home, the main female activity is farming and in particular food crop farming, as income-producing farming is the exclusive preserve of men.  Both rural and urban women are farmers and the need for transport is the same for both.  Women living in rural environments regularly cultivate plots of land in the urban periphery or in the rural areas they came from originally.  For all their agricultural activities, transport and appropriate means of mobility are an absolute necessity.

Agriculture is a year-round activity, particularly during the rainy season (eight months out of twelve); during this time rural transport is a disaster. The need for transport and mobility can be broken down into four stages, each involving a variety of tasks - preparing the ground, planting, tending to the plants (weeding), and harvesting. We need to consider that in each of these stages women and children need to get around and, at the same time, transport seeds and agricultural supplies, farming tools and their crops. It is also very important to mention that women also have to take part of their crop to local markets (always accompanied by children) to pay their social security contributions and provide for basic necessities for their children. Furthermore, these activities, (farming and subsequent commercial activities) contribute to improving women's social status. In other words, farming and financial activities enable women to narrow the economic dependency gap that binds them socially to men and to break away from some violations of their rights and from particular forms of humiliation which they suffer. But, the uncertainties surrounding transport, the imponderables and the lack of road safety, interfere with this dynamic of emancipation and plunge them back into dependency and keep them in a situation of social inferiority.

Because of their social status, women are prevented from owning or borrowing appropriate means of transport - when such are available. On their incomes, they cannot afford to pay transport costs, much less own a car or a motor cycle. Women farmers and women traders are subject to discrimination from rural transport providers (cars), during the rainy season. Indeed, when it rains, rural roads made of earth are slippery and particularly impracticable. Women are excluded, because they would be physically vulnerable and unable to help drivers to free their vehicles stuck in the mud, unlike men who would be naturally willing to do so.

Intermediate means of transport and the use of children become their principal means of transport. The quality of the IMTs (rickshaws, wheelbarrows, bicycles, carrying on the back) is neither efficient nor effective for the activities of women farmers in West-Cameroon. They require more effort and energy than pushing a vehicle out of the mire would. They are also limited in terms of the amount of products they can carry. In addition, the use of children carries with it a well-known risk, school wastage.

In other words, the problems surrounding gender and transport in general, and facing women working in agriculture and using rural transport in particular, involve a density of social relationships prejudicial to the emancipation of women and to child development. Discrimination against and exclusion of women in this sector reinforce the domination of women in Cameroon society and particularly so in the Western province. They are an obstacle to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those dealing with the access of children to school and the promotion of sexual equality and the emancipation of women.

This opinion piece was contributed by Vivien Meli
Contact: melvivien_03[at]yahoo.fr

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