Sub-Saharan Colonial Town Stagnating Development Indicators in Edea, Cameroon
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EAS Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Abbreviated Key Title: EAS J Humanit Cult Stud ISSN: 2663-0958 (Print) & ISSN: 2663-6743 (Online) Published By East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya Volume-2 | Issue-4| Jul-Aug 2020 | DOI: 10.36349/EASJHCS.2020.V02I04.004 Research Article Sub-Saharan Colonial Town Stagnating Development Indicators in Edea, Cameroon Renz Tichafogwe TENDE Department of Geography, University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon Abstract: It has been over a hundred years urbanisation history seems to be a time- Article History development mismatch lethargy with almost nothing added to justify the merited colonial Received: 26.06.2020 town status of the German rule. This article probes into the genesis of this dawdling Edea Accepted:05.07.2020 development hypothesising a paradigm shift in developmental instruments to be more of Published: 18.07.2020 externalities than internalities. Accusations take on energy production plants, the creation of Journal homepage: the Kribi deep sea port as well as the swallowing incidence Douala over Edea. A https://www.easpublisher.com/easjhcs methodology involving multi-temporal Landsat satellite images 1990, 2007 and 2017 were used to monitor the spatial growth of Edea. These were complemented with field survey Quick Response Code through interviews and observations to denote the spatio-temporal dynamics. Some 108 questionnaire were administered to appreciate stakeholder perception and knowledge of urban development. Findings portray that Edea witnessed a crawling expansion of built-up space from 0.56% in 1990 to 3.01% in 2019 with a timid population increase from 25,398 inhabitants in 1987 to 66,581 in 2005 and 78,601 inhabitants 2019. This paper suggests that the creation of spill over companies in Edea from overwhelming Douala and Kribi could well give the development Edea its historical stand. Keywords: development, energy production plants, infrastructure, urban attractiveness, Edea Copyright © 2020 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited. NTRODUCTION bewilderment of this urban development whose I vindication is multi-factorial ranging between the The predominantly coastal exposure of Sub- impact factor of proximity to the economic capital Saharan African colonial towns to teaming hubs Douala or the decentralisation of the energy supply exchange of goods and services quickly reverted into industry from the hitherto Edea Hydro-Electric Plant to contemporary dynamic cities. Archetypical of such the now Lom Panga, Memve’ele, Mbam Memkim. cities is their ability to often sprawl into gigantic Could it have perhaps been the issue of type of industry population and service concentrations spiralling in where it is more of high-tech rather than labour resources from heartlands. This has produced a cluster intensive that have been reducing the labour force matrix of metropolitan areas aligning the West African concentration in Edea. Otherwise, the creation of the continuum. Landwards from the Gulf of Guinea is Kribi deep sea port could have diverted the quest for colonial town Edea that emerged well before the First settlement in Edea away to the legendry touristic World War with abundant German colonial heaven of Kribi thereby giving an unconscious blow to infrastructural facility to its potential growth. Port the Edea development. characteristics and technological innovations industrialisation continued to brighten the urban lights and psychological pull factors (Fombe and Balgah, THE CONCEPT AND LITERATURE 2012). EVIEW R Unfortunately Edea is one of such colonial This article draws inspiration from the slow- towns with the highest industrial advantage which over city concept or slow growth and urban development and the year has been witnessing a lagging urban the concept of urban attractiveness to explain the development. The expansion of the built-up area and inactive growth of Edea. The slow-city concept or citta- the population growth of Edea appear so timid which is slow (Leo Christopher, 2000), is the regression in the barely arithmetic unlike other towns with geometrically growth of a city instigated by economic crisis, drop in growth. Such dwindling growth is depriving Edea of its the level of industrialisation and depreciation of the historical mitigating factors and advantages originally built environment. Edea is regressing instead (URBANPLAN, 2009). This article investigates into the of progressing in urban growth and development both from the shift in industrial monopoly and the economic *Corresponding Author: Renz Tichafogwe TENDE 198 Renz Tichafogwe TENDE; EAS J Humanit Cult Stud; Vol-2: Iss- 4 (Jul-Aug, 2020): 198-206 crisis of Cameroon in 1987. The concept of slow vegetation and fauna with influence to the environment growth and urban development (Adorjan, 2016), of Edea. This is indicative of how much more is left to advances that the gradual increase in the population of be done on the spatial growth of the town to which this an area and lack of opportunities reduces the chances of paper has its raison être. urban development of the city. The population of Edea for the past four decades has increased but at a slow rate ATERIALS AND ETHOD as compared to that of its neighbouring cities such as M M Edea is located between longitude 9º58'00"E Douala and Kribi. This gradual increase has thus º º º affected its development. Furthermore, Edea was and 10 18'30"E and latitude 3 16'30"N and 3 57'30"N. known for its monopolistic strength of having the lone The town is bounded to the north by Dibamba and Hydro Electricity Plant. The shift of this monopoly to Nkam, south by Mouanko and Atlantic Ocean, west by other plants in the country has reduced the opportunities Dizangue and east by Ngwei and Nyong and Kelle of an eventual employment in the area, hence, slowed- Division (Figure, 1). down the development. Data collection was done through primary and The concept of urban attractiveness deals with secondary sources for a qualitative and quantitative the ability of an area to draw and hold people. It is research. In order to determine the spatial expansion of related to the movement of people to and from places the city, satellite images for three different periods were (Reuel, et al. 2013). An areas’ attractiveness is closely used. The Landsat MSS for 1990, Landsat ETM for related to its population growth and decline. When an 2007, and Landsat OLI for 2017 satellite images were area is perceived to be attractive than its surrounding used. These images were chosen because of availability environment, its population will increase as many and possibility to have better results. Primary data was people settle there in preference to other areas (Imrie obtained through field observation, interviews and and Raco, 2003). Urban attractiveness of Edea deals questionnaire administration. Field observation was with the pull factors that have brought people into the done in order to identify the depreciation of town and the push ones which have sent them away. infrastructure and abandoned enterprises as proof of Edea unfortunately exhibits a negative urban retarded urban development in Edea as well as capture attractiveness as push factors out way pull ones. photographs for results. Interviews with the first deputy Decrease in the built-up areas and neighbourhoods, government delegate of the Edea urban council, the inadequate industries and commercial opportunities as mayors of the Edea I and II local councils, the delegate well as low standards of living are observed in the of urban development and housing in Edea, five local town. Housing depreciation, economic stagnation and chiefs and ten quarter heads making a total of (19 decline from no job opportunities have triggered out- authorities) were done. The purpose was to have first- migration of the population. Indicators such as hand opinion on the root causes of slow urban abandoned houses, the shot-down of industries as well development in Edea. Some 108questionnaires were as poverty and misery can confirm the slow urban administered to households of the Edea town to collect development of Edea. information on the causes and consequences of slow urban development of the area. A 0.5% sample (Oloyo, Further literature on Edea has mostly focused 2001) of the total of 21,628household (BUCREP, 2005 on the influence of the Hydro Electric Plant to the town and 2010 projections) was used to arrive at this result. and the environment. Many write-ups have dwelled on the vegetation of the town (Angoni et al. 2015) An in-depth secondary data collection was identifying the presence of a dense vegetation type in done to have information on the total population the area confirming the slow nature of its development. (BUCREP, 2005 and 2010 projections). Statistical This is explained by the fact that the built-up area has information on the economic activities and maps of not increased to colonize the vegetation as observed in Edea were gotten from the National Institute of other towns. Edea is endowed with much forest and Cartography, Yaounde, Cameroon. Consultations at the vegetation (Ajonina and Usongo, 2001), favouring level of the Edea local councils and the urban council wood extraction with less built-up to consume the urban were done to have information on the growth of the city space since the presence of the population is tantamount over the years. All these data from primary and to space consumption. The vegetation exploitation is secondary sources were as well treated through the associated to forest conservation and fauna preservation ArcGIS 10.4 and MapInfo software to generate maps (Tchindjang, et al. 2010), as much literature on Edea for analyses. Furthermore, the SPSS 17 and Excel 2010 focuses less of the urban spatial setting.