Cameroon
The Republic of Cameroon is a coastal country in Equatorial Africa with an area of 475,650 square kilometers, (183,569 square miles). Its two largest metropolitan growth centers are the administrative capital, Yaoundé, and the economic capital, Douala. The population of Cameroon is estimated at about 16.5 million inhabitants. About half of these are rural; two-thirds are under the age of twenty-four. The country was a German protectorate from 1884 to 1919. The League of Nations placed Cameroon under British and French control in 1919, and it remained under their mandates until it became independent in 1960. In view of the more than 200 different ethnic groups and as many dialects, the quest for national unity since then has been a leitmotiv of successive governments. Sports have proved to be a valuable aid in that quest.
History
In precolonial Cameroon, traditional dances and games were essential activities. Mbonji (1992) has shown that such practices perform three functions: (1) a warrior function in terms of preparation for combat; (2) a socioeducational and cultural function in terms of preparing young people for their entry into the adult world (social integration, comprehending the environment, physical training, abstract and logical skills, learning to work together, etc.); and (3) a symbolic function as a repository for group culture.There are considerable differences from one ethnic group to the next, although some dances and games have spanned the entire twentieth century and are present in most of the populations. Games of skill that involve throwing assegais (javelins) at moving targets are common, as are wrestling games. Some ethnic groups even organize their social life around these activities, for example, the Tuburi in the far north of Cameroon.
New cultural models emerged with the colonial period, but until the interwar period (in the 1920s and 1930s between the twoWorld Wars) was over, sports were just something that colonists did. One exception was soccer, which was being played by organized indigenous teams as early as the turn of the twentieth century. In the 80 percent of the country under French mandate, physical education in school was the preferred method of diffusing a sports culture. A few activities, such as gymnastics or track and field, were promoted as being more educational.
The development of associations and the training of sport managers, such as coaches, technicians, and Physical Education teachers, accelerated, especially after the Brazzaville Conference in 1944 and during the 1950s, and then even more after independence in 1960. Sports were considerably helped out—although often selectively— by company sponsorship (Coca-Cola, the Cameroonian Breweries, Elf, etc.). The state also provided subsidies to the extent of 0.5 percent to 1 percent of its operating budget.The commitment was not sufficient to allow setting up an ambitious national sports program or building infrastructures, however.
Participant and Spectator Sports
After Cameroonian independence in 1960, soccer powered its way in about twenty years to become by far the most popular sport—played, watched, or covered by the media—in the country. A player like Roger Milla, the best player during the 1980s and 1990s, is a genuine national hero. The Douala and Yaoundé teams have monopolized victories in the national championships. The only other sports to achieve some degree of popularity are handball, volleyball, basketball, track and field, basketball, weight lifting, and combat sports. Tennis and bicycling are less popular.
Although Cameroon has participated in all the Olympic Games since 1964, it only started to do really well in international competitions in the 1980s, particularly in soccer. Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” team has played in the finals of five World Cup championships, even reaching the quarterfinals once in 1990. The team also has won four African Cup of Nations championships (in 1984, 1988, 2000, and 2002), and became an Olympic champion in 2000. Cameroonian soccer clubs have also had frequent success in Club World Cup championships (victories in 1965, 1971, 1978, 1979, and 1980).
Aside from the African Athletics Confederation’s first Central African championships in 1973, Cameroon has not organized any major sports events.The main international event is the annual Mount Cameroon race, created by Guinness, also in 1973.The Supreme Council of Sport in Africa (SCSA), created in 1966, has its headquarters in Yaoundé.
Cameroon was first a state and then a nation. As a result successive governments have always sought to achieve national unity.They have consistently supported the national soccer team, promoting its success and enhancing its public exposure as much as possible. As Mbengalak (1995) states, soccer is becoming a veritable state sport, one that plays a major role in the country’s domestic and foreign politics. In the 1980s, a point was made of showing an explicit relationship between the success of Cameroonian soccer and the ambitions of the country’s only party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.
In Cameroon a sports event often becomes a pretext for dancing and music, which are essential aspects of society; it is also readily an occasion for traditional fetishistic practices.
Women and Sport
Women’s sports, which began in Cameroon during the 1950s, are repeatedly confronted with obstacles that are representative of the considerable economic and scholastic inequalities still existing between the sexes. Moreover, when colonial sports practices were first adapted for Cameroonians, they were adapted exclusively by men. From a cultural point of view, the traditions surrounding a woman’s place in the home (polygamy is official) and the influence of Islam in northern Cameroon are not particularly favorable to her entering sports. Sports are also strongly associated with the state that, until women’s political awakening in the 1990s, always made it difficult for them to access sports. And, while there has been unquestionable progress in terms of the number of women participating in sports since then, sport does still remain the fief of men—whether in media coverage, sponsorship, the events, or actual participation.
Organizations
Structurally speaking, the administration of Cameroonian sports is largely based on the French colonial model. Since 1970, it has depended on a relatively powerful Youth and Sports Ministry, aided by ten provincial delegations. Fourteen federations manage the country’s main sports, which are soccer, boxing, tennis, volleyball, track and field, swimming, handball, judo, basketball, bicycling, table tennis, wrestling, water sports, and weightlifting. The federations are empowered by the Youth and Sports Ministry, which is responsible for the three separate sectors of sports, physical education, and youth. The higher executive body for sports, the National Sports Committee, liaises between the ministry and the federations. The government depends on the National Olympic Committee, however, to accurately reflect its sports policy. The National Institute of Youth and Sports created in 1961 is in charge of training managers and helps out with preparing the national teams.
At the local level, sports clubs are subject to the 12 June 1967 Freedom of Association Act (modified in 1990). A sports charter specifying the operating rules for the clubs places them under state control.
Cameroon has been an IOC member since October 1963, and it belongs to most of the international sports federations. It is a member of the Union of African Sports Confederations (UCSA), the technical agency for the SCSA, which reports to the Organization for African Unity (OAU).
Sport in Society
Sports may appear to be a preferred instrument of the strategy to detribalize Cameroonian society, but it actually continues to reflect the ethnic divisions in the country. The Bamilekes predominate in soccer, for example, while the Betis are more present in track and field. In some sports the national team is made up of members mostly from a single ethnic group, although strictly anthropological arguments cannot account for such success. This situation provokes interethnic tensions, even more so that the push for democracy in the 1990s and a multiparty system that rather paradoxically have produced a withdrawal into ethnic identity.
Several times, Cameroonian participation in international sports events has brought to light political interference in the selection or rejection of certain players. Major financial problems are recurrent, tarnishing the image of the Cameroonian soccer delegation.
The Future
The best athletes often have trouble making a living from their sport in Cameroon. In sports like tennis, volleyball, track and field, and soccer, many athletes move to France or elsewhere in Europe. Cameroon’s economic problems are still compromising any significant progress in sports participation there.
Thierry Terret
Categories: National Profiles