Nestled in Nkoemvone, Southern Cameroon, lies an extensive site spanning over three hundred hectares, with ten currently developed. This area, bisected by a paved road and dotted with weathered structures, is identified by a plaque as the “Nkoemvone multipurpose agricultural station.” Operating under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the station’s buildings show significant signs of decay. Nevertheless, it remains active, particularly in agronomic research, with the propagation and distribution of cocoa plants now its primary focus.
Established in 1944, this location stands as a significant relic of colonial modernity. The “Nkoemvone Experimental Cocoa Station” embodies what historian Hélène Blais describes as the “garden-object” within the French colonial Empire, especially during the 20th century when plant reproduction became a dominant activity. While less documented than other colonial stations, such as Bambey in Sénégal, Nkoemvone played a similar role: facilitating the migration, relocation, and introduction of plants, specifically cocoa varieties, with the aim of transforming colonized societies. Its operational history was ultimately brief, with its ambitious goals encountering the challenges of an independent Cameroon.
The profound economic and social crisis of 1929, though somewhat buffered in colonial Africa by the metropolitan power, marked a turning point in French colonial policies. It effectively ended the trading economy and compelled the colonial state to invest in infrastructure and export crops, simultaneously fostering an interest in the living conditions of the colonized populations. This shift transformed the colonial state into a “developmentalist” entity. The Brazzaville Conference, held from January 30 to February 8, 1944, and chaired by Charles de Gaulle, solidified this change, aiming to both revitalize the French economy and improve the lives of colonized people through planned development.
“Promoting high-yielding varieties”
Regarding agriculture, a prevailing narrative took hold: African societies were primarily perceived as agrarian, and therefore, improving their welfare necessitated substantial investment in agricultural productivity. This rationale led to a proliferation of agronomic research institutions across the French Empire, with Cameroon serving as a crucial observation ground. Through an order issued on June 8, 1944, Eugène Paul Carras, then Governor of French Cameroon, dissolved the Technical Council for Agriculture and Livestock, replacing it with three distinct entities: the Agricultural Service, the Livestock Service, and the Forestry Service.
This reorganization, extending beyond mere administrative adjustment, aimed to establish a dedicated agricultural service. According to agronomist Pierre Barthe, a former head of Cameroon’s agricultural service, in a 1946 report, this new Agricultural Service was structured into several sub-services. One key component comprised agronomic research institutions, including three experimental stations located in Dschang, Maroua, and Nkoemvone. All these stations were established during the interwar period, except for the Nkoemvone experimental cocoa station, founded in 1944 following the June 8 reforms. It thus stands as a prime example of the colonial modernization that emerged during this era.
The Nkoemvone experimental cocoa station was progressively implemented. Agronomist Raymond Juliat, who led the agricultural service in 1944, noted that it initially lacked a formal decree, its role being “the selection of cocoa plants with the aim of promoting only good producing subjects.” In 1947, three hundred hectares were requisitioned for its establishment, but construction efforts faltered due to a scarcity of labor and materials, and the absence of a comprehensive plan. Despite these challenges, the colonial administration reaffirmed its commitment in 1948 to encompass all research and experimentation activities, officially instituting it via regulatory text the following year. Construction then commenced, financed by the cocoa fund.
Forced labor concerns
However, the establishment of the Nkoemvone experimental station faced significant practical hurdles. Jean Braudeau, the station’s director, highlighted in his 1949 annual report that a lack of personnel impeded construction, road development, and the creation of nurseries and 15 hectares of plantations. He did manage to recruit some temporary workers from a nearby village, often paid by task. The question of whether this labor was voluntary or coerced remains complex: although High Commissioner Renée Hoffherr began prohibiting forced recruitment upon his arrival in 1947, Cameroonian historian Léon Kaptué reminds us that the French administration continued to mobilize forced labor until 1949.
To attract workers from beyond the immediate region, the colonial administration decided to construct on-site housing, a common practice for colonial administrations. These laborers were expected to contribute not only to the station’s construction but also to its agronomic research activities.
Achille Pacilly, who succeeded Jean Braudeau as head of the experimental station in 1949, reported that a labor camp was initially set up, comprising twenty huts built from local materials. By 1956, fifty-eight permanent houses were constructed, accommodating 130 to 140 families a few years later. The creation of this labor camp effectively resolved the workforce issue.
Alongside these worker dwellings, residences for senior staff were also erected. Research laboratories, a potable water supply, electricity, and an infirmary were added, along with extensive developments such as nurseries and collections of cocoa varieties. In essence, the station became a site where living and research spaces were intricately interwoven. The station’s development was finalized in 1959, just before Cameroon’s independence.
A tool for colonial propaganda
Beyond its scientific purpose, the Nkoemvone experimental station also functioned as a colonial propaganda tool for the French administration. This propaganda unfolded within a specific Cameroonian context: the 1950s, a period marked by violent repression by the French army against Cameroonian nationalists. During the initial phase of this brutal conflict, primarily concentrated in the Bassa region of Southern Cameroon’s cocoa belt, the Nkoemvone experimental station became instrumental in winning over public opinion.
In 1958, André Boyer, a journalist and head of the French administration’s propaganda service in the country, disseminated a film titled “The Nkoemvone Cocoa Center” among the population. This film was part of a broader strategy aimed, in his own words, at “bringing back the lost to normal life and convincing the masses of the truly nationalist and sincere action of the Cameroonian government.”
The experimental station also served the French colonial administration as a showcase for its perceived benefits in Cameroon. This is evident in the 1958 Report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in West Africa concerning Cameroon under French administration. The UN drafters and observers inspected the station on November 19, 1958, and stated: “(…) The activities of this station consist essentially of selecting the best cocoa varieties and producing cuttings for distribution to planters. It is hoped that this will replace current low-yielding trees in plantations with elite plants. The station has already yielded good results.”
This use of the station as a propaganda instrument was later adopted by the government of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, after independence, this time for international outreach. The station’s report for 1961-1962 reveals that the institution hosted visits from the US Ambassador to Cameroon, the German Ambassador, and three African heads of state: Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, Léon Mba of Gabon, and François Tombalbaye of Chad. The director of the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris and the World Bank Director for Africa also visited. However, this international prominence, serving the Cameroonian government, also marked the beginning of a gradual decline.
French oversight until 1975
Following the independences of 1960, new states, including Cameroon, signed agreements with France. These conventions stipulated “for applied research, an agreement on programs, mixed funding for operations, a quasi-commitment from France for investment financing, and, within this general framework, the establishment of specific agreements detailing the modalities of implementation and management for specialized institutes deemed necessary.”
These agreements allowed France to continue administering the station, for instance, through the appointment of former colonial agronomists like Jacques Liabeuf as director. As Jean Gaillard, Hocine Khelfaoui, and Jean Nya Ngatchou highlighted in a 2000 publication, the new Cameroonian state found this beneficial, enabling it to focus its resources on higher education and training while leaving scientific research to France. French oversight finally ceased in 1975.
In the subsequent decades, the station entered a period of decline, exacerbated by the economic and social crisis of the 1980s. This crisis severely impacted Cameroonian agronomic research, which “experienced a severe financial situation and a modification in its budget structure,” according to the aforementioned authors, leading to research stagnation within the institution.
Extractivist ambitions become an obstacle
The crisis affecting Cameroonian agricultural research extended to the country’s entire scientific research sector. During its most acute phase, from 1990 to 1996, “nationally funded research programs were halted; only programs and projects benefiting from external financial contributions continued more or less normally, due to delays in personnel salary payments.” This situation resulted in reduced funding, researcher discouragement linked to salary devaluation, and the abandonment of numerous programs, including those concerning cocoa at the Nkoemvone station, where scientific activity was virtually dormant.
By the early 1990s, the station was transformed into a multipurpose agricultural research station, placed under the authority of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (Irad), established by presidential decree in 1996 and reorganized in 2002. This restructuring, however, did not improve the institution’s deteriorating situation. The gradual degradation caused by the economic crisis was compounded by natural factors, worsening the state of disrepair at the Nkoemvone station. On March 17, 2006, Cameroun Tribune published an article titled “Will the Nkoemvone station recover?”, in which journalist Paul Eboa revealed that a violent storm a few days prior had destroyed plant trial areas, damaged the administrative block, and ravaged numerous dwellings. Since then, the situation has not improved.
Paradoxically, the very size of the site, a legacy of the station’s extractivist ambitions as a hub for cocoa knowledge production and environmental transformation, now poses an obstacle to its rehabilitation due to insufficient resources. This state of relative abandonment is not solely explained by state disengagement, justified by successive crises and natural hazards. More profoundly, it reveals the contradictions of a colonial modernity project whose excessive ambitions and extractivist imaginaries clash with the far more complex realities of the postcolonial period.