Last night, I ate viper domba.
And let me just say, it was delicious, and an extraordinary experience. Let me
backtrack first and catch you up a little: I’m now in Cameroon, where I arrived
two days ago from Mali by taking two flights and a bus to reach Bafoussam, the
largest city in Western Cameroon. Cameroon has by far the worst-maintained,
bumpiest roads I’ve ever seen -- Mali’s roads are impeccable in comparison.
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| The road leading to upOwa's HQ is in far better condition than the main roads of Bafoussam |
Bafoussam is where upOwa is based. upOwa (www.upowa.org) is an award-winning social
business started a year ago by Kilien de Renty and Caroline Frontigny, two
French friends I met in Washington, DC, that installs small solar panels in
houses of off-grid villages that have never had electricity before. On my first
day in Bafoussam, we drove several hours into the countryside to reach the home
of a small village chief, which upOwa was going to equip with a solar panel.
After spending a month in the dusty and sandy Sahel region, the first thing
that struck me was the incredible greenery of Cameroon, the gorgeous verdant
valleys and lush countryside.
Along the way, we lost several hours when a police officer
pulled us over at a control point, and proceeded to look for any excuse to
bring us to the station. Since a local businessman had recently used his
influence to attempt to undermine upOwa by bribing the police chief, the upOwa
team failed to talk their way out of the situation. When we arrived at the
police station, the deputy of another security force greeted us with a large
smile. He was a friend of a client of upOwa’s, and therefore a friend of
upOwa’s. He took over the process, since he was more senior than the cop who
had detained us, and after talking for a little bit, he released us. At the
police station, I noticed an electoral ad for a political party, inside the
offices of a police officer, which suggested a lack of impartiality perhaps of
the police.
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| I traveled in the trunk of the car, with the solar panels, This was a pretext to pull us over and attempt to extort a bribe |
(Corruption is generally speaking more prevalent in Cameroon than
in Senegal or Mali. When I landed at the airport in Douala, and a friend of a
friend, Romeo, picked me up, the parking lot agent refused to let us exit until
he received a small bribe. Romeo explained he had only large bills, and would
gladly pay a little extra if he could. The man didn’t demand a large bill of
10,000 FCFA, but wanted only a modest bribe because otherwise Cameroonians
would revolt if forced to pay excessive fees. I finally dug up 500 FCFA
(approximately 80 cents) in Western African currency, which he snatched out of
my hand before lifting the barrier.)
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| To commemorate the occasion, the chief posed in his finest robe on his throne, which is decorated with his family's symbols, under a leopard skin -- his spirit animal. |
When we finally arrived at our destination, at the end of a
bumpy dirt road, the village chief was busy receiving someone from his village
who had gotten a fine from the police he felt was excessive, and was asking his
chief to intercede on his behalf. Once their meeting concluded, the chief
greeted us with a large smile, and introduced his main adviser and his entire
family, including his wives and twelve young children. He was eager to benefit
from upOwa’s services, and he offered to encourage others in his area to do the
same. After going over pricing and number of light bulbs we could install, we
began discussing the location of the lights with the chief, while the children
and women watched us with evident fascination.  |
| The children begged me to take their picture, and when I turned the lens to them, they spontaneously began doing this. |
Then we began the actual work of installing the solar panel,
control box, and five light bulbs. These are modest generators, tailored to fit
the most basic needs of families in Cameroon: they can power up to five light
bulbs so families can work and study at night without breathing in fumes of
kerosene lamps, and provide outlets to charge up cell phones without having to
travel several hours to another village and pay large fees to do so.
The village mosque is right next to the chief's house, as he is the religious and spiritual leader of the community as well. In Cameroon, spiritual and political leadership are closely intertwined.
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| The intrepid CEO of upOwa, Kilien de Renty, on the roof of the chief's house with a solar panel |
After spending several weeks in meetings with government
officials, it felt great to be doing manual work in the middle of nowhere.
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