The Garrison-Entrepôt: A Mode of Governing in the Chad Basin

Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 417-436

  Roitman, Janet ^a  

^a CNRS   (France)

Author keywords

Economic activities; Economic exchanges; Employment relations; International markets; Money counterfeiting

Indexed keywords

EID: 84889356075     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1002/9780470696569.ch22     Document Type: Chapter

References (60)

1. This phenomenon became most intense in the 1990s, being labeled as a ''war'' by the press. See F. Soudan, ''La guerre secrete,'' Jeune Afrique 1871, November 1996, pp. 13-19; F. Dorce, ''Cameroun: cette guerre qui cache son nom'', Jeune Afrique économie 229, November 18, 1996, pp. 54-56; N'djamena Hebdo, ''L'insécurité dans le nord Cameroun,'' January 1997; K. Pideu, ''Une province abandonnée aux coupeurs de route,'' La Nouvelle Expression 243, March 28-31, 1995, p. 6; ''Extrême-Nord: Demain la Guerre?'' special issue of Le Messager, March 10, 1994, pp. 5-13.
2. November 17, 2001, Ngahoui, Cameroon.
3. Between 1992 and 1997, 27,000 Chadian military personnel were to be demobilized and disarmed. See Jeune Afrique, November 19, 1992, pp. 28-30; Le Progres (N'djamena), ''Armée: lumiere sur la démobilisation et la réinsertion,'' May 13, 1997, pp. 10-11; N'djamena Hebdo 281, May 15, 1997, pp. 6-7; M. B. Teiga, ''Une armée, certes, mais combien de divisions,'' L'Autre Afrique, December 17-23, 1997, pp. 14-15.
4. Janet Roitman, ''The Garrison-Entrepô t,'' Cahiers d'ėudes africaines 150-152, XXXVIII(2-4), 1998, pp. 297-329.
5. Jean-Baptiste Zoua (Lieutenant-Colonel), ''Phénomene des coupeurs de route dans le nord-Cameroun: une épine dans la plante des pieds des responsables du maintien de l'ordre,'' unpublished MS, Chef d'ėat-major de la région militaire no. 4, Garoua, 1997; C. Seignobos and J. Weber, Elements d'une stratégie de développement rural pour le Grand Nord du Cameroun, vol. 1, Rapport principal (Montpellier: CIRAD, 2002).
6. The multiple histories that make up the trajectory of the garrison-entrepôt will not be treated herein. For that perspective, see Roitman, ''The Garrison-Entrepô t.''
7. M. Dean, Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (London: Sage, 1999), p. 29.
8. A point developed in Janet Roitman, ''Productivity in the Margins: The Reconstitution of State Power in the Chad Basin,'' in Anthropology at the Margins of the State, V. Das and D. Poole, eds. (Santa Fe, School for American Research, forthcoming). On the productive and generative capacities of unregulated markets, see J. F. Bayart, ed., La réinvention du capitalisme (Paris, Karthala, 1994).
9. On the marginalization thesis, see T. Callaghy and J. Ravenhill, eds., Hemmed In: Responses to Africa's Economic Decline (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993) and Castells' depiction of ''The Rise of the Fourth World,'' in M. Castells, End of Millennium, vol. 3Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), pp. 70-165.
10. J.-F. Bayart, S. Ellis, and B. Hibou, La criminalisation de l'Etat en Afrique (Brussels: Editions Complexe, 1997).
11. This information is from my own fieldwork. Some sources include the following: on Kalashnikovs, Jeune Afrique, November 19, 1992, pp. 28-30; on the continental drug economy, Observatoire géopolitique des drogues, Géopolitique des drogues 1995 (Paris: La Découverte, 1995); and on petrol smuggling, X. Herrera, ''Du 'fédéral' et des 'KoweÏ- tiens': la fraude de l'essence nigériane au Cameroun,'' Autrepart 6, 1998, pp. 181-202. More generally, see K. Bennafla, ''Rapport sur les échanges transfrontaliers informels au Tchad,'' unpublished MS, 1996; and E. Grégoire, ''Sahara nigérien: terre d'échangess,'' Autrepart 6, 1998, pp. 91-104.
12. J.-F. Bayart, L'É tat en Afrique (Paris, Fayard, 1989).
13. All of which were recently accused by coupeurs de route before a military tribunal in Cameroon. Cf., R. Guivanda, ''Des coupeurs de route accusent'' L'oeil du SahelCameroon) 75, February 21, 2002, p. 3. Discussions with judicial authorities, police, and gendarmes confirmed the financing and organization of the road-gang industry by local chiefs and leaders of political party cells.
14. December 2001, Blangoua, Cameroon.
15. November 14, 2001, Meiganga, Cameroon.
16. Scant references include the following. On the military's rent-seeking activities, see A. Abba Kaka, ''Cette fraude qui tue!'' Le Temps (N'djamena) 69, April 9-15, 1997, p. 8; and S. Ngarngoune, ''Alerte au Sud,'' N'djamena Hebdo 280, May 8, 1997, p. 4. On the guerilla movement around Lake Chad, see F. Faes, ''Le dernier maquis,'' L'Autre Afrique 1, May 21-27, 1997, pp. 64-69.
17. December 8, 2001, Kousseri, Cameroon.
18. December 2001, Kousseri, Cameroon.
19. November 14, 2001, Meiganga, Cameroon.
20. On this process, which Hibou calls the ''privatization of the state,'' see B. Hibou, ed., La privatisation des ėats (Paris: Karthala, 1999).
21. J. Champaud, ''Cameroun: au Bord de l'Affrontement,'' Politique africaine 44, 1991, pp. 115-120.
22. K. Noble, ''Strike Aims to Bleed Cameroon's Economy to Force President Biya's Fall,'' The New York Times, August 5, 1991; Africa Confidential, ''Cameroon: Crisis or Compromise?'' October 25, 1991;
23. Africa Confidential, ''Cameroon: Biya Besieged,'' July 26, 1991
24. C. Monga, ''Les dernieres cartes de Paul Biya,'' Jeune Afrique É conomique 165, March 1993, pp. 116-121
25. A. Kom, ''Trahison d'une intelligentsia,'' Jeune Afrique É conomique 165, March 1993, pp. 122-123.
26. Opération Villes Mortes certainly crippled the Cameroonian economy, and thus to a large extent achieved its goal of depriving the regime of its fiscal base. It is estimated that it resulted in a 40 percent decrease in economic activity, which represented 4 billion CFA per day for the state, including collection of taxes and fees, or the previous year's revenues. See M. Diallo, ''Qui gouverne le Cameroun?,'' Jeune Afrique 1595, July 24-30, 1991, p. 18
27. N. van de Walle, ''The politics of non-reform in Cameroon,'' in Callaghy and Ravenhill, eds., Hemmed In, p. 381.
28. Prefect, Departement du Diamare, Cameroon, April 15, 1993.
29. April 21, 1993, Maroua, Cameroon.
30. April 21, 1993, Maroua, Cameroon.
31. Janet Roitman, ''Unsanctioned Wealth, or the Productivity of Debt in Northern Cameroon,'' Public Culture 15(2), 2003, pp. 211-237.
32. Janet Roitman, ''Productivity in the Margins''; Janet Roitman, Fiscal Disobedience: An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, forthcoming, October 2004).
33. As is implied by James Ferguson's recent and otherwise interesting reading of the situation in the Zambian copperbelt: see J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
34. Janet Roitman, ''New Sovereigns? Regulatory Authority in the Chad Basin'', in Intervention and Transnationalism in Africa: Global-Local Networks of Power, T. Callaghy, R. Kassimir, and R. Latham, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 240-266
35. Janet Roitman, ''Productivity in the Margins.''
36. Hibou, La privatisation des ėats.
37. K. Bennafla, ''Mbaiboum: un marché au carrefour de frontieres multiples,'' Autrepart 6, 1998, pp. 53-72
38. E. Grégoire, ''Sahara nigérien: terre d'échanges,'' Autrepart, 6(1998), pp. 91-104.
39. See Roitman, Incivisme Fiscale, Ch. 5, on how this situation is reminiscent of practice during the 19th-century jihad, when spoils were articulated from within the discourse on legitimate property and wealth.
40. Referring to the 1994 devaluation of the franc CFA, which rendered imports - such as spare parts for the merchants' fleets of trucks - considerably more expensive and led to a decrease in local purchasing power.
41. This question, like those that follow regarding corruption, was intended to provoke conversation and is in keeping with manners of exchange practiced in the region. Such questions are not accusations.
42. November 14, 2001, Meiganga, Cameroon.
43. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I: An Introduction (New York: Vintage - Books, 1990[1978])
44. Michel Foucault, ''The ethic of the care of the self as a practice of freedom,'' in Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, J. Bernauer and D. Rasmussen, eds. (London, Tavistock, 1988), pp. 145-162.
45. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, p. 95.
46. November 15, 2001, Meiganga, Cameroon.
47. James Baker, the former U.S. Secretary of State, was behind the initiative that established a list of middle-income countries, which were slated as of high strategic interest due to their very high levels of debt outstanding with commercial banks. In 1989, Nicholas Brady put forth an official program for ''voluntary debt reduction,'' which would absorb these debts through market mechanisms.
48. O. Vallée, ''La dette privée est-elle publique? Traites, traitement, traite: modes de la dette africaine,'' Politique africaine 73, March 1999, pp. 50-67.
49. Roitman, ''Unsanctioned Wealth.''
50. Jeune Afrique economie 337, January 14 - February 17, 2002.
51. December 2001, Ngaoundéré, Cameroon.
52. December 2001, Ngaoundéré, Cameroon.
53. November 23, 2001, Touboro, Cameroon.
54. December 2001, Kousseri, Cameroon.
55. November 2001, Mbang Mboum, Cameroon.
56. See Michel Foucault, ''The Subject and Power,'' in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, eds. (Brighton: Harvester, 1982), p. 224; Michel Foucault, ''The Ethic of the Care of the Self as a Practice of Freedom,'' in Bernauer and Rasmussen, eds., Technologies of the Self, pp. 145-162; Michel Foucault, ''Questions of Method,'' in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, G. Burchell, G. Gordon, and P. Miller, eds. (London, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991), pp. 73-86.
57. For critique of the concept of the moral economy, see Janet Roitman, ''Économie morale, subjectivité et politique,'' Critique internationale, 6, Winter 2000, pp. 48-56.
58. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, esp. pp. 93-97
59. Michel Foucault, ''Two Lectures,'' in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, C. Gordon, ed. (New York, Routledge, 1981), pp. 82-102.