In Nkoemvone, located in southern Cameroon, a vast 300-hectare site, with ten hectares actively developed, stands as a testament to history. Traversing this area is a paved road, dotted with dilapidated structures, and marked by a sign identifying it as the “Nkoemvone multi-purpose agricultural station,” operating under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Despite the severe deterioration of its buildings, the station maintains activity, primarily focusing on agricultural research, with the propagation and distribution of cocoa plants now its central endeavor.
Established in 1944, this location represents a significant relic of colonial modernity. The “Nkoemvone Experimental Cocoa Station” aligns with what historian Hélène Blais terms the “garden-object” within the French colonial Empire, particularly during the 20th century when plant reproduction became the dominant activity. While less extensively documented than other colonial stations, such as Bambey in Sénégal, Nkoemvone nonetheless played a similar role in the migration, displacement, introduction, and relocation of plants, specifically cocoa varieties, aiming to induce societal changes within colonized regions. Its operational history proved relatively brief, and its ambitious goals ultimately faced the challenges of independent Cameroon.
The profound economic and social crisis of 1929, though somewhat buffered in colonial Africa by the metropolitan power, marked a pivotal shift in French colonial policies. It effectively ended the trading economy model and compelled the colonial state to assume responsibility for infrastructure and export crops, while also necessitating attention to the living conditions of the colonized populations. This transformation saw the colonial state evolve into a “developmentalist” entity. This change was further solidified at the Brazzaville Conference, held from January 30 to February 8, 1944, and chaired by Charles de Gaulle, which pursued a dual objective: to revitalize the French economy and improve the welfare of colonized peoples through planned development.
“promoting high-yielding varieties”
Regarding agricultural matters, a prevailing narrative emerged: African societies were primarily perceived as agrarian, and thus, improving their welfare hinged on increasing yields through substantial investment in agriculture. This rationale led to a proliferation of agricultural research institutions across the French Empire, with Cameroon serving as a key observation ground. Through a decree issued on June 8, 1944, Eugène Paul Carras, the governor of French Cameroon, dissolved the Technical Council for Agriculture and Livestock, replacing it with three distinct departments: the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Livestock, and the Department of Forestry.
This restructuring, more than a mere administrative adjustment, aimed to provide agriculture with its own dedicated service. According to agronomist Pierre Barthe, a former head of Cameroon’s Department of Agriculture, in a 1946 report, this new Department of Agriculture was organized into several sub-services. One key component comprised agricultural research institutions, including three experimental stations located in Dschang, Maroua, and Nkoemvone. All these stations were established during the interwar period, with the exception of the Nkoemvone experimental cocoa station, founded in 1944 following the June 8 reforms. It thus epitomized the modernization of colonialism that began to take shape between the two world wars.
The Nkoemvone experimental cocoa station was progressively established. According to agronomist Raymond Juliat, head of the Department of Agriculture in 1944, it initially lacked official documentation, yet its purpose was “the selection of cocoa plants with the aim of promoting only high-yielding varieties.” By 1947, three hundred hectares were requisitioned for its development, but construction efforts stalled due to a lack of labor, materials, and the “absence of an overall plan.” Despite these hurdles, the colonial administration reaffirmed its commitment in 1948 to encompass all research and experimental work, officially institutionalizing it with a regulatory text the following year. Construction then commenced, funded by the cocoa fund.
forced labor: a contentious past
However, the establishment of the Nkoemvone experimental station encountered significant practical challenges. Jean Braudeau, the station’s director, noted in his 1949 annual report that a shortage of personnel hindered construction, road development, and the creation of a nursery 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 highlights that the French administration continued to mobilize forced labor until 1949.
To attract workers from beyond the immediate region, the colonial administration opted to construct housing within the station, a common practice among colonial administrations, as historian Gwendolyn Wright points out. These workers were expected to contribute not only to the station’s construction but also to its agricultural research activities.
Agronomist Achille Pacilly, who succeeded Jean Braudeau as head of the experimental station in 1949, detailed the initial establishment of a workers’ camp, comprising twenty huts built from local materials. By 1956, fifty-eight permanent structures were erected, housing between 130 and 140 families a few years later. The creation of this workers’ camp effectively resolved the labor shortage.
Alongside these worker accommodations, residences for senior staff were also built. The site was further developed with research laboratories, access to potable water and electricity, the construction of an infirmary, and extensive facilities such as nurseries and collections of cocoa varieties. In essence, the station became an integrated site where living spaces and research areas were closely intertwined. The station’s development concluded in 1959, just before Cameroon gained independence.
a tool for colonial propaganda
Beyond its scientific function, the Nkoemvone experimental station also served as an instrument of colonial propaganda 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 manifesting in the cocoa-producing Bassa region of southern Cameroon, the Nkoemvone experimental station became a tool for winning hearts and minds.
André Boyer, a journalist and head of the French administration’s propaganda service in the country, disseminated a film titled “The Nkoemvone Cocoa Center” to the population in 1958. This film was part of a broader array of techniques aimed, in his own words, “to bring back the misguided to normal life and to convince the masses of the genuinely nationalist and sincere actions of the Cameroonian government.”
The experimental station also allowed the French colonial administration to showcase its supposed benefits in Cameroon. This is evident in the 1958 Report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to the Trust Territories of West Africa concerning Cameroon under French administration. The authors and observers dispatched by the United Nations inspected the station on November 19, 1958, and stated: “(…) The activities of this station consist primarily of selecting the best cocoa varieties and producing cuttings for distribution to planters. It is hoped that this will replace existing low-yielding trees in plantations with elite plants. The station has already yielded good results.”
This utilization of the station as a propaganda tool was later adopted by the government of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, after independence, this time to project an international image. 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, the newly formed 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 conventions detailing the modalities for the establishment and management of 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 the station’s director. As Jean Gaillard, Hocine Khelfaoui, and Jean Nya Ngatchou highlighted in a 2000 publication, the nascent Cameroonian state found this arrangement beneficial, enabling it to concentrate its resources on higher education and training, while leaving scientific research to France. French oversight ultimately concluded 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 agricultural research, which “experienced a grave financial situation and a modification in its budget structure,” according to the aforementioned authors, leading to a stagnation of research within the institution.
extractivist ambitions become an impediment
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 focused on cocoa at the Nkoemvone station, where scientific activity virtually ceased.
By the early 1990s, the station was repurposed into a multi-purpose 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. However, this restructuring 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 severe storm, days earlier, had destroyed plant trial areas, damaged the administrative block, and ravaged numerous residential units. Since then, the situation has not improved.
Paradoxically, the sheer size of the site, a legacy of the station’s extractivist ambitions as a hub for cocoa knowledge production and environmental transformation, now hinders its rehabilitation due to insufficient resources. This state of relative abandonment is not solely attributable to state disengagement, justified by successive crises and natural hazards. More profoundly, it exposes the inherent contradictions of a colonial modernity project whose excessive ambitions and extractivist imaginaries clash with the far more intricate realities of the postcolonial era.