Nkoemvone’s colonial cocoa station: a legacy of extraction and decline

In Nkoemvone, southern Cameroon, a vast site of over 300 hectares (10 of which are developed) stretches along a paved road, dotted with dilapidated buildings. A sign identifies it as the “Nkoemvone multipurpose agricultural station” under the Ministry of Agriculture. Though run-down, the station remains active in agronomic research, mainly multiplying and distributing cocoa seedlings.

Established in 1944, it is one of the major remnants of colonial modernity. This site is described as an “object-garden” of the French colonial empire, where plant reproduction became dominant. Less documented than other colonial stations like Bambey in Senegal, it nevertheless participated in moving, introducing, and relocating plant varieties, especially cocoa, with the aim of transforming colonized societies. Its history was brief, and its ambitions clashed with the realities of independent Cameroon.

The 1929 economic crisis, though softened in colonized Africa by the metropole, caused a profound shift in French colonial policies. It condemned the trade economy and pushed the colonial state to take charge of infrastructure and export crops, while also addressing living conditions. The state became “developmentalist,” a change confirmed at the Brazzaville Conference in early 1944, chaired by Charles de Gaulle, which aimed to revive the French economy and improve the lot of the colonized through planned development.

Selecting high-yield cocoa varieties

A dominant narrative emerged: African societies were seen as essentially peasant, so improving their lot meant increasing yields through massive agricultural investment. This led to a proliferation of agronomic research institutions across the French empire, with Cameroon as a privileged observation ground. On June 8, 1944, Governor Eugène Paul Carras replaced the Technical Council for Agriculture and Livestock with three separate services: Agriculture, Livestock, and Forestry.

This reorganization aimed to give agriculture a dedicated service. The new Service of Agriculture was structured into sub-services, including three experimental stations at Dschang, Maroua, and Nkoemvone. All were created between the wars except Nkoemvone’s cocoa station, founded in 1944 as a product of this colonial modernization.

The cocoa experimental station was set up gradually. Its initial role, as recorded in 1944, was to “select cocoa trees to only distribute high-yield subjects.” In 1947, 300 hectares were requisitioned, but construction stalled due to labor and material shortages and lack of an overall plan. Despite difficulties, the colonial administration confirmed its research vocation in 1948 and officially instituted it the following year, with construction funded by the cocoa fund.

Forced labour in the colonial station

Setting up the station faced practical challenges. In 1949, the director noted that staff shortages prevented construction, road building, nursery creation, and plantation of 15 hectares. He managed to recruit temporary workers from a nearby village, often paid by task. Whether this labor was voluntary or forced remains unclear; although forced recruitment was officially banned in 1947, historical records indicate that the French administration continued using forced labor until 1949.

To attract workers from beyond the region, the colonial administration built housing within the station, a common practice. These workers participated in both construction and agronomic research.

A labor camp was first established with twenty huts made of local materials. By 1956, fifty-eight permanent houses were built, housing 130 to 140 families a few years later. The camp solved the labor issue.

Alongside these dwellings, housing for senior staff was erected, plus research laboratories, water and electricity supply, an infirmary, and extensive facilities like nurseries and cocoa variety collection gardens. The station integrated living and research spaces. Construction was completed in 1959, on the eve of independence.

A tool of colonial propaganda

Beyond science, the Nkoemvone station functioned as a propaganda tool for French administration, especially during the violent repression of Cameroonian nationalists in the 1950s. In the first phase of this conflict, which hit the cocoa-growing Bassa region, the station was used to win over minds.

A journalist and head of propaganda distributed a film in 1958 titled “The Cocoa Center of Nkoemvone,” part of a repertoire aimed at “bringing the strayed back to normal life and convincing the masses of the genuinely nationalist and sincere action of the Cameroonian government.”

The station also showcased French achievements. A UN visiting mission report in 1958 noted that the station selected the best cocoa varieties and produced cuttings for planters, aiming to replace low-yield trees with elite plants, with good results.

After independence, President Ahmadou Ahidjo used the station for international prestige. The 1961-1962 report recorded visits from the US and German ambassadors, three African heads of state (Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, Léon Mba of Gabon, and François Tombalbaye of Chad), the director of France’s National School of Administration, and the World Bank director for Africa. However, this international spotlight also marked the beginning of a gradual decline.

French oversight until 1975

After independence, Cameroon signed agreements with France that allowed continued French administration of the station through the appointment of former colonial agronomists as directors. The new Cameroonian state benefited by focusing resources on higher education while leaving scientific research to France. French oversight ended in 1975.

In the following decades, the station declined, worsened by the 1980s economic crisis that hit Cameroonian agronomic research hard, leading to financial difficulties and budget restructuring, causing research stagnation.

Extractivist ambitions become a burden

The crisis in agricultural research spread across the country. From 1990 to 1996, nationally funded research programs stopped; only externally funded projects continued, with salary delays. This led to reduced funding, researcher demoralization, and abandonment of many programs, including cocoa research at Nkoemvone, where scientific activity nearly ceased.

In the early 1990s, the station was transformed into a multipurpose agronomic research station under the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), created in 1996 and reorganized in 2002. But this restructuring did not improve the situation. Natural causes added to gradual decay. In March 2006, a violent storm destroyed plant trial areas, damaged the admin block, and ravaged housing. The situation has not improved since.

Paradoxically, the vast site, inherited from extractivist ambitions as a place of cocoa knowledge production and environmental transformation, now hinders rehabilitation due to lack of funds. This abandonment reflects not only state disengagement but also the contradictions of a colonial modernity project whose overambitious extractivist imaginaries clashed with the complex realities of the postcolonial period.