The Place of Cameroon in US Policy toward Central Africa after the Events of September 11 2001

3. US public diplomacy in Cameroon; selling public image and doing business.

Public diplomacy is an important part of every diplomat's job description, whether the said diplomat is from a poor or a rich country. The art of conducting public policy in another country is called public diplomacy. By public policy here, we refer to «a sum-total of factors that contribute to state decision, and how this is influenced. It is any process by which the state apparatus comes to a certain number of actions or non-actions with a specific political program.»^237(*) Public diplomacy is therefore crucial to provide a common vision to diplomats as they engage foreign publics and media to promote their national interests in those countries. It is in this framework that US diplomats in Yaoundé, as anywhere in the world, work to implement US policy in Cameroon and the entire region. The Bush administration has not trumpeted its interest in African oil, partly to avoid antagonizing its Middle Eastern allies and partly to avoid generating a perception that it cares only about Africa's resources. But the administration has intensified its diplomatic activity with several African governments, sending clear signals that it is paying closer attention. The issue here is to see how this public diplomacy has emerged since the 9/11 events, to see what has changed in terms of goals, means and process. As Representative Edward R. Royce (California Republican and chair of African subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee) put it, "Paying Africa the diplomatic attention it deserves is important."^238(*)

In US diplomatic parlance, public diplomacy is managed by the Public Affairs section of the State Department or the embassy. In Yaoundé, this section of the US embassy (which consist of a press section, a cultural affairs section and the IRC) organizes and funds diverse cultural, educational and information exchanges programs within the embassy premises. This section handles the task of selling the public image of the US in Cameroon. In this position, the Public Affairs section works as the out-let of the embassy, conveying the messages, projects, and programs of the different sections to the general public. It is in this sense that we discuss public diplomacy here; not just as a press center or library, but as the window by which we perceive the activities of the American government and people.

With the economic assistance offered by the development agency of the United States (the USAID), as well the EXIM Bank and the Peace Corps, US public diplomacy in Cameroon consists of improving the condition of Cameroonians while doing business and selling public image. We will here briefly explain the different programs that constitute US public policy in Cameroon, though all the programs do not originate from the Public Affairs section, they are however channeled there. Most of these programs have been described elsewhere in this work, so we will focus here on those programs not yet so far covered. Below we will describe programs related to the military, the American corner, the Information Resource Center, the press and Human Right and Democracy,

The military cooperation between the US and Cameroon works within the International Military and Education Training program (IMET), which has been expanded to become Expanded International Military Education and Training (EIMET) program since 2002. This program began following the June 19, 1980 agreement between both governments, but has vigorously intensified since the turn of the century. The 9/11 events showed the need to equip `failing' states military to ensure stability and combat terrorism. IMET therefore operates on three fronts; training, joint exercises and exposure to democratic values of the American system. This explains the visit of 80 US marines (50 being medical doctors and specialists) to Cameroon in July 2005. Called the West Africa Training Course Medical Out-reach Program, this program worked in several Cameroonian villages, thus making very good impressions on the population. The public image tilt of this program is consolidated by the several visits of top US military officials as noted in section one of this chapter. More so, hundreds of Cameroonian military have received trainings and refreshers courses in the US and participated in ACOTA exercises. All these programs reveal Washington's desire to secure a region where oil and terrorist threats have heightened strategic interests.

The American corner is a public diplomacy strategy aimed at selling American image in different parts of the country, apart from the embassy and embassy branch office. It consists in providing information in different formats such as magazines, newspapers, tracts and books. Such corners have usually consisted of an office (as in provinces)^239(*) or a corner of a hall where a desk exists (as was the case at the National Assembly). Though they existed before the 9/11 events, they have considerably increased since then. The sense behind it is that America is for the worst unknown and for the better misrepresented by several persons in developing countries, and that such a distorted knowledge also partly explains 9/11. Therefore, making America known, especially its soft side, does not only constitute part of traditional diplomatic goals but carries the seal of post 9/11 grand strategy. For instance, the University of Buéa American Corner^240(*) has the following goals:

1. inform the public on the US,

2. provide scholarship programs to students

3. provide academic orientation for students

4. organize seminars and courses on American history such as the Black History Month

5. function as a mini Information Resource Center (IRC)

6. See students through for visas procedures, especially the American Lottery.^241(*)

The Information Resource Center (IRC), formally called the American Cultural Center (ACC), operates as an information collection center, an education center, a library, an on-line research center, a training center and a center for events such as book launch, press conference, public lectures, etc. This center has in recent years opened cooperation with libraries and schools in different towns in Cameroon through book donations.^242(*) As an information resource center, a name adopted in 2004 to reflect the changing nature of information technology and its impact on global knowledge, the IRC provides domain-related information to affinity groups such as parliament, military, press, agriculture, business, gender issues, medicine and health, sports, human rights, etc. in the new embassy, most written material has been removed from the IRC in favor of reference books and documents on democracy and business.^243(*) Though greatly competed by the French cultural center, the Public Affairs Section has expanded its activities to reflect American power and interest. These include:

- American Life Style on CNN,

- Black History Month, celebrated every february,

- Thanks Giving, celebrated by the entire embassy personnel and related branches such as the American School of Yaounde and the ALC,

- Etc.^244(*)

The IRC has also been active in fostering the learning of English as another strategy of spreading American values in Cameroon. The role of the US in the spread of English has been studied by Madina^245(*) and found to include the donation of books and the running of language centers and the American schools. Most state universities in Cameroon and institutions of higher learning such as the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC), the Higher Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication (ESSTIC) and the Higher Teachers Training College (ENS) have all received book donations from the US embassy in Yaoundé since 2000. To complement this, the US Voice Of America (VOA) has been broadcasting in short wave in Cameroon, and since the liberalization of the audio-visual sector in Cameroon, VOA has signed broadcasting agreements with a Cameroonian local FM station (Magic FM). Not only does this broadcasting facilitate English learning as the BBC does^246(*), but it also spreads US ideologies and culture. As seen above, the vehicle par excellence of spread of US culture is the American Language Center (ALC) which has boasted its activities since the events of 9/11.

The Embassy's Self-help and Democracy and Human Rights Funds are some of the largest in Africa. Information available at the IRC shows that the US government provided a commodity grant valued at 6 million USD in 2003, which funded agricultural development projects in the North and Far North provinces. Between 2004 and 2006, the US government spent about 20 million USD on this fund. To enable community-based liberal democracy, the embassy community projects in Chad and Cameroon after the pipeline. Compensation may also be given to communities in the form of a school building, a water pump, or a water tower. As Brottem notes, «In an approach unfamiliar to Chadians, communities have made democratic decisions about what to build. Normally, only the traditional authorities would make those decisions.»^247(*)

The trade and democracy programs of the embassy have attracted both admiration and criticism from Cameroonian press. These were other domains in Cameroon US relations covered by the special issue of Les Cahiers de Mutation. The AGOA initiative constitutes the main tangible expression of Cameroon US relations. Constant R. Sabang notices a net increase in US exports toward Cameroon from $55US million in 2001 to $184 million in 2003. On the Cameroonian side, a slight increase could also be observable.^248(*) Though he is rather pessimistic about the future of US exportations toward Cameroon, Sabang notes that there are prospects that Cameroon draws the best out of the AGOA initiative. Though it is regrettable, he says that «a small country like Mauritius, whose population is twice smaller than that of the town of Douala, should benefit from AGOA more than Cameroon which pretends to be the engine of Central Africa»,^249(*) Cameroon is said to have an enormous potential for the US market. Nevertheless, to Sabang, this potential will remain a waste except Cameroonian authorities develop strategies to draw the best out of AGOA. Though oil is likely to decline, Cameroon still has potentials in cobalt, nickel, timber, coffee, cocoa, textile, etc.

Leger Ntiga evaluated the state of cooperation in the area of democracy between the two countries. Under the broad topic of Democracy and Peace, Ntiga identifies four areas of development program by the US in Cameroon, democracy and human rights, support for community projects, the promotion of the social sector and military cooperation. The fund for democracy and human rights sponsors minor projects on those areas, including the training of journalists and young leaders on democracy, good governance and human rights. In the same line, the `self-help' fund finances small size projects that can create riches in given communities, leading to community development. The most visible project, according to Ntiga seems to be the Peace Corps. With 130 of them (in 2004) working on developmental projects in Cameroon, such as education, health, promotion of learning through libraries, fight against HIV/AIDS, sanitation, cultural preservation, etc., seems to be the most successful of US cooperation agencies in Cameroon. In this presentation, which looks rather scanty and non-analytical, military cooperation is said to be rather discrete to the public.

* ²³⁷ Ndzesop, I., «The Case for a Databank at the Career Management Unit of MINREX - Cameroon», unpublished Internship paper, Yaoundé: IRIC, 2006, p8

* ²³⁸ James Dao, «In Quietly Courting Africa, U.S. Likes the Dowry: Oil», op, cit.

* ²³⁹ There are three American corners in Cameroon: Bertoua Municipal Library, Garoua Municipal Library and Buea University.

* ²⁴⁰ Opened in 2004 by Ambassador Marquardt

* ²⁴¹ See Madina, op, cit. p76

* ²⁴² This usually done through the inter-library association called ASPID (Association pour la Promotion de l'Information Documentaire), whose creation is of US design and which donates tones of books to libraries.

* ²⁴³ Most of the novels and ordinary text books have been removed and free internet services provided for researchers and students, while the two primary domains of US interest - democracy and free trade, are the main subjects of written materials.

* ²⁴⁴ See Madina, op, cit. p77

* ²⁴⁵ Madina, op, cit. pp 65-70.

* ²⁴⁶ On how the BBC spreads English in Cameroon alongside British culture, see Madina, op, cit. p74.

* ²⁴⁷ Leif Brottem, «The World Bank's Great Gamble in Central Africa,» (Silver City, NM & Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, July 2, 2004).

* ²⁴⁸ Constant R. Sabang, «Sur un Timide air AGOA», in Les Cahiers de Mutation, op. cit. p.10.

* ²⁴⁹ Idem.