Small is not always beautiful: A case study of the Njinikom Development Association

Dr. Ben Jua works as a “Maître de recherche” at Cameroon’s Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research and taught at the University of Buea between 1993-1999. He works on social transformations and democratization in Cameroon.

Small, it is often claimed, is beautiful. This adage informs basismo, a strategy being used to promote the bottom-top development approach. The World Bank’s bias for local development associations is premised on the same normative assumption. This case study of the Njinikom Development Association (NADA) examines the truth claims of this adage and seeks to make connections between local, national and global developments, revealing not only their dynamics but also uncovering how these mediate the defining of selfhood. This space, it is argued, is also an arena for violence (symbolic) engendered by a conflict of two rationalities and a penchant for politicizing even economic issues. The playing field is not level as elites are endowed with symbolic capital and money. This differential empowerment gives them an advantage that is used to promote the birth of a new consciousness. Its effects are far reaching. Breaching all accepted and acceptable protocols, it does not challenge frontally the relations of gender that exist in society. Furthermore, it shows that elites are willing to invest in the development of villages only if it is a win-win game. Present development strategies seem to gloss over most of these considerations, thus impairing their effectiveness. Only a conversation would enable sustainable development in these “village societies” that are culturally different.