Doing Business in Cameroon

A vivid ethnographic study of cattle traders, truckers, public contractors and NGO actors' everyday encounters with state bureaucracies in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon.

Focusing on four distinct sectors (cattle trade, transport, public contracts and NGO work), Muñoz combines an ethnographic study of business practices with a lucid analysis of policies and legal rules to provide an in-depth look at how businesses and state bureaucracies cope with unpredictability in times of crisis and reform.From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, images of crisis and reform dominated talk of Cameroon's economy. Doing Business in Cameroon examines the aftermath of that period of turbulence and unpredictability in the northern city of Ngaoundéré. Taking the everyday encounters between business actors and state bureaucrats as its point of departure, the book vividly illustrates the backstage and interconnected dynamics of four different sectors (cattle trade, trucking, public contracting, and NGO work). Drawing on his training in law and social anthropology, the author is able to clarify intricate policy dynamics and abstruse legal developments for readers. A widespread picture emerges of actors grappling with the long-term implications of selective or suspended enforcement of legal rules. The book deftly illuminates a set of shifting configurations in which economic outcomes like monetary gains or the circulation of goods are achieved by foregoing the possibility of relying on or complying with the law.