Recent oil exploitation in Chad has seen a considerable rise in the number of prostitutes on the streets of its capital city. But these women are not locals. They come from the north of Cameroon, only a 15-minute drive from border town Kousséri.
By Mohamadou Houmfa, N’Djaména
"Walk regularly at night, and you will almost never come across a woman from Cameroon who is not a prostitute. They have their own little activities during the day, but when night falls, they turn into tigresses,” jokes Yves, a Chadian living in the capital.
More experienced
"Most of these Cameroonians come here to make the maximum of money [they can]," says Abdelkader, another resident of N’Djamena. Considering themselves more experienced than their Chadian colleagues, they often dare to ask more than 10 times the local going price.
"To spend the night with a Chadian prostitute, all you need to take her home is a drink," says a local guy while sipping on a beer in a bar downtown. "The following morning, you pay her what you had in mind, which can even be 2,000 CFA [3 euros]. But a Cameroonian girl would first settle on a price with you. And they are not cheap. When they feel your desperation, they can ask up to 30,000 CFA [18 euros]."
"Money's worth"
But what is it about Cameroonian prostitutes? How are they different from Chadian ones? Another guy in the bar says that it is not only because they are foreigners, therefore breeding curiosity. It is simply because they are good at what they do.
“When you pay a Cameroonian prostitute well, she will give you your money's worth. Contrary to Chadians, they will take initiatives and make the whole experience last. They always try different things," he says.
The word on the street is that Cameroonian women are generally easy to sleep with. “Many men want to have a go,” says Abdelkader – especially the ones who have never set foot outside of Chad.
Long and hot nights
That image is not contradicted by the Cameroonian prostitutes living in Kabalaye, an area in the capital with a strong Cameroonian community. The nights are long and hot there. The many bars are full of Cameroonian prostitutes. Wearing suggestive clothes, letting their breasts do the job, they are not scared of “attacking” their potential clients – an obvious contrast to reserved Chadian prostitutes who sometimes even wear veils in brothels.
And with money flowing, especially since the recent oil exploitation in the country, Chadian men are having no problem reaching for their wallet to pay extra for the services of a Cameroonian prostitute instead of a Chadian.
Yet, as though in some sort of defence of Cameroonian women, Abdelkader admits their notorious reputation may not be fully deserved. "When I was going for the first time to Cameroon, I was under the impression the women there were all easy targets and dishonest," he says. "But I was a bit disappointed when I actually arrived."
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I believe that Jonna's critiques are right on-point; first off, very little profit has been made on-the-ground by Chadians from oil extraction through the Chad-Cameroun Pipeline. Moreover, the Pipeline has existed (in it's construction stages - the stage in which most locals made any profit at all) since 2000. The 'economic boom' for Chadians has mostly died out. The article argues that an influx of money has caused the migration of Cameroonian women sex workers into Chad but there is no indication from the author how he discerned that this was a new phenomenon. One might look at rising poverty - particularly among single women - and lack of education and employment opportunities for women in Northern Cameroon as an impetus for the migration.
Also, the stereotyping and exotification of Cameroonian women in quotes from Chadian men is subjective to the ideas of Chadian men but says nothing about the realities of Cameroonian women; but the author might consider next time critiquing the conceptualisation of Cameroonian women as somehow more sexualised than Chadian women. What sorts of liberties do Chadian men take with foreign women that they don't ask to do with their Chadian sisters? You have missed an opportunity to use your work to educate here, Mohamadou, as your article could have provided a deeper analysis behind stereotypes of Cameroonian women - particularly as is hinted in the final quote from Abdelkader, who found that Cameroonian women were not 'easy targets' after all.
It is suggested in your article that Chadian men have become rich 'since the recent oil exploitation in the country'. I would like to emphasize that only very few people close to power in Chad actually benefit from the oil-exploitation. Most Chadian men, women and children remain living in abject poverty.
In 2007 I interviewed female refugees from the Central African Republic working as prostitutes in Kabalaye, N'Djamena. Many of them had faced sexual abuse on their flight from their country in 2003 to the Chadian capital and upon arrival in N'Djamena were not supported by UNHCR as they had hoped for because for support they had to go to the refugee camp on the border.Yet they were businesswomen before, trading in Bangui and saw now future in a refugee camp in the remote rural border area on the Chad-CAR border. Hence they became active in Kabalaye as prostitutes to make a living. It would have been interesting if your article also quoted the women who are the subject of this article to learn more about their situation and motives.
Many prostitutes interviewed in 2007, Chadian, Cameroonian and those from the Central African Republic, aspired through prostitution, to end up with a French man and get a better future as the French Military base was near. Since 2007 and 2012 a small elite in N'Djamena has been enriching themselves to extremes and have become the most important clients perhaps in Kabalaye.
In general prostitutes in Chad faced great risks in 2007 as many of their Chadian clients carried arms and fear of abuse and organised rape was quite big amongst the women.Perhaps if these men have access to money now, they no longer have to force themselves by use of gun, but can buy their needs and even choose between Chadian or more expensive Camerooian prostitutes.
There is a lot more to this story about prostitution in N'Djamena!
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