About Brice Molo
Brice MOLO holds a PhD in History from the University of Yaoundé and a PhD in Sociology from EHESS. His research focuses on the governance of risks, disasters, and mass fatalities in Cameroon. He is also the co-founder of the Africas Program.
Discussant
Eric Essono Tsimi is a writer, an anthropologist and Assistant Professor (Baruch College, CUNY). He published several books, including: Les inadmirables. Essai sur l’art (forcément) peu subtil de la bêtise, Paris, Hermann, 2024.
This presentation examines how the 1998 disaster in Nsam, Yaoundé (Cameroon’s political capital), and the 2016 Eséka disaster in the Nyong and Kellé department reveal tensions surrounding the public utility of infrastructure in Cameroon. It explores the “moral economies” of local communities that, when faced with infrastructure projects such as railways or factories, only recognise them as truly public if they provide direct benefits—an expectation that often places them at odds with the notion of public interest as defined by the state.
In this context, disasters transcend their status as mere events and become moments and spaces for renegotiating relationships to infrastructure and power. They prompt critical reflections on the ownership, maintenance, and responsiveness of public assets to community needs, as well as their instrumentalisation in shaping demands directed at the state.