IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ctwqxx/v45y2024i8p1398-1417.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deeply divided along aid lines? Chinese loans, Cameroon and Anglophone marginalisation

Author

Listed:
  • Afa’anwi Ma’abo Che
  • Makolo Joseph Njie

Abstract

Chinese development financial assistance goes into Africa mainly as loans but little is known about recipient sub-national distributive patterns, despite the potential of uneven allocations for inequitable development and conflict outcomes. Focusing on Cameroon, which is among the largest recipients of Chinese loans and is challenged by secessionist unrest, we explore if sub-state allocations favour the president’s birth region. We geo-locate Chinese loan-funded projects in Cameroon from open sources, fieldwork observations, and reviews of Sino-Cameroon agreements, and conduct interviews to gauge the influence of selected projects on voting in Cameroon’s 2018 presidential elections. We find evidence of more Chinese loan-funded projects reaching the president’s birth region and motivating pro-incumbent votes. Conversely, we find less Chinese loan-sponsored projects in the secessionist Anglophone regions, providing an empirical basis for proposing adjustments to the geopolitical configuration of Chinese development assistance to Cameroon for more equitable and auspicious outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Afa’anwi Ma’abo Che & Makolo Joseph Njie, 2024. "Deeply divided along aid lines? Chinese loans, Cameroon and Anglophone marginalisation," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(8), pages 1398-1417, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:45:y:2024:i:8:p:1398-1417
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2024.2323578
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01436597.2024.2323578
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01436597.2024.2323578?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:45:y:2024:i:8:p:1398-1417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ctwq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.