China’s Agro-strategic Projection in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of the Installation of the Cameroon Agricultural Technology Application Center

Far from being the prerogative of the interconnection of railways, land, and sea linking Europe, Asia, and Africa, the new Silk Roads appear as one of the strategic levers through which China secures its African interests in raw materials and other natural resources. Its historical proximity to the global South in general and Africa, in particular, has led to the institutionalization of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, introduced in 2000. This chapter examines the transnational agricultural policies of China based on its quest for arable land in sub-Saharan Africa and its consequent strategic investments in the Cameroonian agricultural sector. It looks at Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDCs) as transnational public policy tools which involve both workers and Chinese norms and representations. Specifically, the chapter examines the reactions of the Cameroonian workers in the Cameroon Agricultural Technology Application Center (CATAC) which is located in Nanga-Eboko, a small peri-urban city in the central region of Cameroon. Through confronting workers’ practices and Chinese norms and representations, the chapter puts forward the new forms of nationalism arising from the Chinese African agro-industrial sectors. The chapter implements a qualitative methodology based on in-depth focused group interviews and direct discussions with the local managers of the CATAC in Nanga-Eboko, Cameroon.