Motorcycle taxi drivers of Cameroon’s Douala long for jobs and escape

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By Amindeh Blaise Atabong and Zohra Bensemra

DOUALA, Cameroon (Reuters) -Zakiyaou Mohamed awoke from yet another night of fitful sleep atop his motorcycle in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala and stretched his limbs under a petrol station canopy that provided shelter from the rain.

The 33-year-old native of northern Cameroon, who spends his nights at the station because he can’t afford a room, is one of thousands of motorcycle taxi, or “benskin”, drivers in the port city who eke out a living on fares that start at 100 CFA francs, or about 18 U.S. cents.

The term benskin has two meanings: it refers to how the drivers bend their bodies to get on and drive their bikes, and to how they bend and wind their way through Douala’s formidable traffic jams.

Though sometimes demonized by government officials who blame them for petty crime and disorder, benskin drivers say their plight encapsulates a bigger, more structural problem: lack of opportunity under President Paul Biya, who has ruled the Central African nation for more than four decades.

Biya, 92, is seeking an eighth term in a vote that was held on Sunday. Results have yet to be announced.

“I am doing motorcycling because I don’t have a choice. I have nothing else to do other than this because there are no jobs,” Mohamed told Reuters as he prepared for a long day of ferrying customers through potholed and muddy streets.

“Everyone is tired. We want change but people are afraid to speak out.”

BIYA VOWS TO FIX UNEMPLOYMENT ‘SCOURGE’

Cameroon’s official unemployment rate stands at 3.5%, though the figure for young people is much higher. The International Organization for Migration says unemployment for Cameroonians between 15 and 35 years old is 39.3%.

Running on the slogan “Greatness and Hope,” Biya has insisted help is on the way.

During his sole campaign rally on October 7 in Maroua, capital of the northern region where Mohamed is from, Biya acknowledged widespread frustration with the “scourge” of youth unemployment and pledged to address it if granted another term.

“I will not rest until significant progress has been achieved,” he said.

These promises ring hollow for Acceline Ngouana, a benskin driver who said she wants Biya voted out.

“I hope for change, and I will vote for change,” she said, without specifying which challenger she would back.

Ngouana, 36, once worked as a nurse in the central town of Monatele, but she gave up on the job and its meager monthly salary of 10,000 CFA francs (roughly $18).

The single mother of three makes more these days shuttling passengers through Douala and operating a small mechanic workshop.

She dreams of making the garage – a hole in the wall crammed with hubcaps and containers of oil – more modern, but for now she lacks the means to do so.

“I work every day,” she said with a wry smile.

“In hell, there is no rest.”

PARENTS FEAR FOR CHILDREN’S FUTURE

A fellow female benskin driver, Carine Alphonsine Kegne, 39, also described life in Cameroon as hellish, her life having been marked by hardship since her mid-teens.

She dropped out of secondary school after her mother’s death to care for her siblings, which distracted from her own dreams of becoming a professional football referee.

Though she eventually managed to officiate some local matches, and has the medals and trophies to prove it, she had no way of turning this passion into a sustainable career.

One day, a friend lent her his motorcycle to take home, and someone mistook her for a benskin driver and asked for a ride. She hesitated but accepted, and when she received the fare she realized she had found a new way to survive.

Now in her late thirties and a single mother of two, she rides daily to earn a living, and wonders how her children will support themselves if conditions don’t improve.

“I just want to save enough to leave Cameroon and find a fresh start.”

Noubissi Mathurin Albert, for his part, is committed to staying in Cameroon, but he struggles to imagine how conditions for him and his fellow benskin drivers will improve soon.

The 30-year-old once dreamed of becoming an engineer, but he had to abandon his studies for lack of funds and now dreads running into former classmates who managed to graduate and find jobs.

Albert voted for an opposition candidate in the 2018 election and was “very disappointed” when Biya was declared the winner.

Allegations of voter intimidation, violence and ballot-stuffing cast doubt over the credibility of the result, but the government dismissed them and Biya stayed in power.

This year, Albert did not intend to vote at all.

“I lost faith in the electoral process and in the government,” he said.

(Reporting by Amindeh Blaise Atabong and Zohra BensemraEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet, Alexandra Hudson)