Extraction artisanale de l’or et sous-scolarisation des jeunes : cas de la localité de Bétaré-Oya (Est-Cameroun)

Abstract

Cameroon, and Central African countries in general, are rich in significant mineral resources whose exploitation is conducive to development. In addition to mining, education is also one of the factors capable of boosting development. Among the various types of mining, artisanal mining, also called gold panning, stands out. It is the main activity practiced in Betaré-Oya, located in the East Region of Cameroon, more precisely in the Lom and Djérem Division. While gold panning refers to the use of rudimentary materials to extract gold, schooling refers to the act of transmitting and acquiring knowledge in an officially recognized educational setting. As a result, the observation made in this locality is that of a low school enrollment rate with 70% of gold miners being illiterate; and the predominance of gold mining as an activity mostly involving young people. It is in this context that the present work is carried on. The research question that served as a guideline was formulated as follows: "Why do young people in Betaré-Oya prefer gold panning to schooling?" The main objective of this question was to identify and interpret the rationale behind artisanal gold mining and its effects on schooling and local development process. The main hypothesis was formulated as follows: Young people in the locality of Betaré-Oya prefer to engage in gold panning, which provides them with substantial income, rather than going to school. To verify this hypothesis, we used two sociological methods, namely the qualitative method and the quantitative method. Thus, the interview guide was administered to 25 indirect targets and the questionnaire to the direct targets, which were 85 young gold miners aged 7 to 18 and 20 gold miner parents. Life stories were also collected from 4 young gold miners, including 2 girls and 2 boys. After the field survey, the data were processed by content analysis for qualitative data and by statistical analysis for quantitative data. In order to comprehend the reality under scrutiny, this work also required the mobilization of two sociological theories: Karl Marx's theory of capitalism and Harold Garfinkel's theory of ethnomethodology. The main results of this research show that the motivations for the preference for gold panning over studies are mainly economic, to which social and cultural reasons are also added. Moreover, this practice contributes to accentuating the process of school dropout among young people in the locality with a school dropout rate of 55.88% for the 2023-2024 school year. This activity, in parallel, promotes child labor and the inversion of social roles within the family. Moreover, at the local development level, on the one hand, 60% of the respondents consider gold panning to be a curse in that it is at the origin of the high cost of living in the locality; that it promotes poor working conditions; that it causes young people to drop out of school (15% in technical high school and 18% in bilingual high school). On the other hand, 40% of respondents find that gold panning is a blessing in that it allows for the payment of school fees; to build houses and feed families. From this analysis it emerges that gold panning is a vector of development only insofar as the gains from this activity are used to improve the living conditions of gold miners.