In Nkoemvone, southern Cameroon, a sprawling site of over 300 hectares — with only ten hectares actively cultivated — is crossed by a paved road and dotted with crumbling buildings. A sign identifies it as the “Nkoemvone multipurpose agricultural station,” overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Though the structures are heavily damaged, the station still functions, mainly for agronomic research: multiplying and distributing cocoa seedlings is now its chief activity.
Founded in 1944, this site stands as one of the major remnants of colonial modernity. The “Nkoemvone Cocoa Experimental Station” embodies what historians call an “object-garden” within the French colonial empire — particularly during the 20th century, when plant reproduction became the dominant focus. While less documented than other colonial stations like Bambey in Senegal, Nkoemvone played a similar role in moving, introducing, and relocating plant varieties — especially cocoa — with the aim of driving change in colonized societies. Its history proved brief, and its ambitions clashed with the realities of an independent Cameroon.
The economic and social crisis of 1929, though cushioned in colonized Africa by the metropole, triggered a profound shift in French colonial policy. It ended the old trade economy and pushed the colonial state to take charge of infrastructure and export crops, while also addressing the living conditions of colonized populations. The colonial state thus became “developmentalist.” This turning point was cemented at the Brazzaville Conference from January 30 to February 8, 1944, chaired by Charles de Gaulle, which aimed both to revive the French economy and improve the lot of colonized people through planned development.
“Popularizing high-yielding subjects”
On agriculture, a dominant narrative emerged: African societies were seen as essentially peasant, and improving their fate meant boosting yields through massive investment in farming. This logic led to a proliferation of agronomic research institutions across the French empire, with Cameroon as a privileged observation ground. By a decree on June 8, 1944, the governor of French Cameroon, Eugène Paul Carras, abolished the Technical Council for Agriculture and Livestock and replaced it with three separate services: Agriculture, Livestock, and Forestry.
This reorganization went beyond a simple administrative measure; it aimed to give agriculture a dedicated service. According to agronomist Pierre Barthe, former head of Cameroon’s agricultural service, in a 1946 report, the new Agriculture Service was structured into several sub-services. One of these prioritized agronomic research institutions, including three experimental stations at Dschang, Maroua, and Nkoemvone. All except the Nkoemvone cocoa station were created between the two world wars. Nkoemvone was founded in 1944 following the June 8 reforms, making it the quintessential product of this modernization of colonialism that began in the interwar period.
The Nkoemvone cocoa experimental station was set up gradually. Agronomist Raymond Juliat, head of the agriculture service in 1944, noted that it was not initially established by an official text; its role was “the selection of cocoa trees to popularize only high-yielding subjects.” In 1947, 300 hectares were requisitioned, but construction stalled due to labor and material shortages, as well as “the absence of an overall plan.” Despite these hurdles, the colonial administration confirmed in 1948 that the station would encompass all research and experimentation work, and officially instituted it by regulatory text the following year. Construction then began, financed by the cocoa fund.
Forced labor?
Setting up the Nkoemvone station encountered major practical difficulties. Jean Braudeau, the station director, noted in his 1949 annual report a lack of staff to build roads, create a nursery, and plant 15 hectares of cocoa. He managed to recruit some temporary workers from a nearby village, often paid by the task. Whether this labor was voluntary or forced remains hard to determine: although High Commissioner Renée Hoffherr began banning forced recruitment upon his arrival in 1947, historian Léon Kaptué points out that the French administration continued to mobilize forced labor until 1949.
To attract workers from beyond the region, the colonial administration built housing within the station — a common practice in colonial administrations. These workers were expected not only to help construct the station but also to participate in agronomic research activities.
Agronomist Achille Pacilly, who succeeded Jean Braudeau as station head in 1949, revealed that a workers’ camp was first established, consisting of twenty huts made from local materials. By 1956, 58 permanent houses were built, housing 130 to 140 families a few years later. The workers’ camp thus solved the labor problem.
Alongside these dwellings, houses for senior staff were also erected. These were complemented by research laboratories, a potable water supply, electricity, an infirmary, and extensive facilities such as nurseries and collection gardens for cocoa varieties. In short, the station was a site where living and research spaces were closely intertwined. Construction was completed in 1959, on the eve of the country’s independence.
A tool of colonial propaganda
Beyond being a place of science, the Nkoemvone experimental station also served as an instrument of colonial propaganda for the French administration. This propaganda took place in the particular context of 1950s Cameroon, marked by violent repression by the French army against Cameroonian nationalists. During the first phase of this conflict, whose brutality was most evident in the Bassa country — the cocoa-growing region of southern Cameroon — the Nkoemvone station became a tool for winning hearts and minds.
In 1958, André Boyer, a journalist and head of the propaganda service for the French administration in Cameroon, distributed a film titled “The Cocoa Center of Nkoemvone” to local populations. This film was part of a repertoire of techniques aimed, in his words, at “bringing the wayward back to normal life and convincing the masses of the truly nationalist and sincere action of the Cameroonian government.”
The experimental station also served to showcase French achievements in Cameroon. The 1958 report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in West Africa, regarding Cameroon under French administration, noted that UN observers inspected the station on November 19, 1958, and stated: “The activities of this station consist mainly of selecting the best cocoa varieties and producing cuttings for distribution to planters. It is hoped that this will replace the current low-yielding trees in plantations with elite plants. The station has already produced good results.”
After independence, this use of the station as a propaganda tool was taken up by the government of Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s first president, this time for international prestige. In the station’s 1961–1962 annual report, it is recorded that the institution received visits from the U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, the German ambassador, and three African heads of state: Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, Léon Mba of Gabon, and François Tombalbaye of Chad. Also visiting were the director of the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris and the World Bank director for Africa, among others. However, this international visibility on behalf of the Cameroonian government also marked the beginning of a gradual decline.
French oversight until 1975
After independence in 1960, new states, including Cameroon, signed agreements with France providing for “applied research programs, mixed financing for operations, a quasi-commitment by France to fund investments, and within this general framework, specific conventions detailing the modalities for establishing and managing specialized institutes deemed necessary.” These agreements allowed France to continue administering the station, for example by appointing former colonial agronomists like Jacques Liabeuf as director. As researchers Jean Gaillard, Hocine Khelfaoui, and Jean Nya Ngatchou noted in 2000, the new Cameroonian state found it advantageous to concentrate its resources on higher education and training while leaving scientific research to France. French oversight only ended in 1975.
In the following decades, the station entered a period of decline, worsened by the economic and social crisis of the 1980s, which severely affected Cameroonian agronomic research. According to the same authors, research “experienced a serious financial situation and a change in its budget structure,” leading to stagnation of research activities at the station.
Extractivist ambitions become an obstacle
The crisis affecting Cameroonian agricultural research spread to the entire scientific research sector. During its most acute phase, from 1990 to 1996, “research programs funded nationally were stopped; only programs and projects with external financial support continued more or less normally, due to delays in salary payments.” This led to reduced funding, researcher demoralization due to salary devaluation, and abandonment of many programs, including those on cocoa at the Nkoemvone station, where scientific activity virtually ceased.
Around the turn of the 1990s, the station was transformed into a multipurpose agronomic research station, placed under the authority of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), created by presidential decree in 1996 and reorganized in 2002. This restructuring did not improve the situation; the institution continued to deteriorate. In addition to the gradual decay caused by the economic crisis, natural causes further worsened the dilapidation. On March 17, 2006, an article titled “Will the Nkoemvone Station Recover?” reported that a violent storm had destroyed plant trial areas, damaged the administrative block, and ravaged many homes. Since then, conditions have not improved.
Paradoxically, the very size of the site — inherited from the extractivist ambitions of the station as a place for producing cocoa knowledge and transforming the environment — now hinders its rehabilitation due to lack of sufficient resources. This relative abandonment is not solely due to state disengagement, justified by successive crises and natural disasters. It also reveals deeper contradictions in a colonial modernity project whose excessive ambitions and extractivist imaginaries have collided with the far more complex realities of the postcolonial period.
