Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. February 2011. (Cameroon News) – Studies conducted indicate that the Cameroon handicrafts sector suffers from a lot of serious problems which badly needs to be addressed with immediate effect.

The story of the pathetic condition of the handicrafts sector of Cameroon and the stakes that it holds is best narrated by the Yaounde Support Project for Unstructured Sector (PAASSY).
As the report of a study undertaken specifically for the sector indicates, that the factors that is preventing the handicraft sector from turning into a new leaf are deeply linked to “demographic explosion, rural exodus, rural poverty, urban growth and unemployment”.

The study points a finger at the twelve major concerns that have been hampering the growth of this sector.
These include the poor education that the artists and the craftsmen have, lack of sufficient capital and funds to invest in new projects, total disappearance of any kind of support or periodic reviews, gaps created by low levels of training, torture by high taxes levied from them, lack of availability of micro financing options, no social security, limited availability of raw materials and inadequate machinery.

In total, the Cameroonian handicraft sector is going through a difficult phase now. The sector is wrongly viewed to be basic as well as ancient.
It is not given the seriousness it deserves and is perceived more or less as an informal task.
The handicraft business is construed to be some sort of an unofficial business which people undertake without a well defined capital.
In fact many people feel that handicrafts business is not legal and attributes a shady character to it.

This makes the craftsmen have to work under very pathetic conditions which lack proper hygiene and use the ancient techniques and very basic equipment with no hint of modernization to it.
Most of these artisans hardly get any remuneration and they are forced to take the crafts that have been passed on from generation to generation as just a pastime or a hobby because of the poor income it generates which would hardly be sufficient for them to make a living out of it.
This results in most of them losing trust in the skills that have been the pride of their tribes or communities since they cannot get their daily bread out of it and most of them resort to other forms of employment carrying on their craftsmanship just as a hobby or a pastime or a secondary source of income.

Yet another crucial problem that this sector faces is the absence of a properly structured market or an adequate distribution system.
This makes it almost impossible for the artisans to sell their wares the end result being that they have to resort to finding their own outlets for even displaying their wares.
These artisans have to either charge exorbitantly for their handicrafts or when they are in times of real need they have to sell their priceless crafts at throwaway rates.
An artisan was very upset when he told us that there have been times when owing to financial difficulties he had to sell a handicraft that he makes which amounts to around CFA 10,000 francs for just CFA 2500 francs.

The sad stories of the artisans who through their vivid use of vibrant colors make some of the most colorful artifacts in the world need to be told to the world.
These are the talented workforce of Cameroon who are in the need of some assistance not just for the sake of their daily bread but also for the sake of their crafts and skills which have been passed on since many generations and which if not preserved may just go into extinction.