Challenge of “Serious” Scholarship 115
in the adult deaf community (particularly in organized groups of deaf people who
beg on the streets). Jealousy and gossip in the deaf community are experienced as
damaging, for example, when they lead to the loss of a boyfriend or girlfriend or
the closing of a business. These problems are a challenge for the Cameroonian deaf
family. The training offered as part of the WFD Deaf Human Rights and Capacity
Building Training Project in western and cen tral Africa addressed this challenge by
emphasizing collaboration and unity.
Another challenge is posed by organized groups of deaf people who beg on the
streets. When I asked deaf people whether they socialized with other deaf people or
whether they had good friends, the response was mostly negative, as socializing with
deaf people was associated with the destruc tive behavior of groups of deaf beggars in
big cities. The beggars operate as part of a transnational (western and central African)
deaf criminal group that takes advantage of the limited educational background and
marginalized social position of Cameroonian deaf people. Promises of money attract
naive, poor, and otherwise marginalized young deaf men and women, who are then
exploited in a network of begging, stealing, slav ery, and sexual violence and abuse.EMANCIPATION PROCESSES IN THE CAMEROONIAN
DEAF COMMUNITY
The first section of this chapter began with a reference to the gap between dreams
and the structural limits of reality which marks everyday life of Cameroonians. This
section discusses whether and how this gap may inspire and fuel emancipation pro-
cesses in the Cameroonian deaf community. It starts with perceptions of deafness in
Cameroon and the inferior social position of deaf people in the country, and then
explores the internalization of these perceptions and the diverse perspectives deaf
community members take in the continuum of hope and hopelessness. This pres-
ents a portrait of a beginning emancipation process, which bumps up against the
walls of limited transnational exposure, financial constraints, corruption, and the
lack of long-term structural development, capacity building and advocacy, and im-
plementation of legislation. Scarce supportive resources have been found in transna-
tional exchange, such as a human rights workshop provided by the WFD.
“Life is very hard here... We suffer.” This Cameroonian case study is “an anthropol-
ogy of human suffering” (Farmer, 2010b, p. 137). The social position of deaf people
in Cameroonian society is one of dehumanization, exploitation, and exclusion. Deaf
people emphasize that “hearing people think that we are animals” and that they are
seen as people who are not able to reason and learn (see also the interview at the be-
ginning of this chapter). Con sequently, they are also not involved in decision making
and in family meetings and have only limited access to African indigenous education.^10
Domestic labor is part of African indigenous education and usually evolves with the
growth of the child, without being exploitative (Nsamenang, 1992). However, deaf- Many deaf adults in my study did not know their ethnic group or had minimal education on
the history and culture of their tribe (see also Lutalo-Kiingi, 2010b, on the same problem in Uganda).
Farm work and domestic work were acquired through visual learning (see also Nsamenang, 1992, on
indigenous education in Cameroon).