Analysis: resilient war-struck communities and businesses can find surprising solutions to persist against some of the harshest atrocities imaginable
War is everywhere: Ukraine, Palestine and the many untold wars in Africa, the Middle East, and South-East Asia. War is also far away and an item for discussion on the news until when it knocks on our doors, either in the form of charities supporting oppressed civilians, refugees seeking asylum, or politicians looking for public approval.
But what do we know about the reality of living and surviving within a warzone? Not all wars are the same. A destructive war like the current conflict in Gaza, where infrastructure is obliterated and civilians are massacred and starved, is much harsher than conventional wars fought between soldiers. We all share some false assumptions about wars, namely that most civilians want to leave their countries to avoid the war, conflicts are caused by 'bad guys' and living in a war zone must be a nightmare.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland in Feb 2023, Cian McCormack speaks to two Ukrainian women whose lives have been totally transformed by the Russian invasion of their country in 2022
While not untrue, these assumptions are not factually correct in most cases. Nobody wants to leave their home. Many civilians, even those living in areas severely impacted by a conflict, would rather wait for the adversities to pass than start over elsewhere with limited savings and huge barriers to language, employment, and integration. Abandoning one’s home and country is often a last resort that is only taken once survival has become unlikely and there exist relatively safe ways to do so.
Although there is often a ‘bad guy’, or a group of ‘bad guys’, who spark a conflict, the boundaries between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ often become blurred after a conflict bursts and the oppressed turn into oppressors. And yes, living in a war zone does look like a nightmare, especially early on, but many nightmares soon turn into a ‘new normal’ and life resumes, with some hiccups, as it was before the war.
Jack is a small business owner living in Ambazonia, Cameroon’s secessionist region and home to one of Africa's bloodiest conflicts with more than half a million refugees since 2016. He is comparatively lucky, as he lives in one of the safer areas in the region and commutes daily from his home village to his business premises in the large city of Buea. Jack’s relatives are not as lucky, as many of them used to live in rural areas with severe armed clashes and a strong presence of separatist forces.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's World Report, a shortage of cooking gas in Cameroon is causing huge problems for thousands of families
In 2018, after Cameroon’s contested national elections and a sharp increase in violence, Jack’s situation drastically changed. Several of his relatives became internally displaced, and Jack found himself overwhelmed. He rapidly went from looking after a small family of five to hosting 20 refugees and extended family members within his compound. To make matters worse, the separatist forces established a base in Jack’s village and he faced constant danger during his commute to and from Buea.
A kind, friendly and compassionate middle-aged man, Jack felt a moral imperative to remain in Ambazonia and cater for his loved ones, even though he could have easily moved to the safer neighbouring Francophone regions. Moreover, the aggravating situation around Buea did not discourage Jack from investing and expanding his business. He grew used to the danger and started designing services for those who, like him, decided to stay in war-affected areas for one reason or the other.
He started travelling daily to and from different villages, offering consulting, micro-loans, and advice to other business owners in the war zone. When I interviewed Jack, he proudly confessed that he had been kidnapped five times since the start of the conflict and this was the only way he could have survived the war.
From DW News, how Cameroon's military is dealing with a separatist struggle to create a breakaway state called Ambazonia
There are many entrepreneurs like Jack who have been resourceful and resilient during the Ambazonian civil war. They have engaged in dangerous activities, reacted to multiple threats and made frequent changes in their private lives and business practices to survive, or even thrive during the crisis. However, many others were not as successful. At times, the arrival of displaced family members forced entrepreneurs to disinvest from their businesses to cope with the increased personal expenses.
Other times, inertia, a passive mindset and a sense of paralysis has led Ambazonian entrepreneurs to spiral downward in a vicious cycle of economic losses. In other cases, the war has caused losses of security, assets and social connections so heavy and disruptive as to prevent any attempt at recovery by the affected civilians.
What can we learn from Ambazonia? First, not all hope is lost. War-struck communities can be surprisingly resilient and find solutions to persist against some of the harshest atrocities committed by their persecutors. Second, traditional charity, in the form of relief funds and donations, might not be the best means to help war-struck communities.
We need your consent to load this Spotify contentWe use Spotify to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage PreferencesFrom Entrepreneurship & Regional Development Podcast, Dr Luca Castellanza on entrepreneurial behaviour during conflicts and crises
Financial sustenance, healthcare and food are important supports for civilians, but they may also work as economic disincentives. Instead, a more effective and sustainable form of international aid could be a focus on rebuilding what was lost, promoting businesses that generate profits and sustain their owners during adversity, reinforcing the local economies, and enabling war-struck communities to survive crisis.
Cameroon may be far away and there is not (yet) a civil war in Western Europe, but many of the survival strategies adopted by the Ambazonian population have universal applications. They can be used to cope with other types of adversity, such as pandemics, wildfires, violent demonstrations, and incidents connected to runaway global warming that will become more and more common in the years to come.
Follow RTÉ Brainstorm on WhatsApp and Instagram for more stories and updates
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
