WEARING OF FACEMASK: DOUALA, YAOUNDE A CHOICE ELSEWHERE COMPULSORY.

Rondpoint Deido 

As I recently walk down the streets of Douala, the economic Capital of Cameroon with my facemask on, I pondered if I was still in Cameroon where the wearing of face marks became compulsory after cases of the Corona Virus kept heightening in the Country. Not wanting to conclude on this, I decided to moved to some popular spots in the town of the good, the bad and the ugly.

While on the bike from Bonaberi moving the city, I asked the Bike rider "where is your facemask?" 

He answered. "Wearing a Facemask here in Douala is a choice." 

Being so inquisitive, I ask again. "Are you not afraid of the corona Virus?"

This was the answer I got from him. "Which Corona Virus are you talking about, are you sure there is Corona Virus in this country, the government is playing games, if this is the same Corona virus we saw on the media killing thousands of people in China, Italy, Spain, England, United States of America and other countries abroad, then we would have all died here in Douala given that nobody cares about the barrier measures against the virus but we keep hearing increasing figures..." 

a view of the Monument at rondpoint Deido 

My first stop was at rondpoint Deido, after the chat with the bike rider, I was still very curious to observe if what he said about the wearing of face marks in Douala was true. As I sat down on one of the cemented chairs at Rondpoint Deido for close to an hour, I started picturing exactly what the bike rider had told me while we rode across the River Wouri on the new bridge. Mathematically 99.99% of the people I saw within the 1 hour I spent there were not having face marks. Seeing some Police officers controlling trafic there, I observed closely if they will ask anyone why they were not putting on their facemask. Non of them approached anyone. I said to myself maybe its because non of them were also putting on facemask.

The busy city of Douala.

I left Rondpoint Deido to Akwa where the big shops are, this time without a face mask on, using the opportunity to get a new lens for my camera. I enter the first shop thinking I will be asked to put on my facemask, but instead the store attendant was interested on what i wanted to buy. While keeping a physical distance of atleast 2 meters from him, I ask if I could get a lumix lens, unfortunately the shop deals only on Canon products, I had to check out on the next shop. Here as I opened the door, the shop keeper immediately asked for my facemask, I pull it out and she ask me to use the hand washing machine outside before getting into the shop. After washing my hands someone approached me with a hand sanitizer. I was amazed at this, so even before asking for the lens, I asked the store keeper why their shop seems to be respecting the barrier measures to combat Covid-19 while nobody cares about it out there?, her response  "You are right, but if you must go to big shops like this, Super markets, administrative offices then you are oblige to put on your facemask."
After touring Akwa for hours I finally did not get the lens.

Douala Central market.

I also decided visite the Douala Central market to see if the traders were conscious about the presence of the Corona Virus, to my greatest surprise only few persons were having their facemask, just a couple of them actually had it on to cover their Nose and Mouth.
 
My mision to Douala had come to an end but I had to pass through Yaounde the Political Capital of Cameroon before getting back to my base. As we took the road to Yaounde passing through Yassa, I had a beautiful view of the Japoma stadium contructed to host the AFCON 2021 which has been postponed to 2022 because of the Corona Virus, I rapidly remembered how I had planned to watch matches in this stadium but the Corona Virus had asked us to wait.

A view of the Japoma stadium.
 

The comfort the bus had pushed me to fall asleep, I only realized later that we were already approaching Mbakomo that is the enterance into Yaounde, here we were asked to prepare our identity Cards and put on our face mark. It was already night as places were already dark. We went out presented our ID cards with our facemark on.

Inside view of the Bus.

"Yaounde seems to be different from Douala interms of respecting barrier measures to combat the pandemic. Oh yes, inhabitants of Yaounde should be conscious of it, given the first case of the virus in the country was recorded here in Yaounde in the early days of the month of March 2020". Saying this to myself while in a taxi where everybody on board including the driving had their face mark on.

Inside view of a taxi in Yaounde.

At dawn, as I step out to meet up with what brought me to Yaounde, what I saw was totally different from what I had pictured while in the taxi the night before. "So it was just a coincidence that everyone in that taxi had their facemask on?" a rhetorical question I asked. I continued. "this should be Yaounde where the Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute first came out on March 17, 2020 with some 13 barrier measures to combat the spread of the pandemic?,

poste central Yaounde.

This should  be the political capital of Cameroon, where the President of the Republic Paul Biya on the May 19, 2020 while addressing the Nation hit his hand on the table reiterating that all measures to fight against the deadly pandemic will be highly respected across the country?." Here nobody seems to bordered about the pandemic as they move on with their daily activities.

Yaounde Central Town.

Meeting with friend at "marché Central" in the heart of the city of Yaounde, I asked why is the wearing of face mask in Yaounde seems not to be compulsory?. His response "Yaounde is no mans land, here you decide to wear the face mask or not, but if you must visit some areas for example like Bastos you must put on your facemask. This is also applicable went visiting government offices. Nevertheless there are some days that people are arrested if caught without the facemark and are oblige to paid a some FCFA 6000 before they are released. that is why most move around with the in their pockets"

 

Main entrance into the marker

Yaounde Central market.

In humic voice I said this to him "In Bamenda, you can't attempt to go out without your face mask, because in Abakwa the checking of face marks by the Police is fast replacing the identity card" We all laughed but concluded that covid-19 is real and we should all be responsible as the fight against the virus continues.

by Arnaud Kouamo