On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Association of Women Neighbouring SOCAPALM Edéa (AFRISE) launched this petition to STOP the replanting of oil palm monocultures around their homes and vital spaces.
Read the petition below and SIGN IT HERE (until December 15)
Support the women's struggle for land and life!
Petition against the replanting of oil palm by Socapalm (Socfin/ Bolloré) in the vicinity of the homes and tombs of the neighbouring village Apouh à Ngog, in Edea-Cameroon
An end to the replanting of oil palm around the homes and on the graves of the ancestors of the communities of Apouh, who live near Socapalm, owned by Socfin/Bolloré in Edea
SOCAPALM is continuing to replant oil palm around homes and ancestral graves in the village of Apouh à Ngog, in the Edea 1 district, Sanaga Maritime department, Littoral region, Cameroon. If they are not stopped, we, the women living near Socapalm in Edéa, will have to endure another 50 years of suffering, abuse, rape, theft, starvation, frustration and violations of our rights, our privacy and our dignity, leading to a survival that is fundamentally painful, unfair, miserable and unbearable for our entire community.
The Société Camerounaise de Palmeraies (SOCAPALM) is a subsidiary of the global SOCFIN Group, part owned by Bolloré. It has been exploiting the oil palm trees around our homes and on our ancestors' graves for over 50 years. These trees have now aged, and the company is in the process of replacing them by replanting hectares of oil palm behind our houses and on our ancestors' graves. We should point out that the community of Apouh was counting on recovering this land, considered ‘vital space’, to benefit from its natural resources needed for sustainable development dynamics and to bring peace, fulfilment and serenity to the village.
Article 6 paragraph h of the long term lease granted to SOCAPALM, on “obligations of the transferee”, stipulates that replanting must not take place in an area of 250 ha located around the village communities without the local administration first accounting for any plots of land distributed as vital space.
To date, SOCAPALM has suspended all negotiations with the local population and continues its replanting under the watchful eye of the local administration. We, the women of the Association of Women Neighbouring SOCAPALM Edéa (AFRISE), have even written a letter to the President of the Republic of Cameroon, but we are still waiting for a reply. In fact, our village chief was taken into administrative custody at the central prison in Edéa, with the complicity of SOCAPALM and the Prefect of SANAGA MARITIME, because he defends the interests of the people. He is still being prosecuted by SOCAPALM for the same reasons.
It is important to note that SOCAPALM, which took over this plantation in 2000, has illegal and irregular pseudo concessions as well as dubious, disputed and disputable land titles. All our land has been taken over and our forests have literally been destroyed. Our air, rivers and streams are polluted. In short, all our basic resources are being confiscated, without any compensation.
Since SOCAPALM took over the plantation, we and our families have survived by stealing the nuts that fall after cutting. We are regularly exposed to danger because we have to go out in the night to steal these nuts, not forgetting that we are liable to imprisonment if we are caught.
Worse still, to enter the plantation, we have to surrender our bodies to the guards. 90% of us surrender our bodies to the guards to gain access to the plantation. Our children are not recruited by the company and end up taking drugs, engaging in illegal activities or taking the illegal immigration route to die in the sea. We are left to fend for ourselves in a system that is not immune to corruption.
We, the women of AFRISE, will not accept spending the next 50 years in this misery. We are determined to fight to free our land and obtain vital spaces for our children of present and future generations.
We are seeking all forms of support to enable us to recover our land, our forests, our water, our LIFE, stolen by SOCAPALM.
Your signature counts. Help us ask the State of Cameroon and Socapalm to give us back our land, make the funders and insurers of SOCAPALM demand that this company leave us substantial living space. We demand that OUR RIGHTS TO LIFE be restored.
25 November 2023