The Ethics of Illegality in the Chad Basin

Abstract

WALA MO WUJJATA SEY MO NANGAAKA: the innocent are only those who have not yet been caught. This adage is a Fulani expression often heard in the northern part of Cameroon. While it is a local dictum that often provokes smiles, smirks, and knowing laughter, this maxim does not refer to particularly local practices or to the particular habits of local people. Evidently, the logic of the expression connotes that all are guilty, but only some have been judged. The only designated subject being “the innocent,” the moral critique is not necessarily directed against outlaws nor does it condemn those who preside over the law—the distinction is irrelevant, transgression being the norm. These days, this remark is often made with reference to people involved in economic exchanges that circumvent national regulatory authority. Seemingly local, these exchanges partake in regional and international economies. First, all nationals of the Chad Basin—Nigerians, Cameroonians, Chadians, Sudanese, and citizens of the Central African Republic and Niger—participate in such commercial networks. Second, these networks are connected to the regional and international markets in, for instance, small arms, money and document counterfeiting, and smuggling of petrol, stolen vehicles, ivory, gold, hardware, electronics, cigarettes, and dry goods.