GENERAL INTRODUCTION

By 1990, tourism in Cameroon was a minor and slowly growing industry which was neglected to the interest of other economic activities such as agriculture (cash crop products) and industrialisation (developing the transformation sector of raw materials). The creation of the Ministry of Tourism in Cameroon came in to promote this sector in order to contribute to the country’s development. By 2022, Cameroon became classified as a touristic destination, because it registered more than 500 000 tourist. This was revealed by Minister of Tourism Baba Hamadou, who disclosed that in 1990, Referred to as Africa in one, it describes all the potentials that it contains from its diverse wildlife to its immense vegetation cover, culture which encloses Cameroon’s geography. With all these potentials, the government planned to improve the sector’s yield through the promotion of international tourism and local tourism. This was effective when we saw the constant transformation and adaptation to the needs of the audience and those of the tourist. Cultural tourism is described as people moving for essentially cultural motivations, which include study tours, performing arts, cultural tours, travels to festivals, visits to historic sites and monuments, folklore and pilgrimage (World Tourism Organisation, 1985). Different ways of life and cultural backgrounds today are resources, for the development of tourism in many countries. Culture is a main ‘pull factor’ which influences visitors’ initial decision to travel to destinations in different parts of the world. Thus in most regions of Africa, particularly Cameroon, cultural attractions have become important in the development of tourism. At the global level, cultural attractions are usually perceived as being icons of important streams of global culture (Richards, 2001). The development of tourism in Africa in general, and the development of cultural tourism in particular, are at their initial stages.

The diverse indigenous Cameroonian cultures can be perceived as having a hidden comparative advantage in the development of cultural tourism because they possess exceptional cultural and nature based attractions. These are the very tourist attractions which people from major tourist generating countries are looking for. Within this context of cultural tourism development, it is usually argued that with the rapid economic growth and increasing affluence in most parts of the world, the number of international and intra-country tourists visitinglocal communities and other destinations in Cameroon will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. Although the recent terrorist events in the Northern part of the country may well have a detrimental effect on local tourism in the short-term, in the longer term it is hoped that the development of cultural tourism will continue to be a major growth sector. Local communities in Cameroon now use their cultural events as touristic potentials to market their destinations and offer to both national and international tourist distractions and entertainment. Kom is not left out, for it has man-made and natural potentials which can attract tourist, thereby generating income to the community. The Cameroonian authorities aim at increasing tourism earnings from the domestic and international market towards a substantial source of income for the country. This in turn has brought about major changes to the infrastructure including large construction projects that havehelped develop rural areas.

General Context of the Study

Furthermore, this has ledto the modernisation and prosperity for local communities, private sectors, and the country as a whole. However, tourism generates downstream negative effects to destination areas when it is mass marketed; these include the integration of tourist cultures to the primitive way of local life, social problems, inflation, the high cost of living, unequal income distribution, etc. Therefore it has been necessary to manage and plan every aspect relating to the development of tourism to reduce negative consequences that directly affect communities when it is considered as part of destination.

Presently, Cameroon’s goal is to attain emergence by 2035 in socio economic and political aspects. In this light, the tourism sector is not left out. Instead, Cameroon after becoming a tourist destination in 2022, the government is investing more and more in this sector. Our topic falls within the context of “Tourism and Development”, we are looking at the potentials of its tourism. This study is carried out to show how cultural tourism in Kom can improve living of its populations along side the present goal of attaining emergence by 2035.

Conceptual Framework

Much of the difficulty [of understanding the concept of culture] stems from the different usages of the term as it was increasingly employed in the nineteenth century. Broadly speaking, it was used in three ways (all of which can be found today as well). First, as exemplified in Matthew Arnolds’ Culture and Anarchy (1867), culture referred to special intellectual or artistic endeavors or products, what today we might call “high culture” as opposed to “popular culture” (or “folkways in an earlier usage). By this definition, only a portion – typically a small one – of any social group “has” culture. (The rest are potential sources of anarchy!) This sense of culture is more closely related to aesthetics than to social science.

Partly in reaction to this usage, the second, as pioneered by Edward Tylor in Primitive Culture (1870), referred to a quality possessed by all people in all social groups, who nevertheless could be arrayed on a development (evolutionary) continuum (in Lewis Henry Morgan’s scheme) from “savagery” through “barbarism” to “civilization”. It is worth quoting Tylor’s definition in its entirety; first because it became the foundational one for anthropology; and second because it partly explains why Kroeber and Kluckhohn found definitional fecundity by the early 1950s. Tylor’s definition of culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. In contrast to Arnold’s view, all folks “have” culture, which they acquire by virtue of membership in some social group – society. And a whole grab bag of things, from knowledge to habits to capabilities, makes up culture.

The extreme exclusivity of Tylor’s definition stayed with anthropology a long time; it is one reason political scientists who became interested in cultural questions in the late 1950s felt it necessary to delimit their relevant cultural domain to “political culture”. But the greatest legacy of Tylor’s definition lay in his “complex whole” formulation. This was accepted even by those later anthropologists who forcefully rejected his evolutionism. They took it to mean that cultures were wholes – integrated systems. Although this assertion has great heuristic value, it also, as we shall argue below, simplifies the world considerably.

The third and last usage of culture developed in anthropology in the twentieth-century work of Franz Boas and his students, though with roots in the eighteenth-century writings of Johann von Herder. As Tylor reacted to Arnold to establish a scientific (rather than aesthetic) basis for culture, so Boas reacted against Tylor and other social evolutionists. Whereas the evolutionists stressed the universal character of a single culture, with different societies arrayed from savage to civilized, Boas emphasized the uniqueness of the many and varied cultures of different peoples or societies. Moreover he dismissed the value judgments he found inherent in both the Arnoldian and Tylorean views of culture; for Boas, one should never differentiate high from low culture, and one ought not differential.

Tourism

Tourism has been seen variedly by many scholars. Sharpley and Telfer see tourism as a leisure activity that contrasts with normal, everyday life and provides a basis for assessing tourists behaviour and attitudes. Hunziker and Kraft defined tourism as the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity. Fofang sees tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon, which entails the movement of people  to  countries  or  places  outside  their  usual  environment  for  personal  or  business/ professional  purposes. This study adopts the definition of Fofang who writes from a Cameroonian context revealing the socioeconomic dimensions of tourism which constitute major aspects that this study probes into. Closely associated to tourism is the term touristic site.

Development

Development on its part has varied definitions according to various scholars and organizations. The United Nations defines development as the process of interrelated political, economic and social transformations intended to improve the well-being of the entire population as a result, full participation in the development process and equal sharing of its benefits is required. According to Chambers, development is an effort aimed at improving and or enhancing change in the social and economic domains.Ewaka argues that development is the process whereby  concerted effort is made in order to facilitate significant increase in production with the overall objective of enhancing income and increasing employment opportunities and standard of living.Lele opines that, development is improving the living standards of the population of a given area and making the process self sustaining. Howell defines development as efforts that seek to improve the economic well being and quality of life a community. He reckoned that this is through the creation of job opportunities. Within the context of this study, the term development will be tied to economic development. This study hinges on the postulation of Howell who defines development as efforts that seek to improve the economic well being and quality of life a community.

Statement of the Problem

Cultural tourism plays an important role in the socio-cultural development of communities and it is also a source of revenue for the indigenous people and the government. Many scholars have written on tourism in Cameroon focusing more on the conservation and preservation of national touristic attractions or site such as Waza park, Limbe Zoo, Mount Cameroon and beaches with little mention of cultural tourism in Cameroon. Infact, the value of cultural tourism is still highly underestimated in Cameroon. In Kom, the presence of the beautiful landscape, water body, fishing, annual festival, cultural aspects such as dressing, music and dance, eating habits and even the language have greatly attracted the attention of many tourists both nationally and internationally. They often seek to explore the diverse cultural heritage of the Mbaw-Yakum people but the impact of their visits have hardly been felt by the community and the government. Lack of professionalism and financial capital has made it almost impossible to develop some tourist destinations like the Baaba and Kishiy Caves (Nji, 2012). There are neither roads nor tourist guides to accompany visitors to these sites with a rich cultural story. It is therefore understandable when Carole Favre expert and teacher of tourism at the University of London to Colchester, who attended events marking the celebration of World Tourism Day in Cameroon in 2022 remarked that, “tourism in Cameroon is not developed and does not yet have a specific direction (Fonka & Mesape, 2022). Certainly there are opportunities, but there is still need to develop strategies that are more thoughtful and promote collaboration between local people and the government.” This is an indication of some of the problems faced by Kom tourism industry which need to be studied in order to ensure that the sector improves.

The characteristics of what constitutes cultural tourism are all of what is described, explained and practiced in Kom. Some of these cultures are:

• The ceremonies, events and festivals
• Songs and dances
• Arts and crafts
• The strong belief in witch craft and coupled with rituals and initiations
• Artefacts and cultural sites
• Museums(theMus’Art Gallery and the Lukong Art’s Gallery)
• The Afo Akom festival
• Culinary arts
• Traditional display and contemporary art

The challenges of cultural tourism in Kom is that of transforming its available cultural touristic opportunities for their own prosperity and development. What are the cultural touristic potentials of Kom and role in development? Therefore, the objective of this research work is to investigate the notion of cultural tourism and its role in development. The problem of inadequate development in Kom has driven the local people to seek for new sources of revenue in order to raise funds to increase development and improve on their standards of living.The study is therefore going to assess the role of cultural tourism and its contributions to local development, taking Kom as a case study.