WORKING GROUPS OR WAGE LABOR - CASH-CROPS, RECIPROCITY AND MONEY AMONG THE MAKA OF SOUTHEASTERN CAMEROON

The spread of cocoa cultivation among the Maka in the 1950s created ne w labour demands. These were not met by wage labour, as in most cocoa producing areas, but rather by a novel system of working groups. Speci fic economic factors can help to explain why wage labour did not devel op within the villages, but it is also clear that the preference of th e Maka for more co-operative labour arrangements was related to broade r socio-cultural characteristics of this society-notably the somewhat paradoxical tension between strong levelling mechanisms and an equally strong emphasis on personal ambition. The new working groups were bas ed on reciprocal exchange of labour, but money came to play an increas ing role in their functioning. They allowed for a certain degree of co mmodification of labour to the advantage of richer farmers, but ultima tely they restricted the rise of more structural inequalities. The rec ent crisis in cash-cropping makes it clear that a system of working gr oups can offer farmers more flexibility than wage labour in the face o f the vagaries of world-market prices.