Economy

Sources of income

       The Maka are great hunters and farmers than the rest of all the other tribes in east Cameroon. They gain their money through the sale of the animals they hunt and the sale of the food they cultivate. They carry out industrial plantations from which they cultivate coffee and cocoa, bananas and yams and they sell it to those buyers who buy in whole and resale in details to consumers.

Agriculture

  

      The majority of the Maka tribe’s inhabitants are subsistence farmers. As said above the major crops are plantains and maize. In addition to what was said earlier we have bananas, oranges mangoes and yams. Farmers clear their farms during the dry season with archaic tools such as axes and machetes. Later on, the area is burned and some precautions are taken to preserve fruit trees such as mangoes or plums. When the wet season start, spices and common vegetables are planted in areas which are closer to the homes and tubers such as cassava, cocoyam, and plantains in larger plots are placed farther. In fact, the Maka people practiced the slash and burn agriculture.  This latter enables high yield in short term but it weakens the soil.  Further, the commercial crops found in the Maka zone are coffee and cocoa. They are mostly found in Abong-Mbang. It is primordial to note that agriculture is practiced by both men and women.

                         

Hunting and gathering 

      Hunting is mostly conducted by men with traditional tools such as bows and arrows, traps, blowguns and spears. Nonetheless, firearms are also used. Hunting is merely done on a small scale and larger- scales methods are employed. During the hunts, people put fire to forestry areas or grassland in order to flush out prey. Other hunters frighten the animals, making them running toward armed men who kill them. It is also important to mention that dogs are used during the hunt to frighten the prey.

                  

Industry

        It is not really developed in the Maka tribe. Nevertheless, their trees are used in the neighboring forestry in Belabo and Dimako. 

Tourism

      Due to the isolation of the region and the difficulty to travel within it, the Maka region receives very few tourists. 

Transport

     The main transport means of the Maka is walking by foot. They walk by foot because they live in forestry zone and thus cars and other means of transport do not easily access in their hinterlands. This does not exclude the fact that there may be some cars that they may use for transportation. In addition, they greatly use bikes as a means of transportation because bikes are more flexible than the other means of transport; that is they offer door to door services and thus this is a great advantage because people may have easy access to those places which are very difficult to access, may be due to the bad state of the road. The Maka zone can be access through the Nyong River which is navigable during the rainy season from Abong-Mbang to the center region.

Labor force

     Young adults constitute the main labor force in the Maka tribe. They are designated to do all the works which require energy. They mostly hunt, practice agriculture, build houses and bridges… In addition to that, children contribute a lot as far as labor force is concerned. When they are not attending schools, they practice agriculture, transport heavy objects… 

Ways to determine rank in the society

      During the pre-colonial period, the belonging to the royal family gave a lot of prestige and a higher rank in the Maka society. Besides, those great warriors who returned with numerous heads of their enemies were also elevated in that latter. Being a rich man (having many children, slaves and goods) and being wise was sufficient to be considered and respected in the Meka society. 

     Today, the situation has changed.  The first thing that was established as a leading power was placing village leaders as chiefs of families. Then was the establishment of notables, who second the chiefs. In the Maka territory, there are five great families from which five notables have been sorted out to rule. The chief of villages establish some sub-chiefs in different localities known as “canton chiefs”. A Canton may group three villages.

Role of education

     In the past, the maka thought that school was meant only for boys and the girls were there for domestic chores, in preparation for their getting married. As time went on, with the increase of technology, people learned that school was meant for everybody, and the girl specially needs it to become a great leader who may be called to lead the Maka tribe in the future, or if not, to become a good wife filled with wisdom and intelligence. Actually, the Maka are the most educated tribe, compared to the rest of the tribes in East Cameroon. Primary schools are very largely distributed and secondly schools are only found in larger towns there. 

Medicine and health

      The inhabitants of the Maka area believe in the force of the nature. They believe that natural herbs, grass, back of trees, stems of trees, roots and leaves of plants are capable to cure sicknesses. This simply entails that they are more acquainted to traditional healing. But this does not exclude the fact they visit hospitals and use modern and scientific medicines.

      The Maka territory is a home for tropical diseases such as malaria which is the major cause of death there. Typhoid fever, tuberculosis and dengue fever are also endemics. In fact, poor sanitation is the major source of illness in the east zone. HIV-AIDS is also found in the territory because of its position as a transportation network for logging vehicles. Also, the construction of the Chad/Cameroon pipeline has increased prostitution in the Maka area. 

Communication

    Their main communication device is the drum. It is a very special communicating device and there are specialized rhythms used in transmitting specific messages. There is a particular way for announcing: a marriage, that someone is lost in the forest and that he needs help, funerals, urgent meeting at the chief’s house, the arrival of a stranger, the detection of an enemy, the prediction of an incoming good or bad event, and many other things. With the evolution of technology, the Maka also use the telephone as a device of communication. But this is not used too much since the Maka society is a forestry zone, thus it is not easy to get connected to the network. This makes the use of the telephone to be intermittent and tough.

   More is still to be done in order to develop the Maka zone despite of the various progresses the place has encountered.  How is the Maka tribe organized as far as politics are concerned?