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Moving Cocoa: All Eyes on Cameroon

It's more than 20 years since I lived in Cameroon and owned my own little cocoa plot. In the intervening years, there have been periods of civil unrest, but recently, there has been peace and stability, which has allowed its cocoa sector to grow and become the world's fifth-largest producer

Image shows the author Marika van Santvoort in Cameroon aged 22.
Here I am, 22-years-old, starting out on my Cameroonian adventure.

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It was January, 2008. I was 22 years old, travelling alone, landing at Douala airport. No one came to pick me up. Taxi drivers pulled at my suitcases from three sides in the arrival hall, where I was the only white face.

The heat was damp and thick, slowing my thinking. It was sensory overload, and for a moment, I seriously reconsidered my choice to go to Cameroon in search of adventure and something meaningful in life.

I regrouped my thoughts, picked myself up and left the airport. What started as a six-month internship became three years of living and working in Central Africa.

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