French national sales palm wine for 10 years in Cameroon

In Cameroon palm wine, a whitish liquid is a traditional drink consumed mostly in villages.

Excerpt from raffia palm, this wine sold throughout the country, is an important source of revenue for rural households.

And an original French wanted to take advantage of this windfall generated by the sale of this wine deciding to settle permanently in a village in Cameroon to indulge in this trade.

Christian Lacroute is in this business for ten years, arousing curiosity and admiration.

In an early sunny afternoon, in his sales point located in the Babadjou village, along the Bamenda–Bafoussam road, Christian Lacroute, a French receives his usual clients who come to drink his palm wine.

The little “bar” in question is made up of the front of a house fenced in temporary materials. Inside, bamboo chairs and a few tables made locally, and selling palm wine is the main activity.

Christian Lacroute now married to a Cameroonian with whom he adopted five children, lives and feeds his family for 10 years now through the sale of palm wine.

Christian said he was inspired by a close relative of his Cameroonian woman.

“Africa has always pleased me, normally I will finish my life here in Cameroon, I will no longer return to France, I found another woman here, I adopted five Cameroonian children,” he says.

Christian decided to engage in the sale of palm wine because a family member to his wife was the wine provider.

“I told myself I will try the palm wine, and it’s 10 years now that I worked with that person that’s why I always have the best palm wine. I taste it every morning when he brings it. if it is not good he goes back with it. Red wine all that no, it’s too expensive here in Cameroon, “he explains.

Palm wine at Christian sells for 150 FCFA per liter.

With the income from this activity, the French managed to support his family.

“I’m doing very well, now it’s a little calm because of people who are in the farm and all that, it’s a bit calm if not in all okay,” he added.

In his “bar”, clients, often regulars, like the product that is served to them

“I come here because it is next to my house, and Christian is welcoming and friendly, and in addition he has palm wine each time, otherwise you’ll find the same wine but already mixed with sugar, which is not good for health “reflects Jules Tchoffo, a customer seated in the bar.

His table neighbor Rigobert says he comes into the bar because Christian does not bother, and the bar is clean and the service is excellent.

In the Babadjou village, not far from a school where his bar is located, Marie Albertine is a neighbor to Christian.

She explained that the French became a feature or an exception that people look curiously.

“A European who comes to invest in commercial palm wine is something strange for me and I encourage it. He liked our village and I encourage it. Having grown up in the village, I never knew you could share the same environment with a white, but today our children rub shoulders. They’re with Christian all the time; you see that Christian has changed our social life. It makes us understand that we must be social,“ says Marie.

The sale of palm wine is an important source of revenue for rural households in this village in Cameroon.

For some sellers, Christian is a serious competitor.

Jacques says he lost half of his customers since the arrival of the French in this trade.

“You know a white selling palm wine, everyone wants to see, more than half of my clients drink in there,” complained Jacques.

The palm wine is a traditional drink in Cameroon. Very popular, this wine is often consumed during ceremonies and customary rites.