DoualaMapJuly 5–6, 2013 Construction sites are enclosed with picket fences.  The streetlights are equipped with solar panels.  Traffic lights sport extra-sturdy cement bases—it’s impossible to knock one of these down with a car.  A rare beast: a flashing pedestrian warning light.  The animated green man on pedestrian lights runs like a professional sprinter.  The city’s residents wait for the rain to stop.  In Western cultures, self-expression and identification typically take on the form of words or images sewn onto a uniform or T-shirt, while in Africa the requisite motif is incorporated into the fabric pattern. Here’s a postal worker in a shirt with the postal service logo.  Railroad ahead.  A Cameroonian digger.  A pedestrian.  Children.  Motorcycle taxis wait for customers at a bus stop.  Every taxi driver has a long, narrow umbrella which covers the passenger without getting in the way of nearby motorcycles.  A view of the city.  Trucks and pickups are required to have stickers with diagonal red and white stripes on the back.  A license plate.  Concrete toilets finished with ceramic tile—come and get ‘em!  Pharmacy signs are considered incomplete without a hefty arrow.  A phone booth.  A beauty salon. Someone’s getting a pedicure.  Carts with cross-shaped handles.  Dumpsters.  Douala is the largest city in Cameroon. And it looks like an actual city, which is rather uncommon for Black Africa.  |
