“When the Center Can no Longer Hold”: Crisis and Schism in the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League (CamCCUL),2006-2020

Abstract:The split in the Cameroon Cooperative Credit Union League (CamCCUL) in 2013 partly suggest a
collapse in the strands of federating principles on which the credit union management bond was spun. The
official mission of CamCCUL was to promote the interest of member credit unions in all aspects of
management. The scheme and eventual modification of the bylaws in 2013 received opposing reactions. It
was read by some conservatives as a calculated machination to pursue individual objectives at the detriment
of the sublime communal interests that characterized the credit union spirit. It is in this context that this paper
examines the bases and implications of the crisis that rocked the managerial component of CamCCUL. The
paper, employing a qualitative historical analysis developing from primary and secondary data argues that
the desire to modify the internal rules of CamCCUL was situated within the dynamics of adjusting to changes
in time and circumstances. However, this lofty intention was stifled by personal and a stiff-centered
megalomaniac influence by the incumbent management to stay in power at a time when power substitution
was largely heralded. This tension in vision created a gulf between the members and managerial class of the
credit unions, the outcome of which was the fragmentation of CamCCUL into new competing credit union
federating structures