Food security is one of the hobbyhorse of the international community.
When a crisis, natural, human or technological disaster arises, tons of
food are transferred to needy populations. Food aid is the international
sourcing of concessional resources in the form of, or for the provision
of food. How does humanitarian food aid structure the North-South
cooperation? The "Theory of the Gift", developed by the anthropologist
Marcel Mauss and which can be summarized as "the obligation to give and
the obligation to receive", helps understanding the dynamics of the
relationship between donors from the North and recipients of food aid,
most of them coming from the South. Cameroon appears to be a laboratory
of this system. Indeed, the country has and continues facing the whims
of the nature: volcanic eruptions, toxic gases, floods and other
drought. In addition, this little triangle of about 475.000 KM2 is home
to hundred thousands of refugees fleeing neighboring countries subject
to security, socio-political and military uncertainties, including
Nigeria, Central African Republic and Chad. Therefore food aid is part
of its structural "habitus".