Social justice is a theoretical perspective grounded in efforts at circum- venting provisions that seek to uphold ostracism and exclusionary prac- tices which have permeated societies around the world (Hlalele 2012). In this chapter I emerge from the perspective that vast incongruences and inequalities between better-resourced urban communities in the country and neglected rural areas generally impinge on the provision of and access to education. In doing this, I advocate a distributive paradigm that sees
effective national education policies as those that ensure the proper distri- bution of education in quantity and quality as a social benefit to all. I argue that the adoption and implementation of national policies of devel- opment should not disadvantage a section of the population because they are called to live, study or work in rural areas.
The social justice perspective argues that international conventions, constitutional and policy obligations, and people’s requisite human rights permit individuals and groups to hold governments accountable for the progressive realisation of rights; the failure of which becomes social injus- tice (Spreen and Vally 2006). In general, theories of social justice advo- cate mechanisms used to regulate social arrangements in the fairest way for the benefit of all if one understands justice as ‘parity of participation’
(Hlalele 2012) to which I add equalisation or rationalisation of benefit.
In this context, overcoming injustice would mean dismantling institu- tionalised obstacles (through appropriate policies and their effective implementation) that prevent some people from participating (and ben- efitting) on a par with others as full members of a social system.
While there is evidence of efforts aimed at addressing rural develop- ment in Cameroon, not every effort should be seen in the light of social justice. Three main justifications for addressing rurality can be identified:
(1) harnessing rural resources for colonial and (after independence) national development; (2) combatting rural exodus; and (3) addressing welfare needs of all citizens – location notwithstanding. Only in the third strand can addressing rurality be seen as a social justice obligation. I attempt an explanation of this.
The first but not often cited reason for addressing rurality is the need to exploit rural resources. Most neo-Marxist and decolonial scholars hold this view. The rural areas carry a substantial percentage of Cameroon’s potentials needed for national development. These resources were the major justifications for colonial penetration into Cameroon’s hinterland and any feasible investments that were made (or not made) therein (Aka 2002). The British talked of “not ignoring the claims of the congested populations of Europe to share in the bounties of nature in the tropics, or … for those who have spent capital and effort in Africa to reap their reward” (Lugard 1965, p. 151). Equally, the French talked of La Misse en Valeur; putting into exploitation the rural resources of Cameroon to
counterbalance French commercial deficits and generate revenue for France (Ngoh 1987, p. 102). Today, there is no doubt that the rural sec- tor continues to serve as an important source of government revenue and making rurality part of government’s priority agenda could be seen in these terms and not necessarily for the improvement of rural people’s welfare.
One of the most cited justifications for addressing rurality has been the need to curb rural to urban exodus. Even then, investments made in rural areas cannot entirely be seen through a social justice lens but in terms of limiting the embarrassments that migrants to cities often bring to the government’s image: urban poverty; slum life, crime, congested prisons, unemployment; disillusionment with government; support for the oppo- sition; poor human rights image etc. (Sikod 2001). Before 1960, the rural-urban matrix in Cameroon remained at a low of less than 10–90 percent, despite evidences of rural-urban migration (Nkwi 2016, 2017).
Today, the reverse is obtained: 44–66 percent. While the current average global urban population growth rate stands at 1.84 percent annually, Mbouda in Cameroon is the continent’s fastest growing city at 7.8 per- cent (Muggah and Kilcullen 2016). The government is getting very wor- ried at this blistering rate of expansion, but even more about the effects that this brings to its image.
Addressing rurality as a means of improving rural welfare is the major and rationally feasible explanation for linking rurality to social justice. In Cameroon for instance, the rural-urban distribution of poverty currently stands at 86.5 percent for the rural areas and 23.5 percent for all the urban areas put together (Tah 2016). When this is pitted against the rural-urban divide which used to be 86:14 percent in 1966 and is now 44:66 percent in 2016 (Muggah and Kilcullen 2016; Karmiloff 1989), there is every indication that a cross section of Cameroonians are escap- ing rural poverty. Research has shown that all things being equal, most rural people would prefer to live in rural communities and small towns.
But when they carefully assess the variables which account for a positive adjustment to rural life without excessive compromise to their lives, edu- cation (of children) and employment goals (Schenck 2004), they often decide otherwise. Such decisions equally justify urban people’s reluc- tance/refusal to work or live in rural areas.
By using the social justice perspective, I argue that addressing rurality should not focus on making rural areas more accessible for government socioeconomic exploitation or as a means of limiting the embarrassments that urban poverty brings to the government’s image (Fanbom 2014;
Baye 2006). Addressing rurality should guarantee a rational and com- paratively affordable life for rural citizens in equal measure to the invest- ments in the urban areas – thus the rationalisation of welfare between the rural and urban settings.
As applied to education in this chapter, social justice is seen in the context of rural Cameroonians receiving their just due in educational provision alongside other social, political and economic benefits that come with educational attainment. This is what Coates (2007) has termed distributive justice wherein a people could receive fairness in the out- comes of the implementation of government policies. When seen as a challenge to governments, social justice implies the need to work to undo socially created and maintained differences in educational conditions of rural people, so as to reduce and ultimately eliminate the perpetuation of the privileging of better educational facilities and opportunities in the urban areas to the disadvantage of those in the rural areas.
By adopting the social justice perspective, I intend to achieve what Calderwood (2003) terms, ‘raising concern about sensibility’ which goes beyond surface empathic concerns and proclamations’ such as ‘govern- ment is aware of your plight’ (a popular message to rural people in Cameroon by visiting politicians and state functionaries) to ‘committing to structural and situational analysis of differences in needs, circum- stances and allocations and using an activist orientation in concretely seeking redress.