‘All of us have taken gombo’

Abstract

Within Cameroonian journalism, the term gombo is a popular metaphor for various payments, freebies and rewards solicited by journalists and provided by different news actors to journalists. The ultimate aim of giving gombo is to influence what and who is covered, and how they are covered. The categories of gombo, the contexts in which it is solicited and the hierarchies it has evolved point to a culture of patronage that is constantly being defined, shaped and reshaped by both journalists and patrons. Detailing its varied dimensions and illustrating its modus operandi, this article argues that gombo articulates the challenge of media liberalization and pluralism (as prescribed by liberal democracy) in an environment of severe economic crisis (occasioned by various structural adjustment policies) and rampant corruption. The result is the institutionalization of a patronage system, which, in challenging the profession’s codes of ethics and its credibility with the public, simultaneously accords journalists an entitlement to economic privileges deemed unavailable to them. At stake is equally the definition of what journalism is and the media’s role in Cameroon’s democratic transition.