The Motorbike Taxis Phenomenon in the City of Douala : State Crisis, Identity and Social Regulation. A Cultural Studies Approach
Strategies of urban space occupation, as refusal of passive consumption of the dominant culture, are the opportunity to exist as a group and help to elaborate a distinctive identity for the motorbike taxi-men. The purpose of this paper is, in the light of the Cultural Studies approach, to give an idea of an urban means of transportation which has emerged in the aftermath of the ghost towns after the political transition turmoil. The motorbike taxi-men can be considered as a group both marginal and essential for the social relations in the city of Douala. More than a socio-economic inquiry on the actors of the informal sector, this analysis states on the characteristics of the motorbike taxi-men as productors of culture and social values in their interactions with other actors in the urban situation. The motorbike-taximan’s identity stands in constant negociation on the attention to « the other » as a daily experience of a history in process and not written in advance.