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In Cameroun, the “major structuring projects for emergence” aim to consolidate the regime of President Paul Biya. However, they also represent new opportunities for salaried employment under contract in a country marked by their scarcity. Based on the accounts of Cameroonian workers at the Lom Pangar dam, this article reports on describes the tension between the advantages of a stable salaried employment and the reality of work in this Chinese enclave, marked by difficult working conditions, low wages, and the maintenance of a high level of job insecurity. This tension is reinforced by a “racial” organization of work. Indeed, whatever the function of Cameroonian employees (laborers, machine operators, technicians, engineers), they are always in an inferior position compared to the Chinese employees. Knowing that in a Chinese construction site in Africa, expatriate Chinese workers represent between 15 and 25 % of the workforce depending on the phase of the project, almost every Cameroonian employee has a direct Chinese boss. Therefore, if the strikes denounce the living and working conditions on the site, the stories we have collected often refer to the conflicts, fights, and frustrations generated by this racial organization of work.