A Taste of Home, Thousands of Miles Away: How One Entrepreneur Is Connecting Cameroon’s Diaspora to Its Roots

For many Cameroonians living thousands of kilometres from home, missing Cameroon can show up in surprisingly ordinary ways.

It could be the craving for a particular meal prepared with ingredients that do not quite taste the same when substituted abroad. It could be traditional clothing for a wedding, a family celebration or cultural event. Or simply an item from home that carries a familiarity difficult to reproduce elsewhere.

For some, getting those things from Cameroon to Europe can become an expensive and complicated exercise.

Collette Okole saw that problem — and decided there was a business opportunity in solving it.

Today, she is the founder and CEO of Eagle Eye Logistics, a UK-based freight company connecting Cameroon with the United Kingdom and parts of Europe.

But the idea, she says, grew out of her own experience.

Seeing a gap between Cameroon and its diaspora

Okole already had a professional connection to logistics. She holds a degree in the field and says her first exposure to the industry came through oil and gas logistics. Later, while studying for a master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy, she also explored the movement of renewable energy resources and materials.

What eventually pushed her towards building her own logistics company, however, was something much closer to home.

She regularly purchased products from Nigeria and noticed how comparatively easy it was to find services capable of moving goods between Nigeria and the UK.

Cameroon was different.

“When I looked into sending goods from Cameroon to the UK, I realised that there were very few options, and the available services were often extremely expensive,” Okole told MMI.

For Cameroonians abroad, she said, the difficulty was not merely about transporting parcels.

It could affect access to food, traditional attire, cultural products and other items that help people maintain a connection with home.

“I saw an opportunity to provide a more affordable and reliable service that would allow Cameroonians to stay connected to home by bringing their goods, culture and heritage from Cameroon to the UK,” she said.

That idea became Eagle Eye Logistics.

The company is registered in the UK as Eagle Eye Logistics International Ltd, company number 15754618. Companies House records list Okole as an active director, appointed on June 1, 2024.

A mother, her daughters and the first 100kg

The company’s beginnings were very much a family affair.

Okole says she started Eagle Eye with her daughters, first developing the brand, advertising the service and creating its identity.

Faith also played an important role in the journey.

She says the name “Eagle Eye” emerged through prayer as she searched for something that reflected both her Christian faith and the vision she had for the company.

Even the logo carries a family story.

Okole envisioned the head of an eagle carrying a parcel in its beak. Her younger daughter, who enjoys drawing and design and is now an architect, translated that idea into the company’s logo.

The original plan was to launch on June 30, 2024.

Instead, Okole decided to begin on June 1.

What happened next remains one of the moments she remembers most clearly.

On the company’s first day, she says Eagle Eye secured 100 kilograms of goods — the minimum quantity it needed for its flight shipment at the time.

For Okole, it was confirmation that the idea she had spent time developing could actually work.

Two years later, she says the operation now serves roughly 30 to 60 customers during a typical shipment cycle, with freight leaving approximately every two weeks.

Eagle Eye’s current website also publishes fortnightly Cameroon freight dates, including departures scheduled for August, September and October 2026.

Food makes up most of the journey home

Although Eagle Eye transports clothing, cultural attire, personal effects and other permissible goods, Okole says approximately 70% of what customers send is food.

That figure tells another story about the diaspora.

Cameroon shares several ingredients with neighbouring countries, particularly Nigeria, whose food products are widely available in many British African shops.

But shared ingredients do not necessarily mean interchangeable cuisines.

“Cameroonian cuisine is unique, particularly in the way we prepare and combine our ingredients,” Okole said.

For her, helping Cameroonians access those products is therefore about more than satisfying a craving.

It is also about maintaining identity.

That philosophy eventually gave birth to a second business.

From freight to Sienna’s Roots

As Eagle Eye grew, Okole noticed another challenge.

Some customers living abroad sent money to relatives or acquaintances in Cameroon to shop for food and other products on their behalf.

But not everyone had someone they could rely upon, and some customers complained that what eventually arrived did not always appear to reflect the amount of money they had spent.

Eagle Eye began offering a shopping service.

The company would purchase items in Cameroon on behalf of customers and arrange for them to be transported to Britain.

Demand for Cameroonian food eventually led to the creation of Sienna’s Roots, a sister business focused on making authentic Cameroonian products more accessible abroad.

Its name is perhaps one of the most personal aspects of Okole’s business story.

Sienna is her younger daughter, who was born in the UK.

Okole says she wanted the brand to represent something larger than selling food: the idea that children born outside Cameroon can still understand and retain a connection to their heritage.

The logo features Sienna alongside roots, while the brand carries the slogan “Proud Pure Cameroonian.”

For Okole, it represents a message to a generation growing up outside the country: where you are born does not have to erase where you come from.

Why Limbe?

Eagle Eye’s Cameroon operations are based in Limbe, in the Southwest Region, where the company has a local team and manager.

That choice, Okole says, was deliberate.

Much of Cameroon’s commercial activity is traditionally concentrated around Douala and Yaoundé. She wanted the business to create opportunities elsewhere, particularly in the Southwest.

“We wanted to create opportunities in the Southwest and contribute to economic activity in Limbe,” she said.

Operating from Limbe can mean additional movement of freight before goods reach their onward departure point, but Okole says the trade-off is worthwhile if the business can create employment and economic activity locally.

Because conventional street addressing remains inconsistent in parts of Cameroon, the company says it uses identified meeting and drop-off points in different cities, with its team guiding customers on where and how to deliver their parcels.

Trying to make Cameroon-Europe freight predictable

International logistics remains far from straightforward.

Okole lists connecting flights, customs inspections, weather disruptions, airline delays and local delivery partners among the challenges Eagle Eye has encountered.

Communication can also become difficult when a parcel passes through multiple stages of an international logistics chain.

And for the customer waiting on the other end, explanations about customs or delayed flights do not necessarily reduce the anxiety of not knowing where a package is.

Okole says improving that experience remains one of the company’s priorities.

The company advertises delivery to UK addresses within a three-to-seven-working-day window and provides customers with parcel and tracking services through its website.

Its current model includes freight from Cameroon to the UK and Schengen countries every two weeks, while UK-to-Cameroon shipments operate monthly.

Okole says some shipments have reached customers considerably faster, although transit times can vary because of customs, airlines and other factors outside the company’s direct control.

A bigger ambition

Eagle Eye remains a relatively young company, but Okole’s ambition is not small.

She wants it eventually to become a logistics name recognised well beyond the Cameroon-UK corridor.

“Our long-term vision is for Eagle Eye Logistics to become a globally recognised logistics brand,” she said.

For Sienna’s Roots, the ambition is equally expansive: making authentic Cameroonian foods accessible to people in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

But beneath those global ambitions is a much simpler idea.

A Cameroonian living abroad should not have to lose access to the foods, clothing and everyday products that remind them of home simply because they crossed a border.

And a child born in Birmingham, London, Paris or elsewhere should still be able to encounter Cameroon through the tastes, objects and traditions of the family that came before them.

For Okole, that is ultimately what both businesses are attempting to transport.

Not just parcels.

A piece of home.

Eagle Eye Logistics currently operates freight services connecting Cameroon, the UK and Schengen destinations. Customers seeking information on shipment dates, permitted items and current rates can contact the company through enquiry@eagleeyelogistics.co.uk, or via its UK numbers +44 7588 311902 / +44 7473 942 589 and Cameroon numbers +237 693 439 362 / +237 676 972 507 / +237 659 838 962 / +237 620 443 211.

Eagle Eye Logistics’ slogan is: “We Deal With the Hassle Whilst You Relax.”