Chris Mbunwe With Field Reports
King James Zerubbabel, the Southern Cameroons National Council Leader for Boyo was recently arrested and detained at the Gendarmerie Brigade for several days. This happened on the eve of his installation on August 20. Talking to The Post shortly after his release, King James, a trader by profession, said his ordeal started on August 18, which was the local Belo Market day.
"After selling my goods I was waiting for a car to take me to Fundong in a nearby drinking spot where I took a soft drink. To my surprise, gendarmes came in and seized some SCNC literature which I was distributing."
He said gendarmes bundled him into their van and their boss interrogated him. "He told me that SCNC is an illegal organisation and as such, putting on the SCNC T-shirt as I did was unlawful." He was then given a sheet of paper to write a statement.
"I told them I could not write without my reading glasses since my bag containing the glasses and my merchandise were at the motor park where I was arrested" Angered by this statement, King Zerrubabel said the gendarmes stripped him naked and threw him back into the cell.
When he was released, Mr. Zerrubabel said he rushed to Belo and discovered that all his goods had been stolen. On his return to Fundong, he was re-arrested and detained until an SCNC legal Counsel that was dispatched from Bamenda pleaded for him to be released on bail. "I was told to appear in court on September 12 in Fundong."
In a related story, the Secretary of the Local Government Area of the SCNC in Bamenda, Augustine Akuma Tangie, was on August 29, at about 5 pm arrested, tortured and detained by gendarmes of Brigade Ter at Ntarinkon.
"My crime was that I wore an SCNC fez cap and went to brigade Ter to check on a friend who was detained there. FCFA 4000, SCNC membership cards and an anthem booklet I had were all seized." However, Akuma was released the following morning without charge.
MY FATHERLAND
A hill of untruth;
Trumped up at the vale of an unsightly mind,
To stall the rise of the unfailing troth,
Yet
Not enough water to drown my people.
My fatherland survives,
Moving slowly but cometh surely.
Lo! The twits void of sight,
Supping at the vampires’ table,
bleeding dry the land of our fathers.
Yet
Not enough chiefs to trade the land.
My fatherland’s founded,
Looking lowly but standeth highly.
A gang of tyrants
Humming loud and long to veer the throne of old,
With force, a size untold,
Yet,
Not enough trees to hang my people.
My fatherland’s forever,
Written clearly but read hardly.
Posted by: Kabuin K. Carl | Saturday, 17 September 2005 at 11:20 AM