Up Station Mountain Club

A Journey to Yaounde (2): A Tour of The City

 

                                    Louis Egbe Mbua (originally published in Living Lights)

 

The problem was to navigate through the windingly dangerous Douala-Yaoundé Highway as was observed by the manoeuvres of the driver. We arrived at Edea at about an hour’s time after leaving Douala—and thank goodness without any incident. The African forest stood majestically in our view even just after Douala City was left behind. The share greenery that contoured the equatorial scenery was breath taking: hardwoods, shrubs and possibly other important medicinal plants could all be seen and observed as we turned and swerved.

What struck me most was the narrowness of the road. Why is this road so narrow? I tasked my conscience. At least the roads through Likomba are like Boulevards: broad to the equivalent of three cars. Is the present road up to international standards then? When we arrived at Edea, the driver stopped the vehicle for refreshments. As soon as the bus driver gently applied the brakes, a great number of Cameroonians jumped into the bus. What are they looking for? I thought. It was only minutes before I realised their seeming predicament.

 

A Journey To Yaounde (1): Cameroon O'Bosso Na Mbussa

 

Louis Egbe Mbua (originally published in Living Lights)

 

On a second visit to Cameroon this year, it won’t have been appropriate, I thought, to leave without making a sortie to Yaoundé, the Capital City of Cameroon. One had read; and heard of the accident-prone highway that links Douala, the commercial hub in the Gulf of Guinea, to the city embedded in the middle of Cameroon. Where does one board a coach to Yaoundé, I inquired. In Akwa, I was informed by old hands of the Douala gentry. There is a company located in Akwa; it is very efficient and provides express service; but you have to arrive early to catch the express service, they opined. What is the name of the Company? Guarantee was the name. How apt: I will be guaranteed a good and safe journey, I said to myself. So, early on the 25th of July 2009, I dressed up after the London business suit fashion, and found myself in the coach station in Akwa.

African Commission Landmark Ruling On Cameroon -- A Road Map To Southern Cameroons Freedom

Louis Egbe Mbua (Originally published in Living Lights)

 

As day follows night , so too does humility follows arrogance in reversibilty. For years, the Southern Cameroons people have invited the Republic of Cameroon for amicable talks as concerns the violation of thier rights. However, this has been followed by denials and other provocative insults such as "if you do not like to be in Cameroon, go somewhere else". There is an adage that one should be careful as to what one asks; for it might happen in reality. Referring to an innocent man as "an enemy of the house" is not only disingenous; but that the aggrieved man may decide to leave that house and create his own home.

There are those who always believe, erroneously, that the oppressed will remain in their abject condition for ever. However, justice is always on the corner, tailing the oppressor who violates the rights of humans. This has been the case between the Southern Cameroons peoples, also known as Anglophones, and the Republic of Cameroun people, otherwise known as Francophones in Cameroon since 1961.

 

Many a Cameroonian have always believed that the Southern Cameroons independence is an impossible dream; and that it will remain a dream forever. This is a dreadful mistake; for poetic justice usually comes most unexpectedly and very quickly. The writer is of the opinion that the ACHPR ruling in the case between the Southern Cameroons and The Republic of Cameroon has delivered the killer hammer Blow to the Cameroon Union and set Southern Cameroons firmly onto the path of independence.

 

When a man man keeps crying out for justice and insisting on fairness, they are usually rewarded. Again, it is better to engage your brother and reach an agreement on an injustice than for him to take you to court where you cannot escape retributive justice and punishment for your wrong doings. This writing will attempt to interprete the Commission's ruling in light of Southern Cameroons independence and freedom and the profound implications to Cameroon in general.

A Visit To Southern Cameroons

 

 

Louis Egbe Mbua (Originally published in Living Lights)

 

It is unclear how a people so subjected to the vestiges of totalitarian colonial relics manage to rise up to the challenge so as to compete in a world of discrimination and authoritarian socio-political dogma. The matter is sometimes so worrying that many throw their hats into the fighting ring; throw their hands in the air and surrender. Others so oppressed, make a decision to join the oppressor; not out of malice but out of desperation.  Apparently, there is a kind of schadenfreude psychological factor to this effect. This, the writer does not believe, is down to the Stockholm Syndrome, whereby the captured unwittingly falls in love with the kidnapper. More to it, one believes, is a search for the meaning of all the oppression and why it occurs in the first place; and an identity finder on a second count. Perhaps, one may suppose, that the victims are in want of recognition as an equal to the coloniser; so decide to join the colonist to further oppress their own people in search of equality -- if not superiority in relation to the colonised. In due course it may be inferred that the pretender and the oppressor reach an uneasy agreement, fuse their incompatible and dissonant aims, objectives and wants; and then subject the entire population to poverty, want, disease, hunger and destitution to realise these wants.

 

On the other hand, there are a few good men on both sides of the Treaty of Doom, a pact with the adversary of the people, who have taken upon themselves to do what is right and just so that advancement of all the people is realised. This brings us to the most difficult of questions: can a few good men deliver the people from bondage or does it have to include the entire oppressed to provide the final hammer blow to unbar the wheels of the vehicle to the ultimate precipice? This is the Cameroon Anglophone story, in particular, and the Cameroon problem in general: from a practical and realistic eye witness account.

Stagnation In Francophone Cameroon

 

Louis Egbe Mbua (Originally published in Living Lights)

 

It is a strange twist of fate: how privilege can turn into disaster; how the privileged elite may be so wrong headedly spoilt -- such a pity. A touch down at the Douala Airport in Cameroon reinforces beliefs that what is served on a platter of gold may turn out to be a bitter pill that may not be swallowed by hard-working citizens. For almost half a century, the elite of this part of Cameroon have held sway in Power. Ahmadou Ahidjo from Garoua came; did his own part of development and left. Monsieur Paul Biya, from Mvomeka, again from French-Speaking Cameroon also arrived, did little or nothing and has never left after 27 years. The English-Speaking Cameroon on the West Bank of the River Mungo has not had a look in. Rather, their human and natural resources have been looted, supposedly going to develop Douala, Edea, Ebolowa, Garoua all in La Republique du Cameroun; so the story goes. Or is it?

 

The House of Commons Debate on Cameroon and Zimbabwe: Part 2

Louis Egbe Mbua (Originally published, in four parts, 7 May 2008, in Living Lights)

These debates took place in the British House of Commons, Westminster, London,  on the 22 April 2008 in Committee Room 15.  An eye-witness account.

Ms Tanje, the Cameroonian activist, had just finished her eloquently crafted speech when a familiar ding dong sound broke the controlled applause that went after the well intentioned delivery. As I studied the harmonics of the sound with keen interest, it dawned on me that we had reached the top of the hour; and so Big Ben was striking. It struck seven times immediately after which Hon. Corbyn MP began his speech on Elections and Democracy in Africa.

FrancAfrique Dans L'Afrique: The Old Power Generation (1)

 

Louis Egbe Mbua

Originally published in Living Lights

If we put it that a true and responsible government will exit power by the ballot box rather than recycling old hands tainted with their corrupt practices, then the regime of Mr. Paul Biya is a disgrace. For close to twenty seven years he has been peddling with the lives of the Cameroonian people with his strange and "resurrection" brand of tribal politics  geared towards pleasing the colonial master, France, while maintaining an incompetent regime; a justification which no man of reason can put pen to paper. For several years, he has been deluding himself with one discredited cabinet reshuffle after another with an apparently warped view that the country will change by some enchantment from Le Grand Sorcier; and a magic wand.

In retrospect, his immature dictatorial regime has dragged the country into a league of unimaginable beggary. Since Mr. Biya came to power in 1982, he has been a dependent of the IMF for handouts and cut-throat loans, fraudulent privatisation of the country's patrimony, such as the Tole Tea Estate, with dreadful results; and which the meagre funds generated are again cyclically embezzled by gangs of national thieves over the years.

FrancAfrique Sans L'Afrique: The Old Power Generation

 

Louis Egbe Mbua

Originally published in Living Lights

When I was a boy, I used to imagine that people in power never left until President Ahidjo of Cameroon resigned suddenly in 1982. This completely changed my perception of big power players. Ahidjo, although a dictator in his time, was wise in some respects: he knew that he was only mortal; and that having presided over a new country from independence, he must have made powerful enemies: nationally and internationally. This writer believes that this simple philosophical thought by Ahidjo must have provoked his sudden resignation. Furthermore, ill health while in power has proven time again that it is an omen to point to the man in power to pack up his bags and leave. Ahidjo left behind a generation of men in power, who continue to wield the same power after 27 years. If we interpolate their total cumulative years in power, and assuming that most of them were with Ahidjo since 1960, then we must reach the conclusion that their time to go is up. This applied to Bongo of Gabon, Eyadema of Togo and Felix Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, the colossus of FrancAfrique.

President Obama And Africa

Louis Egbe Mbua

 This article was originally published 8 December 2008 in Living Lights

So far, President–Elect Barack Obama has been tight-lipped about his African Policy he is to follow nor has he attempted even to define them through an aide. Whether this is a wise strategy or not is open to debate. But when one watches helplessly, from the sidelines, as the head-strong octogenarian Robert “Bob” Mugabe, a man who used to command international respect as an African statesman, being ridiculed in the Western press: and himself refusing to go quietly for the sake of his country, the lack of policy statement by Obama seems unappealing.

One should not, in any circumstance, expect Obama to treat Africa differently from the rest of the world; but at the same time one expects fairness as he represents the superpower of the world. Consequently, it was right for Obama to come out directly against the brutally savage attacks on civilians by deranged religious terrorists in Mumbai, India last month; and his arguments put forward to support his proposed continuance of the “war on terror” against those who “come against America”. While it would be interesting to “wait and see” how his policies unfold, it is a matter of concern and urgency that one should carry out an analysis of the situation on the ground; which may serve as a guide on what problems need fixing in Africa.

The problem in Africa are two folds: Mass incompetence that has wrecked havoc on the economic, political and social front -- dragging the entire continent several decades back -- eroding some of the gains made after independence; and economic paralysis, the latter dependent or independent upon the former, further depending on the school of thought in question. This surreptitiously malevolent incompetence has permeated the entire civil life of the continent; and as a result this malaise must be the first vice that has to be eradicated in the continent since an incompetent continent cannot compete in the international scene or even against itself.

Chariot of the Gods and the Den of Thieves

Louis Egbe Mbua

Originally published in Living Lights

When the Carthaginian, Hanno, arrived the Gulf of Guinea in about 600 BC, he recorded a frightfully amazing scene while he was at sea. There have been disputes as to exactly where he actually stood to witness the present day Mount Fako, Cameroon, erupting, pouring lava into the sea. It was surely not in Buea or even Victoria, Cameroon, as the peak of this volcanic giant cannot be seen from these locations since they are part of the Mountain. As Equatorial Guinea could be seen at any vantage point from these cities and coastal areas in Cameroon, one must assume that a view from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, would reveal the power of this Mountain; and that the most likely location of Hanno's observation of lava pouring into the Atlantic ocean was just off Malabo's waters.

The Origins of Creation and the Bantus: Part 2

Louis Egbe Mbua

Living Lights are of the opinion that a diversified opinionated society is the vital ingredient to the advancement of that community. In March, this year, a debate happened amongst Cameroonians, in camnetwork, as to the validity of Darwin’s theories of evolution; and which was published, partly, in the same month, in this Forum. It is the opinion of this writer that the ideas posed were of a high level; and that this should be circulated to the wider public as it seems that these varied opinions have wider implications than would be imagined in everyday assumptions of life. Publishing ideas directly connected to other people is a daunting task. However, one is hard-pressed: choosing between what the wider public ought to know; and what one may consider an information resource bordering on the irrelevance. More so, at a time of world integration when men and women are not confined to their ancestral communalities and tribal clans; and when every man, woman and child have a reasonable access to information in this day and age of technological revolution, this is of relevance. Technological revolution on its own is not new. Different periods of the epic of world existence have seen their own strides of advances. Yet, what is presented here is of a different and extraordinary era. Although the world may or may not recognise its significance, Living Lights are fully convinced that such dispatches of knowledge may be adventitious to human advancement.

20th May Cameroon: The Age of Reason and Unreason

Louis Egbe Mbua

 

Originally published in Living Lights 

It crossed my mind that the exact reasons for the formulation of this day in Cameroon nationhood has not been fully examined with a very fine lens. This day is a blessing to a few elite Cameroonians, a mixed blessing for a majority Cameroonians and a great political, social and economic misfortune and disaster for a significant minority. The three groups at play here are: the Cameroon elite – this includes groups from both the English-speaking (Southern Cameroons or Federated State of West Cameroon) and French Speaking (La Republique du Cameroun or Federated State of East Cameroon.) regions; the gross majority of the Cameroon masses who are French-Speaking from La Republique du Cameroun; and the final unfortunate English-speaking Cameroonians from minority Southern Cameroons. In between these fundamental groups are other tribal geopolitical factors which will not be examined here: as it is of minor significance in relation to the creation of The Federated States of the Cameroons on the 1st of October 1961.

Biofuels are the New Black Gold: Environmental Concerns

Louis Egbe Mbua

As we live in the Biosphere, so too must we act responsibly in the case of natural resources. biofuel technology, production and distribution is no different in this respect. As the fuel is obtained from plant, we must be sure that we do not destroy the same environment that provides the raw material for this commodity. Furthermore, humans alone do not inhabit the earth nor can we live here without the same plants that we are discussing. Additionally, we are aware that certain animal species that depend on plants and the forest for habitation and food supplies are now endangered.