By Emmanuel Konde
The Problem in Perspective
I was only a boy when the momentous social transformations I am about to narrate were initiated in Victoria. Granted, I cannot recollect every detail of what I observed but my inability to recollect these details cannot stop me from chronicling these events. There is a lot of confusion out there being peddled by obstructionists and separatists. And I think this is the historical juncture at which to narrate these facts. I will, therefore, attempt to zero-in only on those aspects that I can still visualize with clarity, and try to present at least some outlines that can be filled by other Victoria boys and girls who witnessed them.
The history of the making of our country is too important to be left to ideologues and separatists whose sole purpose is to rent asunder what our forebears had made with conviction, their sweat, and blood. Southern Cameroons on the eve of reunification was backward, very backward. This backwardness could not have been lost to the Francophones of the independent Republic of Cameroon with whom we re-united to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. I am convinced that the Francophones saw and treated Anglophones as small brothers because of the low levels of educational, economic, and political standards that prevailed in West Cameroon in the immediate post-reunification years.
Many have painted a rosy picture of an advanced West Cameroon civilization that outpaced developments in East Cameroon. Permit me to state categorically that nothing of the sort existed. As a schoolboy at Presbyterian Boys School in Victoria, I spent most of my holidays in Douala and can attest that that Francophone city was about 100 years ahead of my beloved Victoria. Reunification speeded up the social, economic, and political developments of English-speaking Cameroon but the territory lost some key industries as well. One of the areas of analysis where Anglophone scholarship on the marginalization of English-speaking Cameroon has attained its highest level of sophistication is in the economy. I will return to that on a later date.
Although a lot has changed ever since, it should be borne in mind that habits are easier formed than eradicated. The Francophones rescued West Cameroon from Igbo depredation; saw West Cameroonians as incapable of administering the state, and thus undertook to transform the entire country to ensure that developments everywhere were running apace. It should surprise none whatsoever that Foncha and his entire entourage of Anglophone political elite gleefully moved to Yaounde in 1965, leaving foggy and dreary Buea to the political chaff. Resistance to this effort in English-speaking Cameroon only began in 1984-1985, nearly 25 years after the experiment was initiated, with Gorji Dinka at the helm. Resistance came too late, after the newly contrived state structures of unified Cameroon had ossified. Rather than advocate separatism, we should embark on studying and understanding the real history, and use that knowledge to educate our onetime big brothers to make them understand that we have come of age.
How the Igbo Came to Dominate Victoria
The easily identifiable variables that probably contributed to handicapping the government of West Cameroon initially included corruption, ineptitude of the indigenes resulting from their lack of requisite education and skills, and its dependence on Nigerians and other foreigners for administering both the public and private sectors. The professional and skilled labor force in West Cameroon was dominated by foreigners principally from Nigeria and Ghana, with the Igbo contributing the lion’s share. These constituted the majority in the civil service, council, tax collecting, accounting, some of the leading lawyers, etc., in Victoria. Igbo presence in Victoria permeated nearly every aspect of life, so much that many of us did not consider them foreigners in detribalized Victoria.
Some may choose to call it “Igbo domination”; I have called it “Igbo depredation and domination” because it contained elements of both, which extended into nearly every sphere of the public and private institutions of Southern Cameroons, and was carried into the civil service, business, and other professions of West Cameroon in the immediate post-reunification years. The origins of this domination can be traced back to the close of the First World War when the combined Allied forces of Britain and France seized German Kamerun.
Following the division of Kamerun between the victorious allies, with France assuming control of four-fifths of the eastern part of the territory and Britain one-fifth of the western part, the need for recruiting qualified personnel to man the civil service of the newly acquired British Southern Cameroons suddenly intruded itself. Since British Cameroons was obviously decrepit of educated people for the new bureaucracy, the British had no other recourse but to draw such personnel from neighboring Nigeria and its other major West African colony of Ghana. The Igbo came to dominate the ranks of immigrants in Victoria because of the proximity of Eastern Nigeria to Southern Cameroons and the central role Victoria played in the economy.
To be sure, the British were not inventing the use of migrant skilled labor in Cameroon; they were simply reproducing what our German colonizers had done before them, and an old practice the British had themselves set in motion in East Africa and South Africa where Indians were imported to help manage the economies of their colonies.
With the middle and lower level clerks from Nigeria the traders, teachers, and those who worked in the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), British-owned Standard and Barclay’s banks, accounting firms, and other businesses, came. For good or ill, the majority of Africans who serviced the government of British Southern Cameroons, its schools, and British companies and shops, were Nigerians of whom the Igbo constituted a majority. On the heels of these blue collar workers came the Igbo merchants, the combined weight of these groups amounted to the “Nigerianization” of British Southern Cameroons. Thus came into play the air of importance and superiority with which the educated Igbo carried themselves vis-à-vis Southern Cameroonians, and which their Igbo merchant tribesmen emulated and employed to the task of exploiting our people.
The Igbo, though foreigners in British Southern Cameroons, knew that they were more advanced than the indigenous peoples by virtue of their status as African clerks in the service of European colonialism. British Southern Cameroons, for all intents and purposes became, in the eyes of the supposedly “superior” Igbo, their colony. The new ordering of society placed the British at the top of the social hierarchy, second came the African expatriates led by the Igbo, and the indigenous population was at the bottom. Perhaps a better way to posit this new social order, which I believe was the way the British and Nigerians understood it, is to classify the three groups as follows: (1) the British as masters of Southern Cameroons, (2) the Nigerians as managers of the colonial estate of Southern Cameroons, and (3) the locals as laborers.
The history of Southern Cameroons under British rule reveals that only a small number of the indigenous population had attained a level of education and enlightenment comparable to that of the African expatriates brought by the British to lord over the territory. This debilitating state of affairs would be effectively altered after reunification in 1961, with the coming first of the Price Control Officers (PCOs), and second the Gendarmerie National. I have recounted the respite from Igbo economic depredation that the PCOs brought to West Cameroonians in the mid-1960s. Not long after the work of the PCOs came a new kind of police force, hitherto absent in West Cameroon known as the Gendarmes. It was the Gendarmes who completed the “de-Nigerianization” of West Cameroon begun by the PCOs.
The Abriba-Okrika Interregnum
By the late-1960s a new wave Igbo merchants specializing in the importation of second hand goods came to Victoria. They were referred to as Abiriba or Abriba. The Abriba entered Victoria, the hub of Anglophone civilization, when the town was still bustling with thriving businesses. Victoria could boast of a deep-sea port in Bota, R & W King, Socopao, Printania, Powercam, P.W.D., the Marketing Board, Ports Authority, CDC and a vast array of retail outfits managed by mainly Igbo merchants.
A long tradition of superiority that had simmered into the consciousness of particularly the Igbo of Victoria seems to have engendered in them a sense of invincibility, to which the Abriba added a new kind of brazenness. There was no mistaking what the Abriba had come to accomplish in Victoria, They had come to conquer the town, and despoil our young girls and women. To this task they unleashed their energies and skills, which ultimately emasculated the indigenous adult male population of Victoria.
The Abriba were businessmen who entered Victoria at a most opportune time for business. Their business of importing secondhand clothing, bags, shoes, and belts was exclusively theirs except for one Cameroonian named Mr. Etuka. Even as a child I could not understand how wholesaling bales and retailing items of secondhand goods could bring such great wealth to the Abriba. Among the Abriba was one who stood out: his name was Bob Agbayi Aba, the few who owned cars. The second level of Abriba merchants were composed of younger men who rode motorcycles. Both the ring leaders and their lackeys were just as bad as the fraudulent business they conducted in Victoria.
After some years of importing bales of clothing and other items in which were stashed counterfeit Cameroon currency made abroad, the Abriba merchants became so confident of themselves that they threw caution into the air. All the while the forces of law and order in West Cameroon did not or could not stop the Abriba scheme. Bedeviled by corruption, even the much feared West Cameroon Mobile Police could not stop the Abriba fraud. It is possible that reports of Abriba activities in Victoria went sent to Yaounde.
The Abriba merchants rented rooms from family homes with young girls and women. Since their wealth was acquired fraudulently through the importation counterfeit Cameroon currency, the Abriba used the money fraudulently as well. The rooms and houses they rented from local Cameroonians were in some cases renovated and in all cases well furnished and transformed into brothels where our young sisters were sexually-exploited. I had often herd of money being evil; I observed firsthand how money could transform good girls into bad ones, and strict parents into people who accommodated evil.
In all of Victoria, the Abriba came to assume a position of moneyed-royalty. They seemed to possess everything, and everything, especially our sisters, gravitated towards the Abriba. The strategy of corruption the Abriba adopted to despoil our women was an overt display of cash, which they wore in the wrist bands of their watches. The money they carried with them was almost always new currency. If I recollect accurately, the Abriba would approach beautiful girls on the streets of Victoria and suddenly flash 5,000 francs or 10,000 francs at them. The power of the lure of big money flashed in the face of a girl who had never seen, let alone hold 500 francs in 1966, was so powerful that it melted away her resistance to strangers. The next thing you saw was the girl either entering a car or mounting a motorcycle to be transported to the theatre of operation.
Promiscuity, encouraged by money, was introduced in Victoria among our sisters by the Abriba, Igbo foreigners from Nigeria. It was a very humiliating experience for me, even in my boyhood. I wonder how our fathers felt. The West Cameroon government proved incapable of arresting the moral decline of Victoria. It could do nothing perhaps because the forces of law and order were receiving kick-backs from the Abriba and thus felt compelled not to intervene to stop the wholesale corruption of our girls and young women. Few of our women were spared by the Abriba, who brought this source of great shame to my people.
Gendarmerie Dislodge the Abriba
I do not recollect exactly when the Gendarmes were introduced to West Cameroon. If my memory serves me right, this new force of law and order came to Victoria in the mid-1960s or thereabout. It was made up of mostly young men, tall and elegant, in their twenties, and always elegantly adorned in their well-iron khakis as the West Cameroon Inspector of Motor Vehicles, Mr. Ekonde, once wore. Whether the Gendarmes came to Victoria as part of the administrative reorganization of the federal system, or in response to the complaints about Abriba despoliation of our women is not clear to me. But like the PCOs who preceded them, the Gendarmes undertook a massive investigation of Abriba activities in Victoria that resulted in many arrests and complete dislodging of their fraudulent outfit.
Sometime between 1968 and 1971, a series of highly publicized investigations were initiated in Victoria involving rumors of arms importation through the Victoria sea port by a prominent businessman, and renting of importation licenses by holders of the permits to unauthorized importers. Investigators were dispatched by the federal government from Yaounde and some startling discoveries were made that shook our small town. These discoveries may have influenced the discontinuance of the use of the Victoria sea port, something that many who spew forth ignorance on this forum do not know.
My suspicion is that something unseemly about the business practices of the Abriba, including currency found in bales that were supposedly meant for used clothing and shoes and belts were discovered. This discovery ultimately led to suspension of the importation licenses of Abriba businessmen, seizure of their properties, imprisonment of some, and the expulsion of others. Thus the Gendarmerie from East Cameroon halted the moral decline of Victoria and restored the dignity of my people.
Konde is a xenophobic and tribalistic piece of shit. Ungrateful french cameroons immigre. Frogs save Southern Cameroonians?
Posted by: kalu | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 04:20 PM
Southern Cameroonians did not need gendarmes to root out corruption from its port city. La republique had nothing to teach us in the matter of corruption and probity, because it was and remains a deeply corrupt nation.
Since you were so avidly keeping up with matters, you were surely aware of the West Cameroon Commissions of Inquiry, which successfully rooted out corruption in the West Cameroon civil service and parastatals. There has never been any similar exercise in Cameroun. The events which you are describing would similarly been handled in a legal way by the judiciary of West Cameroon.
The militarization of the judicial process was conducted by la republique's proconsul JC Ngoh and his gendarmes and these events were a pretext for pushing annexation. Closure of the Victoria port was not because of what you describe. Again, it was a pretext for decolonization. Ongoing corruption and prostitution in Douala port made what was happening in Victoria look like child's play. All the events that you describe, which you are now using to revise history were simply used as an excuse to accelerate the grand plan to annex the Southern Cameroons.
Posted by: Ma Mary | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 05:45 PM
In the West Cameroon days, the term used in public order administration was "Peace Officers." For there was a peace to keep.
Upon the invasion of the French-trained black hands from la Republique du Cameroun, the usage became "Officers of Law and Order". They brought their disorder and the French-trained thugs with them to "maintain" their disorder.
These are two mindsets that are irreconciable!
But in the final analysis, I have so much pity for Africans who became colonized by France; there seems to be no hope for them in the future: presidents for life at the beck and call of France, poverty, misery, and their primitive medieval political mindset is a nightmare for the entire continent.
As for the author, I guess, the Up Station Mountain Club is making room for our own Rush Limbaughs, Sean Hannitys and Glen Becks of FOX NEWS.
Posted by: TAGRO | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 06:45 PM
Ma Mary, thanks for this brilliant rebuttal. This gives meaning to the warning that if you don't tell/write your history someone else will, and you will not recognize yourself in that version.
Thanks once again
Posted by: Molua | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 07:09 PM
The author of this article does not seem to know any history of Southern Cameroon at all. If he does not know that Southern Cameroon had a self governing legislative assembly at least three years before la Republique, then what political institutions is he talking about? If he does not know that the presence of thousands of Igbos was as a result that Southern Cameroons was for convenience sake administered from Eastern Nigeria by the British colonial masters, then what is he talking about. If he can adore Gendarmes and praise them for liberating Victoria, then his idea of history must remain very questionable.Because he crossed to Douala and apparently saw a larger city than Victoria to him means that there was no civilization in Victoria tells of his own stupidity and historical ignorance. Poor boy, I hope you have the courage to learn more about the history you are attempting to write. If French Cameroon was such a developed place intellectually, economically and politically, how does he explain the mass movement of those citizens of French Cameroon who fled and settled in Victoria, Kumba etc.
Posted by: Timothy Mbeseha | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 09:57 PM
No one has a monopoly over history. Its a subject I have always have misgivings about, because it is full of distortions to suit a particular viewpoint. Dispute his version with yours, not just empty denials. I can tell you a lot more about the gendarmes and their exploits vis-a-vis the Igbos and you will have the same rendition.
Posted by: Che Sunday | Friday, 29 May 2009 at 12:15 AM
Response to Tagro:
Up Station Mountain Club is an open blogging forum ie if you have opinions and can write English. All you need do is apply, and the keys of the kingdom will be delivered to you to blog away. If your opinions are not being represented here, by all means apply.
Some have complained about not being able to post comments sometimes. Up Station Mountain Club does not censor comments. We are interrogating our server hosts to find out why that sometimes happens. We assure you, it is technical and has nothing to do with us.
Posted by: Web Master | Friday, 29 May 2009 at 02:49 AM
In those days West Cameroon was a strange place. On the one hand you had the West Cameroon and its police and judiciary, that respected individual rights, habeus corpus, innocent until proven guilty and so on. The law worked slowly but in a way that the rights of people were respected. There is little doubt that Bob and his cohorts would have been brought to book under that system. There would have been no torture in order to achieve this. The vigorous Victoria free press with newspapers such as Cameroon Times and Cameroon Outlook were already conducting investigative reports on the people concerned. That is how a free society works.
There was a certain jingoistic element in Victoria that wanted the "bad" Igbo people punished without due process. Those simplistic minds were happy to see the boys from la republique who had no regard for due process. They assaulted people, seized property and arrested people without warrants. Members of the same community who accepted such jungle justice from the gendarmes against the "bad Igbos" were soon sitting on the wet ground in so "calley calleys" organized by these same people Mr Konde calls saviors. Hitherto free Southern Cameroonians were now called dirty names, beaten with rifle butts and truncheons, women were raped and people were required to carry passes as if they were in South Africa. Did you know that to move from Victoria to Kumba or Muyuka, you had to go to one of these savior's offices and get a pass? Just like our fellow Bantus in South Africa. It is annoying when somebody born in Victoria comes here to distort the truth, a professional historian performing malpractice. We are taught in Common Law that the way the most despicable person is treated should be at the highest standard of law and fairness. That is because, if you make short cuts to "justice" for Bob the crook and beat him and torture him, it is only a matter of time before they will disregard your own civil rights. That is what happened to us.
If I remember well, a gendarme called Bouba, a handsome Fulani man about town, was bribed by Bob with a motorcycle and what passed in those days for a lot of money. The newspapers investigated and reported on the story. I hope someday, someone finds the time to digitize the copies of those old newspapers. Konde knows this story very well, about how his gendarme heroes were successfully corrupted by Bob. No West Cameroon police man would ever have shamelessly ridden around town picking up girls with a Honda motorcycle obtained through bribery. In our culture, bribery was a shameful thing which was done in hiding. Gendarme heroes OPENLY AND SHAMELESSLY put a cup on the ground for people to drop bribes, all the while drinking on the job.
This would be a good time to read Dr Endeley's (a real hero's) prediction about life with French Cameroun which all came to pass.
The allegations of our demise is premature and mistaken.
Please, note that not on one instance did I mention Bob's tribe or ethnicity. The law should punish criminals, not tear down entire ethnic groups including the innocent. The victimization of Igbos which started at that time, continues until today, for no good reason. I want to add that this particular author has used degrading language consistently to characterize so called "graffi" people. His record of Rwanda style ethnic baiting should be exposed. Those who have copies of his rants in camnet and other similar places should post them here for all to see.
Posted by: Mola Mbella | Friday, 29 May 2009 at 02:08 PM
Web Master-
I am sure you understand that I welcome the opinions of people like Mr Konde. And as a matter of fact I believe opinions like his are required in Up Station Mountain Club, just as an outfit like FOX NEWS that I referenced earlier is very much needed in the American media landscape.
Just look at what Mola Mbella has done with it.
PS: I just may take you up on that offer and get the keys.
Posted by: TAGRO | Friday, 29 May 2009 at 02:40 PM
Tagro:
We would like to think about the service we provide to be more like CSPAN than Fox News. Fox News promotes a certain variety of political opinion. CSPAN opens up to all shades of opinion. It does not editorialize on people's opinions. We do not correct your scripts. We are more concerned about correct formating than in what you say. We leave that to your readers, who we are determined not to censor in any way. Your readers are very opinionated, many are well informed, so they will give you a lot of grief for controversial opinions. As we say, Man No Run. Our objective this year is to run at least 10 new articles a day.
This note is addressed to Tagro but it is for the information of all readers and potential bloggers. Remember, if you have a blog already, you may use this facility to attract attention to your unique efforts.
Posted by: Web Master | Friday, 29 May 2009 at 05:21 PM
KONDE THE CIVILIZER OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONIANS
Konde affirms that Republic of Cameroun had a superior civilization than Southern Cameroons. That is absurd on its face, and a disturbing statement by an African scholar because this thought is coming from a colonial Eurocentric place. It seems as if this professor is channeling the pronouncements of his wannabe French relatives from the other side who had been brainwashed into believing France's self imposed "civilizing" mission to Africa. We used to laugh at those peacocks from French Cameroun who used to call France their "home" with a straight face. Consistent in these writings is the tone of lecturing Southern Cameroonians from on high. I suppose the little Bassa fiefdom in Sonara is part of that civilizing mission. He really thinks it is mission accompli.
Posted by: Mola Mbella | Sunday, 31 May 2009 at 12:51 AM
Well, Machiavellian and oppressor woman, as you sow so shall you reap! What a miserable picture of your fictional nation! Wasteful hypocrite.
Posted by: Ras Tuge | Sunday, 31 May 2009 at 08:49 AM
Gentlmen/ ladies,
If you were in Bamenda in 1967/68 when the Igbo uprising took place, you might begin to understand where Konde is coming from.The hard times that have befallen the Igbo community in Cameroon is regretable, but it must be said that they invited a lot of that upon themselves. It was alledged that they wanted to kill one of their own who had betrayed them, a certain wealthy Mr. Gape. Their plan went south, and the police stepped in. They assaulted a police officer right inside the police station. Had the military and the gendarmes not intervened, they (the Igbo) community would have set Bamenda ablaze. Emboldened by their insolence towards the police, they started damaging this man's property. I have never seen humans beaten the way the Igbo's were beaten in Bamenda by members of the armed forces. Since then, they have never been the same. That incidence in Bamenda triggered other demonstrations across the country and were met by the same brutality. And please, to those of you on this forum whom have not been around long enough, some statements on this forum, though hard to accept, are nothing but facts. Yes, infrastructure wise, Francophone Cameroon was a distant ahead of us. When we were still wallowing in one directional highways and practicing "Mamfe come up and down" they had tarred roads. The so called Anglo-Saxon tradition left us with zero. There is nothing you can point at in West Cameroon that had an English trade-mark on as a relic of British development. They used what the Germans built, and wanted to bundle us over to Nigeria. Could you have done any better under Igbo domination? Could you have avoided bearing arms and fighting for Biafra? Think again.
Posted by: Che Sunday | Tuesday, 02 June 2009 at 07:38 PM
Konde is suffering of hunger and poverty and is desperately looking for any quick possibility to get some money from the east, we all know that, He has got no idea not at all about the west Cameroon history, I think as a little boy as he did mention above, he could not understand between civilization and the empty headed crowd he saw in Douala at the time and may be he was living with is parents at Sokolo area and could only visit Victoria during Christmass period with his mother to get for him some okrika as he did talk much about it.
Posted by: Jimpro | Wednesday, 03 June 2009 at 04:08 PM
I am only thirty, so I wouldn't know about all the history. But what I can say is this, if Konde was giving credit to the gendarme for dislodging abriba or whatever; fine. But if you(Konde) think anglophones need to bow to la replublic for giving us civilisation then you are a stooge, coward and lack self pride. You(konde) criticized decent parents for turning a blind eye to the prostitution and crime for a few francs. Sounds like you sold your self pride and dignity for "civilisation" to La republique. I would rather remain a local boy with local ideas and a way of life that was reputable than to embrace all this decay.
I took my daughter to cameroon recently on a short trip when I was stopped by gendarmes and questioned why I was traveling with a toddler without the toddler's mother even after showing documents including passports to prove that I was the father and was allowed to travel with her. These people kept me there for 2 hours not that they were trying to take me to the station to verify my claim, These fools were drinking castel, one had a rifle, and the third was already drunk and taking bribes right infront of me as other cars passed by. They told me they couldn't speak english. Konde this is the same Gendarmerie that dislodged the fraudulent Abriba's.
Posted by: anonymous | Tuesday, 16 June 2009 at 11:30 AM
Konde must have grown up in another Va. His sense of historical perspective is so warped that even the East Cameroonians will disown it instantly.
Can Konde ever remember the coming of Ahidjo to Buea in 1972 and the splendid display of Marshall chivalry by the West Cameroon Police despite the over bearing presence of gendarmes including Republican guards from La Republique?
Mr. Konde you must be suffering fro Alzheimer's Disease.
By the way who told Konde that he could after so many years of silence suddenly come up with his badly spurned tale to sell short the West Cameroon Heritage?
Posted by: Karl Kareem Jamal | Wednesday, 17 June 2009 at 11:01 AM
Gendarmes protected the "purity" of our womenfolk? What a crock, professor. Do you remember Douala come down? That was the parade of tarted up women of the night who came to Victoria and Buea and other places in between to moonlight. The point is that gendarmes could not control the activities of the womenfolk in their own country. In thriving port cities, there will always be some women–and some men–who commercialize their bodies. That is true even in restrictive Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Ma Mary | Tuesday, 28 July 2009 at 03:54 AM
The Douala come downs came because of the Tiko-Douala road. At the same time, they used the port scandal to close down the Victoria port in order to siphon Victoria port's business to Douala which was not doing too well. Corruption in Victoria port? There was unimaginable corruption going on in Douala port at the same time, but it was par for the course. Douala was hemorrhaging money through dredging and they needed Victoria and Tiko and Mamfe's revenues to close the gap. They even stole our farmer's Marketing Board surpluses. Please, do not cover the nefarious activities of the drunk, corrupt gendarmes. They only came to prop up their war torn nation by sucking our lifeblood.
Posted by: Ma Mary | Tuesday, 28 July 2009 at 04:00 AM
Does anyone have accounts of financial relations between the State of West Cameroon and the Federal Government in the period 1961 - 1972?
More precisely, how much money did West Cameroon borrow from the Ahidjo Government prior to the Referendum on 20th May 1972?
Until facts are established, no one can fairly talk of the takeover of West Cameroon institutions like the Marketing Board. I heard West Cameroon was financially insolvent and depended on subventions from Yaounde.
Posted by: Kumbaboy | Tuesday, 28 July 2009 at 10:22 AM
West Cameroon was insolvent because La Republique took over the primary tools of government revenue, such as the customs. You need to add that to whatever calculations you make. West Cameroon Marketing Board money by and large was not government money. It was farmers surplus.
Posted by: Ma Mary | Tuesday, 28 July 2009 at 01:12 PM
Dr Konde, could you please write like a Historian. I mean write a scientific piece and not what you've written here. I categorically disagree that the closing of the Va port was the result of fraudulent activities by Igbo business men. Please read your history well.
Posted by: mekondo me kpa | Sunday, 09 August 2009 at 10:47 PM
Professor. Emmanuel Konde Wrote on Camnet Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:15 pm, in response to questions on his position and support for the CPDM and Paul Biya in this Article.
It is not an important document by the way, but before people get carried away by Konde's propaganda, they should also know his position on other issues pertaining to Cameroon in general.
Please read below.
Deceptive "Herd Mentality" as Graffi Intellectualism
We begin by posting this disclaimer: not all Graffi are the same. Some are refined and others are unrefined. We acknowledge and affirm that while the majority is unrefined, crude, and uncouth like the vociferous ones who vomit filth on camnet, there are a few refined Graffi who are presently ashamed of their unrefined brethren. But, as long as the refined Graffi remain silent and conspicuously refrain from reining in their unrefined brethren because of some outdated custom and tradition so ordain, we should not be held responsible for the truths we present in exposing the unrefined. For the silence of the refined is license to the unrefined. To rupture this deafening silence, we present below five cardinal truths about the unrefined Graffi noise-makers. These truths reveal the unrefined Graffi for what they actually are in a rather graphic manner, pristine, without their pretentious garbs. Here are the raw details of the unrefined Graffi.
Truth No. 1.
We all know the unrefined Graffi, the misfits, who invariably have some kind of defect. It is either their socks, under wear, or some body part that oozes. Of such are the distinguishing characteristics of the unrefined Graffi. Beyond this deficiency in hygiene, lies and pretentiousness are their stock in trade. Mishe Fon says that he received veiled threatening calls; that some of those whose names appeared on a CPDM-USA Committees' list called him to disavow the party. Challenged to investigate the sources of the calls and to reveal the names of those who called him, the man instantly becomes mute and his false testimony fizzles….
Then, the Reverend Pastor Jonathan Awasom, an ignoramus among the ignorant and unrefined Graffi, mounts the stage. He puts on a false presence of importance, invokes United States law, and promises to report CPDM-USA militants to the U.S. Government. Konde nudges him forward to report him and him alone. We are waiting for Awasom to report Konde. But please, Pastor Awasom, cease and desist from sending Konde private emails.
In order not to be outdone, none other than Kenneth Fru Ndeh enters the fray to participate in the Graffi choir. Thus, he sings or quips: “BO SUNG aka Pa Njakri, Keep on pointing out stultifying prose when you see it. I thank you for delineating the parts which are paralogistic. Emmanuel Konde's thought patterns are specious and casual readers can easily be deceived. REASONING Vs Pseudo-REASONING. This is CAMNETWORK at it's best.†Indeed, Graffi intellectualism, configured around deception, lies, and the drowning of dissenting opinions, according to Fru Ndeh, has raised camnetwork to its very best. It is a wondrous story that only the unrefined Graffi are admitted as choristers in this Choir of the Uncouth. More wondrous is the fact that these irrational ones claim to be the “reasoning†type and Konde and other non-Graffi the “pseudo-reasoning†people.
Somewhere in the United Kingdom , another unrefined Graffi emerges. He calls himself Rexon Nting. Because he is uninformed and went through the motions of schooling but failed to cultivate the requisite niceties of an educated person, this Nting person writes his name and title as Dr. Rexon Nting, Ph.D. Nting does not know that one cannot use both the prefix "Dr." and the suffix "Ph.D." in a single swoop. And thus we have a Graffi unrefined lettered man who calls himself "Dr.- Ph.D.", that is “Doctor-Doctor of Philosophyâ€. How strange!
Truth No. 2
"Kondeism" is the new mantra of Graffi intellectualism as articulated by one Jayson Tita. To cover up their rawness, the unrefined Graffi have unleashed a spate of invective(s) against the Venerable Konde in order to drown him. They have learned that science of politics has to do with making the loudest noise. This, they have carried into the realm of intellectualism. Having concocted a unique brand of Graffi intellectualism, they have aspired to make it operational
as follows: One unrefined Graffi man writes, another coarse Graffi man sings his praise, and the merry-go-round of "herd-mentality" perpetuates and reproduces itself. Accordingly, they plunge camnet into a new Age of Graffi intellectualism that finds its expression in herd-mentality. It is primitivity at its best, this Graffi intellectualism. The purveyors are crude, uncouth and bold in their crudity. Subjects of despotic fons that they are, they pretend to discuss democracy and freedom when they are themselves are undemocratic and without freedom.
It is hard to distinguish the one from the other. Is it Mishe Fon, Jonathan Awasom, Jayson Tita, or Bo Sung? It is as if this quartet has but one head and a single lousy brain that is suspended by multiple bodies. What one writes, the other repeats, and the same idea is echoed over and over again. From all apparent indications, these men with one head/brain, by virtue of the fact that they are exchanging banter for Konde’s ideas, and for the simple fact that this event is actually taking place on a global scale, feel that they have reached the apex of their lives—something, nay, a great achievement, they never imagined possible. And so they write and write and write, and, as no response seems forthcoming, they get agitated and excited.
Truth No. 3
In their rapture of ultimate fulfillment, of that which was but a fleeting dream, their excitement builds up to a boiling point. Breathing hard and wondering why Konde is not responding, they write again, and another kinsman sings the same old primitive song. And then a chorus of Graffi praise song ensues and the excitement brews to a higher pitch, a higher level of expectation. “At last, at last,†these primitive ones proclaim, “we have arrived.†Foolhardily, they think they have entered the realm of civilization. But, in their haste to appropriate the ways and mannerisms of the civilized that are foreign to them, they jump into a cesspool of their own creation.
Now, rewind and count how many versions of "Kondeism" have been written by these scumbags. And one wonders how Foncha "trounced" the highly cultured and cosmopolitan Endeley? Think again, and think of what befell Southern Cameroons . The same tactics that the fons employed herding their ignorant subjects to the polls like cattle, and instructing them on how and for whom to vote, some primitive Graffi are likewise deploying on camnet. Give them an inch and they seek a foot; give them a foot and it is a pole that they set their sights….
Truth No. 4
Beware of these insatiable people who eat with both sides of the mouth. Some of these are CPDM by day and SDF at night. In the dark of the night, they consort and hatch diabolical plans against other Cameroonians. Cone daylight and these people smile and hug their avowed enemies. They never put all their eggs in one basket. Instead, they spread them into CPDM basket, SDF basket, UPC basket, etc., etc. Masters of deception that they are, they have fooled nearly every Cameroonian group from the days of Southern Cameroons, the Federal Republic , the United Republic , to the current Republic of Cameroon .
It is from among the Graffi that one Gorji-Dinka who claims to be President of some place called Ambazonia hails. He was President of the Cameroon Bar for six years and during his tenure he never mentioned the fictive nation of Ambazonia. No sooner was he replaced than he began to invent ideas that might propel him to grandeur. These people like titles. Just like Foncha who thought the title of Prime Minister was not big enough and wanted something bigger--Vice President, Gorji-Dinka could not settle for anything less than president. Thus, he created his Republic of Ambazonia which he rules, like his fondom in Widekum, in absentia from the United Kingdom.
Truth No. 5
Their method of operation is simply based on a double standard: one for the Graffi and the other for the rest. Consequetly, they criticize and insult President Paul Biya but never Prime Minister Philemon Yang. They criticize CPDM corruption but never SDF; they call President Biya a dictator but their fons, the ultimte despots, are projected as untouchable divinities. Even Mr. John Fru Ndi, the life-dictator of SDF, is held beyond reproach. Graffi objectivity, indeed!
We submit to you, fellow Cameroonians of goodwill, the machinations of these unrefined Graffi must be contained and contained now. How can "subjects" aspire to dominate "citizens"? How can you allow this effrontery from a backward and primitive lot that has no sense of proportion? They shout the loudest but are least informed. They employ intimidation against their betters. How can the shoulders ever rise above the head?
Master Jayson Tita has written so many "Kondeism" pieces that he might end up sending them to his friends, family members, and acquaintances as his magnum opus. And there the multiple bodies supporting one head are glued to their keyboards and computer screens waiting for salvation from Konde by way of a reply to their banter. Here comes the reply. Enjoy!
Posted by: ContryFowl | Wednesday, 19 August 2009 at 05:50 AM
Do you remember that the VA press chased Bob A and the other swindlers relentlessly and so they were the real heroes who put them out of business. There is a famous story and cartoon from one of the papers. Konde will remember which one. Bob was shown with a 5000 CFA notes folded and tucked into his wrist watch strap. He would be driving down the road and when he sees a pretty girl, he would stop and flash the money and say, "Do you care for this?" That story almost killed Bob. Back in those days 5000 CFA was the largest denomination of CFA money and it was as good as 50,000 CFA today. There were people who paid rent, ate nutritious meals and wore half decent clothes on 5000 every month. Bob was dead meat after the "Do You Care for this?" story.
Do you remember a famous gendarme, Adjudant-Chef Bouba, a handsome man about town who was bribed by Bob and his gang with some nice Japanese motorcycles? Was it Honda or Suzuki? Never mind. Once again the fearless little press of Victoria chased Bouba and his friends and plastered their pictures on headlines. What happened to Bouba? Therefore your friends the gendarmes were corrupt, bought and owned by Bob, the Abiriba counterfeit man.
The gentlemen and ladies of the press refused to be bought and that includes the young Emmanuel Konde. Emmanuel was an honorable gentleman of the press, because he was at the distribution end of the business. He made sure that the citizens of West Cameroon read these important stories and formed opinions and sought justice. The young boy Emmanuel was a bigger hero of Southern Cameroons than all those gendarmes who were just on the take. What happened to young Emmanuel, who surely ate boiled groundnuts and banga school with nice little graffi boys in Victoria. How did he become such a hater?
Posted by: VA Boy | Tuesday, 08 September 2009 at 09:06 PM
fork the gendarmes
Posted by: fanda | Friday, 11 September 2009 at 07:47 AM