Modern Intellectual Slavery: Cameroon’s Version

 By Joseph M. Ndifor

In 1998, before the National Bar Association, current U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, the only black member of that court, defiantly asserted “my right to think for myself, to refuse to have my ideas assigned to me as though I was an intellectual slave.” Now, here was an individual- vilified by the U.S. black community because of his conservative stance on a number of issues -boldly emphasizing to his liberal critics that, contrary to claims that he was a stooge for the conservatives, he was in fact a free thinker. No one appreciates the label, “intellectual slave”, and Justice Clarence Thomas, by his assertion, and whether one believed him or not, made it clear that he was not one. Unfortunately, the condition that he describes has taken deep root in Cameroon.

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For the most part, Cameroonians with college degrees like to consider themselves as “intellectuals.”   “I’m an intellectual” –often said to convey some sort of erudition-is a very hackneyed sentence among these individuals. Little wonder therefore that our universities, the citadels of higher learning, would be the ideal environment to find these intellectuals. On a closer examination though, intellectualism in Cameroon has had some cracks, worthy of some real attention.

Current sustained efforts by some Cameroonian intellectuals who, are spreading the wrong message about the current regime, and attempting to silence others-whose sole weapon against the regime is to tell the world the truth about the state of things in Cameroon- are, I’m afraid, turning these Cameroonians into modern intellectual slaves, the worst type of slavery.  It is the worst because, unlike the physical slavery that was practiced during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, modern intellectual slavery inhibits the minds of individuals, denying them the ability to think rationally.

In Cameroon, besides the ordinary citizens, some university professors-for quite some time now-have come under the spell of the regime, and have allowed themselves to be turned into intellectual slaves.

I had the privilege of studying under some of these professors during the early years of their academic careers when they would give lectures, some of which were often laced with words like “integrity, honor, and democracy”, and when they inspired their students to apply standards of morality to personal decision-making.   Today, it’s like they’ve been felled by their own lectures! I’m struck by the sort of “assignment”, coupled with rigid “instructions”, that the regime has asked them to embark on.  Their inability to question some of these orders from the regime is a conundrum to some of us who studied under them. Would any rational person, any truly free intellectual, take charge of ELECAM, the election management body, without profound reservations? Yet, we find these officials going about this task, unfazed by its past history, replete with no transparency, and telling Cameroonians that all is okay; the elections will be fair, and so on. We have become chumps in the whole wide world, and unless this bizarre game plan falters along the way, Cameroonians are in for another rude awakening.  

Overseas, some of these “intellectuals”, also attached to academic institutions, have even gone so far as to become rabble rousers for the regime. Take, for instance, a blog posting by one of these individuals writing anonymously (but claiming two PhDs for himself), that read: “The Taming of the Anglophone. The Application of the Willie Lynch Doctrine.”  Such a blog posting might not necessarily alarm a casual observer, but given that morale over the political climate in Cameroon today has reached its nadir, this might as well be the first rumble of a distant storm, and should be examined carefully.  We are suddenly jolted when civil wars unfold on the horizon, and are fought in trenches, but very often, these wars begin quietly with incendiary postings like the one above. In the history of every genocide, including the recent 1994 Rwandan genocide, investigators attempting to  understand the intensity of hatred have often  unraveled countless degrading remarks that opposing camps have made against each other, remarks that , for the most part, were not taken seriously until a full-blown carnage unfolded.

True, there have been some spates of acerbic criticisms between some rabid supporters of the SCNC, and these “intellectuals” dispatched by the regime to silence them.  However, in a rather desperate move to show some credibility, these individuals have resorted to brandishing their academic credentials- which in this instance are nothing more than a false barometer of what a true intellectual ought to be-as if to show their superiority over their opponents.  Think of this one writing anonymously, who would not provide his full name, but has the audacity to cite his two doctorates.
A true intellectual, faced with such a situation, should, with some dignity, rise above the wrangling; present constructive criticisms, not a blog posting to Anglophones , reminiscent of the slave trade era,  the indignities that blacks endured in the U.S, and Nazi Germany. 

Why would any intellectual-fully cognizant of the social and political problems in Cameroon today-suggest, if not with the intention of inciting, that Anglophones read about Willie Lynch, a slave master, whose last name (Lynch) is the source of the term “Lynching”?
 
The same individuals have gone on to heap bawdy comments on others who dare cross their paths over political arguments regarding Cameroon. I find such comments very uncharacteristic of true intellectuals. They have become schoolyard bullies who must be reined in.

I’m not, by this article, fanning flames of hatred or distrust among Cameroonians. Rather, like concerned citizens, we should act as sentries on a mission to prevent havoc on an already fragile environment.

There is nothing wrong with an intellectual defending a regime, even if that regime, in the eyes of others, is a rogue regime. After all, Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister for Adolf Hitler, was, by every account, an intellectual with a PhD from the University of Heidelberg. But he became an intellectual slave under Nazism when he sank into irrationality, allowing his emotions to spill overboard, subsequently leading to the slaughter of six million Jews during the Second World War.

On the bright side though, the world is filled with true intellectuals who have risen above tribal and nationalist wrangling to show mankind what a true intellectual ought to be.  When the Nigerian Civil War erupted in 1967, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, a Yoruba, and just 33 then, shelved aside whatever misgivings he might have had regarding the Igbo people, and attempted to bring peace between the warring factions in his native country. Argentine’s Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a medical doctor by training, traveled as far as Congo-Kinshasa in order to stir up revolutions that would benefit the oppressed people of that country

The late Professor Bernard Fonlon-apparently prescient about the looming dangers involved when individuals are not allowed to think freely in order to help others before themselves-wrote about the “The Genuine Intellectuals” as a means to emphasize the role of university education in shaping critical and rational minds. His own very action--resigning from a ministerial position with the Ahmadu Ahidjo regime, and returning fulltime to a university setting- speaks highly of him as that “genuine intellectual”, who had the flexibility and foresight to know when things were not right with the system.  Those generally expected to play this role in Cameroon today, are, by this analysis, not up to the task, leaving the universities and other academic institutions as breeding grounds for intellectual slavery. 

We should all be concerned, because these particular individuals now defending the current regime have, for the most part, made their careers in the academia, where the tendency to indoctrinate young minds and steer them in the wrong direction is far greater. Some of these particular individuals may be lurking on a university campus near you. If you happen to find one, please ask him or her to go on sabbatical!

And for those of them who may read this article, and shrug it off as one of “those attacks on our dignity”, Wole Soyinka, in “Climate of Fear” (The quest for dignity in a dehumanized world), has this warning, “There is no such being as a dignified slave.” 

Comments

[nabob christ]

Alain Dipoko, the intellectual slave,just when you mistakenly thought you've defeated the Anglophones, here comes a sledge hammer taking you down completely.

[Dr A A Agbormbai]

Brilliant article!

[The Ngwa Man]

That wasn't just a ,"Brilliant article!," that was a great article.

[VA Boy]

People spreading genocidal propaganda here may want to reflect, and change their tunes. Should anything happen untoward, they shall be held to account in international courts. Konde take note. Dipoko, take note. We have you on record. We may use pseudonyms here, but we are all easy to identify with minimum effort.

[Kamarad]

The Entrepreneur Newsonline, take note!

[red flag]

AMBAZONIA MUST BE INDEPENDENT BY EVERY MEANS

[Ras tuge]

1-“The Genuine Intellectuals” as a means to emphasize the role of university education in shaping critical and rational minds.

2- resigning from a ministerial position with the Ahmadu Ahidjo regime, and returning fulltime to a university setting- speaks highly of him as that “genuine intellectual”, who had the flexibility and foresight to know when things were not right with the system.

Joseph Ndifor, if i should go by your definition, then Bernard Fonlon would clearly be an extremely dangerous intellectual slave. It is sorrowfully absurd that a man with all his celestial knowledge, and who assiduously emphasized the role of the university education in shaping critical and rational minds, was astonishingly the chief motive power that masterminded this silly Anglophone enslavement. And curiously, Fonlon was the sole Anglophone who understood french at the ill-fated Foumban nonsense!

No no no man! Fonlon had neither the flexibility nor the foresight, or better-still the wisdom that comes with higher learning. And therefore, he'll never be a genuine intellectual as far as i am concerned. Rather, he'll remain a renegade quisling, and deservedly so.

Anglophones must address their troubles as they are, and the sooner we realise the fact that vicious demons, and intellectual criminals are plentiful in our midst, the better for us. As for this disoriented infant named Dipoko, well he can say what he feels without any fear because everybody knows how dubious and stupid Anglophones have proven to be over the years. But the time has finally come for Anglophones to change that miserable course.