A Wink at the Cameroonian Soldier

By Patrice Nganang (Translated by Dr. Peter Vakunta)

You soldier, are skillful at using a gun; as for me, I have never touched one in my life. However, you are my brother.  That is why I am asking you this question: have you watched recent events on TV?  Like me, you have seen tyrannized people in Egypt and Tunisia rise to demand the respect of their basic freedoms from oppressors. You have watched Mubarak who has been in power for 30 years like Biya; send the police against his people. You saw how these policemen declined to open fire on their brothers and sisters?

You also saw how the Egyptian president sent soldiers with tanks against his people but they refused to shoot at the crowds. Oh, I am sure you also saw how the bewildered president of Egypt sent military aircraft and helicopters against his people; you saw how the military refused to throw bombs on their own brothers and sisters.  Certainly, you saw how the president sent his special security forces to beat up people when foot soldiers refused to kill in his name. No tyrant abandoned by the military would survive, because the national army represents the people; the more so because every soldier has a brother, sister, mother, father, grandfather, wife, child, and cousin who are part and parcel of the people. No soldier can claim to be as attached to the Head of State as he is to his own people; whatever his ethnicity may be.

I am sure you are watching the events in Libya: a Head of State who orders his military to open fire on his compatriots; an army turned against the people. One is not born a soldier; one becomes a soldier. But the true army is the people, don’t you ever forget that. Any armed force that turns against its people,  becomes by this token a gang of mange-mille, highway robbers, brigands, militia that deserve to be destroyed. This is what happened in 1984 when the Republican Guard (RG) of our country took sides with coup-plotters that were fighting in defense of Ahidjo who at the time had become a simple citizen. This is what happened in Zaire years ago when the national army transformed itself into a gang of mercenaries at the behest of a tyrant who paid them. In the same vein, this came to pass in Rwanda when the national army committed genocide because they had been incensed by the ethnocentric discourses of the president. Any army that kowtows to the dictates of one person or group automatically loses its national identity; any army that uses live bullets against citizens deserves to be branded a criminal gang.  People have the right to defend themselves against soldiers  who would take the law into their own hands and behave like brigands rather than protect them. To fight in self-defense against brigands is a legitimate manifestation of the sublime courage of citizens.

Cameroonians are coming out of their slumber! Soldier, on February 23 you stalled the uprising of the Cameroonian people. The populace from which the army, gendarmerie and police hail is valiant. Lest you forget, these are the people who in 1940, formed the first line of defense comprising 40,000 soldiers and fought behind Leclerc to liberate France from the throes of Nazi occupation. It is our brothers, fathers, grandfathers, coming from different ethnic groups in the country that traversed forests, steppes, and deserts to get to Kouffra, Bir Harkeim and Strasbourg in order to fight on the side of Charles de Gaulle to free France from the tyranny of Pétain. It is the Cameroonian people, in other words, us, who at one point in our history preferred to fight with dane guns, at times with empty hands in the dark forests of Bassaland and Bamilike plateaus instead of succumbing to the dictates of Ahidjo who was sentenced to death in our country as we all know. This 20 year-old battle might have remained buried in the crevices of your minds, nonetheless, suffice it to note that those who were in the forefront of this movement were hailed as national heroes in 1990 because they were progenies of the people.

If the Cameroonian army really wants to be seen as a true reflection of the historic courage of the people unfazed by tyranny, it should not aid and abet the oppression of Cameroonians. Thirty years under one president, now, that is tyranny! Biya is our common enemy! Like you, soldier, the large majority of Cameroonians has not known any other president but Biya. If the choice of the people had been respected this state of affairs would have changed twenty years ago. The real problem in Cameroon today is the army. In 2008, our military used denigrating epithets such as ‘outlaws’ and ‘vandals’ to describe our younger brothers fighting for their basic rights; in 2000 during the operational commands every youth was a bandit in the eyes of the military; in 1990 while beating the living daylights out of students, soldiers kept repeating the phrase ‘the first school leaving certificate is worthier than the GCE Advanced Level certificate’. On February 23 this year, it is you soldier, yes you again, who took to the streets to defend the despot. During historic moments in our history, it is always soldiers who have turned their guns on the Cameroonian people. Irony of sorts, unlike Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Ghaddafi, Biya is not even a soldier. Soldier, why are you bent on protecting him? Before Biya, there was a Cameroonian army; after Biya, there will be a Cameroonian army. Don’t forget soldier, policeman, and gendarme that the true valor of a member of the armed force is not measured by the number of compatriots he has killed; but rather by the number of enemy forces he has routed. The strength of the Cameroonian army will never be measured by the number of Cameroonians they have killed or beaten. Soldier, the day you will finally stand with the Cameroonian people, like your peers in Tunisia and Egypt, who are not less honorable and dutiful, Biya and his cohort will take to their heels and the people will embrace you. Bèbèla.

Comments

[Nkeze. A. Felix]

Well Said!

My hard working, peace loving generous and God fearing people of Cameroon should know the following:

1) They do not owe Biya or his Regime anything

2) Biya is employed by them

3) Biya does not do cameroonians any favour when he executes development projects or create employment. That

is his job for which he was hired.

4) Biya has never kept any developmental project promise and he is not going to do so this time.

5) Even he was to to the best this time around, why do we have to think that he is the olny able cameroonian who can
and should govern cameroon for three decades. Something is wrong with cameroonians.

6) Can anyone name a single country that has stopped dictatorship without bloodshed.

7) In as much as we are afraid to spill some blood in order to gain a long lasting democratic nation for our children and grandchildren, we will continue to live the way we do. and will sooner or later be replace by "Ahidjo the Third" when the current one dies....

[Bob Bristol]

I have been wondering the kind of gov't that we would have if Biya decides to quit without the stir generated by the demands of the people or without any protest.

Now let us keep Biya aside; he has been a curse to the nation. So who is the real enemy of the Cameroonian people? Is it the army for their brutal suppression of any protest action or is it Cameroonians themselves for not having the ability to do what others have done to have the kinds of of gov't that they desire?

I hope this piece is read by those it is addressed to; that is if they bother to keep aside their bottles of beer and PMUC papers.

[limbekid]

Maybe if most of Africa had not missed the real revolution (industrial), we would not have to rely on the Jasmine revolution for our independence. Thanks to great minds like James Watts, Michael Faraday, Eli Whitney, George Stephenson... Europeans invented themselves out of poverty and saved theemselves the indignity of having to rely on public immolation in the 21st century. Unfortunately, the way we`re going we might miss the next big revolution (digital).

[ambergris]

limbekid likes to talk loud and say nothing like the old James Brown song. There is no real anything. It is about doing your best with what you have got, right now. Shish.

[facter]

Non violent people power is the best, but I do not trust that the Cameroon military has enough moral depth to resist firing on unarmed protesters. It has historically functioned as a political death squad.

[limbekid]

@ Ambergris,

Dependence on land = feudal system = landlord/tenant relationship. Every new invention is an opportunity for the tenant to leave the master`s grip. Every new invention leads to a new profession and personal freedom. Rely on a rent economy (most of Africa) and you remain in the master`s grip.

Can we go back to the 1700s? No. But certain changes can be made, such as; quotas on certain courses at uni level; delaying specialisation; adopting classical education (education for knowledge, as opposed to education for a job); encouraging multi-discpilinary courses at tertiary level etc

[Christian Louboutin Outlet]

Hi ,thanks for this post.
******The job market is constantly moving and growing and if HR professionals are not on top of this movement they and their company can be doomed. As second city alum and HR professional, I've always advocated for basic improv training not just in hr, but for all professionals in general.