The Cameroonian Conundrum: Autopsy of a Moribund Nation

By Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

Introduction

The ailing polity code-named Cameroon seems to be afflicted with a medley of ailments that have earned it a myriad of sobriquets: Clando Republic, Mimboland, Animal Farm, Gaullist Africa, Ghost Nation, and more. The purport of this write-up is to diagnose the illnesses with which our nation is afflicted. The end game is to be able to prescribe some dependable medicaments efficacious enough to resuscitate a nation from its death throes.

Chronic inebriation

Alcohol is the opium of the Cameroonian people.  In other climes, people drink alcohol on very special occasions, if at all. In Cameroon, booze is our national drug of choice. A meeting without item eleven[i] is considered an abortive meeting. Little wonder, some of the talk shops [ii]that pass for meetings in Mimboland often result in drunken revelries.  I was brainstorming the fate of Cameroon with a friend lately and here is what he said: “Try to get two or three Cameroonians at a round table to brainstorm about some matter of substance and you will come away disappointed, but get them to put on their traditional regalia and come for alcohol or to dance ndombolo and you will be humbled by their vibrancy!” [iii] With this irresistible penchant for alcohol, does it surprise anyone that we have become numbskulls, bereft of cognitive ability? The brain that is filled with bubbles of alcohol cannot think. Bacchus[iv] must be rubbing his hands in mock glee wherever he is lurking in Cameroon. Come to think of it, what are we really celebrating? The uncertain fate of thousands of University graduates who have been driven by Chomencan[v] to become sauveteurs[vi], taxi drivers, bendskinneurs[vii] and wolowoss[viii]?  Or is it our once beautiful roads that have degenerated into death traps that we are celebrating? The question begs to be asked again: what are Cameroonians actually celebrating on a daily basis in circuits[ix] and off-licenses? The sale of our fatherland to foreigners? When Longue Longue oralizes the auctioning of our natural resources, including crude-oil and forest products to the French, we simply scoff at him and scurry back to our booze as promptly as possible. Some sagacious man once observed that Paul Biya is governing a nation of nineteen million drunkards!  Is there a dissenting voice? I urge my fellow countrymen and women to stay sober at all times. You snooze you lose, an expression which insinuates that we will miss out on a great many opportunities if we don't remain aware or open to the goings-on in our country. How can we afford to numb our brains with alcohol when this nation is on the brink of an abyss? There is a vendetta around the corner. We cannot afford to snooze or booze!

 

Endemic paranoia

Fear has crippled Cameroonians. Behind the semblance of bravado that punctuates our daily discourse, Cameroonians are inwardly compulsive cowards.  Despite all the brouhaha: catcham! beat’am! catcham! killam! If Mr. Paul Biya were to walk down the streets of any Cameroonian city today without a bodyguard, you would be surprised to see how many people would simply take to their heels after identifying the nation’s ennemi numéro 1[x] This explains why the man is unfazed by the raving and ranting of his many detractors. Internally, he knows Cameroonians are a bunch of paranoid big babies. Who would have believed that Mr. Biya would go to Bamenda in 2011 and be hailed as Fon of Fons after all the trauma to which he has subjected the people of Abakwa? Our Ntarikon landlord even granted him audience! The legendary Bamenda man known for his tenacity and alacrity to chop fire has suddenly became melo.  What is the genesis of this paralysis? Or dare I say hypnotizing fear? What become of the likes of Fon Mbinglo of Nso who, we are told, once declined to shake the hand of the Queen of England because in Nsoland, women do not shake hands with men.  As we brace ourselves for the pending battle ahead, it is critical that we kill fear, like the Egyptians who buried their fear at Tahrir Square.[xi] We must bury own fear here and now.  The 32^nd president of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is reputed to have said: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”[xii] We cannot subject ourselves to slow death each day on account of fear. That is what William Shakespeare meant when he observed that “Cowards die many times before their deaths.”(Julius Caesar, Act 1, Sc1). This quote suggests rationally that man should not fear death but instead confront it boldly. To fear death is to die already.

Lethal ethnocentrism

One of the cankers eating deep into the Cameroonian social fabric is ethnocentrism, alternatively labeled tribalism. Tribalism engenders corruption, influence peddling, self-interest, abuse of power and dereliction of duty. This hydra has killed meritocracy in our country! Our nation has been reduced to ethnocentric concaves locked in lethal battles. The Beti want to fend for the Beti; the Bamileke attend to the needs of the Bamileke; the Bassa would do everything necessary to look after the Bassa, even if this means flouting the laws of the land and hurting other tribes.  Politics has been given an ethnic bent across the board. And that is why nothing seems to work in Cameroon.  Until we begin to see ourselves as Cameroonians first this quagmire will persist for a very long time.  Ethnocentrism permeates all the nooks and crannies of Cameroon, including academic circles. William Ndi fictionalizes this predicament in his play Gods in the Ivory Tower (2009). Gods in the Ivory Tower depicts the University of Ngoa as a glorified secondary school where the credo of ethnicity determines who succeeds and who drops out as evident in the caustic remarks of Professor Guignol: “This is a place for smart civilized people! Not primitive non-natives like you!”(44) Clearly, ethnophobia and xenophobia are cankerworms that eat deep into the very fabric of what the protagonist christens “the village college” (2) where meritocracy has been put on the back burner.  Professor Guignol does not veil his preference for students from his own ethnic group as his question illustrates:   “Did I not ask you from the very first day whether he was from your neighborhood, Mvog-Akum? Again, whether his parents were friends of some kind?”(40) Professor Guignol is openly spiteful of Anglophone students: “These English speakers…! Do you think it is for nothing that we label them in our tongue, I mean French as ‘les gauchers?’”(40) As it were, Ndi barely scratches the surface of the now well-known Anglophone question in Cameroon. The cohabitation between Anglos and Frogs[xiii] is depicted in Gods in the Ivory Tower as a marriage of convenience. This play is a lampoon on the notorious Francophone-Anglophone animosity in Cameroon.

 

The Anglophone Question

You may remember Animal Farm, the 1945 classic written by George Orwell. Many in my generation had to read this book in order to pass the London General Certificate of Education (GCE) ordinary level examination. Over the years I have come to see the relevance of the message contained in this novel even more as I ponder the Cameroon Anglophone Question. The plot of Orwell’s book is centered on the dissatisfaction of farm animals who felt they’re being mistreated by Farmer Jones. Led by the pigs, the animals revolted against their oppressive master, and after their victory, they decided to run the farm themselves on egalitarian principles. However, the pigs became corrupted by power and a new tyranny took root. The famous line: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (92) still rings true to date. The novel is a replica of what has come to be branded the Cameroon Anglophone Problem.

 

After fighting together to decolonize Cameroon, French-speaking Cameroonians now tend to lord it over their English-speaking compatriots. There exists a generation of English-speaking Cameroonians who now find themselves at a crossroads and would like to know where they really belong. Many Anglophone Cameroonians are now asking themselves why they are condemned to play second fiddle in the land of their birth. The unfair treatment meted out to English-speaking Cameroonians by cocky, condescending Francophone compatriots in positions of power is a time bomb that needs to be defused before it explodes to do irreparable damage.  As Alfred Matumamboh puts it, “Anglophone Cameroonians still feel themselves a colonized people trapped in the clutches of horizontal colonization. Francophone Cameroonians keep on reminding them by their political word and deed that they are the masters while the deprived Anglophone is the trapped helpless servant to be maltreated and molested”(Online article).  Unfair discrimination against Anglophones sows seeds of discord. The cohabitation between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians has been likened to a marriage of convenience by scholars and students of post-colonial Africa. In fact, some critics have compared the uneasy co-existence between these two distinct linguistic communities in Cameroon to the attitude of two travelers who met by chance in a roadside shelter and are merely waiting for the rain to cease before they continue their separate journeys in different directions. No other metaphor better depicts the frictional coexistence between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians.

 

More often than not, the perpetrators of this macabre game of divide and rule are French-speaking political leaders who take delight in fishing in troubled waters. In doing so, Francophone leaders indulge in stoking the flames of animosity and whipping up sentiments of mutual suspicion on both sides of the Mungo River at the expense of nation-building. Many of them have been heard making abrasive statements intended not only to cow Anglophones into submission but also to make them feel unwanted at home. Yet these self-styled leaders would mount the podium to chant to the entire world that there is no Anglophone Problem in Cameroon. This is utter hogwash, it seems to me. The plain truth is that there is a palpable feeling of discontent and unease among Anglophone Cameroonians. Questions that remain unanswered are numerous: Are Anglophone Cameroonians enjoying equal treatment with their Francophone counterparts in the workplace? Are Anglophone Cameroonians having their fair share of the national cake? Do they feel at home in Cameroon? These and many other unanswered questions constitute what has been dubbed the Cameroon Anglophone Question.

 

The Cameroon Anglophone Problem manifests itself in the form of complaints from English-speaking Cameroonians about the absence of transparency and accountability in matters relating to appointments in the civil service, the military, the police force, the gendarmerie[xiv][i] and the judiciary. In short, the Anglophone Question raises interrogations about participation in decision-making and power-sharing in the country. This is not a figment of anyone’s imagination! It is real and tangible. The Anglophone Problem is the cry of an oppressed people, lamenting over the ultra-centralization of political power in the hands of a rapacious oligarchy based in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital, where Anglophones with limited proficiency in the French language are made to go through all kinds of odds in the hands of gloating Francophone bureaucrats who see English-speakers as anathema.  The Anglophone Problem stems from the obnoxious attitude of French-speaking Cameroonians who believe that their Anglophone compatriots are unpatriotic, and therefore, should be asked to seek refuge in another country. This bigotry compounded by conceit has given rise to the rampant use of derogatory slurs such as “les Anglophones sont gauches” [xv][ii], “c’est des ennemis dans la maison” [xvi][iii], “ce sont les biafrais [xvii][iv] and so on.

 

The consequence of this anti-Anglophone sentiment is the birth of the misconception that Anglophone Cameroonians are unreliable, untrustworthy, and therefore, undeserving of positions of leadership in the country. This explains why key ministerial positions in Cameroon are the exclusive preserve of French-speaking Cameroonians. Anglophobia has also led to the appointment of Francophones with no working knowledge of the English language to ambassadorial positions in strategic countries like the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, Nigeria and South Africa where they wind up making a complete fool of themselves linguistically and culturally speaking.

 

The corollary of this frictional co-existence is mutual distrust, a phenomenon that has been exploited maximally by Cameroonian politicians, including the Head of State himself. One only needs to ponder the manner in which the president has used the position of Prime Minister as an effective tool to play North-westerners against South-westerners beginning from Simon Achidi Achu to date. Who says nurturing ethnocentrism is not politically expedient? Undoubtedly, avaricious self-interest is at the root of all this rigmarole. We are not asking anyone to repudiate his ethnic origin.  We can choose our friends; we cannot choose our parents. At the same time, Cameroonians must guard against balkanizing the nation along tribal lines.

 

Conclusion

In this essay, I have attempted to lay bare the anatomy of a malignant Nation-State. Cameroon is sick, very sick indeed. In 29 years we have gone from the posture of a buoyant Africa in miniature to that of a skeletal nation in decrepitude. Yet, our leaders continue to wine, dine and tango at the expense of the proverbial man in the street. The call is ours to halt this dementia by all means necessary. This task is ours. No outsider can do it on our behalf.

© Vakunta 2011

http://www.vakunta.blogspot.com

 Notes

---

[i]  Drinks served at the end of a meeting

[ii] Meetings characterized by futile deliberations that engender no action plan

[iii]  John Dinga, email communication, May 6, 2011.

[iv] Bacchus was the Roman god of partying and wine.

[v] Chronic employment in Cameroon

[vi] Hawkers

[vii] Bendskin drivers

[viii] Prostitutes

[ix] Beer parlors

[x] Number one enemy

[xi] Liberation Square) is a major public town square in Downtown Cairo.

[xii] http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_nothing_to_fear_but_fear_itself/205789.html

[xiii] Pejorative name for Francophones

 

 

 

 

Comments

[J. S. Dinga]

Even in the darkest of nights, there are a few bright spots in the sky. It is in this connection that I doff my hat to Dr. Peter Vakunta for his ability to take a look at the golden traingle and actually tell it like it is. No outsider can come and heal Cameroon better than its own sons and daughters. But that healing starts with a careful examination of the situation as it is, followed by whatever remedial action is called for.

Many options are probably at our beck and call but nothing can be initiated without first coming to terms with the fact of our collective predicament. If the famous Bruce Lee succeeded the way he did, it was simply because those he conquered allowed themselves to be taken one by one until they were all annihilated. Cameroonians are woefully fallling to the ruse of divide-and-rule! Cameroonians are a smart people if and when they choose to; the problem is to recognize what is at stake and stand up to be counted. We have very few leaders, a good number of followers, which is as it should be. But what we have too much of are a category that neither leads nor follows - the critics. Of course we need critics too but we have more than our share of this category. To do anything about our plight, we need to take a few steps back in time and start analyzing where we went off the rails. Others have done it, so can we.

How many people have ever heard of the Musinga Drama Group in Buea? Probably very few. Yet here was one entity that is trying to do for contemporary Cameroon what the likes of Victor Hugo did for France, projecting the society's foibles on to a screen so that they can search their consciences and wake up to the challenge. How many support Musinga? How many care about the fate of newspapers and news media in general? Yet, just as our internal immune system ferret and get rid of diseased cells and organs to save the rest of our bodies, so also do these news organs focus their searchlights on the evils and perpetratiors of evils of society, to expose and destroy them. Yet press muzzling has been the weapon of choice used by oppressive regimes and their "sous-prefets". Perhaps giving Musinga a chance and leaving our press alone is a good starting point.

Professor Vakunta, more grease to your elbows.

[limbekid]

I always appreciate an intellectual who interacts with the public beyond the classroom.

I don't think the average Cameroonian consumes more alchohol than the average Briton for instance, but as the article highlights, unlike the Brit, the Cameroonian has little to celebrate.

The flaw with this (and many other) diagnosis is the scant focus on socio-cultural issues plaguing the continent. Other issues worthy of mention would be: irresponsible parenthood; poor diet; an over-preoccupation with mundanities; a propensity for short-term seasonal planning; a disproportionate birth to productivity ratio (our technological per capita contribution is almost nil).

As for the Anglophone problem. Does the robustness of an argument make it right? One can argue (facts on hand) that the Anglophone has a case for marginalisation, but so too the other communities: the muslim North could defend a case for Shariah law, as well as Islamic Studies at tertiary level; the pygmies in the East could argue for more developmental imput in their region. If you think this is far-fetched, examine the Mbororo issue (http://ecas2007.aegis-eu.org/commence/user/view_file_forall.php?fileid=934). How does one become Anglophone? By birth, or by choice? Is one more proficient in English by virtue of being born Anglophone, or as a conscious professional choice? Jean-Emmanuel Pondi for instance, is technically Francophone, but he is also a Oxford graduate, has written tomes in English, and is as proficient as any Anglophone. Would he be any less a ambassadoral candidate for a English-speaking country?

A complete generational detachment from the current over-reliance on the civil service is the long-term solution. Insisting on proportional distribution (our share of the national cake) will always remain a difficult conundrum. Besides, such a solution only perpetuates and recycles old problems.

[Emmanuel Elangwe]

Now we are talking...I really enjoyed reading your piece, sir. I was especially intrigued with this section: Chronic inebriation.

Is alcohol really that big of a problem in our society? Are we to conclude that, if the alcohol consumption rate of the average Cameroonian should drop by half, we would see a corresponding increase in economic growth or personal well being? Will a "zero" alcohol policy boost economic growth? While the answers to these questions might be best answered by "experts", my humble opinion is...I don't think so. If "Alcohol is the opium of the Cameroonian people," it is fair to say, a ban on alcohol production/consumption will dramatically change the fabric of Cameroonian society for the better. Then again, are the any studies out there which support this theory?

Again IMHO, where others see a problem, I see a vital and viable economic engine. The "alcohol" industry in Cameroon has created and still creates a wide array of private sector jobs in engineering, marketing, distribution, sales etc. Some of these jobs are highly skilled and high paying jobs. This industry also brings in a huge tax revenue for the State. whether this revenue is put to good use is a discussion for another day. The "alcohol" industry has led to a boom of small business owners in every corner of the national triangle in the form of bars, night clubs (whether you like'em or not), trucking owner operators...etc!

Cameroonians DO drink...but not as much as some might want to make us believe. A simple research-online- points to the contrary. Cameroon doesn't rank amongst the top 30 nations of the world in alcohol consumption per capita. We are not in the top 5 rank in Africa when it comes to alcohol consumption per capita. Alcohol consumption being beer, wine, hard liquor, local/native brews as well. We are not in a class of our own when it comes to celebrating with alcohol, if you doubt it read the Bible and or any other ancient texts. It's funny though, the world's top consumers of alcohol are also the most advanced economies...shouldn't that be the other way around?

[J. S. Dinga]

If we sincerely expect to move forward in this debate, we ought to avoid the temptation to use fallacious arguments and comparing things that are definitely not comparable. Those who have lived through our short history of cohabitation know that the terms Anglophone and Francophone were coined to designate the geographical entities - English-speaking and French-speaking areas of the country brought together at unification. Rendering the concept murky by singling out smart individuals who have mastered the English language(Jean Emmanuel Pondi) or extracting tribes(Muslim north, Pygmy east) in the Francophone zone and elevating them to the bogus invention called "Anglophone tribe" has been the unfortunate ruse used by those with an agenda to trivialize the divide, thereby downplaying the injustices at the root of the problem.

As for alcohol consumption, no one doubts the fact that people resort to it to narcotize themselves as a way of coping with some of the underlying problemns. Alcohol drinking is only one way of filling the gap that should logically have been taken up by useful activities like studying or working. The notion of "deuxieme bureau" survives only because an effete system allows it, having turned its back to parameters like GDP, aqccoountability and others used for measuring progress.

[limbekid]

@ John Dinga,

Just wanted to point out that a staunch supporter of the Anglophone cause, once chided me on this forum, for using the terms "Anglophone" and "Southern Cameroonian", interchangeably. Anyway, as you acknowledge, the concept is "murky".

[Emmanuel Elangwe]

@LimbePikin
Fanned and Faved: The concept is "murky".

[J. S. Dinga]

The inescapable ingredient is geography. Francophone, like anglophone Cameroon, occupies a distinct area of national territory. Those interested in playing legerdemain with the issue can go ahead and do so.

Also, from Ahidjo to Biya the number of Cameroonians of English expression who served as translators and interpreters at the Presidency of the Republic are legion - the Mbelems, Yangos, Mongwas, Chumfongs and tons of others - yet none of them has ever claimed to be francophone! Our master dribblers who have mastered the English language and now want to pass for anglophones know what game they are playing.

It may sound superfluous but at this stage of the game it is important to remind our prevaricatrors that Anglophone Cameroon has tribes as well.

[Emmanuel Elangwe]

@J.S. Dinga
Can you further expatiate on geography being the inescapable ingredient? (If you don't mind). Is it fair to ascribe the term Anglophone to a Bamileke who resides in either the S.W/N.W Region? Would a Hausa resident of Kumba be considered an anglophone? Do you have to be a descendant of any of the indigenous tribes of these 2 regions to be considered an anglophone? I understand the history, don't get me wrong, just confused as h&ll with the geography thing!!!

I'm also curious to know what are those specific problems indigenous only to the N.W and S.W Regions, and I will not settle for answers like: francophones call us names, Francophones are corrupt and rude ( as I gathered in the Op-Ed above)...etc. My opinion (more wrong than right) has always been that the is a Cameroon Problem...corruption, nepotism, clientèlism, underdevelopment a gogo...etc.

I guess it's a really MURKY issue.

[Douala]

Wow!! this is one of a piece. I think it was written by a great mind that Vakunte is. I always feel happy when i read such piece of intellectual work that tracends the sould and make you believe in a better tommorow even whne there is actually no hope and very less options.

[J. S. Dinga]

Great minds always seek to know more and it is good for society. People who ask genuinely always find their answers from a steadfast search.

In answer to this lingering question, which my good friend Amougou would gladly categorize as "un faux probleme", I can state off the bat that Hausas in Kumba or Bamenda antedated unification and the introduction of the words Anglophone and Francophone. The same is true of Bamilekes in those towns. Frankly speaking, tribalizing this problem is the saddest thing any honest citizen show want to throw into the mix.
One elegant method to circumvent and not address this vexing anglophone problem has been to elevate this category of persons to the fictitious "eleventh province".

And now that we are at it, the late Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon was the epitome of bilingualism in the history of Cameroon. No one ever lost sleep over his identity as an anglophone simply because he spoke Moliere's language so much better than the rest of us. Also, those using this very issue to render even more murky a clean cut issue have never had to debate "where" to take their final exit from this troubled life. To know who is anglophone or francophone, just follow coffins bearing the remains of this category that seeks to distort a people's history. I am keenly aware of an aberration where residents of Tiko voted what they thought was one of their own into the National Assembly only to wake up to a parliamentarian crusading for a province for his tribe!

[limbekid]

I hope we don`t derail from the initial intention of this article (diagnosis of issues plaguing Cameroon).

On the side issue of Anglophone/Francophone, I guess what I`m trying to point out is that, ethnicity is a stronger unifier (identifier) than language: the former is encoded in the DNA, while the latter can be adopted. As such the issue of "Anglophoneness" will always remain cloudy. To clear the air I hope we can all agree, Southern Cameroon refers to region of origin, while Anglophone refers to the defining characteristic.

It is a political reality that Anglophones are a numerical minority in Cameroon but that should not blind us to the fact that there are universal issues afflicting the greater majority of Cameroonians (unemployment, poor infrastructure, poor nutrition, encroaching deserification in the North, educational isolation, health issues...). These should be our concern. We should not kowtow to the interests of political aspirants building a career on the sentiments of the greater public.

[Emmanuel Elangwe]

@J.S. Dinga
If language is not a primary indicator of "Anglophoness" and you shun tribal identification as an indicator of that identity, will it be safe to conclude that "residency" of those 2 regions suffices to qualify an individual as "Anglophone"? Geographical areas are just...geographical areas, people plus whatever agreed upon social contracts constitute a village, city, region or state. A closer look at the various "tribes" indigenous to these 2 regions show a wide spectrum of people with very differing cultures and customs...a 50 miles journey in any cardinal direction will put us through at least 2 or more different tribes...What is the social glue holding these people together? If not the language (English/Pidgin) what? British colonial nostalgia? Less than a decade of West Cameroon quasi autonomy?

The Cameroons union has not been a perfect one, I will be the first to admit. I'm just concerned about an eventual balkanization just for short term political gains (IMHO). I might be wrong (and it happens ever so often), but I'm really enjoying having this conversation with you. I'm learning as we go, and I appreciate your patience with my curiosity.

[J. S. Dinga]

I take no particular pleasure in monopolizing such an important discussion or in repeating what has already been articulated. Frankly I too love to read other people's ideas to help me fill the lacunae in my own understanding.

Having said that, what else can I add than that the problematic terms "Anglophone" and "Francophone" came into being as a human coinage at a given time to describe preexisting entities over defined geographical stretches of national territory? Inadequate as these terms may appear today, they did serve a useful purpose when they were first coined. It was never a question of going into any of the geographical areas to make an inventory of resident tribes or intellectuals; it was just a way of designating those who were evolving under former British colonial Administration (Anglophone territory) or French colonial Administration (Francophone territory).

The bone of contention today is that secondary issues like tribes and ehtnic groupings in one or the other have been elevated and equated to the original classification to accomodate persons who have studied and mastered "the other" colonial language. Insults and other derogatory epithets which Dr Vakunta documents are simply the product of falure to address the main issues. By hyping this category of individuals who straddle the famous(East/West) divide, we do injustice to the majority who rightly lay claim to the original classification. It is disingenuous to create new Anglophones and new Francophones out of our more enterprising citizens and then reduce the original claimants to nought simply because no one takes up their case.

Additionally, when a multiplicity of factors exists for a particular phenomenon, problem solving requires some degree of prioritization so that the major issues are tackled first. In our approach we have simply lumped everything together as if they are equally weighted. Surely chronic alcoholism cannot supercede the notion that Cameroonians of English-expression are being treated with levity by the majority French-speaking congeners, a fact at the root of all the brouhaha!

[limbekid]

J.S. Dinga, no need to apologise. It would be a less interesting site if there was no content.

[red bottom]

I follow you VIA GFC and I love your blog!