Understanding the Political Evolution of Cameroon: From Traditional to Liberal Education

By Emmanuel Konde

"I have decided to lend my weight on the side of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and its leader, President Paul Biya." Konde

After a seemingly prolonged hiatus of non-active engagement in discussions of contemporary politics in Cameroon, our native land, your Guru is back.  I plan to provide uncommon perspectives to understanding political evolution in Cameroon.  Having devoted some time studying the major actors and political parties of Cameroon, I have decided to lend my weight on the side of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and its leader, President Paul Biya. I do so at this particular juncture because Cameroon is in the throes of fundamental social change, the 2011 Presidential Election, whose result might either derail the progress that has been registered over the past half century or push us forward to greater achievements especially in the realms of respect for human rights and the fashioning of a democratic political culture.

The numerous opposition parties in Cameroon have proved themselves unruly, disorderly, and disorganized.  Given this state of affairs, it is unlikely that any one of these will pose a formidable opposition to the highly organized ruling CPDM.  As a point of fact, many of those who aspire to challenge Mr. Paul Biya for the presidency of the republic are neophytes, inexperienced, and often resort to propounding lofty ideas that some would aptly consign to demagoguery.  In as much as some may want to deny the obvious, governing a country in which more than 85 per cent of the population has no inkling about what democracy entails—let alone understand the issues at stake, changing course at this juncture will not but plunge Cameroon into a deluge.  Slow but steady progress is much better than retrogression. A different kind of change is required in Cameroon, which must come on the heels of a well contrived and executed policy of education designed to transform the populace from tribal subjects to national citizens.  There is no other party in Cameroon that is ready to execute this task than the ruling CPDM.

Shift in Educational Emphasis

To attain the national aspirations of a largely tribal people, however, some prerequisites will have to be met, namely: (1) the political education of the masses to an appreciative level of understanding the basic content of the constitution and their rights as citizens so as to circumvent  the continued hegemony of the educated elite who have dominated political life in Cameroon since decolonization; (2) the construction of a new nationalist order in which citizenship shall prevail over tribal identity; and (3) the de-regionalization of the national territory.

What I have I outlined above is a project of deconstruction and reconstruction that will involve every Cameroonian native.  Both strands will have to be executed simultaneously. This, of course, is a daunting task because it is rooted in change that summons all to give up something, such as abandoning the customary and embracing something new and seemingly alien, among the most difficult of the customary to relinquish being power and tradition.  This is the case because all power, like tradition, is conservative.  Those who wield power, like those who practice certain traditions, are habituated to conserving them.  They tend to conserve power and tradition because habits are easier formed than eradicated.  Consequently, that which they know is always more appealing than that which they know nothing about.  It is here that a particular kind of education, far-removed from the customary method of passing on knowledge from generation to generation, enters the fray.

I am proposing a liberal form of education, which is not integral to traditional education that consists of parents and elders passing on the knowledge of customary practices to children and the younger generations.  As we all know, traditional education is non-revolutionary, limiting, very conservative, and non-expansive of mental horizons.  In traditional educational children inherit knowledge from their parents and this can be seen everywhere in the country. Born in mud hut—a bequest of the elders, the young reproduce mud huts, and wear leopard skin and the plantain leaves that their forebears wore for centuries without end.  Confining and non-progressive, traditional education truly is!

The Measure of a Liberal Education

What is a liberal education?  A liberal education is essentially the opposite of traditional education.  It is non-conservative and aspires to newness, innovation, and change—perpetual change.  Liberal education is alien to and destructive of tradition.  It opposes abuses of power and human rights, whether by the divine chiefs who possesses magical powers or the corrupt bureaucrats who employ their wield power and authority as instruments for exploiting the people they are charged to serve.  Symptomatic of liberal education is the knowledge of right and wrong that it imparts as well as the will to oppose wrong at all times, and to do that which is right, even at the expense of one’s own life. But liberal education cannot function properly in a society mired in tradition.

Lest I be misunderstood, it should be borne in mind that I am not advocating the transference of Western liberal education to Cameroon.  Yes, I o not wish to make Cameroonians black Europeans.  Therefore, the type of liberal education I am calling for should first undergo a serious transformation and only after it has been thoroughly indigenized can it be implemented.  Unlike mathematics and the sciences that are universal, the social sciences cannot be transplanted from the west to Cameroon.  There should by African psychology, African political sciences, African sociology, etc., because the psychology of the African, the social realities that they confront, and their politics, are totally different from those of Europeans and other non-Africans.

Many who have tried to infuse liberal knowledge in the space occupied by traditional knowledge have suffered a fate that they never imagined possible.  Why?  Because the disjuncture that obtains in a society where traditional and liberal knowledge co-exist but where traditional knowledge is still preponderant, support for the few who espouse liberal knowledge is always weak and the prospect of liberal allies abandoning each other as well as their avowed cause very strong.  In this society, where the human mind has not yet been developed to decipher myth from fact, the public interest from the private, more important than conviction are food, drink, and wealth accumulation.  Steeped in spirituality and scornful of reason and science, many derived consolation for everyday living in the power of a super natural forces that can move mountains, hill the sick, and transform the life of an impoverished jobless man overnight.

Whereas a truly liberal education teaches man how to use reason to transform his social circumstances, tradition affirms the limitations of man and makes no allowance for man to understand and control his personal destiny.  Where man cannot control his personal destiny, politics, the instrument that the powerful use to affect social change, is made as distant an attainable reality as only God can bring to the reach of man who possesses only traditional knowledge.

Is it any wonder that even among those who have attained a good dose of liberal knowledge, no sooner they are thrust in the realm of traditional knowledge, invariably are co-opted and lose that once burned in the recesses of their minds?  This brief discourse is intended to make you think.  Politics cannot be discussed fruitfully in the abstract as many have been doing on this forum.  The interplay of traditional knowledge and an incipient form of liberal education makes murky and blurry the political picture that some of us pretend to treat with uncommon clarity.

Deconstructing and Reconstructing Corruption

It isn’t enough to define traditional and liberal education.  We must move a step further to demonstrate what these actually entail because there are two important dimensions to knowledge: acquisition and application.  Our greatest handicap, it has always been apparent to me, lies in the realm of knowledge application, especially liberal education which is theoretical.  The translation of theory into practice is not that easy a feat to accomplish for a people acculturated to practical traditional education.  Nowhere is this more discernible than in our traditional understanding of corruption, which we invariably assign to the practitioners and the practitioners only: the bribe givers and takers and embezzlers.  It is therefore not uncommon to hear a beneficiary of corruption cast aspersions at a practitioner, even though both are corrupt.  To demonstrate this novel construction, permit me to deconstruct our traditional conception of corruption by way of reconstructing it from a liberal perspective.

If one is neither a bribe giver/taker nor embezzler but nonetheless accrues some benefit by association with, or affiliation to, a practitioner, then, the beneficiary of corruption is as corrupt as the bribe giver/taker and embezzler.  All native Cameroonians are corrupt by virtue of the fact that we issue from a culture of corruption. We, and our relatives, distant and near, are either takers or givers of bribes; we are either embezzlers or beneficiaries of funds or properties acquired through bribe-giving or bribe-taking, or through embezzlement.  When we engage in the enjoyment of the fruits of corruption, we automatically become enablers of the culture of corruption. Yes, it is sheer hypocrisy for us to isolate "others" and accuse them of practicing a socially debilitating culture that we are all mired in, and that is part and parcel of our beings as sons and daughters of Cameroon.  If the CPDM is accused of corruption, so are the SDF and all other political parties.

Dr. Emmanuel Konde is a professor of history at Albany State University in Georgia, USA. He is the author of numerous books including European Invention of African Slavery: Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade in West Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas and African Women And Politics: Knowledge, Gender, And Power in Male-dominated Cameroon.

Comments

[Ernest]

Konde,

This is a very disjointed piece; you begin by declaring your allegiance to the CPDM, and then veer off to talk about traditional and liberal education without explaining how the CPDM is going to support the educational system that you prefer. What exactly are you saying? How exactly is the CPDM going to contruct or is constructing that Cameroon that you envision.

Whom you support is none of my business but in terms of coherence, relevance and staying on message, you get 3 points out of 10.

[Va Boy]

Konde has always been a CPDM, even from the time he was a student. A reactionary right wing student, Konde. This tribalist has nothing to say which any one should be listening to.

[Amouta Denis]

How can Cameroon ever advance when an individual, having studied and taught in the U.S.A, perhaps is so scared of competing with fellow historians in U.S.A., decides to lend support to an ailing and pathetic individual like Biya?

[oil paintings]

Whom you support is none of my business but in terms of coherence, relevance and staying on message, you get 3 points out of 10.

[Che Sunday]

Konde,
I find it hard hearing a Cameroonian who professes to have the interest of the country at heart refer to the CPDM as a "well organized party." Yes, the opposition parties have nothing to offer. But in the midst of nothingness, does that make you lose your sense of rational thinking? The CPDM, without Biya as its figure head may be in a better position to continue ruling because it has the money, and has perfected corruption into a science, but, please, don't try to sell this school of thugs to the Cameroonian people as what they should look forward to for their political aspirations.
How do you go about selling a traditional education to a people so dis-enfranchised by the present system that all that matters to them is who is first to give them a penny is he who gets their vote? The few that vote do so with their stomachs. Even Cameroonian elites in the diaspora have been known to accept monies to go march in support of Biya at our missions overseas. If educated individuals will go that low for political and personal gains, what chance do you stand in making their sibblings back home think otherwise? If Biya were a polician, he should have declared his intentions to run for re-election. We have no real elections coming in October. We have a CPDM party. If you are longing to be invited, then you have made your pitch. Just wait for your invite to arrive. I am sure your name is on its way to Yaounde. Happy wining and dining!

[Kumba101]

Bro, you are all over the damn place...what's your point? You are throwing your support for the CPDM and Paul Biya....big deal!!!! Who cares...?!

[Ngenge Lorater]

Professor Konde, your conception of corruption put here is the refrain of all those who are in the regime.Now you try to justify it and claim that bribe givers are as corrupt as takers.What is in fact ironical about your piece is that you even try to compare bribe givers to embezzlers of public funds.That is a typical CPDM mind set whose leader had first tried to deny the fact by asking for proof.When many high ranking officials in the regime were found wanting through "operation epervier",the story changed.It was now from denial to justification and the powerless masses who have suffered because of the embezzlers who you Konde intentionally decide to minimize swindle billions of francs destined for projects that would have helped the masses.I do not know which kind of progress you are talking about in this piece. And when the system institutionlise corruption by denying it now you are justifying it instead of suggesting how it should be fought and stamped out.Nobody doubts that the corruption in high places is what has wrecked the ship of state and we all know there are no " genuine intellectuals " in Cameroon for all of them cannot even speak out or stand for what they know is the fact.The ship of state is wrecked and yet instead of calling out the people responsible for it who happen to be many of the bigwigs of your CPDM , you now cast the opposition as equally responsible for the mess in Cameroon.How corrupt was the opposition when they raised concerns about corruption and the embezzlement of public funds in Cameroon? Your mentor asked for the proofs and now you shamelessly stand and try to manipulate words and think you can fool us.Please try to write something better next time for if this is the way people like you should be thinking,then what kind of historical objectivity will you impart to your students?

[mami ya]

HOW IS IT THAT ALL YOU KONDE HATERS ARE FROM THE SAME REGION OF CAMEROON?

[gtandah]

And what has region got to do with their comments?

[F J]

Is this thesame Dr KONDE who wants to see all grasslanders sent away from the SW ?????

[flashman]

Worse than that, he wants to see the Bakweris removed from Victoria. Funny crazy man.

[Dasa emmanuel]

Calls himself a Guru?
Such a piece from historian who calls himself a guru on Cameroon history can only be described as an amaterish foray into the "political evolution of Cameroon".

[John Dinga]

I think that if we spend all our amunition on fighting the individual there will be little or nothing left to fight the ideas. Can we concentrate on the ideas? Big brains toy with ideas; small ones spend time on persons.

There is so much in Dr Konde's article. My only problem is that they are disjointed and lack a coherence. And supporting the CPDM which is his democratic right is perfectly in order but the nexus to this write-up is what we ought to seek to connect. Embezzlement, bribe giving and bribe taking are surely aspects of corruption in need of a solution. Under other skies they are placed under the umbrella of "joint venture" and prosecuted as a means of reducing their negative impact on society. In Cameroon, we too should seek to do something about it.

I have a problem judging Opposition parties and the ruling party using the same yardstick because they are most certainly not competing on a level playing field; one has the people's tax money to play with but the others do not, and this is just one example out of many. One enjoys the bandwagon effect while the others do not. And for those who wonder what the bandwagon effect is, let us take a few steps back in time and revisit the process of legalizing Opposition parties to make room for multiparty democracy. One time minister of Territorial Administration, Gilbert Andze Tsoungui is on record as saying that by approving very many political parties, some made up of just a husband and a wife, in any competition, the RDPC will stand tall like an elephant. Of course we all know that riding on the back of an elephant reduces the inconvenience of one's feet getting wet on the dew or mud. Naturally the RDPC will attract more than its share of supporters. Who does not want to be part of the bandwagon(elephant ride)?

Cameroon is a great country and capable of great things. But in the absence of playing by the rules, all we succeed in doing is marking time on the spot as others move on in progress. Once upon a time, merit was valued as the criterion for leadership. In those days it was possible for a simple citizen to rise up the ranks from bottom to top and even soar to continental level. Who can so soon forget Nzo Ekhah Ngaki or William Eteki Mboumoua at the summit of the OAU? But today, the rise and fall is comparable only to meteorites. What went wrong?

[flashman]

I am a small mind, Dinga and damn proud of it.

[limbekid]

Dr Konde,

I`ve always silently shared your penchant to diagnose Cameroon from a sociological perspective, but as some have already mentioned, this is a truely disjointed piece. It is a mish mash of ideas.

I am not interested in your political affiliations but please make connections between problem and proposed solution.

You kicked off with a recommendation for poltical education of the masses, and I agree.

Then you moved on to national cohesion, and I was looking forward to recommendations on infrastructural issues. How can you "de-regionalise" a country when it takes a treacherous journey from one region to the other; rail transport is limited; regional airports are dormant, with little or no internal air service; stone age telecoms infrastructure. You also failed to mention the dearth of talent - figures who engender national admiration regardless of political affiliation (inventors, artists, scientists, writers, athletes...). What about the fact that Cameroon has no youth service (enforced or otherwise)? You cannot build national cohesion solely from a political perspective.

Still don`t know what to make of your views on education, and bribery and corruption.

[Emmanuel Elangwe]

I'm not sure what this is all about (besides a political endorsement of the CPDM), but I have been a fan of your writing (History/Society) for quite some time. Your political orientation is really...your political orientation.

Sir, I stopped reading your article when I read this....

"A different kind of change is required in Cameroon, which must come on the heels of a well contrived and executed policy of education designed to transform the populace from tribal subjects to national citizens. There is no other party in Cameroon that is ready to execute this task than the ruling CPDM."

Is this not the same argument used to justify the birth of despotic single party systems after Independence?

[Moh]

Why have we to bother ourselves if a die-hard tribalist joins the ranks of other tribalists that the CPDM regime constitutes in Cameroon? Is it not just normal for birds of the same feathers to flock together? Who cares about a fly following the corpse to the grave? Please give us a break.

[Mounira]

Such an initiative to study the political evolution of Cameroon is welcome. It will help many people understand some basic notions in politics. Many people embark on politics without actually understanding what it is all about, and many find no interest in politics as well and treat it of all sorts of names still because they have no understanding of politics.

[Balon Solo]

I only hope that your politics do not adultrate your academic performance.

[Timberland Footwear]

Nice, and thanks for sharing this info with us.Good Luck!