Up Station Mountain Club

African Renaissance:Lessons for Cameroon

Talk Show Host: Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dK8aHhP19jLRTr_um4GBG4quIaFyTeq9/view?ts=5f4af178

Compulsive-Addictive Behaviors in the Christian Family

By

 Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta, Ph.D.

 

 

 

I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptural texts used in the crafting of this discourse is chosen from Ephesians 5:3-5:

"But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." [NIV]

The word ‘addict’ stems from the Latin word ‘addictus’  which means a debtor awarded as a slave to his creditor. An addict is virtually enslaved to his addiction. In contemporary society, we are aware of folks who are unrepentant addicts. Millions in our society are alcoholics. The same is true for nicotine and other drug addictions. Our society is replete with workaholics who are unable to draw a line between work and family life. Others are controlled by gambling and/or sex. Many more are couch potatoes. Some cannot stop eating. These are bulimics. It is easy to come up with a list longer that this one. But if I gloss over the numerous compulsive-addictive behaviors that plague our society today, I would be doing a disservice to families where these are real problems. Their plight is too deep to be taken lightly. They are living in real pain.

Consider the case of the head of a household who comes home drunk every day.  His slurred words are crude and abusive. Imagine the fear in the eyes of his spouse and kids. Ponder the sadness of parents whose son or daughter is hooked on drugs. You can almost feel their despair. They are facing a monster they don’t know how to combat. Pay a visit to a patient in the final stages of lung cancer. You know that this person deserves a longer life and a more dignified death.  You cannot argue with the spouse who prays for the day when cigarettes would be banned. Imagine the tears welling in the eyes of a person whose spouse is a workaholic. Gambling and pornography are wreaking irreparable havoc in our families, even churchgoing families. This list suffices.

I just wanted to be certain that we are in touch with the pain that is caused by compulsive-addictive behaviors in our families. Oftentimes, it’s hard to differentiate between the two terms. As I see it, it is helpful to perceive addiction as a behavior that enslaves the individual to something. His or her monster may be alcohol, drugs, sex, food, cigarettes, pornography, television, job, gambling or spending. The individual is controlled by such a monster and submits to its push. By contrast, compulsive behavior is an irresistible impulse to perform irrational acts. For instance, a person may become compulsive about hand-washing or cleaning the house time and again. There’s nothing wrong with washing one’s hands or cleaning one’s house unless these things are done mindlessly and incessantly. In the same vein, there’s nothing wrong with talking unless someone can’t stop talking; which means that the person is a compulsive talker. I am sure you know people like that. Compulsive behavior is probably not as dire as addictive patterns, but at times the two categories nudge up against each other.

As with all addictions, compulsive behavior engenders frustration and may constitute a factor that occasions sin as we shall see below. Someone who is a compulsive complainer, who finds fault with everyone and everything, who becomes a pro at spotting the flaws of everyone else but themselves can drive everyone nuts, even those in their immediate family. The same holds true for a compulsive talker. It is not infrequent that such flaws are passed on from one generation to the next. In this vein, addiction to criticism, gossip, backstabbing, negativity and workaholism are repeated. The Bible harbors irrefutable truths about the impact of compulsive-addictive behaviors on the lives of Christians. Remember the Biblical accounts of Abram’s habit of lying about his wife Sarai when they traveled in unfamiliar settings? (Genesis 12:11-20). Abram lied twice about his wife. What is worse, Isaac, Abram’s son copied his father’s behavior and also lied. Lies also marked the lives of Isaac’s twin sons—Jacob and Esau. And would you believe that this habit of telling half-truths also characterized Jacob’s sons who broke his heart by telling him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal when in fact they had sold him into slavery (Genesis 37:12-36). How often do we see this pattern of inter-generational sin in our secular and Christian families?

Sadly enough, when compulsive-addictive people become church members, they import the same problematic behaviors into the church. People who are always late to school or work, have an even greater problem arriving at church on time. In subsequent years, their children would probably become later-comers to church as well. And most likely so will their grandchildren. The person who compulsively bad-mouths others will not desist from this misconduct whether or not s/he is talking about the pastor, the music director or any other member of the church family. To put this simply, an individual who is prone to gossip will bring that addiction from home right into the church unless a major healing (deliverance) occurs. The compulsive urge to be a control freak will mark a person’s life whether that person is at work or at church. Simply stated, compulsive-addictive behavior doesn’t mysteriously disappear as soon as someone drives into the parking lot of a church.The question that begs to be asked at this juncture is what should be done to eradicate these addictive behaviors.

First and foremost, the church as to be proactive in graciously helping compulsive-addictive members to regain their freedom from the chains of addictive behavior. To do so, the church has to fall back on the Word of God. In Ephesians 5: 5; 8:11-14, Paul discusses the remedies needed to eradicate these sorts of problems within the church family. The church must play a proactive role in ensuring that positive attitudes remain the hallmarks of the comportment of its members.  The Bible teaches unconditional love (Luke 6: 27-28; 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:9 and 1 John 4:16).It also teaches humility (Mark 9: 35; Romans 12: 16; Philippians 2:3 and James 3: 13).Christ’s truth must be the moral yard-stick that we use to measure our performance as followers of Christ.  God is truth. It goes without the saying that as followers of Christ, it behooves us to adopt Christ’s model of truthful existence. The Bible provides numerous references to this effect (John 14:6; John 17:17; 2 Timothy 2:15; Psalm 25:5; Ephesians 6:14; Ephesians 4:21, Romans 1:25 and Proverbs 12:22).

Secondly, the onus is on the church to help congregants effect a paradigm shift. This should begin with a deliberate attempt to effect lifestyle changes—a quest for a new mindset. To this end, members of the church should be willing to trade off their coat of perfectionism to one of contentment. It has to reckon with the fact that the family will not change unless individuals within the family change.  Church families are not an exception. Church families improve only to the extent to which nuclear families within the church have gotten better.

Thirdly, as Christians our call is to acknowledge and accept the sovereignty of God. Understanding the omnipotence of God is something that will flow naturally from a person’s faith. When you have faith in God and all that He is, praising Him becomes something that just seems right. We serve a God that created the universe, that brought us from dirt, that freed slaves, that rained fire that parted seas, that gave us His son, that had Him die on the cross for our sins, that defeated death, that rose again, and will one day return. When we know these truths about God Almighty, faith comes into us and we are humbled (Psalm 135:6; Proverbs 16:9; Romans 9:14-18 and Romans 8:28).

Last but not least, we must nurse the spirit of brotherhood within the Church family. If we’d do this, then mutual hatred, condescension, backstabbing and petty gossips would dissipate. Fortunately, when there is a spirit of breakthrough, in a Christian’s life, it produces a positive effect on the lives of other members of the church family. As Christians, we must strive to be the light for others to follow.  If we adopt these attitudes and ask God through prayer and supplication to relieve us of our compulsive-addictive behaviors, He would do it. In conclusion, I invite you to accompany me in saying the following prayer:

O God,

We praise you for your power to make all things new.

Empower us to break free from compulsive patterns that inhibit us,

So that we can enjoy the wholeness of life you offer us.

Thank you for often surprising us by the miraculous

Ways you bring healing to our lives. Amen.

Abuse of Power

 

 

Professor Vakunta's Pedagogic Discourse on False News & COVID-19

 

 

Ethnocracy in African Politics

 Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

Penya-Penya!

 

 Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

 

 

When I dined with Lucifer,

Sarcasm was my apparel.

Not anymore; in communion with Christ,

I adorn a cloak of lexical prudence.

 

When I supped with the Devil,

Prevarication was my modus operandi.

To the chagrin of friends and foes.

At present candor is my hallmark.

 

When I feasted with Beelzebub,

Conceit was my accoutrement.

In Christ’s company,

Humility is my stock-in-trade.

 

When I peregrinated with Mammon,

Levity was my badge.

In the abode of the Lord,

Compunction is my insignia.

 

When I hung out

With the offspring of Evil,

Sorcery was my armor.

In deliverance I shun fetishism.

 

When I sojourned with Satan,

Inebriety was my opium.

In the wake of redemption,

Sobriety is my new opiate.

 

When the Demon and I

Were bedfellows well met,

I was unabashedly mercurial.

Today I am phlegmatic.

 

When I was Iscariot’s room-mate,

I loathed the Scriptures.

Today morphed into penya-penya,

I gobble from the Biblical gourd.

 

Lord God Almighty

Has shredded all existential fluff

And rendered me invulnerable

To human machinations-Hallelujah!

The Ambazonian Question

 

 

The Ambazonian Question

 

 

Barrel of the Gun

 

 By Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

 

It’s no light comment on our country,

To say that we openly and consciously

Condone a system in which race 

Determines who breathes

And who should not breathe.

 

Whom we execute and

Whom we set free!

Take a walk down memory lane—

Revisit the slaying of the black boy named

Trayvon Martin in Sanford Florida.

 

Recall the killing of yet another black boy

By the name of Michael Brown

By a trigger-happy cop

In Ferguson in the State of Missouri,

In broad day light.

 

Remember the murder

Of the black man,

Eric Garner of Staten Island

By choke-hold tactics

By the police in New York.

 

Don’t forget the assassination

Of twelve-year old boy,

Tamir Rice wielding

A plastic gun by a vampire

In police uniform in Cleveland!

 

Our hearts still bleed

With anguish over the callous

Murder of George Floyd

In Minneapolis by police officers

Emboldened by institutionalized racism.

 

It's now crystal clear as it has been

In the past that race makes

Or mars in this land of the free!

Supreme Court  acknowledges

That race plays a role in death penalties.

 

Yet has decided to gloss over it,

To all intents and purposes.

This form of selective amnesia

Has become the stock-in-trade of

White folks the world over.

 

A black person killing a white

Person in Oklahoma, Mississippi,

Virginia, Arkansas or North Carolina

Is more likely to get a death sentence

Than a white man killing a black man.

 

Racism has become so deep-rooted

In our psyche that it has now acquired

The veneer of normalcy!

Racism is enmeshed in daily parlance—

Niggers! Shit-holes! Illegal aliens!

 

It's everywhere in commercials,

It's buried in institutional practices,

School system has been re-segregated,

Racism is pervasive in the workplace,

Who's fooling who in these climes?

 

In social circles and everywhere,

Veiled racism is visible to the color-blind

Yesterday, Civil Rights Icon,

Rosa Parks said, ‘I’m tired.’

Today, she'd say 'Fuck y'all, I’m fed up!’

 

 

Rogue Cops

 

By Dr. Peter Vakunta

 

 

Multifaceted nomenclature--

Copper,

Gumshoe,

Flat foot,

Poulet,

Mange-mille,

Mbéré-Khaki,[i]

We buy the fatigues for you,

We buy the guns for you

To protect us day and night;

You take the guns and shoot us!

Rogue cop,

You kill our kids,

You rob our banks,

And deflower our daughters,

You harass the innocent.

Racial profiling your stock-in-trade.

We’re sick and tired of cop roguery!

Notes

[i] Police man

Securing the Linguistic Base

By Professor Peter Vakunta

 

https://www.facebook.com/peter.vakunta/videos/10223212780210449/UzpfSTEzMTE3NjkwNzg6MTAyMjMyMTMwMjc4OTY2NDE/

New Publication

BByBDr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

Poetry has the potential to serve as a double-edged weapon. In Tragedy of the Commons Vakunta stirs the hornet’s nest, calls a spade a spade and throws gibes at emasculators of social justice. The poet refuses to sit on the fence and watch the world go by.  Strong in the conviction that poets must adjudicate upon the affairs of men, the poet picks up the cudgels to do battle with forces of evil the world over. He gives to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.  Widely traveled and seasoned by his global experience, the poet serves the reader with a bitter-sweet menu of mind-boggling aphorisms reflective of the ontological labyrinth to which he has been exposed in the course of his peregrinations around the globe. In this anthology of poems spanning a quarter century, the poet bemoans the fate of a world where miscreants pass for angels; wherein scoundrels speak for the voiceless; and mammon dines with God. The portrait painted in this book is that of a world where moral bankrupts proceed with nauseating callousness to trample on the rights of lesser beings. Tragedy of the Commons is the poet’s stentorian cry against the rape of social justice and the endemic moral crisis that has blighted our planet.

 

Tragedy of the Commons is a seminal piece of fictional writing that delves into the crevices of contemporary society. Divided into thematic realms, this book of poems is an awakening call for humanity to waken from slumber and pay heed to seemingly trivial issues of our times. The poet skillfully weaves into poetic form existential matters that human beings tend to gloss over. Readers will be at ease with the commonplace lexical choices that seem to be the poet's stock-in-trade. [Dr. Peter Ngwafu Ajongwa, Albany State University]

Kwenane

 

 

 

 

By Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

They came severally,

They came collectively,

To the Holy city of Moria,

Abode of religious stamina.

 

Congregated at Kwenane gingerly,

They sang humbly and softly,

Mpoho-o! Mopho-o! Holy hymn-o!

Eyes glued to the sky-o!

 

In their midst there I was,

Between and betwixt,

Staring rather meekly,

As shepherds enjoined calmly.

 

Thou shall love your neighbor,

Thou shall forgive each other,

Thou shall not eat mopane worms,

Nor shall thou eat swine meat.

 

Kwenane not just a shout,

River that never dries out,

Come rain come drought,

Cradle of Zionist cry out.

 

Kwenane serpentine font

Revered baptismal fief.

Kgotso a ebe le lena!

Peace be upon you!

 

On that blissful day,

On 24 December 2019,

I plunged into Kwenane,

And emerged born again!

 

Cleansed of earthly travails,

Adulated by Z.C.C kith and kin,

Singing adulatory songs,

In honor of Modimo.

 

They were legion,

Of same religion,

Female and male dancers,

Outdoing each other in mokhukhu.

 

Z.C.C Brass Band—spectacle on its own.

Thanks to His Grace, the Right Reverend,

Bishop Dr. E. B. Lekganyane,

Tumiso a e ye go Modimo!

 

BOOMERANG

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Professor Vakunta

 

Concoction and machination,

Come rain,come shine,

All to no avail,

Foiled coup of sorts.

 

The duo hail from

The Heart of Darkness.

One from Yorubaland,

The other from Meukohland.

 

In Indianaland,

Two she devils locked horns,

Bedfellows well met,

Notorious offspring of Lucifer.

 

One black like charcoal,

The other banana skinned,

Both intent on playing femmes fatales,

At the expense of PWV.

 

The evil that Amazons concoct,

Bears fruit with offspring—

Abortive matrimonies,

Sterile wombs inept for procreation.

 

By fiendish mantras they operate,

The end justifies the means.

Tobasi, megan and sorcery.

Bang! Boomerang!Aborted coup!

 

Wrestling with Beelzebub

Amounts to a herculean task.

Sole efficacious armor against evil,

Is intimate communion with God.

 

God fished PWV out of an abyss,

He retrieved him from murky waters,

And set him on a Rock of all Ages,

To the chagrin of foes and faux amis.

 

 © Vakunta 2020

Book Review

 

Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth by Dr. Seth Antwi Ofori, Adwinsa Publications, 2017, 61pp. Paperback. ISBN 978 9964 6 3111-1

Reviewer: Dr. Peter Vakunta

 

 

 

Ofori’s work titled Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth is a work of divine inspiration. It is a trove of religious dogmas and dictums intended to provide clarity and sense of direction to the Christian’s existential trajectory. This book adumbrates and sheds ample light on the Christian’s mandate on earth. In sixty-one pages, Ofori delves into a myriad of themes, not the least of which is the concept of divine omnipresence:  “Even when we think He is not with us, He is with us, for He never abandons His own. Our Father is right with us in this life’s furnace and so knows and shares our every pain.”(4) Notice that Ofori resorts to the use of a metaphorical expression, ‘furnace’ in a bid to paint a captivating picture of the incessant travails that render the Christian’s task on earth rather tedious. The concept of Christian earthly travail is manifest in the temptations that Satan constantly puts on humanity. Ofori observes that “Satan deceived the very people he had been sent to redeem to disrespect and to maltreat him all in an attempt to undermine his authority as a son of God on earth.”(37)  But no sooner had he pointed that out than he provided an antidote to the problem: “One cannot come to any meaningful solution of one’s problems without total submission to the Spirit of God where our liberation is.”(5) He further expatiates on the concept of divine omnipotence as follows:" It is only God who has the answers to the future we need. He will lead us to His answers to the future we need, not the future (or the tomorrow) we want, for the future (or tomorrow) is not ours, but His. Tomorrow belongs to God and to God only and it is Him only who can guide us securely into it…."(5)The triple themes of divine omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience constitute the undercurrent that runs throughout Ofori’s work. This author truly believes that God is the font of all knowledge and invites believers to seek Him for salvation at all times. As he puts it, “God invites us to climb up high to Him in knowledge, understanding and performance…”(6)

Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth is a seminal work in the realm of religious studies on several counts, notably the elucidation concerning the paternal role of God as a spiritual father. In Ofori’s own words, “God, as a Father, is exemplifying to us how to be responsible citizens of this earth.”(12).This paternalistic role that God assigns to Himself is morphed into the duty of a good shepherd. As Ofori would have it, “God is, by this act, teaching and instructing us to engage all forms of ungodly and hopeless conditions everywhere to transform them to His glory and honor. God is teaching us to counter acts that contradict who He is or what He has done.”(13)The author is driven by the conviction that good shepherding derives from wisdom and perspicacity. He sums this up as follows: “In His wisdom, He has fashioned His creations to be interdependent and, by so doing, has justified their co-existence and, therefore, mutual relevance…” (14) It is noteworthy that Ofori enjoins readers to dwell on the qualities of God as a loving father. He describes God’s unconditional love for mankind as follows: “His love for mankind is beyond comprehension…” (14) A little further the author reflects on the theme of divine love as follows:"The universe is God’s handiwork and love for us. He has made the world available to us in expression of His love for us. His love is revealed in the fact that He has made available in us the potential to operate just like Him, which is His evidence of our sonship. It is the will of our God that we dwell on this earth happily to His glory and honor." (16)In a bid to underscore the notion of divine love, Ofori refers readers to the gospel according to Luke: “… Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind… (Luke 10:27)

Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth is also a reflection on Divine fortitude.  To Ofori’s mind, God is an indefatigable combatant. He observes:"God simply does not give up on anything under any condition and expects us to be just like Him. God did not run away from the imperfections of the earth but worked on them to bring them to His standards. God has standards and so must we... His activities are goal-oriented and so must ours…"(15)Ofori is, nonetheless, not oblivious of the presence of evil on earth. In this light, he notes, “Any contradiction in the realm of the spirit is deception; and deception is the technique of only one, Satan.”(17)He urges believers to resist all temptations stemming from the principalities of evil. In his own words, “We drive Satan into the abyss that God has prepared for him from the foundation of the world as more and more of us resist Satan’s ways and become of God.”(18) The writer contends that it is in partnership with God that Christians will be able to conquer Satan. Ofori dwells on the concept of heavenly mandate throughout his book. In this vein, he is emphatic: “Our mandate is to sustain and advance the will of God on earth for our wellbeing and therefore to God’s glory and honor.” (21)To buttress his point, the author refers readers to the Book of Genesis: “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (30) The writer contends that mankind has been empowered by God to fill the mandate given them by Him. This implies fully engaging all human capabilities to this end. As Ofori puts it,"In his wisdom, God has empowered us to be able to engage to understand the strength of our capacities—both our physical and spiritual capacities—and also, had made available to us through His word and His handiwork the means to enhance these capacities for our wellbeing and, therefore to His glory and honor."(33)Intricately linked to the foregoing is the theme of divine/human binary interdependence that permeates the length and breadth of Ofori’s book. He points out that “Jesus understood our binary nature—man as a son of man (i.e. of the earth), and as a son of God (i.e. of heaven…” (33) This observation underscores the fact that God does not trivialize any aspect of human anatomy. He acknowledges the fact that our bodies have a role to play in our endeavor to accomplish our earthly mandate. Ofori sums this conviction up in the following citation: “Knowledge of the body and how it works, and knowledge of the best practices to improve upon its constituent members… is equally important.”(34)

Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth is an account of Jesus’s triumph over Satan and his diabolical machinations on earth. Ofori notes that Jesus undermined Satan’s temptations by abiding in His father; by refusing to submit to the whims and caprices of the devil. The writer observes that Jesus “undermined every discouraging situation meted out on him by Satan, by not submitting to and, therefore, glorifying the pain it was meant to inflict, but by trusting and submitting to the promise and the healing which are available in the Word of God for those who solely depend on Him.”(38) This book is to all intents and purposes an inspirational work, the more so because the theme of man’s conquest of evil appears to be a recurring theme throughout the book. It is hard to read Ofori’s book without reminiscing on the vendetta that transpired between David and Goliath in the Book of Samuel. Goliath is portrayed in this book as a Philistine giant that was defeated by the young David in a single combat. David’s victory over his gigantic foe is attributed to his deep faith in God. Ofori dwells on the fact we tend to grow in strength as soon as we develop deep faith in God. In his own words: “If we are of the father, then we can be successful in our life obligations because we have access to His Kingdom…To have life is to have God, and to have God is to acknowledge and act on the Word of God to God’s glory and honor.”(42-43)

Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth sheds ample light on man’s wholesome dependence on God. This life is full of misery, Ofori notes, and no matter how hard we endeavor to sail through it single-handedly, we are doomed to fail. We are reminded by the writer that “Without the life of God… without the word of God or obedience to the Word of God… it is better if one had not been born, for it is the life of God that will sustain everything beyond the current existence.”(43) It is discernible by reading this book that faith in God is the bedrock of successful human in existence. Without faith man is likely to cling onto the serpent, an incarnation of Satan, for safety. This is an eventuality against which Ofori seems to caution his readers. He observes that deep faith in God engenders truth and alienation from Evil: “Through him, we have come to know the truth, the truth about who we are and the truth about what is indeed of God and what is of Satan.”(41) Embedded in the recurrent theme of divine truth is the theme of forgiveness. The writer links salvation with forgiveness. Ofori appears to be telling his readers that there is no future without forgiveness. He enjoins readers to emulate the example of Christ: “On the cross, he had the permission to forgive eternal sin by calling on his Father and our Father to overlook our shortcomings and to embrace us once again as sons and daughters.”(47) In this light readers are urged by Ofori to seek Jesus and bond with Him in a bid to fulfill their heavenly mandate on earth.

In a nutshell, Your Heavenly Mandate on Earth is a clarion call to all believers to harken God’s call. Ofori’s invitation to commune with God is loud and clear. He speaks to all and sundry: “Brothers and sisters… do not withhold yourself from the Lord. Avail yourself to Him through obedience to His word. Avail yourself to Him through the working of His works. Allow yourself to be coalesced with Him in works….” (52) The term ‘mandate’ as used in this book may seem ambiguous. However, to disambiguate it, Ofori employs it as an invitation to know God’s truth. This semantic connotation is evident in the following citation from the book: “  … know God’s truth concerning your life, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, put on your heavenly mantle, which is your obedience to  the Word of God …”(54)

All in all, this book is a priceless resource for pastors, students of the Bible and Christians in general. Its germaneness resides in the author’s deliberate choice of familiar words and comprehensible phraseology.

About the reviewer

Dr. Vakunta, former Chair of the Department Global Language and Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Indianapolis, now works as Associate Professor of French language and culture at the Defense Language Institute, Language Teaching Detachment in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA. He is author of several books in the domains of second language acquisition, translation theory and literary criticism.

 

Genesis of the Ambazonian Revolution

By Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Genesis of the Ambazanian Revolution is a walk down memory lane. It encapsulates the events that preceded the uprising of English-speaking Cameroonians against the government of President Paul Biya in 2016. This write-up is construed as a requiem for what used to be known as the Republic of Cameroon. The overriding objective of this article is to shine the searchlight on the manner in which the dysfunctional government of Paul Biya constitutes the raison d’être of the unsightly genocide that is ongoing in Cameroon.  Those who wish to comprehend the apocalypse toward which the Cameroonian nation has been propelled by the rogue government of Mr. Biya would do well to study the actions of the men at the helm of government in Cameroon. Paul Biya and his henchmen have toyed with power to the detriment of nationhood. This is a compelling narrative of the many facets of the unresolved perennial socio-political problems that have snowballed into what has been christened the Anglophone Crisis, or the Ambazonia Revolution. This captivating write-up provides readers with an insight into the social, political, economic and cultural events that have spurred English-speaking Cameroonians to take up the cudgels to do battle with their oppressors. It is a riveting account of the manner in which Paul Biya’s lame-duck government has systematically underdeveloped Cameroon to the point of no return. 

You might have read Animal Farm, the 1945 classic written by George Orwell. Many in my generation had to read this book in order to sit for the London General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination. Over the years I have come to see the relevance of the message in Orwell’s novel even more as I ponder the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. The plot of the 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 was established. The famous line: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (92) still rings true to date and reminds me of the fate of Ambazonians in that eerie farmland code-named La République du Cameroun. The socio-political status quo in Cameroon at present is a parody of Animal Farm. The novel is a replica of what has come to be referred to as the Anglophone Question, in other words, the Anglophone Crisis.

• Cameroonians have to get rid of the colonial mentality and assume the posture of architects of their own destiny. The belief that international goodwill will solve our perennial problems is a fallacy. We must be prepared to look one another in the face and say: look, this is where we went wrong; it is time to correct mistakes of the past and move on toward seeking a long-lasting solution to the Anglophone Question.
• Cameroonians must make sure that their hard-won political independence is not a sham. To put this differently, political independence must be backed by economic freedom. This is the point Ngwane (2004) underscores when he wonders: “Of what use is political freedom without economic emancipation?”(14)Ngwane’s question is not an idle one. 

• Last but not least, the question of Ambazonian autonomy, in other words, total independence for  the Republic of Ambazonia must be on the table for discussion sooner rather than later. Time is against Cameroonian stakeholders.

The Anglophone Question

After fighting together to free Cameroon from French and British hegemony, French-speaking Cameroonians now tend to lord it over their English-speaking compatriots. There is no gainsaying the fact that there exists a generation of English-speaking Cameroonians who now find themselves at a historical crossroads and would like to know where they 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 arrogant, condescending francophone compatriots in positions of power is a time bomb that needs to be defused before it explodes to do irreparable damage. Unfair discrimination sows seeds of discord regardless of where it is practiced. Prejudice, in all its shades and colors, is deleterious in all parts of the world. A celebrated American literary icon, Maya Angelou (1986) once said: “Prejudice is a burden which confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.” (p.5)

The cohabitation between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians has been branded a marriage of convenience by scholars and students of post-colonial politics in Africa. In fact, the uneasy co-existence between these two linguistic communities has been likened by some critics 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 could better depict the frictional coexistence between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians. More often than not, the perpetrators of this macabre game of divide and rule are the French-speaking political leaders who take delight in fishing in troubled waters. They divide in order to conquer to the detriment of the wretch of earth[i],or the proverbial man in the street. In so doing, they stoke the flames of animosity and whip up sentiments of mutual suspicion and distrust between Anglophones and Francophones at the expense of nation-building. Many of them have been heard to make statements intended either to cow Anglophones into submission or to incite them into open revolution such as the Ambazonian revolution which we are witnessing today. These self-styled leaders have mounted the podium a zillion times to chant to the entire world that there is no Anglophone Problem in Cameroon. This type of hogwash has now come to bite them in the butt. Nemesis has uncanny ways of getting at its culprits. The plain truth is that there is a palpable feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction among Anglophones in Cameroon. Questions that remain unanswered as we trudge through the Anglophone conundrum 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 more interrogations constitute what has been labeled the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis.

The Cameroon Anglophone Question 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[ii] and the judiciary. In short, the Anglophone Problem raises questions about participation in decision-making as well as power-sharing in the country. This is not a figment of any Anglophone Cameroon's imagination. It is real, tangible and verifiable. The Anglophone Question 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 cocky Francophone bureaucrats who look down on anyone speaking English. The Anglophone Crisis stems from the supercilious attitude of French-speaking Cameroonians who believe that their Anglophones compatriots are less intelligent, sloppy and worse still, unpatriotic, and therefore, should be asked to seek refuge in another country! This francophone bigotry compounded by superciliousness has given rise to the rampant use of  derogatory slurs such as” les Anglophones sont gauches”[iii], “c’est des ennemis dans la maison”[iv], “ce sont les biafrais[v] and so on.

The outcome of this anti-Anglophone sentiment is the Ambazonian War which the world is witnessing today. Francophone Cameroonians have the misconception that Anglophone Cameroonians are unreliable and untrustworthy, and thus, undeserving of positions of leadership. This explains why key ministerial positions are the preserve of French-speaking Cameroonians. Such ministries include: Defense, Finance & Economy and Territorial Administration. It should be noted the current Minister of Territorial Administration,Paul Atanga Ngi, is a rarity in Cameroonian body politic. Mr. Biya chose Atanga Ngi because he hails from Bamenda, the hotbed of Anglophone rebellion in Cameroon. Ngi is there to perform Biya’s dirty job. This notwithstanding, Anglophobia has also led to the appointment of Francophones with no working knowledge of the English language to ambassadorial positions in strategic countries such as 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 presidency of the Republic and its ancillary organs are “no-go” zones for most Anglophone Cameroonians. Although political appointments in this country ought to be done in conformity with the constitutional “regional balance paradigm”, it is common knowledge that distrust of English-speaking Cameroonians has made the implementation of this constitutional stipulation a dead letter over the years. It should be noted that the relegation of Anglophone Cameroonians to the periphery in matters pertaining to political appointments has nothing to do with competence. In fact, the cream of Cameroon’s intelligentsia are Anglophones thanks to the existence of world-class Anglo-Saxon secondary schools such as Sacred Heart College in Mankon, St. Joseph’s College in Sasse, Our Lady of Lourdes in Bamenda, Cameroon Protestant College in Bali and a host of others that have churned out well-groomed administrators, scientists, technocrats, and more. These colleges are trail-blazers and cradles of the solid general education that English-speaking Cameroonians identify with.

Sadly enough, the administrative system in Cameroon does not reward merit. In fact, the requiem for meritocracy was sung in this country the very day the colonizers left for Europe. Giving reward to those who deserve it has no place in Cameroon. Corruption and nepotism are the yardsticks used in the selection of candidates to work in the public service and other workplaces in this unfortunate geographical expression called Ngola[vi]. Little wonder, the Berlin-based watchdog, Transparency International, has declared Cameroon one of the most corrupt nations in the world. In the same vein, Marilyn Greene (2005), Press Fellow from the United States of America, in an interview with Jeff Ngwane Yufenyi in the November 23, 2005 edition of the Post, pointed out: “Corruption is a plague affecting everyone from top government officials to poor folks in the street.”(1) She made the statement in Bamenda as a reaction to the outcry on corruption in Cameroon at the opening of a two-day seminar on Media Excellence in Cameroon. Corrupt practices affect the manner in which revenue from natural resources is used in Cameroon. Statistics indicate that about sixty percent of Cameroon’s wealth in natural resources is located in Ambazonia, the English-speaking part of the country. Yet the Francophone region takes the lion’s share of the national budget intended for building roads, hospitals, schools and other social amenities.This state of affairs has been described by some critics as jungle justice. We are where we are today in Cameroon, saddled with an Elephant in the house because of mutual misunderstanding between la Répulique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons[vii].

Open hostility toward Anglophones reached its acme many years ago when English-speaking Cameroonian students protesting against discrimination on the basis of the language of instruction at the University of Yaoundé went on strike and chanted the “We shall overcome” rallying song. Francophone members of government with limited proficiency in the English language accused them of singing the national anthem of a foreign country, namely Nigeria, and told Anglophones students to go and live in Nigeria if they were not happy in Cameroon. In other climes, these officials would have been asked to resign without further ado. Not so in Cameroon where nonsensical statements such as the aforementioned actually earn accolades. In a similar vein, the Anglophone clamor for the decentralization of the political system in Cameroon has been branded by some narrow-minded Francophones as an Anglophone-Bamileke[viii] conspiracy to overthrow the government of President Paul Biya Mbivodo. Political myopia is one of Cameroon’s cankers. There has been unbridled attempts by French-speaking Cameroonians to whip up anti-Anglophone sentiments in order to score political points. The Cameroon GCE Board imbroglio that bred fire and brimstone in the early 1990s is a case in point. The saga to create a separate examination board for the General Certificate of Education Examination for Anglophones brought Cameroon to a virtual standstill because French-speaking Cameroonians could not fathom how Anglophone underdogs could have the temerity to demand equal treatment with their overlords. There is no gainsaying the fact that the colonial linguistic legacy that makes Cameroon a bilingual (English and French) post-colony is a divisive factor.

The Language Question in Cameroon

The question of language policy in Cameroon remains a bone of contention. There is no language policy put in place to prevent the marginalization of linguistic minorities. The interpretation of the letter and spirit of the law is left to the whims and caprices of French-speaking judges who are ignorant of how the Anglo-Saxon judicial system works. It should be noted that one of the events that triggered the outbreak of the Ambazonian War was a strike led by Anglophone lawyers[ix]. The disparity between the Anglo-Saxon Common Law system inherited from Great Britain and Francophone Napoleonic legal system has resulted in several instances of miscarriage of justice in Cameroon.  Miscarriage of justice was self-evident, for example, during the infamous Yondo Black trial way back in the 1990s when an Anglophone witness was deprived of his right to testify on the grounds that the presiding judge could not understand English. One wonders what has become of the pool of translators and interpreters who are vegetating at the Presidency of the Republic and other ministries in Yaounde.

The Cameroon Radio & Television (CRTV) is another case in point. It has been so “french-fried”[x] that ninety-five percent of the programs are broadcast only in French to the detriment of English-speaking Cameroonians. Programs in English obtained from overseas are rapidly translated into French to serve the needs of the Francophone majority. The language of training and daily routine in the military, police and gendarmerie is French. This is the root cause of the Anglophone crisis  in Cameroon. There is no turning a blind eye to it. It will come back to haunt not just the present generation of Cameroonians but also posterity. It may even affect Africa as a whole because Cameroon is, indeed, Africa in miniature. The onus is on Cameroonians to face reality and seek a lasting solution to this perennial problem. Of all the burning issues that remain unresolved in Cameroon in the wake of independence, the language question is the thorniest. The imbroglio has degenerated into the well-known identity crisis among English-speaking Cameroonians, a crisis which this writer has captured in a poem titled “Identity Crisis”:

I don’t quite know who I am.

Je ne sais pas au juste qui je suis.

Some call me Anglo;

D’autres m’appellent Frog.

I still don’t know who I am

Je ne sais toujours pas qui je suis.

My name c’est Le Bamenda;

My name is L’Ennemi dans la maison;

My name c’est le Biafrais;

Mon nom is underclass citizen;

My name c’est le maladroit.

Taisez-vous! Shut up!

Don’t bother me!

Ne m’embêtez pas!

Don’t you know that je suis ici chez moi?

Vous ignorez que I belong here?

I shall fight to my dernier souffle

To forge a real name pour moi-même.

You shall call me Anglofrog!

Vous m’appelerez Franglo!

Shut up! Taisez-vous!

Don’t bother me!

Ne m’embêtez pas!

Vous ignorez que I belong here?

Don’t you know que je suis ici chez moi?

I shall fight to my last breath

To forge a real lingo for myself.

I’ll speak Français;

Je parlerai English

Together we’ll speak camfranglais;

C’est-à-dire qu’ensemble,

We’ll speak le Camerounisme,

Because ici nous sommes tous chez nous

A bon entendeur salut!

He who has ears should hear![xi]

More than forty years after accession to political independence, it is unimaginable that there is no reliable indigenous language policy in Cameroon.  Unlike most other African countries which give pride of place to their indigenous languages, French and English, languages of colonial masters, remain the official languages of Cameroon in stark defiance of the national constitution(1996) which stipulates:

The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavor to protect and promote national languages (Article 1.3: 5)

In this regard, Cameroon stands out as a sore finger in the African linguistic landscape. The question that begs asking here is why Cameroon, which boasts two hundred and forty-seven indigenous languages, does not have an official indigenous language policy. How come we are still dressed in borrowed robes many decades after independence? How can we talk of a Cameroonian national identity without an indigenous language policy? Are Cameroonian policy-makers oblivious of the fact that language conveys the culture of a people? Language does not only serve as the cultural repertory and memory-bank of a people; it is also an embodiment of continuity and change in the historical consciousness of a community of speakers of the language. Each native language in Cameroon reflects the concerns, attitudes and aspirations of its speakers. In other words, our indigenous languages carry with them the habits, mannerisms, and identity of its native speakers. Don’t Cameroonians have the right to articulate their own cultural identities? They cannot portray their cultural identities by speaking in foreign tongues; by bowing to assimilation.  Bjornson (2001) has described assimilation in Africa as: “The adoption of European tastes, languages, customs, and colonial government policies by Africans.”(p.19) Arguing along similar lines in his world acclaimed song Redemption Song (1980), late Bob Marley urged colonized peoples the world over to “emancipate themselves from mental slavery.” Language is the soul of a people. Language transports culture. If you destroy a man’s language, you have destroyed the man. Sadly enough, Cameroonians relish borrowed cultures to the detriment of their indigenous cultures. We continue to speak in foreign tongues many years after the departure of our banana-skin former masters. This is attributable, in the most part, to government lack of interest in promoting indigenous language education. Albert Gerard (1988) is right when he points out:

…Les gouvernements issus des l’empire français ne prennent guère de mesures efficaces pour encourager l’activité écrite dans les langues du peuple. Ils ont pour cela des motifs politiques valables(265).

[Governments that were formed in the wake of political independence from France do not take effective measures to foster the codification of indigenous languages. They have valid political reasons for not doing so]

This leaves us with the irksome feeling that we have not yet liberated ourselves from mental slavery. Is it not true then that a true slave is not necessarily the one in chains? The acculturation that has taken deep root in Cameroon has had as a corollary the denigration of our traditional values. How many times have you heard mind-boggling comments like “this man na kontry, he no sabe tok gramma”[xii] in reference to someone who strives to promote his mother tongue by speaking it as often as he can? Confiant et al. (1990) perceive this self-abnegation as an anomaly and points out that the tragedy of the colonized is the servile manner in which he tries to “portray himself in the color of elsewhere.”(p.80) Franz Fanon (1964:15) describes Africans who behave in this manner as people having “black skin” but wearing “white masks.” To fight cultural imperialism, it is incumbent on Cameroonians to defuse what Ngugi wa Thiongo (1986) calls the “cultural bomb”. He maintains:

[…] But the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves.”(p.3)

Language experts have pointed out that multilingualism is indispensable in today’s global village. In fact, monolingualism, they argue, is now an anachronism in the contemporary multicultural societies in which we live. Bilingualism is an added advantage to the bilingual individual and to the nation as a whole given that what is acquired in one language is transferable to the second language.  This is an enriching acquisition. It broadens the mindset of individuals in the linguistic community, and lubricates social intercourse. Studies have shown that multilingual individuals exhibit a higher degree of cognitive ability than monolinguals. Surprisingly, Cameroon’s bilingual education system has proven to be a nonstarter on account of tribal hostility and bigotry. The linguistic question is an offshoot of the animosity that separates Anglophones from Francophones in Cameroon. Revolting disdain for the English language has led French-speaking Cameroonians to downplay the use of English as an official language although the constitution of the Republic is explicit:

The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status (Article 1.3: 5).

It needs to be pointed out that the second fiddle role that has been assigned to English-speaking Cameroonians by French-speaking members of government has made the implementation of the nation’s bilingual education program a stillborn. There seems to be a deliberate attempt on the part of Francophone Cameroonians to undermine and eventually destroy the Anglo-Saxon culture in Cameroon.  Among their many grievances, Ambazonians are protesting against linguicide (linguistic genocide) in Cameroon. It irksome to realize that in some English-speaking towns and cities in Cameroon such as Buea, Tiko, Kumba, Bamenda, Bali, Nso and Nkambe one  finds billboards with inscriptions written in French only.  Tiko, a town in the South-West province is a case in point. At the entrance into this town, there is a billboard that reads: “Halte Péage!” [Stop Toll Gate!]How do the powers-that-be expect the average man who has never been exposed to French to understand what this inscription means? The case of Tiko is not an isolated one. There are myriads of such billboards throughout the national territory.

Similar linguistic hotchpotch is found at the Nsimalen Airport in Yaoundé. At Nsimalen commuters find some stomach-churning gibberish that reads: “To gather dirtiness is good.” This is a word-for-word rendition of the French: “ramasser la saleté c’est bien.” The French in this sentence leaves much to be desired.  But it is even more annoying to realize that there is no English language translation of the notices posted on the billboards. The creators of this unintelligible stuff know very well that in bilingual countries the world over, all official communication: billboards, memos, letterheads, road-signs, application forms, court forms, police documents, health forms, driver’s licenses and hospital discharge forms are all written in the official languages of the country in question. Failure to do so is tantamount to a violation of the constitution, an illegal act punishable by law in any country where there is rule of law. I have no doubt at all in my mind that diplomats accredited to Yaoundé find our official language policy and its implementation utterly ludicrous. More often than not, one finds on billboards inanities such as: “Not to make dirty is better”. This incomprehensible inscription is meant to be a translation for: “Ne pas salir c’est bien.” If the situation were not so grave one would be laughing but the language question in Cameroon brooks no laughter.

Public authorities, namely mayors, governors, divisional officers, police officers and gendarmes are expected to maintain zero tolerance in upholding Cameroon’s bilingual policy. Breaches of official language policies ought to be punished. It should be noted that there is a pool of translators and interpreters at the Presidency of the Republic spending time on trivialities. Why not use them to perform this important task? These technocrats who were educated with money collected from  Cameroonian taxpayers should be made to serve the nation by translating official documents aimed at public consumption. Let myopia, bigotry and blind allegiance the powers-that-be not deter them from valuing the priceless work that translators and interpreters are capable of doing for the nation.

Personally, I couldn’t care less how much cosmetic surgery French-speaking Cameroonians want to perform on the language of Voltaire. As a matter of fact, psycho-sociological factors have made me totally callous to the mastery of Voltaire’s mother tongue beyond the ability to ask for water to drink when I am on a visit to the world of La Francophonie.[xiii] If I have acquired a smattering of French it is because it enables me to put an additional loaf of bread on the dining table. What I do care very much about is the need to do justice to every  indigenous language community in Cameroon. I care very much about my own mother tongue, Bamunka that occupies its own spot in the linguistic landscape of Cameroon. It is the duty of each and every Cameroonian to prevent the demise of their own indigenous language, the more so because language abuse has become the hallmark of formal education in Cameroon. The importance of indigenous languages has been stressed by scholars in the field. It is noteworthy to point out the views of Nkrumah on the role of autochtonous languages as an indispensable part of our heritage. In his speech titled “Ghana is Born”, Nkrumah sees the use of European languages in Africa as one of the problems compromising the freedom, equality and independence of African countries. He thus suggested the following blueprint:

It is essential that we do consider seriously the problem of language in Africa[…] Far more students in our universities are studying Latin and Greek than studying the languages of Africa. An essential of independence is that emphasis must be laid on studying the living languages of Africa for, out of such a study will come simpler methods by which those in one part of Africa may learn the languages in all other parts.(Quoted in Kwame Botwe-Asamoah, 2001, p.747)

In this discourse, Nkrumah not only saw the danger in neglecting indigenous African languages,  but he also underscored the significance of the linguistic factor in African unity, the more so because as Ngugi (1986) points out, ”Every language has a dual makeup; it is both a mode of communication and a bearer of culture.”(p.13) Asante (1988) has a point when he posits that “If your God cannot speak your language, then he is not your God.”(p.4)Years ago, I read some material that lent credibility to Asante’s charge of linguistic abuse in postcolonial Africa. The offensive document that I read was the C.A.P examination in Cameroon. The following is an excerpt culled for Francis Nyamnjoh’s (1996:114) book:

Each candidat should pick by bilot a sujet. Each sujet is mark over 40 marks. For each port, candidat shall establish the working mothed card. Fill in the analysis car in annexe B.

Anyone in his right mind reading this except should be wondering what on earth is going on in Cameroon. One wonders how Anglophone learners are expected to succeed in an examination in which the phraseology of the questions has been tinkered beyond intelligibility. The unintelligible stuff cited above was meant to serve as an examination that would determine the fate of thousands of Anglophone students who had spent four years studying at technical colleges nationwide. Little wonder they fail in drones. The good thing about this conundrum is that Anglophone parents and teachers are not willing to allow this sort of linguistic bastardization to go on forever. This rape of the English language speaks volumes about the disrespect that Francophone educators and decision-makers have for English-speaking Cameroonians. When the erstwhile Minister of National Education, Robert Mbella Mbappe, was confronted by some irate Anglophone parents and teachers over the tinkered nature of the aforementioned examination and called for the need for an independent Examination Board for Anglophones, here is the response he gave to the representatives of TAC and the SONDENGAM Commission: “You can do whatever you like with your so-called GCE board, none of my children studies in Cameroon.” (Op cit, 114) It is hard to believe that these words are coming out of the mouth of a Minister of National Education, paid with taxpayers' money. In another country, he would have been asked to step down from his position without ceremony.

Conclusion

In this article, we have endeavored to show to what extent the language question has fueled the flames of discontent among English Speaking Cameroonians and engendered the ongoing fiery Ambazonian War. It is one of the root causes of the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis. It would amount to living in fool’s paradise to dismiss the legitimate complaints of English-Speaking Cameroonians as the ranting of a few disgruntled individuals as some French-speaking Cameroonians have claimed so far. When all is said and done, Cameroonians must ask themselves the inevitable question: Is there light at the end of the tunnel as far resolving the Anglophone Crisis is concerned?  As far as this writer is concerned, the response is in the affirmative. What needs to be done at this juncture given that the smoldering flames of discontent have metamorphosed into a bush-fire, is to cease acting the ostrich. Paul Biya and his cohort must take giant steps toward addressing the Anglophone Crisis by all means necessary. If convening a national conference would serve this purpose, there is no reason why Cameroonians cannot be given the opportunity to sit down and talk this problem through. Cameroonians are living in what some perspicacious observers have termed “pre-independence nostalgia.” In other words, post-colonial Cameroon has gotten to a point where some Cameroonians think back wishfully about the days of colonial administration! 

Nearly sixty years after gaining political independence, it is a shame to realize that Cameroon is still tied to the apron strings of France. By now, Cameroon should be in a position to assert itself and conceive a framework that would lead her toward lasting peace and prosperity.Most importantly, Cameroon needs capable leadership. Paul Biya is a senile lame-duck president and should be overthrown pronto. The people that govern Cameroonians today are absentee landlords with no vision at all. Under an enlightened leadership endowed with goodwill, Cameroon should be a terrestrial paradise.

All in all, I have argued throughout this article that the root cause of the ongoing imbroglio in Cameroon stems from the linguistic and cultural dichotomies that distance Anglophone Cameroonians from their Francophone compatriots. I further contend that on account of the Anglophone Question, Cameroon has remained an open sore on the African continent for far too long. Cameroonians of all walks of life cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this problematic status quo. In the words of Ngugi (1986): “They must discover their various tongues to sing the song: ‘A people united can never be defeated.” (3) In order to salvage Cameroon from the brink of collapse, Cameroonians at home and in the diaspora must take a number of realistic measures:

 

 Works cited

[i] Reference to Franz Fanon’s book titled  The Wretched of the Earth (1963)

[ii]Police force in the French-speaking region of Cameroon and other francophone countries.

[iii] Anglophones are clumsy

[iv] They are enemies in the house.

[v] They are Biafrans

[vi] Native name of Cameroon.

[vii] Southern Cameroons is the name given to the southern part of the  territory under British administration in West Africa. Since 1961 it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Region and Southwest Region. Since 1994, pressure groups in the territory have sought independence from the Republic of Cameroon, and the Republic of Ambazonia was declared by the Southern Cameroons Peoples Organization (SCAPO) on 31 August 2006.

[viii] Though francophone, the Bamileke have more in common, culturally-speaking, with English-speaking compatriots than they do with French-speaking Cameroonians.

[ix] Common law lawyers of Anglophone Cameroons were said to have written an appeal letter to the government over the use of French in courtrooms in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon. In an effort to protect the English culture, they began a sit-down strike in all courtrooms on October 6, 2016. It all began with a call for sit down strike from all court actions after a meeting of Presidents of the lawyers’ associations from the Northwest and Southwest regions held on the 6^th of October 2016. The lawyers blamed the failure of government authorities to respond to their demands and appeals. This culminated in the decision to launch protest marches in Bamenda in the Northwest and Buea and Limbe in the Southwest.

[x]Tailored to meet the needs of French-speaking Cameroonians.

[xi] Poem published in the author’s poetry anthology, African Time and Pidgin Verses, Duplico, 2001.

[xii] This man is uncivilized; he can’t speak English.

[xiii] La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments. Formally known as the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) or the International Organization of La Francophonie, the organisation comprises fifty-five member states and governments and thirteen observers. The prerequisite for admission is not the degree of French usage in the member countries, but a prevalent presence of French culture and French language in the member country’s identity, usually stemming from France’s interaction with other nations in its history.

Gravitas: Poetic Consciencism for Cameroon

 

Gravitas: Poetic Consciencism for Cameroon is the poet’s requiem for the geographical expression code-named Cameroon. Vakunta speaks with the audacity of a daredevil and the certitude of a seer. This long poem has the twin virtues of gravity and clarity of purpose. The poet eschews the banality and sophistry characteristic of poetry for poetry’s sake. Passion, sarcasm, and incisive irony are the hallmarks of this long didactic poem. The poet subscribes to Salman Rushdie’s pronouncement that a poet’s duty is to say the unutterable, name the unnamable, unmask masquerading miscreants and shame the scum of society. In this poem, music serves as a clarion call for examination of conscience, and alcohol ceases to serve as opium of the people. A bittersweet potion, this book echoes the defiant voice of a son-of-the-soil at odds with his native land gone topsy-turvy.

UN Secretary General urges correction of Southern Cameroons Problems

Ngalim Bernard Yongabi

As Southern Cameroonians maintain their resolve to commemorate the independence of Southern Cameroons come October 1 2017, the government of La Republique du Cameroun has switched to panic mood. Panic is manifested by the hyper-militarization of the Republic of Southern Cameroons, incessant abductions, uncontrolled torture and murder of citizens of

Southern Cameroons. The possible negative effects of the hyper-militarization of the Southern Cameroons have prompted the Secretary General of the United Nations (UNSG) to weigh in with recommendations. 

On the September 28 2017, the UNSG issued a statement through his spokesperson expressing his deep concerns about the situation in the Southern Cameroons related to October 1, 2017. He encourages Cameroonian authorities to continue efforts to address the grievances of the Southern Cameroonians urging them to find measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis including addressing the root problem.

The UNSG also supports the values of unity, territorial integrity and urges parties to refrain from acts that could lead to the escalation of tension and violence. This request reminds concerned parties to note the people of Southern Cameroons have always based their movements on the force of argument and not the argument of force. This motto was tested on September 22 2017, when citizens of Southern Cameroons peacefully demonstrated their love for fatherland through upholding the peace plant and singing songs of freedom. The UNSG sends a message across to the government of La Republique du Cameroun that he has taken note of the murders and abductions against the people of Southern Cameroons. 

The UNSG seized this occasion to reecho the call Southern Cameroonians have made over the years to genuine and inclusive dialogue in the presence of the UN. Other key international partners like the African Union, the Commonwealth and the Bishops of Cameroon. This call has often been spited by La Republique du Cameroun.  

Right to self-determination under international law

The UNSG’s call to dialogue between the government of La Republique du Cameroun and the people of Southern Cameroons brings out the clear dichotomy between La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons. This reiterates the international law notion of peoples and the right to self-determination enshrined in international treaties and conventions.  In international law, the right to self-determination that became recognized in the 1960s was interpreted as the right of all colonial territories to become independent or to adopt any other status they freely chose. The African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights grounded their decision in the case of Southern Cameroons vs La Republique du Cameroun on this principle of international law. They ruled interalia, The Commission states that after thorough analysis of the arguments and literature, it finds that the people of Southern Cameroons can legitimately claim to be a “people”. Based on that reasoning, the Commission finds that “the people of Southern Cameroons” qualify to be referred to as a“people” because they manifest numerous characteristics and affinities, which include a common history, linguistic tradition, territorial connection and political outlook. More importantly they identify themselves as a people with a separate and distinct identity. Identity is an innate characteristic within a people. It is up to other external people to recognise such existence, but not to deny it. . The Commission is aware that post-colonial Africa has witnessed numerous cases of domination of one group of people over others, either on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity, without such domination constituting colonialism in the classical sense. Civil wars and internal conflicts on the continent are testimony to that fact. It is incumbent on State Parties, therefore, whenever faced with allegations of the nature contained in the present communication, to address them rather than ignore them under the guise of sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Commission shall address the question, whether the people of Southern Cameroons are entitled to the right to self-determination. In so doing it shall contextualise the question by dealing, not with the 1961 UN Plebsicite, or the 1972 Unification, but rather the events of 1993 and 1994 on the constitutional demands vis-à-vis the claim for the right to self-determination of the Southern Cameroonian people. The Commission has however accepted that autonomy within a sovereign state, in the context of self-government, confederacy, or federation, while preserving territorial integrity of a State party, can be exercised under the Charter. The Commission believes that the Southern Cameroonians’ grievances cannot be resolved through secession but through a comprehensive national dialogue.

The UNSG recommends that the root causes be addressed. It should be noted that Cameroon as it is today was founded in 1961 by the coming together of two parties. The UNSG recognizes this fact and recommends dialogue should be between two parties, the people of Southern Cameroons and the government of La Republique du Cameroun. It is my submission that the root causes of the crisis are twofold. 

Root Cause of the problem

The responsibility of the UN

As early as 1952 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) noted that a territory had three options to attain self-government: independence, "other separate systems of self-government," or free association." According to resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 all peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

The resolution further states that immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-SelfGoverning Territories (Southern Cameroons) or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed wishes, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom. Contrary to these provisions of the resolution, the people of Southern Cameroons gained conditional independence obliging them to either ‘join’ Nigeria or La Republique du Cameroun. By obliging Southern Cameroons to ‘join’ Nigeria or La Republique du Cameroun facilitated the disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of Southern Cameroons which has been incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. According to principle 1541, non-self governing territories would be said to have reached a measure of self-government by:

1. Emergence as a sovereign independent State
2. Free association with an independent State
3. Integration with an independent State

By subjecting or obliging the people of Southern Cameroons to join either Nigeria or Cameroon, the UN failed to uphold her principles and procedures. This has caused untold harm to the people of Southern Cameroons because the ‘joining’ was not only illegal and void from the beginning but lack legal backing and legal consequences. 

Similarly, the UN failed to enforce the obligations of the Resolution 1608 requiring the United Kingdom (UK), government of Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun to finalise the arrangements and policies under which the decision of the plebiscite will be implemented. Unfortunately, the UK did not sit at this meeting and the results of the arrangements have not been submitted to the UN as required by policy. This is the fundamental cause of the conflicts in Southern Cameroons from the part of the UN. 

Responsibility of LRC

Despite the failure of the UN and the UK to ensure the enforcement of UN Resolution 1608, Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun met, negotiated a constitution and agreed that the constitution will be adopted only after each house of parliament adopted it separately. This was compounded by the violation of Section 47 of the constitution by decreeing the conduct of a referendum to amend the constitution despite the provisions of Section 47 (3) which provided that the amendment (of the cosntitution) may be passed by a simple majority of the membership of the Federal Assembly:  Provided that such majority include a majority of the membership elected from each Federated State. Besides rubbishing the gentlemen’s’ agreement between the people of Southern Cameroons and la Republique du Cameroun, by abrogating the constitution of 1961, la Republique du Cameroun outrightly violated the right to self-determination of the people of Southern Cameroons. 

Conclusion

The UNSG’s deep concern regarding the events leading to October 1 2017 is clear manifestation that the peaceful and non-violent revolution by the people of Southern Cameroons has reminded the UN that she owes the people of Southern Cameroons a duty to right the wrongs of history.

The non-respect of UN resolutions has put the people of Southern Cameroons in harm’s way. The people of Southern Cameroons in the case cited above requested the African Court to hear their case on the illegality of 1961 plebiscite but the Commission recused herself on the grounds that it couldn’t entertain cases that happened prior to her founding. It is the unbending duty of the UN to cause the reversal of the root causes the problems of Southern Cameroons. The people of Cameroon have a right to self-determination and the UN is duty bound to respect her Charter, UNGA declarations and resolutions. It is on this note that the people of Southern Cameroons call on the UN to enforce the independence vote of April 21, 1961. In this vote, the people of the world recognized the people of Southern Cameroons as an independent people. Conditioning the independence of people of Southern Cameroon has exposed them to untold harm. LRC has simply recolonized the people of Southern Cameroons thereby violating international law and spiting UN resolutions 1608 and 1541. 

 

 

New Publication: A Tribute to Ntarikon

Magnum Opus: A Tribute to Ntarikon is a dirge; a long melancholic walk down memory lane by a poet who bemoans the demise of his native land. This long poem documents a momentous event in the political history of the Republic of Cameroon—the launch of a bona fide opposition political party—the Social Democratic Front (SDF) on 26 May 1990 at Ntarikon Park in Bamenda. Throughout our sojourn here on planet earth, from the cradle to the grave, we internalize information culled from our lived experiences, from the experiences of others, and try in some way to make sense of it all. When we are unable to make sense of the events that have scarified our lives, we tend to exteriorize the information in writing or through speech acts and non-verbal language. By so doing, we are afforded a different perspective, thus allowing us to think more clearly about the things that have transpired in our lives. Poetry is one of the ways in which I externalize my thoughts. Versification provides me with an outlet for pent-up emotions. Poetry allows me to communicate issues that I might not be able otherwise to openly discuss. It affords me the opportunity to self-evaluate, ponder the relationship with my target readership; conceptualize the nexus between my life and the world around me.

 Magnum Opus: A Tribute to Ntarikon is in many ways a cathartic poem. It is important for readers to know that this poet is a grafi from the grassfields of Cameroon, the capital of which is Bamenda, the Cameroonian equivalent of Aleppo in Syria. On account of its fierce opposition to the dysfunctional government of lame-duck President Paul Biya, Bamenda has become the bête noire of the francophone majority government in the country. In fact, the people of Bamenda have borne the brunt of Paul Biya’s wrath for thirty-five years (1982-2017). Another historical piece of information that this poet owes readers is the fact that he worked as Senior Translator at the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon in Yaounde from 1991-1996.  During this psychologically tumultuous stint at Etoudi, seat of the presidency in Cameroon, the poet bottled up so much unsettling information that he became ill at ease. That is why this book is immensely therapeutic. It is important for readers to bear in mind that each verse in the poem is the voice of a dissent, the expression of a mind that yearns to bring sanity to an insane world. There’s no gainsaying the fact that recalling our yesterday gives birth to our tomorrow.

 

Commendation

“Magnus Opus: A Tribute to Ntarikon” is a scathing indictment of the political status quo in the Republic of Cameroon where the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), rides roughshod over the populace. In this long poem, Vakunta cries out poignantly against dystopia and the deplorable moments lived by members of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) at Ntarikon Park on May 26, 1990. One cannot read this poem without feeling the despair and helplessness experienced by members of this political party as they were maimed, killed and reminded that the future holds no good for them. The prosody and semantics of the poem amplify the ontological angst experienced by Cameroonians on a daily basis.

[Kashama Mulamba, Ph.D,Professor of English and French, Olivet Nazarene University, USA.]

Tyranny of the Majority in Cameroon under President Paul Biya

 

 By Peter Wuteh Vakunta, Ph.D.

 

Introduction

The recent civil disobedience that transpired in the Republic of Cameroon during the latter part of 2016 and spilled over into 2017 has caused a ripple effect in the two English-speaking regions of the nation, namely the Northwest and Southwest regions. What follows is a reproduction of the declaration made by the consortium of teachers’ trade unions and associations in Cameroon on October 26, 2016 prior to embarking on the strike action:"We the teacher’s trade unions and associations of Anglophone extraction – SYNES-UB, CATTU, TAC, PEATTU, CEWOTU, BATTUC and parents, under the banner of UPTA hereby declare an indefinite strike action beginning on Monday 21 November 2016. During this strike, there shall be a definite shut down of all schools, public, private and confessional; from the nursery, primary, secondary to the university under the English sub-system until definite steps are taken by the government to stop the plunder of Anglophone education" (Online communication)[i]

The teachers were angered by the arrogance of the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Jacques Fame Ndongo (French-speaking Cameroonian) who had ignored repeated requests from English-speaking teachers to effect changes in the Anglophone educational system.  The teachers had tabled a series of demands, a synopsis of which is re-captured verbatim below:

• The withdrawal and re-posting of all French-speaking teachers from Anglophone classrooms with the exception of bilingual teachers.
• The withdrawal of francophone lecturers and administrators from Anglo-Saxon universities of Bamenda and Buea and their colleges of education.
• The recruitment of competent Anglophones to teach in various departments in colleges and faculties of the University of Bamenda.
• The withdrawal and re-orientation of all Francophones reading English modern letters in the Higher Teachers’ Training College in Bambili and other schools of education in Cameroon to departments where they have an academic background.
• The deployment of Anglophone teachers sent to Francophone colleges.
• The immediate halt to the practice of sending Francophone student teachers to practice on Anglophone students.
• The immediate stoppage of CAP, PROBATOIRE TECHNIQUE and BACCALAUREAT TECHNIQUE from the English sub-system.
• The creation of the Cameroon National Council and Le Conseil National de L’éducation du Cameroun (CNC/CNEC).
• The institution of a mandatory one-year industrial attachment program for trainees of the Higher Technical Teacher’s Training College Bambili and Kumba (Online Communication)[ii]

When government officials refused to respond to the aforementioned grievances, teachers backed by disgruntled unemployed youths, many of them university graduates, engaged in running battles with the military protesting what they called the overbearing influence of French in the country, which has English and French as official languages. The call to strike initiated by English-speaking teachers is the effusion of pent-up emotions stemming from unresolved Anglophone problems. Their main grievance of English-speaking teachers who walked out of classes in November 2016 was that Francophone teachers with no smattering of the English language have been sent by the Biya regime to teach in schools in Anglophone Cameroon, thus creating cultural/linguistic dissonance between teachers and learners. English-speaking teachers asked the government to stop sending teachers who speak only French or Pidgin English to schools in the Northwest and Southwest regions.  It should be noted that Cameroon’s official bilingualism which is high-sounding is flawed in its implementation. The revised constitution of 1996 (Sec.1.1.3) is explicit on the equality of the two languages inherited from French and British colonizers. It stipulates: “The official languages of the country shall be English and French, both having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavor to promote and protect national languages.” Interestingly enough, this is a far cry from the reality in Cameroon. Anchimbe (2006: 96) notes that in “promoting its bilingual language education policy, the government has largely disregarded the multilingual makeup of the country. Indigenous languages play only a secondary role…” Not surprisingly, the majority of official documents disseminated throughout the national territory by government officials are written solely in French. Some ministers deliver speeches only in French, even in English-speaking regions. Thus, the ongoing unrest translates the dystopia with which Anglophone Cameroonians have lived under the callous regime of President Paul Biya from 1982 to date. As Teachers’ Trade Union President, Wilfred Tassang, puts it, "For over 50 years Anglophone students have not been able to have a head way in Cameroon in those disciplines that will bring about development like science and technology because they have refused to train teachers for our schools"(Online communication).[iii] It should be noted that Tassang has since fled Bamenda to seek refuge in one of the Western embassies in Yaoundé in order to evade arrest by Paul Biya’s gestapo.

English-speaking lawyers who also objected to the imposition of French on English-speaking lawyers, notably in courtrooms by officials who do not understand the spirit and letter of British common law joined the strike shortly after it had started. They refused to go to work until the government had taken took steps aimed at putting an end to the use of French in courtrooms in Anglophone regions of Cameroon. They pointed out that the government is sending French-educated civil law judges who do not understand English common law to courts in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. Mr. Harmony Bogda, a lawyer and one of the organizers of the protest by lawyers stated that the lawyers wanted all French-speaking judges who cannot speak, write or understand the English language removed from courts in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. As he puts it,” We are gentlemen. We are peaceful and we have never meant any violence. It is now more than a month that we have been on strike after having notified the government about our dissatisfaction with the erosion of the common law” (Online communication)[iv] It is noteworthy that Cameroon has two legal systems. One is based on French civil law, while the other is based on English common law. The striking lawyers point out the system in Yaoundé is giving the French legal system leeway over the Anglo-Saxon legal system. A case in point is the Supreme Court in Cameroon where since independence in 1960 that court has had only French-speaking chief justices even though the country is supposed to be bilingual. Consequently, the striking lawyers asked for the creation of a separate section for common law in the nation that would train magistrates and judges. This, in a nutshell, is the genesis of the Anglophone Question in Cameroon which lies at the bottom of the ongoing strike action masterminded by teachers and lawyers last year. The Anglophone Problem that saw the light of day as linguistic malaise shortly after the reunification of Southern Cameroons and La République du Cameroun has gained momentum and has now reached the proportion of a time-bomb that will soon explode any time soon if nothing is done to defuse it in a timely manner. Anglophones in the country have long complained that they face discrimination of all sorts in hands of their French-speaking compatriots. English-speaking Cameroonians have complained repeatedly that they are often excluded from State jobs as a result of limited proficiency in the French language. In typical French repressive modus operandi, Paul Biya’s reaction to the peaceful protest has been brutal and inhumane.

Governmental High-handedness

Without addressing the nation even once on the subject matter, Mr. Biya simply sent thousands of French-speaking soldiers from Yaoundé, the national capital, to the English-speaking regions of Cameroon in combat gear to brutalize protesters. University campuses in Buea and Bamenda were raided. Hundreds of students were arrested, savagely beaten and raped. Uncountable numbers of female students lost their lives after being gang raped by sex starved, illiterate soldiers. Okada boys (motorcycle riders) who took to the streets in a peaceful protest against the wanton killings by the military were rounded up and transported in vans to unknown destinations. Hundreds were taken to the maximum security prison in Yaoundé, infamously called Kondengui, where they are chaffing to date.  According to media reports, an undetermined number of English-speaking Cameroonians have been killed by members of the armed forces who did not refrain from using tear gas and live bullets to disperse crowds.Executive high-handedness was also noticeable in the manner in which leaders of the civil unrest were treated by some members of President Biya’s cabinet, notably the Prime Minister, Mr. Philemon Yang (ironically an Anglophone from Oku in Bui Division). After lengthy deliberations between the Prime Minister and strike leaders in Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda, Harmony Bogda, spokesperson for striking lawyers, came out and said that attorneys had the impression that the government was negotiating in bad faith and was not really interested in listening to them. Consequently, Bogda reiterated the fact that the strike would continue. As he puts it:"We are not going to work. He [Yang] has opened up the channel for dialogue with the government in complement with what the parliamentarians need. He has even insisted that we should approach our minister of justice, but since the minister of justice is under him, we are hoping that he will be able to deconstruct the wall the minister has built so that we can have an across-the-board dialogue for the interest of this country." (Online communication)[v]

Dismayed at the way strike leaders were shabbily treated, Barrister Ben Muna, former President of the Cameroon Bar Association had this to say:"Any lawyer is free as a citizen to make a demand, even if it is political. So there can be no excuse to ignore them. I say, it is not because they want secession that they should be vandalized and beaten. The way forward is that the minister of justice should go to Buea. Speak to them. A Cameroonian is a Cameroonian." (Online communication)[vi]

Minister of Communications, Mr. Issa Tchiroma, a Francophone, was not conciliatory in his remarks. He simply blamed the strikers and likened them to outlaws as evident in the following remarks:"Those who are responsible for such abuses must know that nowhere in the world, disorder has ever led to anything constructive. We, therefore, call on all our compatriots to show proof of reserve, self-control, high sense of responsibility and citizenship in a spirit of dialogue.' (Online communication)[vii]

It should be noted that at the time of going to press, one of the strike leaders, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla remains behind bars in Cameroon. Nkongho is a human rights lawyer educated in the United States of America. He is African Bar Association (AFBA) Vice-President for Central Africa. He is also the Fako Lawyers’Association (FAKLA) President, and President of the now outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC). Nkongho is founder and current Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. He has worked consistently in defense of the rights of citizens of the English-speaking regions in Cameroon. Arrested in Buea in January 2017, together with his Secretary General, Dr. Fontem Neba, Barrister Nkongho was transferred to Yaoundé by a security -hit-squad. In Yaoundé, both men were subjected to long hours of interrogation before being thrown into a detention cell at the Secretariat of State for Defense in charge of the National Gendarmerie known by its French acronym as SED.  On June 7, 2017, the Military Tribunal in Yaoundé upheld the decision to deny bail to Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla. He has been charged on eight counts, some of which carry a death penalty sentence in conformity with the 2014 anti-terrorism law in Cameroon. In retrospect, it should be noted that on December 5, 2016, Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla formed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) in order to address the human rights issues raised in ongoing protests in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. Primarily, CACSC was founded to do research and to propose policy alternatives to improve human rights conditions in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. On December 27, 2016, Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla participated in a group dialogue with government officials to discuss the protests, and to request the release of students who had been arrested and detained during the uprising. As no concrete changes were implemented following the meeting, CACSC called for a peaceful civil disobedience where people were asked to stay at home, refrain from protesting in the streets, and engaging in any business transactions. They called the strike “Operation Ghost Town”.  Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla is alone in being scape-goated by the Biya regime.

Another high-profile personality of Anglophone extraction that is in the radar of the Francophone-led government in Yaoundé is Honorable Joseph Wirba, a member of the main opposition party in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front (SDF).  Honorable Wirba hails from Bui Division, a hot spot of political militancy in Cameroon. Irked by the reality of Anglophone marginalization under the regime of President Paul Biya, Wirba mounted the podium during a parliamentary session in Yaoundé in December 2016 and denounced the oppression of Anglophones who constitute a numerical minority in Cameroon. He lambasted the Biya regime for turning a blind eye to the brutal mistreatment of unarmed protesters in the South West and North West regions. Wirba said Francophone administrators sent to English-speaking regions of Cameroon comported themselves like ‘armies of occupation’. He referred to the Francophone-led administration and military as oppressors and described them as part of a “master plan to finish our culture, our people” (Online communication)[viii] Wirba’s speech was fiery and whipped up strong anti-Francophone sentiments throughout the Anglophone community. The MP’s choice of words was tantamount to a show of defiance and an endorsement of recent calls for a return to the pre-72 federation by some Anglophones. Wirba was very blunt in his call for an end to tyranny by the Francophone majority in Cameroon. He had recourse to expressions such as “oppression”, “armies of occupation”, “slaves” and “colonial masters” to convey Anglophone aversion for subservience and servitude. As he put it, “The people of West Cameroon cannot be your slaves,” The people of West Cameroon are not. You did not conquer them in war. If this is what you are saying we should live in, I say no. It would not work” (Online communication)[ix] Wirba’s speech was in response to clashes between protesters and armed security forces in the South West and North West regions in which several people, including university students died. Many others were either injured or arrested. Wirba was very blunt in his call for secession:" I was one of the believers in a unified Cameroon and I want to tell this House that what has happened to those children in Buea and Bamenda has convinced me that the people who say we should go in two parts are correct. And, there are more and more of us out there who now believe that it is the ultimate end." (Online communication)[x]

At one point during his historic address, Honorable Wirba turned to address the Minister of Territorial Administration who was in as follows: “Mr. Minister, I said here in December that the reign of terror over West Cameroon is bringing down this country and nobody seemed to be listening and then I come here and am told that we cannot talk on behalf of those people?” He asked the Minister in bewilderment (Online communication)[xi] Wirba underscored the fact that the uprising in the Southwest and Northwest was a result of years of oppression and the refusal of the central government in Yaoundé to address the Anglophone Question. Citing an expression often attributed to American politician, Thomas Jefferson, he said: “When injustice becomes law; resistance becomes a duty.”  (Online communication)[xii]  Wirba then went on to emphasize the fact that the people of West Cameroon had a duty to resist Francophone oppression. In the summation of   his speech, he said: “We the people of West Cameroon will resist you and if you want to take that territory by force, you will kill to the last man before you take it. And, you can start with me.” (Online communication)[xiii]  Wirba’s speech encapsulates the unresolved Anglophone Question.

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 take the London-based General Certificate of Education (GCE O/Level) examination. Over the years, I have continued to see the relevance of the message enshrined in this novel even more as I ponder the Cameroon Anglophone Question. The plot of the 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. After their victory they decided to run the farm themselves on egalitarian principles. However, the pigs became corrupted by power and a new tyranny was established. The famous line: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (92) still rings true to date. The socio-political status quo in Cameroon is a parody of Animal Farm. The plot of the novel is a replica of what I have labeled ‘tyranny of the majority in Cameroon’ in this article, an epithet carefully chosen to depict the brutal subjugation of the Anglophone minority by the Francophones who happen to have the numerical advantage in Cameroon. 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 language policy, official bilingualism, and appointments in the public service. In sum, the Anglophone Problem raises pertinent questions about shared governance, participatory democracy, national identity, language policy and official bilingualism in the Republic of Cameroon.  The Anglophone Problem is not a figment of anyone’s imagination. It is real and ubiquitous. The Anglophone Question is the cry of an oppressed people who feel like citizens without a nation. Bate Besong; one of Cameroon’s Anglophone literary virtuosos has likened English-speaking Cameroonians to citizens without a nation in his docu-drama titled Beasts of no Nation (1990). He notes that Anglophone Cameroonians abhor the ultra-centralization of political power in the hands of a rapacious French-speaking oligarchy in Yaoundé where Anglophones with limited proficiency in the French language are made to go through all kinds of odds in the hands of cocky bureaucrats who look down on anyone speaking English. The Anglophone Problem stems from the supercilious attitude of French-speaking Cameroonians who believe that their Anglophones compatriots are unpatriotic, and, are therefore, untrustworthy. This bigotry compounded by conceit has given leeway to the usage of derogatory remarks by French-speaking Cameroonians such as” les Anglophones sont gauches”[xiv], “c’est des ennemis dans la maison”[xv], “ce sont les biafrais[xvi], les bamenda  ne savent pas s’habiller[xvii], and so on.  As the foregoing narrative clearly shows, President Paul Biya’s regime thrives on bigotry, tyranny, abuse of human rights, brutal suppression of free expression, and gerrymandering stratagems.  Interestingly, the socio-political tohubohu that has come in the wake of the civil disobedience initiated by teachers and lawyers has its price hidden in plain sight to be paid by ordinary Cameroonians.

Conceptualizing the Cost of Civil Unrest

The hardest hit is the education sector. Teachers and learners in the English-speaking   regions of Cameroon from kindergarten to University level have lost an entire academic year (2016-2017). In spite of repeated attempts made by the Prime Minister to persuade teachers and learners to resume classes, the former have remained adamant in their refusal to call off the strike before their grievances have been met. Prime Minister’s intention had been to convince education stakeholders in the Anglophone regions to allow pupils go back to school and avoid a blank school year. That did not happen. Interviewed last year by journalists on Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), UNESCO’s (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization) ambassador to Cameroon, Mr. Paul Ombiono, said that the academic year will be declared blank in Cameroon if sixty percent of the regulatory 900 hours of school time had not been invested in school work in Cameroon. The ambassador further reiterated the fact that if that happened, then all certificates issued in Cameroon for academic year 2016/2017 shall not be recognized anywhere internationally. It is noteworthy that these predictions have come to past. School children are now vegetating at home in full glare of bewildered parents who are at a loss about what to do with children stuck in the homestead.  Worse still, this wasted year will never be regained. Time is a scarce commodity the world over. It is like money; once spent it’s gone. In order words, while the rest of the world is forging ahead and making quantum leaps toward academic attainments, Cameroonians are retrogressing on account of the myopia of our leaders. Out of frustration, some parents have asked their children to abandon school altogether and learn a trade for survival.This attrition has left an indelible mark on the academic landscape of the Republic of Cameroon.

Another consequence of the ongoing civil unrest in Cameroon is brain drain and loss of human capital. Highly qualified Anglophone Cameroonians have fled in drones into the diaspora in order to evade the tyranny of a benighted Francophone majority in Cameroon. This spells doom for nation-building. I have the conviction that any nation that dances tango with its intelligentsia is a nation doomed to failure. The economic costs of brain drain to the Cameroonian economy stare us all in the face. Coupled with brain drain is loss of human capital. Hundreds of able bodied and brilliant Cameroonians have lost their lives on the high seas in an attempt to flee from tyranny of the majority in the homeland. The third price that Cameroonians must pay as a consequence of the ongoing crisis is governmental dysfunction. Come to think of it, what is the track record of Mr. Paul Biya and his Beti nitwits? All there is to it is corruption, lethargy, administrative ineptitude, blind-sidedness, economic doldrums and environmental decay. Sadly enough, that is the buffet meal that has been served to Cameroonians for thirty-five years of retrogressive governance under President Biya’s dysfunctional regime.

Conclusion

In sum, I feel compelled to remind President Biya and his cohorts in Yaoundé that facts are facts. Facts do not suddenly dissipate simply because someone has opted to not acknowledge their existence. The fact of the matter is that Cameroonians in their generality are hurting badly as a result of President Biya’s inability to pull the country out of doldrums for more than three decades. Anglophone Cameroonians are hurting even more because they feel like citizens without a nation. These are facts. Mr. Biya needs to get out of his surreal bubble and experience the realities facing the people of Cameroon, the geographical expression he claims to govern. Burying his head in the sand and ignoring the grievances of his compatriots will only aggravate the magnitude of the problem. The Cameroonian people are sick to the stomach with a President who is too arrogant to address citizens on serious matters concerning the very survival of the nation-state such as the Anglophone Problem. Cameroonians are fed up with an octogenarian who is unwilling to pass on the baton to younger blood.  Cameroonians have had enough of a roi fainéant[xviii] who perennially spends half the calendar year in European countries chasing shadows. The Cameroonian people can no longer live and let live with a persona who shows outright disregard for the Constitution he swore in 1982 to protect. In brief, Cameroonians would stop at nothing to get rid of a president who has proven in word and deed that he is a political misfit, an anachronism of sorts.  Mr. Biya ought to be reminded that it does not suffice be labeled ‘president’.  Bona fide presidents are not tyrants; they are servants of the people that elected them into power. It is incumbent upon this sit-tight president to buckle up and start to perform the duties for which Cameroonians ‘elected’ him as president. Otherwise, exeunt!

 

Works cited

Anchimbe, A. E. 2006. Cameroon English: Authenticity, Ecology and Evolution. Frankfurt am

            Main: Peter Lang.

Besong, Bate.  1990. Beasts of No Nation (a docu-drama). Limbe: Nooremac Press.

Cameroon, Government. 1996. Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon. Yaoundé:

            Government printer.

Orwell, George. 1945. Animal Farm. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press.

 

Notes

[i] “All Schools in Anglophone Cameroon to shut down.” Online at http://bareta.press/schools-anglophone-cameroon-shut/ (Accessed November 7, 2016).

[ii] “All Schools in Anglophone Cameroon to shut down.” Online at http://bareta.press/schools-anglophone-cameroon-shut/ (Accessed November 7, 2016).

[iii] “Cameroon teachers, lawyers strike in battle for English.” Online at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/cameroon-teachers-lawyers-strike-english-

161205095929616. html (Accessed June 22, 2017).

[iv] “Lawyers in Cameroon are fighting the Justice System. Online at https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lawyers-in-cameroon-are-fighting-the-justice-system/3600857.html

[v] “Lawyers, Teachers in Cameroon Strike for More English in Anglophone Regions.” Online at https://www.voanews.com/a/lawyers-teachers-strike-cameroon-more-english-anglophone-regions/3616197.html (Accessed November 16, 2016).

[vi] Lawyers, Teachers in Cameroon Strike for More English in Anglophone Regions.” Online at https://www.voanews.com/a/lawyers-teachers-strike-cameroon-more-english-anglophone-regions/3616197.html (Accessed November 16, 2016).

[vii] Lawyers, Teachers in Cameroon Strike for More English in Anglophone Regions.” Online at https://www.voanews.com/a/lawyers-teachers-strike-cameroon-more-english-anglophone-regions/3616197.html (Accessed November 16, 2016).

[viii] “The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

(Accessed December14, 2016)

[ix] The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

(Accessed December14, 2016)

[x] The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

 (Accessed December14, 2016

[xi] The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

 (Accessed December14, 2016)

[xii] The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

(Accessed December14, 2016)

[xiii] The People of West Cameroon Cannot be Your Slaves.”  Online at http://thestandardtribune.com/2016/12/14/mp-the-people-of-west-cameroon-cannot-be-your-slaves

(Accessed December14, 2016)

[xiv] Anglophones are clumsy

[xv]They are enemies in the house.

[xvi] They are from Biafra

[xvii] Folks from Bamenda dress shabbily

[xviii] Lazy king

 

About the author

Dr.Vakunta is Associate Professor at the University of Indianapolis in the United States of America. He’s author of several books on African affairs, intercultural competency curriculum development and translation theory and practice.

False Start or Decapitated Revolution in Southern Cameroons?

By Peter Vakunta, Ph.D.

 

When Southern Cameroonians resident in the diaspora learned of the strike organized by Southern Cameroonian Common Law advocates followed by yet another strike spearheaded by the Teachers' Union(TAC) we nodded in approval and started brainstorming ways and means to contribute materially in a bid to lend support to both movements. Right now we in the US are in the process of contributing dollars to send to Southern Cameroons. 

 

The question I would like for the lawyers and teachers to answer at this juncture is the following: What went wrong with the uprising in Southern Cameroons?  When the rank and file (okada guys, park boys, wheelcart pushers, and more) rose to the occasion, namely the strike organized by Common Law advocates and the Teachers Union, we in the diaspora rubbed our hands in glee  because we thought that the intellectuals that they are, were going to give perspicacious direction and leadership to the disorganized uprising that we all saw in the streets thanks to social media. Sadly enough, that did not happen and the result is history.Why did the lawyers and teachers back off? What suddenly paralyzed them all? We are now saddled with a DECAPITATED REVOLUTION with no leadership in sight. What went wrong? What did we learn from the Ghost Towns Operations of 1990s? What did we learn from the 2008 uprising in Yaounde, Douala and other major Cameroonian cities? I do not ask these questions in a bid to sound supercilious or disrespectful of the strides these two groups have made thus far. In fact, I applaud their courage in taking the bull by the horns. But I just want to know what held the lawyers and teachers (intellectuals)  back and prevented them from lending needed organizational support to the young Southern Cameroonians that joined their strike in the mistaken belief that they were throwing their weight behind a sustainable movement? What went wrong?

 

Fellow Southern Cameroonians, I am sad to say that once again we have squandered yet another golden opportunity through paranoia, internal strife, lack of foresight and strategic planning, and by this very token, have emboldened our oppressors, Mr. Biya and his cohort of vampires hibernating in Yaounde. Worse still, we have caused our brothers' and sisters' blood to be spilled with no tangible results to justify the bloodshed. I have said in many of my write-ups that the ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM will never be resolved through dialogue with nationals of LA REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN or with foreign bodies such as the UN, Commonwealth, British and French embassies etc. These toothless bulldogs couldn't care less about the survival of Southern Cameroonians. What they do care about is whether or not their bread baskets in Africa remain intact. Read my write-up on this subject matter: http://www.postnewsline.com/2016/11/-time-for-the-demilitarization-of-british-southern-cameroons.html

 

They are too conceited and short-sighted to see the need for dialogue with ENGLISH-SPEAKING underdogs crying out for justice in Southern Cameroons.

 

Finally, I want to state unequivocally that strategic planning is the key ingredient in defeating an enemy,regardless of how dreadful that enemy might be. Last but not least, we cannot face Paul Biya's military empty-handed or by mounting catapults as we watched the youngsters do in Bamenda lately. We have seen in the past couple of days just how blood-thirsty and sexually starved  these military bastards are. We need an armed wing of the SCNC movement if success  is our utlimate goal. Please read SPEAR OF THE NATION; UmKONTO We SizWe (2012) by Janet Cherry.  Sadly enough, on account of all that I have stated above,  the uprising that we just witnessed  in Southern Cameroons has proved to be an ORPHANED REVOLUTION. What happened?

 

Professor Peter Wuteh

United States of America

Cameroon: The Anglophone Problem As I see it

 

Ngalim Bernard Yongabi

Much has been written and said about the Southern Cameroons problem in Cameroon. On the one hand, proponents of the Southern Cameroons problem hold steadfast to the argument that Southern Cameroons lacks a constitutional status and is, therefore, taken for a ride. On the other hand, opponents of the Southern Cameroons problem believe Southern Cameroons enjoys the same status with East Cameroon. Some others believe that over the years, Southern Cameroons has received preferential treatment from the authorities.  It suffices to throw more light on the issue.

Most often, those who delve into arguments for or against the existence of the Anglophone problem fail to define who an Anglophone is. Failure to define this key term nurses confusion and difficulties in pushing an argument through. We can observe that most proponents and opponents base their arguments on other people’s arguments propagated through social media and televised debates. Though these could be sources of information for verification and learning, some in-depth reflection is mandatory to aptly understand the Southern Cameroons problem.

That said, before we delve into some substance, it is important to know whom an Anglophone is. Let us look at the notion of an Anglophone from a cultural perspective. Basically, an Anglophone is an English speaker.  By this token, all those who speak the English language are considered Anglophone. However, understanding the concept and use of language clarifies doubts as to the notion of an Anglophone. Language is the bond that unites a given society because language enables interactions in society, facilitating communication, business, worship, administration, administration, politics etc. According to Tatjana Ponorac, there is an unequivocal tendency of identifying language and culture. In order to identify culturing of language, one often encounters expressions such as: “language and culture are inseparable”; “language and culture are intimately connected”; “language is culture and culture is language.” Language reflects and conveys culture and cultural connections. This short extract demonstrates that language and culture are inseparable. Basing on this, it is convenient to state that an Anglophone is he who speaks English and practices a particular culture unique to English practices. In this context, Anglophones in present day Cameroon are descendants of the regions known as North West and South West. That is, the British Southern Cameroons. Culture is transmitted through diverse methods including family set up.

Now, the constitution recognizes both English and French as the official languages of Cameroon. It will be premature and absurd to limit the understanding of official languages on linguistic lines. First, Cameroon’s history instructs us that both languages are colonial legacies. French was inherited from France and English from the United Kingdom during colonial days. Colonial administrations had their beliefs, laws, educational systems, management systems; administrative and political setups etc. I agree with Hantrais’ (1989) idea that ‘culture is the beliefs and practices governing the life of a society for which a particular language is the vehicle of expression’. Adopting English and French as the official languages of Cameroon translates to accepting the beliefs and practices and noting that these beliefs and practices are only communicated through language. If follows that English is only a vehicle through which the practice of Common Law and the Anglo-Saxon system of education are communicated. The fundamentals or foundation of a cultural system are not in the language but in the practices. Before dismissing the Common Law or the Anglo-Saxon system of education as a threat to national unity and stability, it is important to understand that language in itself is empty. Adopting English as one of the official languages of Cameroon was adopting the beliefs and practices of the Southern Cameroons culture, specifically, Common Law and Anglo-Saxon education because language only transmits or communicates something intangible. On the administrative front, the British Cameroons inherited the culture of self-rule. The British administered the British Southern Cameroons through the indirect rule system whereby the citizens of British Southern Cameroons administered themselves with minimal interference from the Colonial administration.

Per the historical introduction above, Cameroon as a nation was constituted on 1st October 1961 as a federal state, though some argue there was no treaty formalizing this union as mandated by international law. Southern Cameroons was a British protectorate administered under Anglo-Saxon culture, practiced the Common Law and promoted the Anglo-Saxon system of education. Whereas, East Cameroon was a French protectorate administered under French culture, practiced Napoleonic laws and a French type system of education. Language is, therefore, an element of these heritages (culture) acquired from colonial masters. Hence, it is manifestly impossible to separate culture from language, law from education and administration from politics. The term Southern Cameroons shall be used in this article to mean Anglophone, British Southern Cameroon and Southern Cameroons.

While some opponents to the Southern Cameroons problem argue that authorities have reserved preferential treatment to Southern Cameroonians, this argument falls through the cracks. First, history dictates that Southern Cameroons voted to join and form a country in a two state federation with equal status, thereby having a constitutional status and identity. Since the abrogation of the federal system of government in 1972, Southern Cameroons has lost the constitutional status and identity they previously bargained for and enjoyed between 1961 and 1972. It is argued that the abrogation was done in violation of the federal constitution which stated that any amendment of the federal nature of the nation was supposed to win the majority in both houses of parliament. That is, the East Cameroon house of assembly was to vote such a bill in its majority. Likewise, the Southern Cameroon house of assembly had to vote for such bill in the majority too. In a case where both houses did not vote in their majority, the bill proposing the amendment of such a constitutional provision was bound to fail. All arguments on the supposed preferential treatment of Southern Cameroonians lack merit simply because Southern Cameroons lacks constitutional authority in the decision-making machinery of this country. A Southern Cameroonian handpicked by the francophone majority knows he serves the interest of the francophone majority and not the interest of the minority Southern Cameroons. In the years long gone, Southern Cameroons had an assembly as of right, Southern Cameroonian ministers were vetted before confirmed for office in Yaounde through the Southern Cameroons parliament.

Some other opponents to the Southern Cameroons problem advocate for a policy defining a Cameroonian identity. Ideally, this is a wonderful idea but practically, the idea begs for substance. Laws and policies are reformed to address a societal ill and improve on the wellbeing of the community. Seriously speaking, the proponents of the Cameroonian identity still need to educate Southern Cameroonians on the ills that befell the Cameroonian society due to the duality in culture. Granted these are foreign cultures (Anglo-Saxon and French), we cannot delete them from present Cameroon because the current Cameroon was born through the merging of the two cultures. Since the introduction of the unitary state in 1972, Cameroon has regressed year after year. The difficulty to define strengths of the new Cameroonian identity has left their advocacy lame. National unity and integration is an ideal every nation should strive to attain. However, national unity does not translate into deleting one cultural heritage to the advantage of another. Similarly, national unity is feasible and very strong when diversity is upheld through the identification and respect of the two distinct cultures. The feeling of subjugation by the minority is a given when the majority attempts harmonizing the both cultures without due process and consultation. Building a unique Cameroonian culture could make more sense if Southern Cameroonians freely choose representatives to negotiate with their counterparts from French Cameroon. Come to think Cameroon ratified the OHADA treaty whereas its unique language was French per article 42 and of the treaty. This stands in stark contrast to the constitutional provision that English and French are the official languages of Cameroon with equal status. One wonders whether violating the constitution to the credit of one cultural system is building a Cameroonian identity or imposing one culture over another. Justice Ayah Paul corroborated this when he ruled a treaty which is basically French suffers from self-exclusion from the English speaking provinces of Cameroon.

The current strife in the Southern Cameroons is testament to the difficulty and impracticable nature of the unitary state as it is. Lawyers and teachers have grounded their tools because they believe the building of a Cameroonian culture has led to wanton injustice in the Southern Cameroonian part of the country. This is because civil law trained judges and prosecutors appointed to the Common Law jurisdiction do not master the language and practice of common law. Also, it is believed the training and education of Cameroonian youth is becoming irrational with the appointment and placement of teachers who do not master the language and practice of the Anglo-Saxon system of education. Education is a subset of culture and, therefore, culture strongly influences how an individual approaches education, and a society's culture determines how that society educates its citizens. It can therefore be seen that respecting the cultural differences especially in the legal, education and administrative/political dispensations is critical for a peaceful, just and sustainable future. To clearly demonstrate the Anglophone problem, some have advocated for the term Southern Cameroon problem. I tend to lean more towards this definition because it situates the problem within a historical purview cutting across the legal, administrative and educational aspects of the inherited culture. A historical perspective leads us to a sustainable solution through the identification of divergence and respect of this divergence giving birth to a one nation and two systems concept. Southern Cameroons, therefore, is that entity that joined the Cameroon Republic in 1961 through a referendum. An Anglophone, therefore, is someone who originates from the Northwest and South West regions, speaks the English language and practices the culture inherited from colonial administration. Such that people who share solely the second and third are not considered by this understanding as Anglophones. Suffice it, therefore, to say constitutional status recognizing the two entities will facilitate sustainability.

Time for the Demilitarization of British Southern Cameroons

"This is the time for all groups to work behind closed doors together to agree on the way forward, because Republique, true to itself, will be planning its intimidation..."( SCNC)

 

Compatriots,

 

Time for dialogue and negotiation with the oligarchy in Yaounde is over! I have said in many of my books and articles (see http://www.pambazuka.org/democracy-governance/seeds-cameroonian-popular-revolution) that freedom is achieved; not given to the oppressed. The only language that dictators pay heed to is the language of force. The rhetoric about the force of language has not served the ANGLOPHONE CAUSE in Cameroon for decades and should be abandoned outright ! It's  time to change the modus operandi. I have followed with rapt attention the unfolding trajectory and momentum of the ongoing strike by Cameroon's Common Law Advocates. I laud the Teachers' Union for the sturdy support they have offered the grieving lawyers. It's now our turn to join the fray with robust material and intellectual support. 

 

 

Southern Cameroonians must extricate themselves from the claws of the Francophone-led contraption in Yaounde. The political charade is not working and should be dissolved forthwith.I am going to be very blunt here: It's time for Southern Cameroonians to declare their divorce from this unholy marriage code-named La Republique du Cameroun and secede once and for all. We have the numerical strength to form a Republic! Eritreans have offered us a lesson to learn from. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is another case in point. Make no mistake, the Francophone leeches in Cameroon will not surrender without putting up a fierce fight. They are aware that their very survival depends on the natural resources that exist in abundance in Southern Cameroons. But who said popular revolutions are a piece of cake? We have some lessons to learn from revolutionary icons like Reuben um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Albert Mukong,  Nelson Mandela,  Patrice Lumumba, Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi,  Malcolm X and Thomas Sankara. These are martyrs who believed in the sanity of the cause they fought for. We have to follow in their footsteps. 

 

The position statement written by the leadership of the SCNC is laudable and serves as a viable starting point. But we must to scale up the struggle. To do so, I offer Southern Cameroonian compatriots a blueprint of sorts:

 

1. STRATEGIC PLANNING

To move this struggle forward to fruition, we need human capital. In other words, we need strategic thinkers. Successful revolutions are not spontaneous acts. Revolutions are premeditated and  properly orchestrated events, involving the conjugation of ideas from intellectual think-tanks and the rank and file(see SPEAR OFTHE NATION: UMKHONTO we Sizwe (2012). The secession that we desire will not happen if we continue to function in silos. We must curry support from Cameroonian intellectuals at home and in the diaspora. The difficult part of a revolution is not the boots on the ground component; it is the strategic orchestration of the movement. I don't say this light-heartedly. Experience is the best teacher(See CHE GUEVARA: A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE (1997). Most importantly, Southern Cameroonians must be smart enough to steer clear of the divide and rule antics of the Biya Regime that has ruled us for 34 years by pitting grafis against southwesterners. Anglophone Cameroonians must rise to the occasion and desist from being bought over with crumbs from the master's table. We should put a premium on the role of the diaporan intelligentsia because they have witnessed other effective revolutionary paradigms that remain unknown to home-based revolutionaries.

 

2. COGNITIVE AND MATERIAL SUPPORT 

No revolution has ever succeeded without intellectual and material support. All the abortive revolutions that I have studied have failed on account of the dearth of material  resources. Malcolm X echoes this in  BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY(1992). Human beings easily lose steam and stamina when  subjected to deprivation (food and water). Those of us who are old enough to remember what transpired during the maquisard days of Reuben um Nyobe and ilk would attest to the fact that the maquisards used local populations as a source of food supply. The 1990's Ghost Towns Operations failed partially because our people ran out of steam, to put it figuratively.This means that the success of our current revolution depends on how long revolutionaries can withstand the pangs of hunger and thirst. To ensure that  we succeed in the long haul, we must ensure that during the entire duration of the revolution, our people have a means of subsistence. In the run-up to the revolution, it is not unwise to organize community cohorts whose duty would be to educate our people on the positive fall-outs of the revolution as well as the need to horde food products in the long term.

 

One thing that grassroots organs could do would be to prioritize food crop farming over cash-crop cultivation. During the normalization phase that will follow secession, the trend will be reversed in order to give our people a steady source of cash flow for non-subsistence consumption. The Diaspora has a  vital role to play in all this. Those of us who live in the diaspora are privileged in the sense we have the wherewithal to support the revolution intellectually and materially. I call on all Southern Cameroonians living in the diaspora to start Revolutionary Tontines and Njangi houses right now! The purport of these fundraisers would be to ensure that our brothers and sisters who serve as revolutionary foot soldiers never run out of cash! On the home front, we need honest Southern Cameroonians who have a proven sense of integrity to manage these funds collected from the diaspora and channel them toward to the revolution cause.

 

3. RECOURSE TO ARMED STRUGGLE

The demilitarization of British Southern Cameroons will never transpire without armed struggle. In one of my articles I have called for recourse to armed rebellion in Cameroon (See link: http://www.postnewsline.com/2011/04/time-for-armed-opposition-in-the-republic-of-cameroon.html)

We have tried peaceful means to no avail. It is now time to resort to armed struggle in Cameroon. It is not arms that are in short supply in Cameroon. In fact the country is awash with fire-arms imported clandestinely from the West.

 

CONCLUSION

I am going to end this article by echoing the sagacious words of late Nelson Mandela who once said: "Dangers and difficulties have not deterred us in the past. They will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them like men in business who do not waste energy in vain talk and idle action.”

Mandela was a great man partly because of his willingness to use violence, not in spite of it. Many believe apartheid would have endured much longer if he hadn’t rebelled and overturned the ANC’s long-standing nonviolence policy.

 

Prof Peter Wuteh Vakunta

United States of America

New Publication--Gravitas: Poetic Consciencism for Cameroon

 

Gravitas: Poetic Consciencism for Cameroon is the poet's requiem for the geographical expression code-named Cameroon. Vakunta speaks with the audacity of a daredevil and the certitude of a seer. This long poem has the twin virtues of gravity and clarity of purpose. The poet eschews the banality and sophistry characteristic of poetry for poetry's sake. Passion, sarcasm, and incisive irony are the hallmarks of this revolutionary poem. The poet subscribes to Salman Rushdie's pronouncement that a poet's duty is to say the unutterable, name the unnamable, unmask masquerading miscreants and shame the scum of society. In this poem, music serves as a clarion call for examination of conscience,and the fumigation of a rotten society; alcohol ceases to serve as opium of the people. A bittersweet potion, this book echoes the defiant voice of a son-of-the-soil at odds with his native land gone topsy-turvy.

 

Excerpt from the Book

Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/

Kunkum Massa! Oh!/

Kunkum Massa!Oh!/

Hands on deck!/

Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/

Kunkum Massa! Oh !/

Kunkum Massa!Oh!/

Huruje! Huruje! Huruje!/

One time! GO! GO!GO!/

THE BARD/

Voice of the voiceless/

Quiet peace-maker/

Loquacious griot/

Taciturn zombie/

YOU…/

Scavenger of social scum/

You create your own world/

A world of intoxication/

YOU… ME…TOWN CRIER/

Basking in the solace/

Of mediocrity and myopia/

The ‘People’s Representatives’/

Metamorphosed nitwits/

Yap like hoodlums/

In the bowels of the/

Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House/

Handclapping semi-literates/

Kowtowing to the dictates of/

Diabolical machinations/

Orchestrated by an inept Executive/

Enchained by the wheeling and dealing/

Of foreign overlords/

Toying with the supreme law of the land/

Gerrymandering being their stock-in–trade /

 

Seeds of the Cameroonian Popular Revolution

By Peter Vakunta, Ph.D.

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Life is not all sunshine and roses in Biya’s Cameroon. Much water has flowed under the bridge since Mr. Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo took over the reins of leadership from his predecessor and mentor, Mr. Ahmadou Ahidjo on November 6, 1982. Put differently, this mercurial hard-hearted persona has presided over the fate of Cameroonians for thirty-four (34) years. It is time to take the pulse of the nation-state. The Cameroon that Biya inherited more than three decades ago has degenerated into a human junk-yard, where nitwits, miscreants and morally bankrupt self-seekers ride roughshod over a befuddled populace. Aided and abetted by tribal overlords and imperialistic octopuses, Biya has run the post-colony aground through ineptitude and dearth of foresight compounded by unpatriotic fervor. With the support and blessing of French imperialists, the Cameroonian lumpen bourgeoisie has organized the systematic plunder of Cameroon. With the crumbs of the plunder that often reverts to them, the Cameroonian petty bourgeoisie has been transformed, slowly but surely, into a veritably parasitic socio-economic class that no longer knows how to control its voracious appetite for foreign commodities—material and intellectual. Driven only by their own selfish interests, they no longer hesitate to employ the most disingenuous contraptions, engaging in massive corruption, embezzlement of public funds, influence-peddling, nepotism and dereliction of duty in a bid to meet their ends by over-indulging in politics of the belly.[i]

Politics of the Belly as Governmental Modus Operandi

Paul Biya has surrounded himself with a bulwark of compulsive chop-broke-potters[ii], culled from his own ethnic group, the Beti tribe, who have a knack for bulimia, impulsive spending and misappropriation of state funds. Not satisfied with living off the backs of the Cameroonian rank and file, these political misfits fight tooth and nail to monopolize positions of power within the Chop Pipo Dem Moni (CPDM) ruling party[iii] that have the potential to allow them to use the state apparatus for their own exploitative and wasteful ends. The Beti modus vivendi epitomizes the political philosophy described by Polzenhagen and Wolf (2007) as the “Kinship-based African Community Model” (p.131). This model has been described as a horizontal network that stretches laterally and embraces everybody who is perceived to belong to a particular social group (Mbiti, 1990, p.102). The problem with this sort of ethnocentric political philosophy is that it is exclusive, egregious, counter-productive, and inimical to national integration.  Paul Biya’s governmental modus operandi has created a system of endemic corruption that defies all attempts to eradicate. Corruption has crippled our national economy.  Writing along similar lines, Timah Njei (2005) makes heartrending remarks about the State of Cameroon and corrupt practices which I cite at length as follows:

"Corruption has brought our beloved country to her knees and exposed us to international ridicule. Our country has held the first position as the most corrupt nation on earth and it is on record that those governing us actually lobbied that the country be classified as one of the poorest highly indebted nations on earth! One really needs to be courageous and shame-proof to make a request like this for such an apparently rich nation. This act alone qualifies us to be in the hall of fame of corruption. The issue of corruption in Cameroon has gone past the level that can be described only as a social ill. It has effectively become part of our national culture. Corruption is embedded in every facet of our national life and it has effectively thwarted and dislocated our path to nationhood for generations to come"[8]

The forgoing remarks lend credence to the consternation of Cameroonian sociologist, Jean-Marc Ela who writes as follows:

"Le Cameroun semble échapper à toute catégorie de l’entendement. Ce qui arrive à ce pays relève de l’inimaginable, de l’incroyable et de l’impossible. Tout ce passe, en définitive, comme si, sous le règne de M. Paul Biya, le Cameroun tout entier avait basculé dans le hors-norme, la déraison ou la folie"[9]

[It would appear that the case of Cameroon defies all attempts at comprehension. What has happened to this country seems unimaginable, unbelievable, and impossible. In sum, it seems as if under Paul Biya Cameroon has plunged into illegality, irrationality, and insanity]  

The sad truth about the disheartening Cameroonian narrative is that all of this mindboggling stuff is unfolding in full view of petrified nationals who are mired in squalor, misery and abject poverty. A visit to the Briqueterie neighborhood in the capital city of Yaoundé would drive home the point. This is an urban ghetto where human beings and animals vie for personal space. In an article titled “Sodome et Gomorrhe:  Briqueterie-Mokolo: le Texas dans la capitale,” Ismaila Djida portrays this neighborhood as the Sodom and Gomorrah of the capital city of Yaounde. This holds true for other impoverished neighborhoods in the country such as Moloko in Yaounde and Nkouloulou in Doula.  While Cameroon is a paradise for the oligarchy in Yaounde, the wealthy minority, for the majority, it is a barely tolerable hell on earth. Part of this disenchanted majority, the so-called fonctionnaires (civil servants) suffer insurmountable constraints engendered by governmental dysfunction, despite the fact that they are assured a regular income. Their poverty-line wages are spent before they have even been received. And this vicious cycle goes on and on with no end in sight.  Sometimes, pressure from civil servants pushes politicians to grant some concessions, such as salary increments. But these concessions are mere make-believe because the government often takes back with one hand what it gives with the other. Thus a ten percent wage increase is announced with great fanfare in the media, only to be immediately followed by tax hikes, wiping out the expected benefits. Clearly, politics of the stomach sustained by a divide and rule contraption constitute an integral part of the system put in place by politicians in Cameroon to further subjugate the suffering masses.

Divide and Rule in the Post-colony

Part of the exploited majority in Cameroon is constituted by peasants, the well-known wretched of the earth, who are expropriated, robbed, humiliated and mistreated on a regular basis by men and women in uniform—mange-mille[iv], gendarmes and the military. Interestingly, the peasantry is the mainstay of the Cameroonian economy because they are the ones whose labor creates wealth. Thanks to their productive labor, the nation stays afloat against all odds. It is from their labor that all those Cameroonians for whom Cameroon is an El Dorado line their pockets. And yet, it is the peasants who are least served by the nation. They lack road infrastructure, healthcare facilities, portable water, electricity and good schools for their children.  It is the peasants, creators of the nation’s wealth, who suffer the most in the hands of so-called élus du peuple[v].  So much for a misnomer! It is the children of peasants who swell the ranks of Chômencam[vi], the plethora of the unemployed in Cameroon. It is among the peasants that illiteracy rate is the highest in the country— 68.9%. Those who most need to learn, in order to improve the output of their productive labor, are the ones who benefit the least from investments in education and technology. The peasant youth—who have the same aptitude like their urban counterparts end up in the wrong places.  Their initial impulse drives them to urban centers—Yaounde, Douala, Bafoussam, Nkongsamba, Buea, and Limbe to name but a few, where they hope to land jobs and enjoy, too, the advantages of modernism.

Sadly enough, lack of academic qualifications precludes these compatriots from landing gainful employment. Lack of jobs drives them into illegal activities such as drug peddling, feymenia[vii], prostitution and more. Some eke out a living by working as pedes[viii]  at the beck and call of some sexually starved katikas[ix]. Others resolve to make a pittance working as bendskinneurs[x] and call-boxeurs.[xi] As a last resort, some of them seek salvation by attempting to go abroad by any means necessary. Lately, we have seen disheartening pictures in media outlets of our compatriots who have perished like chicken on high seas and oceans in a desperate attempt to flee from an uninhabitable homeland. The New York Times of May 29, 2016 reported that in three days, 700 deaths had occurred on the Mediterranean, some of them Cameroonians. Does the Cameroonian society provide these compatriots with any alternative? Stated succinctly, such is the state of the nation that Mr. Biya will bequeath to Cameroonians when he ultimately answers the call of the Divine in the not too distant future—a paradise for some and hell for the rest. When all is said and done, Mr. Biya’s track record is one of dismal failure.

Underperformance of Political Incumbency

Students of Mr. Paul Biya’s report card make no bones about the fact that he is a monumental political failure. After thirty-four years of deconstructionist leadership and retrogressive political agendas bolstered by intrusive imperialist domination and exploitation, post-colonial Cameroon under the Biya regime remains a backward nation with nothing to offer the world.  This hitherto great nation has been transformed into an underdeveloped heart of darkness, to borrow words from one of Africa’s compulsive denigrators, Joseph Conrad (1899s), where the rural poor—employing 92 percent of the workforce—accounts for only 47 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and supplies 94 percent of the country’s total exports. It should be noted that in other African countries, notably Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana and South Africa, farmers constituting less than ten percent of the population manage not only to feed themselves adequately and satisfy the basic needs of the entire nation, but also to export enormous quantities of their agricultural produce. Paradoxically, in Cameroon more than 90 percent of the population, despite strenuous efforts, experiences deprivation and is compelled to fall back on imported food items from France, China and more. The imbalance between exports and imports accentuates Cameroon’s dependency on foreign countries. An economy that functions on such a paralysis inevitably goes bankrupt and is headed for catastrophe.

Private investments from abroad constitute a huge drain on Cameroon’s economy and thus do not help strengthen its ability to accumulate wealth. That is because an important portion of the wealth created with the help of foreign investors is siphoned off abroad, instead of being reinvested to increase the country’s productive capability. Paul Biya inherited a buoyant economy from Ahmadou Ahidjo and ran it into a recession a couple of years later not only because he does not practice what he preaches but also because he lacks the cognitive ability to conceptualize economic recovery strategies.In the 1990s, salaries of civil servants were slashed drastically, in some cases by 60 percent. This writer worked as senior translator at the Presidency of the Republic at the time and endured the fiscal humiliation by keeping a stiff upper lip. In fact, he worked for an entire fiscal year without receiving a paycheck from the government because his dossier[xii] had gathered dust in the drawers of some numskull in the Ministère de la Fonction Publique [Ministry of Public Service] in Yaounde. He survived on a pittance that was called prime de technicité[xiii] in bygone days. Salary cuts were quickly followed by privatization which still leaves a sour taste in the mouths of Cameroonians to date.

The greatest weakness of Paul Biya has been in the economic sector. Almost a year ago, he posed a rhetorical question to Cameroonians when he asked the following question: “Why is it that Cameroon has everything in human and natural resources yet is not having the feel good effects?”  Five cankers suffice to provide Mr. President with a candid response:  endemic corruption, misappropriation of state funds, apartheid-style tribalism, blind-sidedness, and impunity are wreaking havoc in the moral and economic fabrics of the Cameroonian post-colony. Biya took over power in 1982 and announced with pomp and fanfare that his catchwords were going to be rigor and moralization. But the president soon found himself surrounded by a clique of diehard ethnocentric tribesmen, cronies, as well as a coterie of myopic CPDM praise-singers that sang his praises but remained blind-sided to national issues of grave importance. Consequently, Mr. Biya remains a myopic alien in the land that he purports to govern.  If fact, he governs this nation of 23+ million jobajo[xiv] drinkers and makossa dancers by remote control.

Governance by Remote Control

Biya does not live in Cameroon and, therefore, does not know Cameroonians. The president is out of touch with the Cameroonian reality. The absentee landlord spends several months in a calendar year in Europe touring casinos and nude beaches with no specific agenda in mind.  In 2009, Biya sparked global outrage after reports emerged of a 20-day holiday in France where he spent an average of £35,000 a day, totaling £700,000.Once back home, he retires to his million-dollar castle in his home village of Mvog-Meka  to play golf and drink whiskey and champagne.  It is for this reason that international observers of the political status quo in Cameroon have branded the Cameroonian Head of State le Roi fainéant[xv]. Biya does nothing to change the destiny of his country. His latest fad about les grandes réalisations[xvi] is political hogwash! The man is an under-achiever, to put it bluntly. Biya’s inept governance has brought Cameroon to its knees. Three decades ago, cities like Douala, Nkongsamba, Bafoussam, Edea, Limbe, Bamenda, Buea and Yaounde, were commercial hubs teeming with business activities and life. Nowadays, they are virtual ghost towns. Biya’s nonchalant leadership attitude has robbed Cameroon of its luster. Cameroon is no longer the Africa in miniature that it was known to be. The Republic of Cameroon is a sore finger on the anatomy of the African continent.

Biya’s lack of political foresight has transformed Cameroon into a beggarly nation. We are beasts of no nation, [xvii]to borrow words from an illustrious son of the soil who perished fighting the Cameroonian canker code-named biyaism. [xviii] Biyaism has moved Cameroon ten years backwards in terms of infrastructural development.The physical environment in Yaoundé is an eyesore.Piles of garbage litter streets here and there. Potholes left, right and center. Unfinished government buildings punctuate the already tarnished landscape of our phantom capital city. Douala does not fare any better. It is a shadow of its former self.The Douala International airport that Biya inherited from his predecessor is now in a shambles—no running water in the restrooms, no toilet paper, broken tiles on the floor, a total mess!  What remains of the Douala Port is a nefarious abyss in the bottom of which customs officers hide to steal money from Tom, Dick and Harry.The Limbe Deep Seaport is dead, buried, and forgotten. Speaking in Yaoundé on January 15, 2015 at a meeting with a delegation of South Korean technocrats, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Ndjoumessi, announced that the Limbe Deep Seaport will be operational soon. Cameroonians are still waiting and shall wait until Godot[xix] comes. Accountability has been thrown to the dogs in that geographical expression nicknamed Cameroon.

Conclusion

The pulse of the post-colony has been taken. And there is incontrovertible evidence that the nation-state is malignant. This discourse serves as a pointer to the legacy that Mr. Paul Biya and his accessories will bequeath to millions of Cameroonians, many of whom have never known any other president. This is a legacy that truly stinks and spells nothing but doom for the young men and women that the president took the oath office on November 6, 1982 to nurture and protect. The purport of this write-up is not to provide a panacea for the myriads of ailments that plague Cameroon under President Paul Biya; rather it is a dirge composed by a son of the soil whose heart throbs for the demise of a nation richly blessed with natural and human capital; and yet sorely lacking in strategic thinkers and leadership visionaries. No Cameroonian who loves and honors his native land can remain indifferent to the status quo at home. Indeed, valiant, hardworking people have never been able to tolerate such a situation. Because they understand that this is not an irreversible situation, but a question of society being organized on an unjust system for the sole benefit of an oligarchy. They have, therefore, waged different kinds of struggles, searching for various ways and means to overthrow the old order, establish a new order capable of rehabilitating the ordinary man, and give their country a leading place within the community of free, prosperous, and respected nations. Cameroonians have a tough call. They should not expect lynchpins of the old order to change their mentality and embrace sweeping changes any time soon. The only language that dictators respond to and understand is the language of force, the revolutionary class struggle against the exploiters and oppressors of the rank and file. The people’s revolution that I envision in this write-up is the only act by which the Cameroonian people will impose their will on the parasitic class that has hijacked the nation-state; that class has benefited perennially from the matrimony that exists between the national and imperialistic bourgeoisie in Cameroon. The Cameroonian Popular Revolution that is called for will be a class struggle by which the Cameroonian people impose their will on the ruling class by all means at their disposal, including arms, if necessary.

 Notes

 

[i] In his 1989 book L'État en Afriquel: la politique du ventre (translated as The State in Africa: Politics of the Belly (2009)Jean-François Bayart attempts to describe African politics and, in particular, the relationship between clientelism, corruption and power

[ii] Reference to Cameroonians, notably Betis, who do not save for the rainy day; spendthrifts

[iii] Derogatory name for the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement( CPDM)

[iv] Corrupt police officers in Cameroon

[v]  People’s representatives

[vi] Chronic unemployment in Cameroon

[vii] Underhand deals of conmen

[viii] French slang for homosexual

[ix] Big shots

[x] Motor-cycle drivers

[xi] People who sell air-time to mobile phone users

[xii] File

[xiii] Professional honorarium

[xiv] Locally brewed beer

[xv] Lazy king

[xvi] Big achievements

[xvii]Reference a play by Bate Besong titled Beasts of no Nation(1990)

[xviii] Paul Biya’s governmental philosophy

[xix] Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot

 

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