EMMANUEL KONDE
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Emmanuel
Konde
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The
Cameroon Foundation International (CamFound)
2018
Table of Contents
Prologue……………………………………………………….
Introduction……………………………………………………
Chapter 1 Legacy of Ahidjo’s Reign of Terror………………
Chapter 2 Rise of a New Breed of Cameroonian……………
Chapter 3 Prescription for a New Order…………………….
Chapter 4 Expansion of Educational Opportunities…………
Chapter 5 Road, Highway, and Rail Infrastructures…………
Chapter 6 Reconfiguration of Federated Regions…………...
Epilogue………………………………………………………
Addendum……………………………………………………
Prologue
The current crisis brewing in my native
land was initiated by some disgruntled members of the Cameroon Diaspora in the
United States and Europe. This came in the aftermath of the failure of
demands by English-speaking jurists and educators to have legal and educational
systems in the South West and North West regions separate from the rest of the country.
Many of the original Diaspora initiators of this crisis have since recoiled
from the mess they created, recourse to silence, but are probably stoking the
flames of acrimony clandestinely.
This crisis is so serious that it has
driven a wedge of discord among Cameroonians to the extent that few are willing
to openly discuss—let alone offer constructive suggestions on how to resolve—the
crisis. Considering this gaping void, l decided to examine the sources of
this crisis. Pursuant to that end, I describe
how the sources of this crisis developed, identified and explained the social
origins of the foot-soldiers at the center, the ethos propelling their actions,
and then offer some constructive suggestions that might help assuage the
current state of affairs by way of proposing some educational programs and
economic projects that will not only keep the restless busy but also inspire
hope where frustration and hopelessness had settled for a very long time. My
argument is premised on empirically observable facts of life in contemporary
Cameroon; the proposals l offer are pragmatic and feasible. The narration
style is provocative, even vexing, and has the potential of inflaming raw
passions in some readers. My intention, however, is to compel the reader to
pause and think about what is happening in the native land and, I hope,
consider what can be done to restore normalcy.
Significantly, military force is necessary
to contain the violence unleashed by the militant group of secessionists; but
force alone cannot contain the ideology that precipitated this crisis. As such,
the belief system that under girds the secessionist tendency must be countered
with historical facts to set the record straight and redirect the energies of
the restive young ideologues to productive tasks that will contribute to
improvements nationwide. That is why in explaining what is happening in some
areas of the South West and North West regions l found recourse to opening with
a discussion about idleness borne of frustrated hope, now spewing forth
uncontrollable and destructive anger expressed in violent acts against the
state.
An idle mind is the devil's workshop,
which can become actively busy fomenting evil packaged as salvation when
frustration sets in. Idleness and frustrated hope make for a combustible
admixture, especially when the subjects are convinced that martyrdom is a sure
guarantor of salvation in a concocted Paradise that once existed and could be
recreated again. Thus, politics cast in religious garbs motivates adherents
to commit acts irrationally apocalyptic, acts unimaginable, in accordance with
Millenarian beliefs. Given that the hopelessly-idle have nothing to lose but
their frustration, what could be more powerful than belief in that the
presently nonexistent is attainable in some distant future epoch?
Yes, the promise of a Glorious Republic of
Ambazonia, a mirage at best to men and women of reason, is real and palpable to
the hopelessly-idle superstitious minds. Give them something to occupy their
minds, jobs to occupy their time and exhaust their pent-up energy, and hope to
countermand their frustrations, and salvation is made an achievable reality
here, now, in the Republic of Cameroon and not in some phantasmal republic in
the distant future. But how can frustration be transformed into hope and belief
to reason? It is to the task of mapping such a program of reconciliation that l
set myself to in "Cable to My Beloved Native Land."
Professor Emmanuel Konde
March 13, 2018
Introduction
I
have not embarked on chronicling the history of the currently much-vaunted
Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon. Rather, Cable to My Beloved Fatherland: Resolution to Potential Political Quagmire is
my contribution to the search for a workable solution to the crisis that is
threatening the unity of my beloved native land. I owe Cameroon this much. Whether my proposals are considered and
implemented is a totally different question. It will never be said, however,
that during Cameroon’s moment of crisis I failed to offer suggestions that
might contribute to resolving a crisis of monumental proportions the likes of
which was hitherto alien to the Fatherland.
All political crises and struggles are
multifaceted and multidimensional in nature.
The so-called Anglophone Crisis is no different. This crisis is not about Anglophonism—the
revival, sustenance, and elevation of the colonial relics of English educational
system and Common Law legal practice to parity with the Francophone colonial relics
of French educational system and Civil Law legal practice as represented by the
demands of Anglophone educators and jurists that triggered the current edition
of secessionism.
The Anglophone Crisis is not about
colonial relics, which have been used as a foil by some disgruntled
English-speaking groups to legitimate and parlay their dissatisfaction with the
political system. Fundamentally, this
crisis is about some Anglophones’ perception of their own marginalization in what
they claim to be a grossly uneven distribution of power and resources within
the Cameroon political system dominated by Francophones. Granted, politics deals with who gets what,
when, and how much[KE4] .
Marginalization is the denial of equal or near-equal access to the resources of
state. Hence the call for a two-state federation by dispossessed would-be
Anglophone political leaders, which would ensure them the opportunity to
acquire that which the current political dispensation of 10 Regions has denied
them.
Marginalization
of Anglophones has plunged the Fatherland into a crisis. A political quagmire
has descended from our murky past, intruded into our present, and is threatening
to rupture our future. It has engulfed the
native land. The people are lamenting;
they are moaning for resolution. But what is the true content of this
crisis? It has been dubbed “Anglophone
Crisis.” No, it is not an Anglophone Crisis,
but a national crisis initiated by the English-speaking people of the South
West and North West regions, formerly known as West Cameroon and, before that,
British Southern Cameroons.
The
designations Southern Cameroons and West Cameroon conjure up a past structural
arrangement that is no longer tenable, a two-state federation that Cameroon has
in the intervening 56 years outgrown. At
this juncture in the historical evolution of politics in Cameroon the movement
is progressive, towards newness, forward-looking; and not retrogressive,
static, backward-looking. This analysis
is drawn from the changing demographics and political orientation of the
Cameroonian people, particularly the rise of a new breed of Cameroonian that is
in the forefront of the current crisis.
It is the emergence of this new breed—a breed not exclusively Anglophone
but inclusive of all Cameroonian in every sense of the word—that persuades me
to undertake this reconfiguration of the
ethos, of the vital force behind the current crisis of confidence.
It
is to the task of explicating this crisis from a new and broader perspective
that I submit myself. Pursuant to that
end, I offer a contrast between the Cameroonians of Ahmadiou Ahidjo’s Federal
and United Republic, and the new breed of Cameroonians that emerged in the early-
1990s during the advent of John Fru Ndi’s “Operation Ghost Town” in President
Paul Biya’s Republic of Cameroon. The narrative approach adopted for this
presentation is at once synchronic and diachronic. It is presented in four related but unequal sections:
The first section, consisting of chapters one and two, briefly recounts the
breed of Cameroonian that Ahidjo’s reign of terror produced while chapter two focuses
on the new breed of Cameroonian that sprung out of Operation Ghost Town. The second section is chapter three, in which
after a synoptic discussion of the political history of Cameroon, my
prescription for a new national order is articulated.
Next,
the third section comprises of chapters four and five. In chapter four I offer suggestions
for specific educational programs whose implementation will result in the
building of a sense of belonging to the nation and not the tribal group as
heretofore, including pathways to possibilities for educational expansion and
enlightenment. Chapter five suggests the
construction of road, highway, sea port, and rail infrastructures throughout
the national territory as a means towards providing citizens with opportunities
for self-reliance, wealth accumulation, and potential happiness.
Lastly,
section four reproduces a proposal that I first published in Prescription. It is a reconfiguration of
the 10 regions of the Republic of Cameroon with a view to regional balance in
terms of population distribution. I cannot pretend that this work is a panacea. Notwithstanding its limitations, however, it
can serve as a blueprint for resolving the crisis and paving the way forward
towards a just social order.
Chapter 1
Legacy
of Ahidjo’s Reign of Terror
Growing up in Cameroon in the 1960s
and 1970s many of us in my generation loved the land of our birth and
entertained great dreams for the future.
Cameroon was a "Land of Promise," real promise, and not just
as the Cameroon national anthem proclaimed but also from what our inexperienced
eyes could see, and our unsophisticated minds discern. There was hope, or what
seemed to us as such, everywhere.
Everywhere we looked we could see nothing but a promising future.
Expectantly, we looked forward to the end of President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s
despotism, since everything with a beginning ultimately has an end. We had hoped that a new post-Ahidjo era would
be different. Not gifted with the
ability to read the future, little did we know that barely a decade after
Ahidjo our beloved Fatherland would plunge into an abyss. Not long after Ahidjo’s departure, Cameroon
began to sink. As if caught by the spell
of an evildoer, tragedy struck, and our hopes and aspirations were not only
dashed, but our dreams were also violently deferred! Yes, our inheritance was
violated and our Fatherland, at one time prosperous, was reduced to
destitution. It now appears that our generation is doomed by the actions (or
inaction), incompetence, and selfishness of those who came before us. Why?
What happened?
It has never been lost to me—and I
believe, to many of my generation, --that every generation has its leaders;
that no single generation of leaders should lay claim to a nation for much
longer than is necessary. When political
leaders overstay their welcome to power and the burning desire to foster
development dies with their longevity at the helm of state, they often tend to
settle down comfortably to pillaging and plundering the resources of
state. Rather than see themselves as
custodians of the wealth of the nation, leaders who stay too long in power
begin to view the state as their personal property. And from that vantage point they misconstrue
their roles. Rather than see themselves
as servants of the people, they settle on thinking of themselves as some kind
of gods who own the country and its wealth, and that their every whim is a law
of the land. The fate of Ahmadou Ahidjo is illustrative of this delusion. But,
as it is the responsibility of the generation
before to devolve political power in a timely fashion to the generation after, so too it is the
responsibility of the after generation
to make the before generation that
preceded it feel very uncomfortable prolonging its stay in power. In Cameroon, we, the after generation have not been forthcoming. We have failed our beloved country The fate
of my generation was sealed, not by our own actions but by historical
circumstances beyond our control that validated Karl Marx’s prophetic
pronouncement of 1852: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as
they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under
circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”[1] Indeed, we make our own history under
influences transmitted from the past, which limit our ability to overcome
constraints because we simply do not know how.[2]
[1]
“The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” in Karl Marx and Frederick
Engles, Selected Works (New York:
International Publishers, 1968), p. 97.
[1] See Emmanuel Konde, Cameroon: Traumas of the Body
Politic, pp. v-vi.
Chapter
2
Rise
of the Progeny of Ghost Town
European colonization of Africans in the late nineteenth century
replaced European enslavement of Africans beginning in the mid-fifteenth to the
late nineteenth century. Both
colonization and enslavement were two sides of the same coin: both were
involuntary and forced upon the Africans; and in both the European was the
master and beneficiary; and the African the enslaved, colonized, dehumanized
and exploited. Barely half a century since the European decolonization of
Africa, new voluntary wave upon waves of African migrations have reached global
dimensions. Almost everywhere in the
world Negroid persons can be found who migrated voluntarily— or were forced by
political circumstances to migrate voluntarily—from the heart of the legendary
“Dark Continent” to their present locales in search of, or fleeing from,
something. This new African Diaspora, is
the handiwork of globalization in a modern context and represents the second
largest wave of the migration of black humankind since trans-Atlantic slave
trade that lasted for over three centuries.[3]
Although many, if not all, modern African countries have been
affected by this new voluntary dispersal of African peoples, this monograph
examines only one such migratory wave emanating from the contemporary Republic
of Cameroon in West-Central Africa. This
wave represents a new kind of Cameroonian, perhaps derogatively or approvingly
designated as bushfaller in his
native land. It was conceived in the 1970s by a variety of social forces that
intersected and then converged to give social birth to this formidable breed in
the 1990s.
[1] I refer to this new twentieth and twenty-first centuries African
immigration trend as "voluntary" in direct contra distinction to the
"involuntary" one that spanned from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
century, inaugurated the transatlantic slave trade and occasioned the massive
"forced" removal of tens of millions of Africans from the
continent. I am by no means oblivious of
the realities that caused many voluntary Africans to abandon their homelands.
The fact, however, is that even those fleeing persecution or the carnage of
civil war, like their economic and political refugee counterparts, made a
conscious decision to migrate, on their own volition. They were not captured, shackled, and forced
into trading vessels that transported them against their will to foreign lands
where they were, again, forced to perform unpaid labor. The emphasis is not on
the "cause" but on "volition"; that is, who, and not what,
initiated the migration.
These forces, mainly
political and economic, also contributed to the inauguration of a quasi-multiparty
political system in the erstwhile single-party state of Cameroon, and,
accordingly unleashed a new ethos of aggressiveness among Cameroonians hitherto
known for their passivity as a people always seen but seldom heard. Bushfallers,
the human product of these forces, are smart, determined, daring, calculating,
enterprising, at once assertive and aggressive, and, seemingly
unstoppable. These are the new exports
of Cameroon to the world. They are out
to make money, the one thing that sets them apart from many generations before,
and the one and only thing that compelled them to venture out of the Land of
Promise into foreign lands far and wide.
“Bushfallers”
is the Cameroonian term for the young unemployed and unemployables, including
dissatisfied professionals, who leave their country in search of greener
pastures in the industrialized East and West.
Whereas “bushfaller” is the designation for the actor, “bushfalling”
designates the act. Three perspectives
of bushfallers are presented below: the first is from a local magazine, the
second from a foreign scholar, and the third from a Catholic priest. Post
News Magazine, is a Cameroonian publication. It explains the etymology of the word
“bushfalling” as follows:
The term is derived from the
figurative verb, “to fall bush”. “Bush” is the Pidgin word for farm. Not long
ago, almost every Cameroonian family owned farms that ensured the constant
supply of food. Whenever there was hunger, food was harvested in the farm and
brought to the house. But before harvesting, seed had to be sown, which
entailed back breaking labour. ‘Fall’ in Pidgin sometimes has the connotation
of ‘jump onto’ or ‘rush into’ something or some place. To ‘fall bush’,
therefore, means jumping into or rushing to a farm, in this case an industrialised
country. [4]
Annett Fleischer, who studied this phenomenon in the wider context of transnational
migration, offered a similar definition of bushfaller
in her doctoral dissertation:
[1] Quoted by Dibussi Tande, “Bushfallers: How Cameroonians Live in the Diaspora.” Scribbles from the Den, November 13, 2006. www.dibussi.com/2006/11/bushfallers_the.html
The
Pidgin- English term bush faller derives from the verb to fall bush, meaning to
go to the bush to hunt, gather or harvest and to return with enough food to
nourish the family. Interview partners commonly used the phrase to describe
Cameroonians in Europe or the United States who were looking for ‘greener pastures’
to achieve individual and family goals. The term also conveys a sense of risk
and danger: breaking new ground in a distant place.[5]
The definitions of Post News
Magazine and Dr. Fletcher seem to accentuate the positive and substantive
aspects of bushfalling.
Aside from the substantive aspect of the struggles of bushfallers, there is also the stylistic
aspect which elicits either endearment or ridicule to their attitude and
general comportment when they visit
Cameroon. A Roman Catholic prelate, Father Foleng, compares the admiration the
people of the interior North West Region once had for those who had migrated to
the coast and the contemporary bushfallers,
whom he portrays in a rather negative light. Foleng notes that in times past
when those who lived on the coast visited the North West hinterland, they
offered drinks and sweets to children.
It mattered less whether “they were civil servants, administrators or
unskilled labourers in the plantations.” Of significance was the fact they
lived on the coast. Enter the
contemporary bushfallers, and Father
Foleng writes:
Today,
this admiration has been shifted to those who live abroad, commonly known in
Cameroon as “Bush-Fallers”. The striking difference between the coastal
invaders and Bush-Fallers is in attire and make up. Most Bush-Fallers are good
at picking up habits from their white friends or adopting certain habits either
to look different or to please their white friends- like boys wearing earrings
and relaxing their hair. These practices are unknown and even considered
bizarre in North West Cameroon. Some of the boys simply allow their hair to
grow into unkempt proportions. Their dressing style is usually peculiar,
especially their shorts, T-shirts, torn jeans and large rings on their fingers.
They speak with strange accents to the admiration of young people.[6]
[1]
See Annett Fleischer,
“Making Families among Cameroonian 'Bush Fallers' in Germany.” Freie
Universität Berlin, Germany, 2010.
Father
Foleng has dubbed this strange style as the “bushfaller syndrome.”
Whether good or ill, bushfallers are markedly different from their antecedents who traveled abroad for various reasons, the driving force behind this driven breed is money. This new breed is transforming Cameroon from the coastal town of Limbe through Kumba to the Bamenda hinterlands. Former shanty towns are being remade by the remittances of bushfallers. Here and there marvelous buildings sprout from the soil like the corn crop. Indeed, even in the Bassa quartier Nkong Mondo in Douala, Francophone bushfaller wealth filtering into Cameroon from Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, France, etc., is wreaking wonders there to the utter amazement of Bamileke merchants who once thought of the Nkong Mondo Bassa youths as lazy and un-enterprising.
Whether good or ill, bushfallers are markedly different from their antecedents who traveled abroad for various reasons, the driving force behind this driven breed is money. This new breed is transforming Cameroon from the coastal town of Limbe through Kumba to the Bamenda hinterlands. Former shanty towns are being remade by the remittances of bushfallers. Here and there marvelous buildings sprout from the soil like the corn crop. Indeed, even in the Bassa quartier Nkong Mondo in Douala, Francophone bushfaller wealth filtering into Cameroon from Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, France, etc., is wreaking wonders there to the utter amazement of Bamileke merchants who once thought of the Nkong Mondo Bassa youths as lazy and un-enterprising.
Never has Cameroon beheld a
marvel like the one being wrought by bushfallers. It is improbable that a marvel such as this
can ever be fashioned again; nor shall the country ever again behold a breed in
the likeness of bushfallers. This transformation of the Cameroonian being
is novel as it is unique and epochal.
Bushfaller wealth is also transforming the lives of many in their respective
families as well as the country. Because of this special quality, bushfallers constitute the wave of the
future of Cameroon. What is not clear at this time, however, is whether this
new wave of change represented by bushfaller
portends good or ill for Cameroon. This
one is a prognosis too premature to make at this juncture. Time will, however, tell. The emphasis on bushfallers should not be misconstrued
as a denigration of non-bushfaller
achievements; for, the bushfallers
were assisted by their older brothers and sisters who preceded them to Mbengue Europa and Mbengue Amerika. But the
achievements of the former simply fade into insignificance in comparison to
those of bushfallers. On this
conclusion I stake my reputation.
[1] Fr. Peter Foleng, SM, “Exposing the Bush-Faller Syndrome.” L’Effort Camerounais, No. 517 (November 30 – December 14, 2011).
I write as a social philosopher and student of history, whose task
is to interpret and explain the workings of the social order as accurately as
possible. I examine how individuals and groups behave in society; I analyze the
actions of individuals and aggregations and draw general conclusions from these
about society. From this vantage point,
I can discern a striking social phenomenon that has been unfolding before our
very own eyes in the past 20 years or so.
This phenomenon is now taking concrete form. Its locus of incubation is the Fatherland,
Cameroon, from where it is spreading to other parts of the world. Although there was in fact a commingling of
variables that ushered in this bushfaller
phenomenon, I have decided to isolate a few pivotal ones that influenced the
making of this new breed.
My last teenage escapade in Cameroon happened in Victoria,
present-day Limbe, in 1975. We were in
Bay Hotel one Sunday afternoon dancing to Makossa during “Tea Time” when a
scuffle ensued between one local boy and a military man over a girl. I was inside gyrating to the deafening blast
of makossa dance music and did not
witness the scuffle. The military man
had a pistol, which he pulled out. He
did not fire a single shot. But the mere
sight of a small gun sent more than 100 civilians running helter-skelter for
dear life. I was one of those civilians,
and those were the days of Ahmadou Ahidjo’s Cameroon when some contemporary bushfallers were either toddlers or
yet-to-be-born. Fast forward to 1991,
sixteen years later during the teenage years of our bushfallers who by then had come of age. We behold Fru Ndi’s foot-soldiers battling
armed soldiers with fists and stones during “Operation Ghost Town” under the
auspices of John Fru Ndi. From all
apparent indications, a lot had happened that created a gulf between my teenage
years and those of our bushfallers. It is that something that this work promises
to unravel about this new breed.
Between 1975 and
1991 something happened in Cameroon that transformed the generations after into creatures radically different from the before generations. This work is about the generations
after. It traces their development
through the prism of Cameroon’s political history. The first generation of Cameroonians born
under the United Republic of Cameroon, their character reflects the political
changes of their country. They matured
with the political maturity of Cameroon.
When in the early-1990s Operation Ghost Town released Cameroonians from
the dictatorship of the Cameroon National Union (CNU), the children of the
Unitary State were the foot soldiers of this struggle and contributed to the
making of the new epoch. Born in chains, these children were released from
their chains by “Operation Ghost Town” and have since maintained their freedom
John Fru Ndi, Operation
Ghost Town Leader
If “Operation
Ghost Town” provided them freedom domestically, the forces of globalization
extended this freedom internationally. By the late 1990s the would-be bushfallers were looking outward to the
larger world for those things that the sagging Cameroon economy could not offer
them. Once abroad, their intermittent
visits to Cameroon, which revealed behaviors, attitudes, and showmanship until
them unseen in Cameroon won them the sobriquet bushfallers. This is the story of their origins, growth, and
transformative power. As chronicler of
the brief analytical narrative that follows, I cannot help it but echo the
words of American sociologist C. Wright Mills: “I will try to be objective; I
do not claim to be detached,” for, I am an offspring of Cameroon and can
therefore not pretend detachment by any stretch of the imagination.
Prescription
for a New Order
Our native land, Cameroon, is a product of European
colonial incursions. It was carved out of our indigenous polities that predated
the European colonial experiments. First
it was the Germans, then the French and British. The impact of the political
cultures of these three European powers on Cameroonians influenced the way they
treated one another at different times in their political history. Even after
the defeat and expulsion of the Germans from Cameroon, the German colonial
influence competed with the French and British in their respective spheres. By
the end of the Second World War, however, the German influence was fast
receding, as those Cameroonians nurtured in it were either too old to
participate actively in politics or were gradually dying out.
When
in 1961 British Southern Cameroons elected to reunite with the then recently
independent Republic of Cameroon, that union was predicated on the political
principle of Federalism. Yet underneath that Federalism were two powerful
political currents that derived their ethos from alien political cultures: the
British national political culture of local autonomy and the French political
culture of national centralization.
Skilled
in practical politics but intellectually ill-equipped at the time, the leaders
of the new Cameroon Federation would be bogged down by a struggle for power
between two contending political ideologies--both foreign to Cameroon's
indigenous forms of political organization. Untrained in neither the use of the
foreign nor the indigenous political cultures, the new leaders of the
Federation would hold onto their colonial political cultures with religious
fervor. As politics took religious connotations in the new Cameroon Federation,
the contest was reduced to winner takes all, with the crumbs of power
distributed here and there among willing adherents of the losing side.
Following
the demise of Federalism came Unitarism--the second "ism" in the
political evolution of decolonized Cameroon. The unitarist structure was
different from the federalist structure in name and name only. What came after
the United Republic was but an affirmation of the trend that was set from the
inception of the Federal Republic in 1961. Because of the apparent inadequacy
of these structures to respond to the needs of the citizenry, a state of
affairs ostensibly resulting from the accentuation of colonial mentality, which
emphasized the distinction between "Anglophone" and
"Francophone" cultures, a third "ism' made its
appearance—"Separatism"—in 1985 after the unilateral conversion of
the United Republic to the Republic of Cameroon was made by President Paul Biya
in 1984. From 1985 onwards, Anglophone
displeasure began to build up with the publication of Forgum Gorj-Dinka’s “The
New Social Order” in which he decried President Biya’s decision to revert to
the nomenclature Republic of Cameroon, calling the action unconstitutional.
Pervasiveness of Colonial Mentality
The
pervasiveness of colonial mentality among Cameroonians, the outcome of more
than 75 years (1884-1961) of European colonial domination has engendered in
many--especially the highly educated elements--a short-sightedness of political
vision. This narrowness of vision has given rise to alienation of indigenous
cultural norms, the permanence of colonial institutions, a demonstrated
inability or unwillingness to revamp the outdated colonial inheritance to
reflect the social, political, and economic realities of contemporary Cameroon.
Given these persistent characteristics, it is not surprising that many have
eloquently referred to Cameroon as an archetypal neocolonial country, marked by
systems of socio-political organization that do not rejuvenate themselves.
Six
decades after attaining independence, influences of the colonial past are still
pervasive in Cameroon. Indeed, the
overriding tendency is to perpetually look outward for models of political organization.
The so-called Francophones look to France, while the Anglophones look to
Britain. There is something called Anglo-Saxon tradition in Cameroon. Yet one
looks around to see things Anglo-Saxon to no avail. So, what's the source of
this self-deception? There are those Cameroonians who refer to Paris as
"home." I have never been able to understand why. The very
designations of Anglophone and Francophone are manifestations of the denial of
indigenous norms as significant referents. It would be no exaggeration to infer
that Cameroon's outstanding national problems stem from her dual colonial
legacy which, in effect, is acting as a hindrance to national integration. This
dual colonial legacy has further given rise to a distorted mentality among
many, some in high and others in lowly places. It has spawned off a chain
reaction consisting of graft, pretentiousness, a predator complex, lack of
moral probity and, ultimately, pleasure frustrating others attempts to make an
honest living.
These
tendencies run through and through the modern administrative structures
inherited from the colonialists. Their absence in the traditional political
sectors of the country leads me to conclude that because these are not
indigenous to Cameroon, they were designed by the colonialists to keep Cameroon
and other African countries permanently subservient to their erstwhile
colonizers.
The
use of "cultural alienation" as a weapon of domination is employed
every time one people in the world have conquered another. The descendants of
the Gauls, against whom Julius Caesar used that weapon, are today employing it
more effectively against Africans. The vestiges of cultural alienation exhibit
themselves today in some of the languages Africans speak and call national
languages, in their preferred style of dress, manner of speech, quotable
personalities, veracity of documented sources in scholarship, preferred models
of political and economic systems, etc., etc.
Since independence in 1960, Cameroon
has been characterized on the political front by authoritarianism: a remnant of
French colonialism, and on the economic front, according to Yondo Black &
Co. by "a state of perpetual take-off." The history of the
underdevelopment of Cameroon, and for that matter Africa, can be traced back to
the instability caused by the European trade in African human cargo, through
colonialism [another form of European slavery] to the present state of
neocolonialism. The common harvest of Africans at the hands of Europeans has
been enslavement. Call it what you may, slavery and colonialism are two sides
of the same coin. On the one side Africans were forcibly removed from their
homelands and enslaved elsewhere; on the other, they were enslaved in their own
countries. It was always the European who benefited from African
labor--colonial or slave; and it was the African who was eternally placed at
the service of the European. One cannot but wonder in silence and despair
whether it is not about time Africans unshackled themselves from European
oppression--physically, but especially mentally.
Uncritical Acceptance of Colonial Cultures
Rather than engage
the process of fashioning a new political system grounded in the political usages of the 250 or so ethnic
groups and tribes that make up the population of
Cameroon, the new leaders of the Federation chose to remain true to alien
political cultures. Post-independence Cameroon has been dominated by the French colonial
legacy, but not without the assistance of
the Anglophone political leadership. Far from seeing Cameroon's political
problem as essentially a struggle between Francophones and Anglophones, we can
gain a better understanding if we begin looking at the problem as a "class
thing."
True,
the Cameroon political system is dominated by the French political tradition of
centralization. But the beneficiaries of political centralization in Cameroon are not exclusively Francophones. A good
number of Anglophones have benefited from the centralized system but failed to
deliver beyond "self" and family and friends.
While the Anglophone
political leadership must be faulted for their greed, the Francophones must
also be blamed for their persistent hold on the political structures inherited
from the French colonial state.
Some have risen to propound the
notion that Ahmadou Ahidjo was responsible for violating parliamentary
procedure in West Cameroon. This is not true, even though the eventual preponderance
of Francophone political culture would compel us to think otherwise. It is true
that the dominant party in East Cameroon, Ahidjo's U.C. set itself to the task
of absorbing the lesser parties in both federated states to form the C.N.U. But
this is the prevailing idiom of politics. Illogical though it may seem to some, the stronger political party being in any political relationship will
always seek to control, if not absorb, the weaker parties.
The quasi-democratic institutions
established in Anglophone Cameroon by the British administration, though
wobbly, remained viable bulwarks against the Francophone colonial inheritance.
The major problem in Anglophone Cameroon was that the British-established
institutions were inherited by a politically incompetent party--the K.D.P.D.
For some inexplicable reasons, the majority of Anglophone leaders of the
K.N.D.P. tended to see their political fortunes pegged, not in an autonomous
Federated State of West Cameroon, with its capital in Buea, but in Ahidjo's
Federation--centralized in Yaounde. On the day Prime Minister Foncha chose the
title of Vice President over that of Prime Minister and decided to move to
Yaounde, on that day the federated State of West Cameroon died a natural death.
And with it, the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
By 1962 the Anglophone political
leadership had not only lost its mettle but was completely engulfed by greed
and ambition. Expediency replaced principle. And the leading Cameroonian
intellectual of the day, an Anglophone named Dr. Bernard Fonlon, like so many
Anglophones, was so captivated by Ahidjo's political savvy that he wrote this
enchanting testimony of the President:
"There is one
thing about him which I have personally witnessed for the last twenty-one
years: whereas others in his position live in mortal fear of men of mind and
liquidate them, President Ahidjo seeks their collaboration."
Prof. Fonlon no doubt
was an honorable man. But honorable men can also be dazzled by a politician
with flair. Because Ahidjo sought the counsel of Prof. Fonlon does not mean
that the president was as amicable to all men of mind. If the leading
Anglophone mind of the day could be so mesmerized, one can only wonder about
the magnitude of Ahidjo's influence over lesser minds.
Professor Kofele-Kale has eloquently
captured the essence of the dismemberment of the West Cameroon political
establishment, which was also probably enchanted by the political savvy of
President Ahidjo, as it unhesitatingly scrambled into Ahidjo's one-party bandwagon:
"... the speed
with which the principal Anglophone political leaders--men who had a long
history of opposition to the very concept of single-party climbed into the
bandwagon would suggest that their intentions were not entirely motivated by
pristine ideological considerations. Individual greed, ambition, and personal
aggrandizement as well as the corporate interests of their class were equally
significant motivating factors."
Professor Victor Le Vine
has similarly narrated an account of
the actions of West Cameroonian politicians between 1962 and 1966 that support
Professor Kofele-Kale's assessment. The said period, according to Prof. Le Vine
"... witnessed a
complex political ballet in which the principal parties and politicians
simultaneously strove to retain their influence in the West and maneuvered to
put themselves in the best possible position for the merger of all parties at
the national level."
The prime mover of
this theatrical political scheme was none other than the diabolical political
wit, Ahmadou Ahidjo (1924-1989). Ahidjo adeptly used his political skills to
lure and then subdue the rather willing Anglophone political leadership, thus
ensuring the ascendancy and preponderance of "Francophone" political culture.
ensuring the ascendancy and preponderance of "Francophone" political culture.
But, was Ahidjo's grand scheme good
or bad for Cameroon?
Solution: A New Nationalist Order
Ahidjo's grand design was definitely bad for
Cameroon from the word go. The first President of Cameroon had been catapulted
to power by the vagaries that accompanied a troubled nation suffering serious
pangs at birth. As first president, Ahidjo was given a rare opportunity to mold
Cameroonians into nationalists, transforming the various ethnic enclaves into
integral national territories paying allegiance to a central state and not some
tribal chieftains. But he squandered that opportunity.
As president, Ahidjo was not so much
concerned about building a nation state out of the many little tribal polities
that littered the territory. He seemed to be more concerned about enhancing his
personal power. Even so, Ahidjo's strategy was not undertaken because
he loved himself more and his country less. He simply did not know of any other way to go about the business of national construction. It is possible that his choice of strategy was greatly influenced by his native political culture as practiced by the Fulani Lamidos of North Cameroon and the French colonial authoritarianism in which he received his political education. Furthermore, Ahidjo was ill-equipped to pursue any other strategy than the one he adopted. Because of the limitation of Ahidjo's vision, the country is embroiled today in a quagmire from which it might not extricate itself unscarred. That notwithstanding, there is hope, and to that we must now address ourselves.
he loved himself more and his country less. He simply did not know of any other way to go about the business of national construction. It is possible that his choice of strategy was greatly influenced by his native political culture as practiced by the Fulani Lamidos of North Cameroon and the French colonial authoritarianism in which he received his political education. Furthermore, Ahidjo was ill-equipped to pursue any other strategy than the one he adopted. Because of the limitation of Ahidjo's vision, the country is embroiled today in a quagmire from which it might not extricate itself unscarred. That notwithstanding, there is hope, and to that we must now address ourselves.
Cameroonians must anew to
rethink the manner of political system they want for their country. For my
part, I think the inexorable movement is toward a democratic nation state. The
difficulty however lies in the existence of a myriad of ethnic polities, each
paying allegiance to some tribal leaders, with correspondingly variant interests as well as political institutions indigenous to each. How to reconcile and then harmonize the various indigenous political institutions, and then add the best elements of the alien political usages called Francophone and Anglophone, is a task of monumental proportions now
beckoning the finest minds of the country.
paying allegiance to some tribal leaders, with correspondingly variant interests as well as political institutions indigenous to each. How to reconcile and then harmonize the various indigenous political institutions, and then add the best elements of the alien political usages called Francophone and Anglophone, is a task of monumental proportions now
beckoning the finest minds of the country.
Nevertheless, the
monumental task ahead can be accomplished, if the following conditions [among
others] are not only observed but implemented:
(A)
Nationalist Ideology. Cameroonians must first develop a sense of belonging to a
nation and not to ethnic polities. To achieve this goal a nationalist ideology
must be fashioned and taught in schools—from kindergarten to university.
(B)
Tolerance. Cameroonians
must develop a culture of tolerance for one another, and particularly in their
politics, while rallying around a nationalist ideology defining them, and to
which all must be loyal. Such a culture can come to fruition through
integrating it in the educational system, geared toward the obliteration of
graft and envy from the national fabric. But more importantly, the
encouragement of intermarriage among tribes must be made national policy--with
women, the custodians of culture, acting as mediators of culture(s).
(C)
Discipline. This national attribute comes from education. Discipline must be
made a part and parcel of every walk of life in Cameroon. From the local market
where traders leave their stalls and move into outlying streets for greater
exposure; to the taxi driver who is wont to stop anywhere and everywhere at the
sight of potential customers; to the high and mighty in Yaounde, who
misconstrue their positions of trust for personal patrimonies, order must be
brought to bear on all by the enforcement of discipline in accordance with the
law.
(D) Rule of Law. Law, in and of itself, is just law and no more. The prevalence of the rule of law calls for a clear stipulation of the rights of citizens, imparted to the people through national educational institutions, seminars and workshops conducted in conjunction with the private sector. The question: "What does it mean to a Cameroonian?" must be answered unambiguously, so that every Cameroonian knows what is expected of him/her and what is expected of others--especially law enforcement officers. The law is designed to protect the rights of the citizenry.
(D) Rule of Law. Law, in and of itself, is just law and no more. The prevalence of the rule of law calls for a clear stipulation of the rights of citizens, imparted to the people through national educational institutions, seminars and workshops conducted in conjunction with the private sector. The question: "What does it mean to a Cameroonian?" must be answered unambiguously, so that every Cameroonian knows what is expected of him/her and what is expected of others--especially law enforcement officers. The law is designed to protect the rights of the citizenry.
(E)
Traditional Authority. What to do with this relic of times past, whose usefulness
in the modern state we must now question.... Entrenched as traditional
authority is, it poses the most formidable problem confronting the making of the modern state in Cameroon. It is thus because of the loyalty this institution still commands. No nation can be constructed on the foundation of divided loyalty. Any such attempt that does not first resolve the question of traditional authority cannot but yield a divided
nation. Total loyalty of the citizenry to a national ideal is the glue that binds a country together. My suggestion is that, in consultation with traditional authority, a gradual phasing out process should be set in motion, whereby, over so many decades, traditional
authority can receive an honorable passage into the next world.
authority is, it poses the most formidable problem confronting the making of the modern state in Cameroon. It is thus because of the loyalty this institution still commands. No nation can be constructed on the foundation of divided loyalty. Any such attempt that does not first resolve the question of traditional authority cannot but yield a divided
nation. Total loyalty of the citizenry to a national ideal is the glue that binds a country together. My suggestion is that, in consultation with traditional authority, a gradual phasing out process should be set in motion, whereby, over so many decades, traditional
authority can receive an honorable passage into the next world.
(F) Anglophone/Francophone? Inconsequential.
Over time, the nationalist ideology will create a new kind of
Cameroonian--devoid of colonial mentality.
(G) Democracy? The
preconditions for democracy have been outlined above.
Warning. As some habits are easily formed
than eradicated, so are some institutions easily established than reformed. It
might take a very long time to achieve the desired goals, perhaps longer than
we expect. But if we follow this blueprint, imperfect as it is, adjusting it to
suit the changing times, our progeny [if not us] will have something to work
with in their attempts to realize the dream--our bequest-- of a "New
Nationalist Order" in Cameroon.
Chapter
4
Expansion of
Educational Opportunities
Proposed here are long-term and short-term projects whose aims are to expand the reach of educational opportunities throughout Cameroon, with the goal of infusing a new dynamism in Cameroon that would stimulate hunger for knowledge in the citizenry and foster a strong sense of belonging and love of country.
Short
and Long-Term Strategies
The
short-term strategy for these infrastructures construction educational projects
is configured around contriving and executing small projects designed to serve
the educational needs of populations within the administrative jurisdictions of
local government entities such as Municipal and Rural councils. To achieve this
end, the Government should undertake constructing structures, provisioning
resources, and administering programs that will positively impact local
populations. With respect to the long-term strategy, the Government should
direct its effort to the regional and national levels, where the smaller
municipal and rural projects will be magnified to showcase the national
prestige of Cameroon through massive investment in the construction of
“Monuments of Cameroon Civilization” for the educational needs and
enlightenment of the citizenry.
I. Municipal and Rural Areas Projects
Accessibility of the
necessary resources by citizens is key to the success of all development
projects. This is particularly the case
with respect to the enhancement of knowledge acquisition in all fields of human
endeavor. Pursuant to this end, we
propose in a shared system of division of labor among all levels of government,
along the following lines of action:
(1)
Municipal and Rural councils will construct
Community Learning Centers and Libraries in their respective localities. The libraries will house small lecture rooms,
books, journals, newspapers, government documents, computers, etc., for use by
the people.
(2)
The Libraries will serve the traditional
purpose of providing resources for research, reading, and writing in a quiet
environment conducive to learning. The
Community Learning Centers, on the other hand, will be hotbeds of education, in
the broadest sense of the word, for the people and by the people. The Centers will house various literature on
how to live a good and healthy life, provide public instruction on disease
prevention, safe sex, prenatal care, etc., including public lectures,
discussions and debates. Guest lecturers
will either be invited or volunteer to speak on a variety of local, national,
and global issues; local technicians (mechanics, plumbers, electricians,
builders, masons, etc.) will assemble in these centers, periodically, to
discuss and share knowledge about new techniques in their respective fields;
local law enforcement officers will also use these centers to discuss ways of
refining their approaches to enforcing the law; and, during holidays, school
children will have a place to learn new skills.
In this endeavor of knowledge sharing, vibrant communities of learners
will erupt, and their renewed energies will be parlayed to the benefit of their
immediate communities, their region, and the nation at large
Community Learning
Center Building
The logic of this arrangement is that first
things will have to be concluded first before embarking on second things. These partnerships will be predicated on
symbiotic trust and confidence, responsibility and accountability, and adhering
to the terms of collaboration
II. Regional and National Projects
Practical politics is said to be the art of the possible. True. But the possible in politics, as in every other practical endeavor, can attain success only if the timing is right. Feasibility, timing, and competency must converge to effectively transform a mere idea into political reality. Of such is the thrust of the projects about to be proposed. They are presented for your consideration as a set of ideas and only as ideas, which should be judged by two criteria: feasibility and timing. For, no matter how brilliant an idea is packaged, if political practitioners deem it infeasible at any given time the idea, born as an idea, will most likely die as ideas
Practical politics is said to be the art of the possible. True. But the possible in politics, as in every other practical endeavor, can attain success only if the timing is right. Feasibility, timing, and competency must converge to effectively transform a mere idea into political reality. Of such is the thrust of the projects about to be proposed. They are presented for your consideration as a set of ideas and only as ideas, which should be judged by two criteria: feasibility and timing. For, no matter how brilliant an idea is packaged, if political practitioners deem it infeasible at any given time the idea, born as an idea, will most likely die as ideas
Adult Learning Activity
The foundation of all development is know-how
or knowledge, and knowledge is often posited as power. But knowledge, in
and of itself, is not power. Knowledge is merely a source of power which,
unless acted upon by men and women of action, will remain knowledge as
knowledge and no more. It is men and women of action who can transform
knowledge into power capable of galvanizing constructive social change. History
has elected to nominate you to play the pivotal role of agents of change in the
Fatherland. To that end, our responsibility at this juncture is to apply
knowledge purposefully to the task of national construction in Cameroon.
We proceed by asking the following
questions: what has been done in Cameroon to advance the expansion of
transformative knowledge since independence? What percentage of the
citizenry understands key provisions of the Cameroon Constitution that
guarantee their rights as citizens? If the answers to both
questions are not known, or even tentative, what can we do to alter that
deplorable state of affairs? It is in answering these troubling questions
that the following short- and long-term projects are being proposed to
ameliorate and improve upon the extant situation.
The proposed projects, if implemented as envisioned, will result in massive, transformational developments at the regional and national levels, and will augur well for the entire country. These projects are: (1) National Political Education Campaign (NPEC); (2) Regional Public Libraries Project (RPLP); and (3) Annual Book Drive (ABD).
Rationale of Proposed Projects
All great politicians and political parties, after having contributed patriotically to the task of national development in various ways, seek above all else to cement their legacies of achievements for posterity. Pursuant to this noble goal, the government should prioritize these projects and direct its energies towards constructing institutional and historic monuments. These monuments must be big, so big and beautiful as to not only be simultaneously visible to the present, but forever etched in the memory of the dead, and capable of eliciting nothing short of wonderment from posterity.
1. The National Political Education Campaign (NPEC)
The proposed projects, if implemented as envisioned, will result in massive, transformational developments at the regional and national levels, and will augur well for the entire country. These projects are: (1) National Political Education Campaign (NPEC); (2) Regional Public Libraries Project (RPLP); and (3) Annual Book Drive (ABD).
Rationale of Proposed Projects
All great politicians and political parties, after having contributed patriotically to the task of national development in various ways, seek above all else to cement their legacies of achievements for posterity. Pursuant to this noble goal, the government should prioritize these projects and direct its energies towards constructing institutional and historic monuments. These monuments must be big, so big and beautiful as to not only be simultaneously visible to the present, but forever etched in the memory of the dead, and capable of eliciting nothing short of wonderment from posterity.
1. The National Political Education Campaign (NPEC)
Guided
by the need to establish an enduring legacy for the ruling CPDM Party, the government
should undertake to propose the establishment of the National Political
Education Campaign (NPEC), aimed at educating the citizens about the
Constitution of Cameroon. The NPEC should be envisioned as an undertaking
that will be executed in three phases, as outlined here below:
Print Booklets of the Constitution of Cameroon. Train Teachers and University Students to Teach the Constitution and dispatch them across the national territory on a mission to sensitize the citizenry of their constitutional rights.
Print Booklets of the Constitution of Cameroon. Train Teachers and University Students to Teach the Constitution and dispatch them across the national territory on a mission to sensitize the citizenry of their constitutional rights.
Train Teachers to Teach the
Constitution in Primary and Secondary Schools.
Print millions of
copies of small booklets of the Cameroon Constitution in English and
French. Distribute copies of the Constitution
throughout the country, with special emphasis on elementary and secondary
schools. Initiate a special education program to train teachers on how to teach
the Constitution in schools. Initiate a
special training program for university students and recent jobless graduates
to teach the Constitution.
Dispatch
the Constitution Teachers
throughout the country to educate and sensitize the citizenry about the
significance of the Constitution and their rights and obligations as citizens.
(The Community Learning Centers could serve as venues of citizen education on
the Constitution). The projected result
of this National Political Education Project (NPEP) is four-fold, outlined here
in bullets as follows:
·
Fostering of nationalism, a commonly shared sense
of belonging, and love of country;
·
Empowering the citizenry with knowledge about
their constitutional rights;
·
Curtailing corrupt practices such as abuse of
power by an informed citizenry; and
·
Encouraging the cultivation of a sense of
responsibility and accountability.
National
Library
Teaching the Cameroon Constitution in schools
will eventually become a permanent feature of the school curriculum. The
nation-wide phase of teaching the Constitution in towns, cities, and rural
areas should be a long-term project, spanning two or three years, whereby every
long holiday university students are sent out to proselytize the Constitution
throughout the Fatherland in English, French, Pidgin English, and the various
local languages.
2. The RPL Project
Construction of Regional Public Libraries (RPL) will be an enduring testament of the work of the Cameroon state. For these will not be mere buildings with books, journals, documents and computers. These structures will be representative of national pride—Monuments of Cameroon’s Civilization. The establishment of major regional public libraries in Cameroon staffed by competent librarians and other qualified staff is highly recommended. In our strong conviction that an educated and informed citizenry is the bastion of democracy, the Government’s commitment to this project should never waver. None of these projects should be implemented half-heartedly. The buildings must be solid and large enough to accommodate at twice the current population in the areas they will be serving.
2. The RPL Project
Construction of Regional Public Libraries (RPL) will be an enduring testament of the work of the Cameroon state. For these will not be mere buildings with books, journals, documents and computers. These structures will be representative of national pride—Monuments of Cameroon’s Civilization. The establishment of major regional public libraries in Cameroon staffed by competent librarians and other qualified staff is highly recommended. In our strong conviction that an educated and informed citizenry is the bastion of democracy, the Government’s commitment to this project should never waver. None of these projects should be implemented half-heartedly. The buildings must be solid and large enough to accommodate at twice the current population in the areas they will be serving.
Chapter
5
Road, Rail, and Sea
Infrastructures
All
things created by humankind rot and decay.
Maintenance is key to preserving the quality of all things created by
human beings. To accommodate change and expansion, all development projects
must be aligned with the future in their planning. The learning center,
libraries, and the proliferation of knowledge of the Cameroon Constitution
cannot be executed efficiently without the citizenry having access to these
amenities. There are many remote areas that are difficult to reach during the
dry season and impossible to access during the rainy season. The number one priority of all development
projects is access to the areas where the projects are to be implemented.
Single
lane road
We
cannot construct modern highways and railroads leading into the jungle in 2018
and forget that these infrastructures deteriorate and need to be maintained in
2019 and annually, thereafter; we can neither forget that the schools,
libraries, and learning centers built for the citizenry require regular
maintenance and other amenities.
The
construction of roads and railways lie within the purview of engineering. With respect
to all engineering endeavors, Cameroonian engineers should be charged with the
responsibility of demonstrating their love of country by constructing durable
infrastructures and ensuring that the roads and railways are well maintained.
Road, highway, railway, and sea port construction and maintenance projects will
provide jobs for many Cameroonians as will the construction and maintenance of
schools, learning centers, and libraries for teachers, librarians, janitors,
electricians, plumbers, painters, landscapers, etc.
nst exaggerated projects, such as mighty highways into forests
where they might not be needed for another 50 years. To control speeding and
accidents, speed limits should be recommended by engineers and signs posted at
strategic locations along the roads and highways. Fatal accidents are caused by both speeding,
defective vehicles, and in some parts of the country, huge trucks that
transport excessively heavy loads of timber.
Multilane
highway
We should endeavor to
prevent accidents and loss of lives on our national highways and roads. Growing up in Victoria, I remember seeing
Vehicle Inspector Officers (VIO), the most prominent, notorious, and efficient
of them all was a police officer named Mr. Ekonde. What I am suggesting here is
that it is not enough to construct buildings and highways and leave them to
fend for themselves. It is very
important to provide the amenities in non-human and human resources to sustain
the purpose for which the structures were constructed. In all these areas,
including aviation, Cameroon needs to invest in the durability of the projects,
inspection during construction, efficient and timely execution, and regular maintenance.
I leave the rest to those better
qualified than me, to propose action plans, and to the national political leaders
to provide the necessary funds to adequately carry out these projects as
envisioned. All involved in the
planning, execution, and maintenance of these projects—from legislators
appropriating the funds through the engineers in charge of construction to the
prisoners picking up trash along the highways—each one must be responsible and
accountable for discharging their specific tasks. Every franc mist be accounted
for and all misappropriations of funds severely punished in accordance with the
law.
Railway
track
Road, highway, and railway infrastructures
will ease transportation of goods and services throughout the country, offer
the possibility of wealth creation hitherto absent for citizen-farmers in
remote areas to sell their produce. The wealth of the citizenry will be greatly
enhanced, the nation’s tax base expanded: dependence on the government
decreased; and the well-being of all will be assured. Rehabilitation and
modernization of the deep-sea port in Limbe will be a boon and boost to the
economy of Limbe and the South West Region.
Modern
Sea Port
Chapter 6
Reconfigured
Federated Regions
Whatever it aims, however minimal the
regional autonomy that anyone party demands, federalism is the worm in the
fruit that will spoil everything, for imperialism will immediately exploit it.
--Jean-Paul Satre,
Introduction to Lumumba Speaks (1963)
Federation!
Federation!! Federation!!! We have heard this rather deafening call for the
creation of a two-state federal republic as a panacea for everything from autonomy
to rapid development to freedom in a political paradise. But what manner of federation? Will
federation obviate or accentuate the social and political ills of tribalism? In
response to these repeated calls, we present below a federal structure that
might best serve the interest of all, in accordance with the preamble
exhortations of the Cameroon Constitution as elaborated in the first paragraph.
The
European colonization mission in Cameroon wrought untold havoc on the country
that ultimately destroyed the indigenous potential for development in all
spheres of social and political life by separating cultural groups and creating
artificial boundaries to permanently seal the divisions. The result has been
utter confusion, incoherence and, in some cases, inertia and regression have
obtained where economic and political progress should be prevalent.
After
more than half a century (1961-2017) since the wobbly structures bequeathed to
us by colonialism have been proved inadequate for our developmental needs, it
is high time we tried something new from the menu of our indigenous systems.
Few Cameroonian can honestly declare that the Fatherland is better off today
than it was before the last colonial officers left Buea or Yaoundé in 1960 and
1961, respectively.
This
proposal is a reconfiguration of an earlier one published in Perception Cameroon/Cameroun, which was
two-fold: either a four or ten state federation. The 10-states federation would fit neatly the
current regional divisions. Thus, this
proposal focuses exclusively on the four-state federal structure. To achieve what is aimed for, we make as our
point of departure the basics, the fundamental geographical, social, and
cultural constellation of Cameroon. Every country has a physical and social
geography. Cameroon’s physical geography
is usually divided into four major regions: the northern plains (or Chad
Basin); the central and southern plateaux; the western highlands; and the
coastal and forest lowlands (DeLancey, 1989).
The social geography of Cameroon, however, consist of three major
socio-cultural and political regions.
These are the Coastal and Forest region; the Grassfields; North Cameroon
and the Savanna (Bryson, 1979). To bring
out the best in the peoples of Cameroon, the socio-cultural and political
division of the regions will be adopted with particular attention paid to the
2005 population census.
In
carving out the new federated regions, careful attention is paid to shared
historical experiences, similarities of culture, systems of social and
political organization, and population to ensure the closest approximate
balance of representation at the national level.
Federated
Region
|
Capital
|
Population
|
Northern (Far
North/North)
|
Garoua
|
4,799,751
|
Northwestern (Adamawa/NW/West)
|
Bamenda
|
4,333,289
|
Littoral
Southwestern
(Littoral/SW/South)
|
Douala
|
4,460,997
|
Centre
Eastern
(Centre/East)
|
Yaounde
|
3,869,799
|
Epilogue
I
have listened to and read the calls for dialogue over the crisis triggered by
Anglophone educator and jurist associations that was hijacked by secessionists.
After careful thought, however, l concluded that dialogue was the wrong
approach, as it would affirm and legitimize the grievances that brought about
the crisis in the first instance individuals and probably usher in unintended
consequences of repeat performances whenever disgruntled are displeased.
From
my perspective, I see not just an Anglophone Crisis but a crisis much larger
that might lead to consequences unimagined.
Thus, I entertain a different perspective: Not dialogue to affirm the
old, but reform towards inventing the new. In addition to the rudimentary
proposals I have outlined above, I am also suggesting the creation of a “Think
Tank” comprising of scholars, technocrats, business men, jurists, etc., to study
my proposals, refine them, and make recommendations for their implementation.
The
reconstruction of a system some 60 years in the making is not easy. To effect
the necessary reforms, a large segment of the population must be involved in
the work of national reconstruction. In
as much as I am tempted to lay out a comprehensive blueprint, I cannot but
restrain myself in the knowledge that there are many other native Cameroonians out
there, some of whom are better qualified than me, and to whom the task of
making concrete my proposals I must consign. And so, I beg to close here while
hoping that something good will eventually emerge from this endeavor.
Much has gone wrong since November
2017. On the one side we have fellow
Cameroonians very frustrated and angry; on the other side we have fellow
Cameroonians who appear incapable of understanding why their brethren are so
frustrated and angry. Of such is the
gross misunderstanding that has led to this unfathomable crisis. Something must
be done. But first, passions must be
contained. It is to such end that I offer this appeal this appeal, in closing,
for calm, forgiveness, and a return to normalcy so that the work of national
reconstruction can begin in earnest.
Addendum
MYAPPEAL
General
Amnesty, Renunciation of Violence, Rehabilitation, Reconciliation…
Introduction
Our beloved Fatherland is presently in
crisis. The political leadership of the Republic of Cameroon should rise to the
occasion to stymie the tide of expansion of this simmering conflict. The is dire, calls for urgent action. It takes two to Tango. Belligerency and
recalcitrancy do not for peace make. Peace is preferable to conflict in all
situations. Our Nigerian neighbors were embroiled from July 6, 1967 to January
15, 1970 in a civil war that destroyed millions of promising lives, including
trust and confidence which are yet to be recouped. Cameroon should not tread the disastrous path
of vanquishing fellow countrymen but seek a pathway to peace and
reconciliation. To that end, I present this Appeal in which five steps are
outlined for restoring normalcy as well as for paving the way forward towards
reconciliation of differences and a lasting, permanent solution.
STEP
#1: GENERAL AMNESTY AND OATH OF ALLEGIANCE
- The Cameroon Government should make the first move by offering general amnesty to all who call themselves Southern Cameroonians and/or Ambazonians; all who have committed crimes or instigated acts of violence against the state and people of Cameroon, destroyed public or private property, advocated secession, desecrated national symbols, etc.
- The known and acknowledged leadership of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonian secessionist movement should recant their ideology, renounce their secessionist aspirations, repudiate all forms of violence, petition the Government for leniency and magnanimity, and take a public Oath of Allegiance to the Cameroon State.
STEP #2: SURRENDER OF PERSONS AND AMMUNITIONS
- The Government of Cameroon should demand of the armed militia adherents of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia secessionist movement to surrender themselves and ammunitions at specific locations in the troubled areas within 10-15 days of the General Amnesty declaration.
- The leadership of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia secessionist movement must demand of all adherents and supporters everywhere in the country to recant and renounce the ideology of secessionism.
STEP #3: REHABILITATION OF FORMER SECESSIONISTS
- The Government should undertake a robust 30-to-60 days program of rehabilitating the former Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia secessionists to make them wholly Cameroonian again.
STEP #4: PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
- Peace and reconciliation are designed to discover the sources of conflict that open the pathway to contriving strategies for resolving misunderstandings.
STEP #5: NATIONAL DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION
- Only after Steps #1 through #4 have been accomplished, and their outcomes known, can there occur dialogue and negotiation on the political destiny of the Fatherland.
- Dialogue and negotiation should be conducted by specialized committees made up of Cameroonians drawn from all walks of life.
Conclusion
There is nothing to be gained from being
recalcitrant or belligerent; and much to gain by Committing to peaceful
resolution. There’s nothing as precious
as peace, which has been the greatest gift of Cameroon. Preserve it!
[1] “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” in Karl
Marx and Frederick Engles, Selected Works
(New York: International Publishers, 1968), p. 97.
[3] I refer to this new twentieth and twenty-first centuries African
immigration trend as "voluntary" in direct contra distinction to the
"involuntary" one that spanned from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
century, inaugurated the transatlantic slave trade and occasioned the massive
"forced" removal of tens of millions of Africans from the
continent. I am by no means oblivious of
the realities that caused many voluntary Africans to abandon their homelands.
The fact, however, is that even those fleeing persecution or the carnage of civil
war, like their economic and political refugee counterparts, made a conscious
decision to migrate, on their own volition.
They were not captured, shackled, and forced into trading vessels that
transported them against their will to foreign lands where they were, again,
forced to perform unpaid labor. The emphasis is not on the "cause"
but on "volition"; that is, who, and not what, initiated the
migration.
[4] Quoted by Dibussi Tande, “Bushfallers: How Cameroonians Live in the
Diaspora.” Scribbles from the Den,
November 13, 2006. www.dibussi.com/2006/11/bushfallers_the.html
[5]
See Annett Fleischer,
“Making Families among Cameroonian 'Bush Fallers' in Germany.” Freie
Universität Berlin, Germany, 2010.
[6]
Fr. Peter Foleng, SM, “Exposing the Bush-Faller Syndrome.” L’Effort Camerounais, No. 517 (November
30 – December 14, 2011).
