By Fai Cassian Ndi
(Courage brothers, do not stumble/ though thy
path be dark as night/ there’s a light to guide the humble/ trust in God and do
the right).
Those
who lived the early years of the Anglophone revival: (All Anglophone
Conference-AAC) AAC1 and AAC2 would surely recall these words. It is actually
the opening stanza of the hymn which was song at the commencement of
discussions on the Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The choice of this hymn was
anything but an accident. Its choosers knew that many of those who attended
AAC1 in Buea in 1993 and AAC2 in Bamenda in 1994 would stumble and fall along
the side. Nfor Nfor, Chief Ayamba, Thomas Nwanham, Awanga, Litumbe, Prof. Chia
and others say it is a birth right. When was unification before there was
reunification? If no one has never ever seen history that is written backward,
Cameroon history is the best place for such a research.
Ni
John Fru Ndi, Ayah Paul, and a host of other Anglophone political figures have
clearly not given up but the failure by Fru Ndi to take a definite position on
the Southern Cameroons question has actually retarded the liberation struggle
than accelerated it. Dante tells us that the hottest part of hell is reserved
for those who in the heart of a heated controversy choose to be neutral. At one
of the symposiums on reunification in Buea, Prime Minister Yang Philemon in
responding to a question on the SNC struggle said that those belonging to SCNC
should transform it into a political party.
History is acclaimed as the story of man’s past events. And not scholar
of would defy this simple plain explanation. All history students know this
definition. All rational persons know that history cannot be change. Even God
cannot change history. The question is whether Southern Cameroons existed, and
if yes, anyone who advocates that SCNC should be transform to a political party
should be considered as being in a state of sin. On the contrary, Nfor Nfor
would say they are fighting for what is rightfully theirs by birth. Actually,
the facts, figures and statistics that have stirred Anglophones to think of
going back to their roots are very glaring. It steams from the fact that
Anglophone marginalization is vividly a mind bugging, when SCNC activists think
of the inferiority many are subjected to. From historical facts and following
the realities of today, the subjugation is such that there are some key
positions in this country that are no go zones for Anglophones. These positions
have been at the beck and command of the Francophones since reunification. For
example no Anglophone would ever dream of becoming the Minister of Defence,
Finance, Territorial Administration, and Education and or even the President of
FECAFOOT. Implicitly, any Anglophone who condemns UNO state, SCNC, SCAPO or any
other Anglophone pressure group needs to have his conscience and head examined.
Even the praise singers of the CPDM of Anglophone origins would admit this
except those who have gone insane. By the time of Reunification, the economy of
Southern Cameroons was booming, Manyu was not an island on land. By then there
was the Cameroon Bank, National Producing Marketing Board, the Wum Area
Development Authority. Today, all these structures have disappeared. From the
day the Union Jack was lowered on the Southern Cameroons territory, it was the
beginning of suppression. It became an unwritten law that no Anglophone could
become the President of Cameroon. I remember how a certain minister said
sometimes ago that an Anglophone youth must have at least 3 “A” to be
considered an equivalent of Bac. It required the angry demonstration of the
civil society and the Anglophone press for the situation to be reversed. When a
Francophone minister describes Anglophones an enemy in the house, there is much
to write home about the marriage.
Double
think they say is the ability to hold two contradictory opinions at the same time
and to believe both of them. It is an Orwelian concept and the forerunner of
doublespeak. For instance, the same version of democracy which Cameroon
practices is both young (nascent, budding) and advanced.
Another
example is the idea of double nationality. Footballers that have double and
even triple nationalities are often called upon to defend national coulours.
But the same CPDM cohorts, who make this appeal to the nationality, denounce as
foreign persons who don’t belong to the party and who inspire to or are elected
to elective positions in the country.
The case of Mongo Beti and Ndedi Eyango abound. Such double standards
are common with Francophones. But when an Anglophone indulges in it, the
conduct is less forgivable because honesty and sincerity are integral parts
their bringing up.
Anglophones
have been complaining about marginalization but they have their own part of the
blame for what is happening. The first thing is that Anglophones intellects
have been brainwashed to the point that they happily accept to assume a
position of inferiority. Look the way Anglophone ministers and appointees
struggle over slippery French to please a regime. In fact they have completely
forgotten that they have to refuse to “succumb to the emotion”. When an
Anglophone is appointed, his/her first enemy is the other Anglophones who are
experts in petition writings. Even so, those who are appointed develop think
skins, they see the appointment as a sort of favour and not merit.
The
Anglophone intellectuals and politicians unfortunately have embraced this
obnoxious concept of double think; although it must be said in fairness to them
that circumstances plunged them into it. But the truth is that no human being
an escape his or her past neither can a group of community try to do so. Many
of us have thought the 50th Anniversary of Reunification would be an
opportunity for the authorities to examine the contours of the marriage between
La Republique and the Southern Cameroons. An opportunity to shape the past and
prepare the future but seemingly, it is not the case. Cameroon history is
checkered, distorted and has never been written in its entirety. History as Dr.
Anthony Ndi told me is about facts and they never change. The other day I was
listening to a live drama from Buea, I was shocked that history was told as if
it occurrences premeditated. The Anglophone intellect may have sold their birth
rights given that some of them have contributed to the distortion of history.
When President Biya anticipated his trip to Buea, I said this could be another
trap. The continuation of the Foumbam traps that Dr. Anthony Ndi talked about
in one of his books. I remember how SDF
National chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi after his petition on the irregularities
that characterized the October 9, 2011 Presidential elections reminded Supreme
Court President Alexis Dipanda Mouelle, that what was transpiring in Cameroon
was not what was agreed upon in 1961. A clear reference to the Plebiscite that
resulted to the reunification between La Republique du Cameroun and the
Southern Cameroons.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
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