Cry from the Wilderness for the Kumba-Mamfe Road

By Writam-pen

The money party lackeys (asshole-lickers) of the Biya regime as well as the (s) elected officials like to talk about how things will keep getting better. But when things happen contrary to what they said, they pull out the "S" word - sacrifice. Yet none of them is ready to sacrifice any of their privileges, positions, and power for others. When the Manyu delegation to the 50^th Anniversary celebration of reunification was spotted passing through Bamenda, I recalled what Rick Gaber said about these people of the lie. He said that the politician is a type of creature known for its propensity to lie, exaggerate, embellish, and use all kinds of hysterical or bombastic attention-getting. There would be no exaggeration if the statement is contextualized to fit the plight of the beloved Manyu people and the floating banner in Buea welcoming President Biya.

I have often heard people say that it is outlawed to make significant opinion psychoanalysis on the neglect of the Kumba-Mamfe Road by the Biya regime and that making such a critical judgment is like writing satanic verses that lead to divine sentence. But let the word go forth from this time and medium to friends and enemies of progress alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation that will talk than die in silence. The cry from the wilderness is indicative that it is there that humanity lives.

During a standing discussion at Bongo Square, a young man said that the people of Manyu Division have been tempered with carelessness by the Biya regime. I understood he was aghast with the fact that for 53 years now, the people of the Old Mamfe Division now Manyu have reluctantly accepted the slow shame of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which the nature of this country and the powers that be have imposed on them shamelessly. In fact if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it can never save the few who are rich, says the impressionist.

When government institutions were the pillars of moral value, any public pronouncement of the Head of State was considered by all and sundry as part of the Presidential largess that the President dishes out every time he visits any locality. Such a pronouncement was considered as a symbol of decorum because such promises were immediately followed up and realized within the shortest time possible. It happened with the creation of the Bamenda University, the construction of the Bamenda Ring Road and the studies on the Menchum Fall. The Kumba-Mamfe raod is not just a nightmare but demands a week of serious fasting and prayer because you never know when you will get to your destination. I do not know whether it is the influence of the Western culture that has transformed government institutions into negating its people or influence of politics that has made Head of States to forget that where the road passes, development follows. However, anyone who would maladroitly sit on the fence to declare that the Kumba-Mamfe Road is not a necessity or a priority should be considered as being in a state of sin. Being a respecter of the institution that President Biya incarnates and the powers that he wields, I do not understand whether it is not another form of subjugation of the Anglophones.

Even though there is a statement in the Bible which states that people should pass round for judges on others, I believe it is often quoted out of context because the Bible still tells us that people should be judged if their acts are injurious. I am aware that this critical judgment analysis is badly needed. It is imperative because the Manyu people are weeping silently and the bells of anguish are being heard signaling that Manyu Division may cease to exist in the map of this country. I am also aware that this bit will offset many people, I mean the Manyu Vuvuzelas of the regime but it is a fact. Even so, who is even going to twist my arm for speaking the truth? Is it not a right for the people of Manyu to have a good access road and even enjoy more as a border Division?  Besides, should they not be compensated for voting the CPDM as it is claimed by the vuvuzelas. Or it is true that the rigging was massive as decried and indicated in security reports.

 Notwithstanding, if anyone takes this opinion for a misdemeanor, believe me it is a positive insult. And if today some of our leaders no more command the powers they use to exercise, it is because of the copious counterfeited promises they make. I recall how during the above mentioned standing discussion, a young girl of about 30 years, said the contract for the construction of the Kumba-Mamfe road was signed in Chief Nfor Tabetando’s palace. On the spot another young man contradicted her by saying that the contract will be awarded this year. I could not know where to put my head. It pains and kills my imagination as well as the picture post-card I got from my father that they decided to unite with La Republique because of what was happening up the roads. 53 years after reunification the situation of these roads are more pathetic than before. When I look across the river and see the road network, I cry for my Fatherland. When I see politicians taking false oaths because they have their interest to protect, I pity myself why I was born a Cameroonian. In fact I disagree with people who would say that it is the notion of personal aggrandizement that has pushed those who are closer to the regime to loose sight of reality. And to me, it is some sort of a mental torture that is being exercised on the ethnic person of the Anglophone.

The Manyu Division has had the privilege that produce Ministers and Directors in this country. Hoping to see any of them to create the unexpected like late Pefok who rejected a speech from the Yaounde cronies and doled out one from his pocket to tell President Biya what the Bamenda man thinks is like waiting for exhale. Anyone who has been on this road any of these days will agree that no pregnant woman can dare. The story of the Kumba-Mamfe road is not only that of pools of water; it is also dust. It may look pathetic but the truth is that traveling from Manyu to Kumba demands two sets of dresses, one for the mud or dust and another to wear at the destination. The state of nature of this road has made it in such a way that it is the nature of the weather that determines the transport fare.

Every similar proposal here has bogged down until it was too late to save any lives. Anything newspapermen can write about this in their own papers will help. It will help to save lives, the lives of people like ourselves. I wish I were eloquent, I wish I could put down on paper the picture that comes to me from the restrained of anger. I need not dwell upon the authenticated horrors of the Nazi internment camps and death chambers for Jews. That is not tragic but a kind of insane horror. It is our part in this which is tragic. The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men but the doing of evil by good men, out of weakness, indecision, sloth, inability to act in accordance with what they know to be right.

The Kumba-Mamfe road, until it execution, actually presents the classic existential argument about the existence of God or a higher power: if he did and does exist, then the only natural choice is to become a disciple; but if he did not, and there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless outside the present moment. Hence, there is nothing to be done except to live every moment without a thought to the next. The state of nature of the Kumba-Mamfe Road has made Manyu Division an Island on land which makes them to feel and to be powerless to influence the life of society by which their own life is governed. Change can occur only by a great increase of participation and responsibility on the part of those who now are well fed and amused but are excluded from effective participation in political decisions or in the policies of the institutions and enterprises they work in.

Today, thinking and feeling are more and more separated from each other, and this separation leads either to an almost schizophrenic intellectualism or to a neurotic, irrational emotionalism. Only if emotions and reason are brought together can man function in a way which makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive life. To put it briefly, what Manyu people need is not speeches, if need be (s)elected officials with character and conscience not those who see nothing good in anything except in the form of bread.

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa