What if the crises in the South West were coming from "The People We Don't Like."

The Colbert Factor:

"If anyone says "I love God" and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (confer 1 John 4:20). 

Inferring, politicians and elite from the South West Region cannot be shouting on rooftops about how they "love" President Paul Biya (whom they hardly see or only hear about through "High instructions), his national unity and integration policies yet; want the heads of the settler population (the persons whom they have seen and whom they live with). But, truth be told: The just-held South West Peace and Development Conference was the best thing that ever happened to the survival of that historically welcoming and hospitable region (that can be said to be more sinned against than sinning), and that has made some of us what we are today.

If today I can claim to have gone to some of the best schools (including St.Bede's College Ashing-Kom, and skipping by an inch to go to the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC), it's because the soil-rich South West Region opened its welcoming doors to my beloved hardworking late uncle, Yindo Akem of mainland Abuh-Kom, Boyo Division,  North West Cameroon. Although Kom's rich and beautiful culture had an affinity for uncles taking more interest in their nephews (being their potential successors), the land lacked what people elsewhere (including the South West), take for granted-rich soils. 

Immediately after I was declared successful in my Common Entrance Examination into Secondary School in 1982, my uncle pegged my going to college on accompanying him to the South West, commonly referred to in those days as the 'Coast', and precisely to Munyenge in Muyuka Subdivision, in Fako Division. Not that I could have refused to accompany him to the coastal zone we had read a lot about in our primary school history and geography books (including Sanda Eba's plantation accounts). Going to the coastal zone for youths in Kom and other parts of the North West was a matter of "do or die", in much the same way people from Yaounde and Douala would insist on going to France. Hence, Howard Storm' book: "Voir Paris et Mourir."

For my three months in Munyenge, I accompanied my uncle to the thick bush every day, including Sundays. We would set out to the farms by 5 a.m., and by 6, we are already cutting and flattening the thick bush, and only returning home by 5 p.m., just in time to fetch water, prepare food and catch some sleep in preparation for the next day. Even at the tender age of 14, I was already given to work 11-12 hours each day, so I have a sigh of relief when September came and my uncle had to take me back to the village to prepare for college. On our way, we stopped at Muyuka, and with the help of the book list in Form I that I was given following my admission, all my books and other school-related materials was purchased. 

Despite the challenges involved in the bush clearing, given the calories lost to such a labor-intensive job, I would always accompany my uncle to the coastal zone for most long holidays.  For one or two Sundays that we returned from the forest early,  I had to sneak into the Muyenge village school field, without the knowledge of my uncle who would consider my going to a football field as a form of laziness. There, I discovered that lots of the indigenous youths in my age group spent most of their holiday time on the pitch, while I was tilling and toiling the soil. 

Like myself (and my uncle, Yindo Akem), most grass fielders have had a startup in life by tilling and toiling in the cocoa farms of thousands of indigenous coastal people. They have had to work for long, unending hours and nine-long months year-in, year-out. Originally,  "immigrant" laborers set out only to work and receive wages at the end of the cocoa farming season and rush back to their communities and show off how their lives had changed.  As time went on (and armed with their hard work and honesty), the indigenous people introduced the culture of "two-party". 

This allowed the indigenous farmers to stay back home while the settler population did all the farm work, including cocoa harvesting and weighing), and the locals only showed up at the cooperatives on payday. This "two-party" culture was soon to cement fruitful relations with laborers and local farmers, who themselves started making suggestions to immigrant laborers about the possibility of them owning their pieces of farmland,  alongside the two-party arrangements. 

And that's how it has come about today that almost eight out of every 10 workers in the agricultural and forestry industry are settlers. If in those days, indigenous people never saw the arrival of grass field "immigrant" laborers as a nuisance it was simply because "the harvest was plentiful and the laborers were few". It was also because clearing off the thick bushes was too labor-intensive and needed people with dogged determination and extra doses of energy. As "immigrants", the laborers could work on riskier jobs as the Mexican immigrant worker does in the United States of America, thereby allowing the natives to shift into safer jobs in the city centres and other towns, or go on one leisure trip, further study, or another. Today, settlers have improved workplace safety for indigenes.

For quite a long time, the settling of particularly North Westerners in the sister Region of the South West has remained a contentious issue amongst South West elites and politicians. It has become a source of friction since the escalation of the armed conflict between central government forces and separatist fighters in the two English Speaking Regions, especially given that although the main reason North Westerners migrated to the South West, was for economic reasons, some who started feeling themselves South Westerners by the influence they hold around, started indulging in some dishonorable behaviors.  

According to The Colbert Factor estimations, as of 2022, people of North West extraction in the South West accounted for nearly 40% of the total settler population, followed by the West Region with 20%, the other eight regions, with 20%, and ibos taking up the rest. Of the 20% from the other eight regions, 10% control the critical services and industries (including SONARA), capable of releasing resources that could develop the South West to be second only to New York. There's no gain saying the fact that the settler population has worked tirelessly, rolling off their sleeves and burning the midnight oil to encourage a tremendous increase in trade and investment in this lovely and God-blessed region. 

Like the Mexican immigrant workers in the United States of America (who work for long hours and in extremely difficult conditions to help their families and loved ones back home), North West settlers and their descendants in the South West could be found in most of the industries. Because they are a source of low-cost labor, ingenuity, and above all, honesty, they are found in virtually all the sectors and villages, as confirmed during the just-ended South West elites Confab by outspoken Senator Mbella Moki. 

They are into construction, agriculture,  forestry,  hunting, leisure and hospitality,  quarrying, oil and gas extraction, transportation of utilities, wholesale and retail trade, professional and retail services, manufacturing, education, and health services, financial activities, and information and communication. Beyond the construction, farming, and forestry services where the settler population occupies nearly 60 % of the labor force, they have below 27% representation in the other services named above.

In the inspiring work: "People We Don't Like: When Others Push Our Buttons", Lori Deschene, the U.S author and co-founder of "Recreate Your Life Story", recounts how much she hated her neighbor to the point of almost going for her head, only to realize that the one thing necessary in society was a systematic framework on how to settle differences. 

The peace and development conference convened by the South West Regional Assembly, unfortunately gave birth to the subculture of "The People We Don't Like." This was expected given that the ambers of such a subculture have been lurking for a long time, due more to the fundamental difference between the North Westerner and the South Westerner. 

George Ngwane, promoter of the Africaphonie Foundation, was after all right some years ago when he captured the fundamental difference between the South Westerner and the North Westerner in temperaments. Following his assessment, North Westerners were innately radical while South Westerners were fundamentally docile. For the same situation, while a North Westerner would be singing a dirge, a South Westerner would be singing a lullaby. The beautiful conclusion was that the two would express the same feeling and frustration differently. These dispositions added much-needed ingredients to the Anglophone subculture. And that only a systematic framework for resolving the differences was needed to make life better in our society where we are fated to live together before we pass on to eternity.

The good news today is that despite South West elites giving to understanding at the conference that people are still prisoners of history and geography and that once settlers vacate their lands, life would be full of milk and honey, the restless younger generation are not bound by geography and history. With modern advances in technology and bitcoin as a means of exchange,  they are being farms and minting money from any part of the world. 

And for the particular concerns about insecurity in the two English Speaking regions, the solution lies with speaking truth to Yaounde authorities to accept the Canadian mediation as a recent The Guardian Post editorial suggests, rather than accusing the helpless and defenseless "people we do not like."

Colbert Gwain is digital space immigrant, author, radio host and content creator @TheColbertFactor WAIT! BEFORE YOU GO about your daily activities, ask yourself: How likely is it that the content you just consumed would have been created by a different news outlet if The Colbert Factor hadn't done it? The Colbert Factor is committed to being a citizen-owned meduim void of private/corporate or government interests, and freely challenging the boundaries of conventional thinking. We work to fruitify your understanding of the fact that the 'barrel of the pen is far mightier than the barrel of the gun' ? There's no gainsaying the fact that the kind of content we create not only helps in putting the right information in the hands of many, but is also necessary for democracy. It emboldens you to uphold your freedoms and inalienable rights. Every story we publish aims to change the world by bringing injustice to light. In such challenging times as we live in, a truth-seeking and informative local news organization like The Colbert Factor is essential. It's a solution-oriented, non-profit content creation medium. But, truth be told : it's not an easy, cheap or profitable task. We don't have paid adverts and we are independent of private and government interests. You can help us continue creating more investigative, balanced, fair, reliable, credible and educative content, by donating your widow's mite through MTN momo number: 677852476. Information not delivered today because you delayed in supporting this project may cause us millions in repairing the damage tomorrow. Just donate right now...And you would be contributing to a free press.