During revolutionary moments, the suffering, oppressed and struggling masses need “…legendary leaders who can get ahead of the people from the impasse and futile consensus and find new grounds to chart a unique course of the people’s destiny.” This particular quote is from The Usurper and Other Stories
That has been the case of living legends like Mandela to recent ones like Roosevelt, Che Guevara, Lenin, Simon Bolivar or ancient ones like Moses. Lands that have never been blessed by or that never recognized their great, wise, legendary or canonical leaders tend to get haunted for long or even forever. The people may find themselves trapped in futility forever like a lost man in a desert going around in circles because he lacks a compass. We failed during this phase of the struggle to topple, dismantle and bury the dehumanizing system France imposed on Cameroon through the local Cameroonian French puppet leaderships of Ahidjo and Paul Biya because our political leaders did not embrace a national ideal and failed to distinguish the interest of the struggle from their personal interests. They failed to emulate the positive legacies of our dead legends and heroes.
That is a case in kamerun. Many of us grew up without relating to figures with progressive and embracing political ideologies who never considered it a price for putting their lives at risk or sacrificing it, and who never hesitated to put the interest of the struggle above their personal considerations. Many held that those dead legends and heroes never won the struggle and never got power, so they were failures. However, we failed to understand that even figures like Mandela etc built on the legacies and ideals of their legendary predecessors in order to win the struggle.
In an article of 1988, I wrote, “CAN OUR HISTORY BE REWRITTEN?” That was because I realized our country is a land with “...a mysterious way of transforming heroes into victims and villains into masters....”
That is why outsiders cherish our heroes when we have been taught to know them as villains. That is why the villains, who betrayed kamerun since its pre-independence days and killed the heroes of of the people, got worshipped and are in power today. That is why we excuse those who tacitly or openly ensured their survival because we have come to accept that it is “NORMAL” to use the people to achieve wealth, power and glory. We even call it “Long Sense” when other peoples and nations with a sense of honor and integrity call it “BETRAYAL”.
During moments like this, we should dig into the recess of our history and consciously reassess it. Those beautiful Kamerunian minds who never betrayed and who got defeated by the villains should be honored, even posthumously. In addition, we should ponder their ideas and draw strength from them.
In moments of crisis and weakness, nations and people often draw inspiration from their heroes and legends (dead or alive). You find Americans holding onto the legacies of Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt. Russians fall back on Peter the Great, Catherine the Great or Lenin etc. The British on Churchill, Disraeli etc.
In Kamerun today, I personally cannot identify any known political figure, especially those of the so-called opposition parties, that has a positive legacy. However, I can identify great figures in our history who professed selfless, unifying and advance ideals; and whose legacies have been denigrated by the evil system and those who claim to be in the opposition and who felt threatened by them.
I am glad to observe a gradual transformation in the thinking of our population, especially those who have been expressing their views here, even those who profess hostility to my opinions. People are beginning to dissociate themselves from myths and the badly infected mindset caused by the system. It is a gradual psychological process of healing that would end up in us dwelling on the ideals that would realize a new Kamerun.
Janvier Tchouteu September 2004
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