Nana Njike returned from Brazzaville and called his three sons over to his study in Nkongsamba that same night. He was slightly grumpy as he received them inside. He told them about the conference that he believed De Gaulle’s Free France convened to reassure themselves that they still had a firm grip over their colonies and territories in Africa while giving US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the impression that France was in line with his call for the colonies to be granted self-rule.
“Ah, Sons, we should be more ferocious in our demands if we want those reneging bastards who are directing French policy in Africa to take us seriously. It is as if I didn’t help them in recruiting fighters for the Free French Forces. Didn’t we commit our resources to facilitate their takeover of Central Africa from the supporters of the Vichy regime?”
“It was a matter of choice. The Vichy supporters in French Central Africa were Fascists for all I know,” Hans interjected.
“I know, I know,” Nana Njike growled with pursed lips.
“Standing up to or not backing down against De Gaulle and his gang wouldn’t be an easy fight, I must confess,” Paul said with a cough.
“Remember these, Sons! Truth presented with tenderness enriches the soul of man and enhances humanity in the process. A Franco-Cameroonian relationship based on truth and nurtured with tenderness will be to the benefit not only of Kamerun and France but also of mankind as a whole.”
“Truth is rarely a quality big powers cherish in an unbalanced relationship that they are benefitting from,” Hans said.
“Don’t expect to have it easy whenever you are trying to get what you deserve, especially with the French in control. When haven’t we had to wrench our basic rights and freedom from them?”
“You know them better,” Hans said.
“Now, I know what they do not want. My contacts in the British government informed me of President Roosevelt’s stance on the future and freedom of the colonies and trust territories in Africa, The Middle East, and Asia. The American president supports the granting of freedom to the colonies. He impressed that on De Gaulle and even got the general’s word that he would acquiesce to the demands of French colonial subjects. We don’t need to be marabous to understand that De Gaulle didn’t mean his words. I encouraged Kamerunians on both sides of the River Mungo to fight for the Free French Forces. I helped Jacques Philippe LeClerc in Douala when he started putting together the ragtag force that is now the best fighting machinery in the French Army, and what are we getting in return for our support and good intentions?”
“I warned you about LeClerc’s claims of being a hundred percent spokesperson for De Gaulle. All he wanted was French Camerounian blood in aiding France in the fight against Hitler’s Germany,” Hans said.
“I don’t regret our involvement in the war. I don’t object to Africans from the French colonies paying the heaviest human price fighting for France. Nazism is evil. Period! The world cannot afford to live with it. But we must not be made to pay for France’s loss of self-esteem or loss of sense of security.”
“What are you talking about, Papa?” Philip asked.
“I am talking about the psychology of it all. De Gaulle is trying to use the colonies to reassure himself that France is still great. It is like a husband who goes home and beats up his wife and children because he got knocked around and humiliated by other men outside of his home.”
“Papa, I still don’t get it,” Philip repeated.
“Do you know what René Pleven, the minister of the colonies wanted during the Brazzaville conference. He pledged new institutions that would not ensure the independence of our people. The new institutions he has in mind are ones that would work to carve out a new role for us in the French web. It is like moving us from the role of field slaves to kitchen slaves. He even added that we ‘are populations that France intends to lead, step by step, to a more complete personality, to political enfranchisement, but who would not be expected to know independence other than the independence of France.’”
“Incredible!” Philip muttered.
“Ah, Sons, he actually meant that we wouldn’t be given the rights to local legislatures. They wouldn’t even allow us to smell executive powers. Instead, they intend to allow us access to the legislature and executive of France, with our lips sealed whenever the legislative processes are going on there. It is tantamount to a mere extension of their assimilation policy intended to breed African leaders that would do their bidding and that are disconnected from their own people.”
“As business men, I don’t think it is advisable for us to get directly involved in the present political wrangling,” Philip said all of a sudden.
Nana Njike was dumbfounded for a moment, his eyes quizzical on his third son. Then he shook his head with a chortle. “You have been surprising me this past couple of months, Son!”
“That’s how I feel,” Philip stuttered.
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