I know
trying to talk sense on this NW/SW issue is an exercise in futility, especially since many of the
sides do not want to see things beyond their nose, and start acting with
one another as genuine partners for a future that would benefit all.
All the
same, I will go ahead and repost, hoping that it helps us join hands and work
together for our troubled land.
The NW/SW rivalry is mostly at the political level, an asset
for those involved in the divide-and-rule game, in a fight for limited
resources and twisted interests.
At the
social or people level,_ it is not a worry, even though the so-called elites benefiting from
it would want it so.
That does
not mean it does not sip through and affect some common folks.
But when it does so, it is usually through
concerted efforts.
Those who propagate division or hatred of
"others" are usually those with deep-seated issues against an
individual of the group they hate, uncalled-for hatred that they
have transferred to the entire group. It doesn't matter if it is
anti-Bamilekeism, anti-Banso, anti-Bakwerianism, anti-Betism, etc.
👇👇👇🤣
There is
rivalry everywhere, and it is mostly okay since it is based on competition.
Take the case of Germany, in our
generalisation, where many people of the other German states or regions are
irked by the disposition of Bavarian Germans🤣 (Bavaria is the state with the highest GDP and GDP per
capita in Germany), holding that they (Bavarians)think they are better than
everyone else.
We can also look at examples of rivalry within
particular regions (Oku and Banso for one), within particular cities
(the case of Limbe involving supporters of the football clubs Opopo and Elect
Sport back in the day; between Manchester’s two football teams--- Manchester
United and Manchester City; or the distinct,
friendly rivalry between Buda and Pest, the two parts of the Hungarian capital
Budapest).
Did
politicians screw up the people in the past, even during the federation years? Yes, they did.
Sometimes consciously, other times
unconsciously (from incompetence or ignorance). If the politician is our own,
our disapproval of them (their actions, that is) is expressed as disappointment
and jokes ( an abundance of them in the Northwest about Muna, Foncha, etc.).
But if the politician is not from the
people who got hurt, the people who got hurt take it deeper, and
their elites often exploit it, fueling resentment against those hurtful
politicians of the “other side” who supposedly deprived them. Thus fueling distrust against the people the
politician who fell short came from.
Once
again, Southwesterners do not hate Northwesterners or other peoples.
The Southwest and Littoral are the two most
accommodating or civic-nationalist regions of Cameroon. And they are the two
regions that have been hurt or burnt the most.
Accepting that does not make you anti-people.
It makes you grounded. Shows that you are capable of acknowledging.
Our focus
now, though we are still burdened by the baggage of history, should be on finding a way out of
our current impasse and realising the workable “NEW CAMEROON”.
But to move
forward, we have to get our act together, we have to control, if not cure (fix)
the festering Amba problem haunting our
people and land West of the Mungo and Metazem Rivers.
And it has,
it needs, to be a collective effort, involving the participation of Amba stakeholders as well. They are the ones
who need to call off their campaign that was intended to be “good”, but that
has now become a plague.
The
Cameroonian people are moving towards the “New Cameroon” sociologically through
an evolving Cameroonian civilization that our cities and major settlement
centers are molding, unconsciously.
By 2100,
more than 80% of Cameroonians would be living in towns and cities,
and the majority of them would be the offspring of interethnic relations; the
majority of them would not be emotionally tied to an ancestral village and
would not be versed in the ancestral language of their fathers or grandparents.
As a
consequence, our “New Cameroonian” kids would regard our (their fathers' and forefathers') tribal and ethnic biases
as an anachronism. We would have become the relics of a misconceived mindset to
them. We would have become people with nothing relevant to emulate. Our era would
be a “Dark Age” to them, especially if we continue with our current
divisive and “native” mindsets. That is, especially, if we fail to acknowledge the
shortcomings of our past and work hand in hand in forging a political future
for all that aligns with the organic future of the “NEW CAMEROONIANIASM” and “NEW AFRICANISM” of our children
and grandchildren.
The choice
is whether we want to be politically relevant now or not in making the birth of
the future less complicated for our kids.
Janvier (T)Chouteu January 17, 2026
