THE DEMANDING TASK FOR THE POST-INDEPENDENCE GENERATIONS:

Description from Triple Agent, Double Cross

The principal problem weighing hard on the general psychology of the majority of the peoples of Cameroon and Africa today is the worry of the path their frustrated, disillusion and dehumanized children would take to advance their wellbeing. By the word children, I mean those born just before and after the years of independence for many African countries in the early 1960s. This is a generation that was born in the atmosphere of hope and expectations that had gripped Cameroon and Africa just before and just after independence, a positive feeling based on recently realized reunification and independence made all the more dazzling by the goals harangued by its leaders.

However, getting to four decades after, we are still nowhere close to the dreams that had sustained our hopes. Poverty, disease, illiteracy, repression, ethnic divisions, corruption, underdevelopment and external domination still plague us, and in many aspects, even worse than before independence. Yet, we thought that ridding ourselves of colonialism through quasi-independence would automatically give birth to the broom that would clear up all aspects of our underdevelopment. Our post-independence leadership and pseudo-intellectuals fooled us because they lacked the will and vision to utilize the potentials of the lands they were leading. They failed us by not mastering the Archimedean point of our underdevelopment and development potentials. The self-serving systems put in place by colonial masters like France and the lever they conceived and hoped to spin the different African countries to greater heights was a reflection of their egos and delusions than of their intelligence, will and rationale.

In Cameroon today, we are faced by the colossal task of starting from the scratch, which involves demolishing the failed and unprogressive anti-democratic and exploitative French-imposed system and putting in place a new, progressive and compatible system that would be  the reflection of the original goals of Cameroon’s union-nationalism and the genuine aspirations of the people. This would be a system that would place the country firmly among the community of progressive, democratic, representative, enlightened and advanced nations.

Today, the history of humanity has reached that great scale of change where the keywords of technological progress, freedom, liberty, development, solidarity, and integration are making great strides to be parts of our everyday lives. It has been observed with clarity that the Cameroonian people are being left behind in this great advancement of humanity because of the selfish objectives and actions of the oligarchy that stays in power through the deceptive French-imposed system. This autocratic, minority, pseudo-representative, corrupt and unpatriotic regime cannot alleviate the poverty, disease, despair, illiteracy, corruption, rising ethnocentrism, brain drain and incomprehension that against the sake of humanity is being accepted as part of our everyday lives. The unacceptable nature of the five-decade system can best be explained by Dmitri Ivanovich Pisarev’s denunciation of autocracy:

On the side of the government, there are only the scoundrels bought with money squeezed by fraud and violence from the poor. On the side of the people, there is all that is fresh and youthful, all that is capable of thinking and doing. What is dead and rotten (the autocratic government) must of itself fall into the grave. All we have to do is give it the final push and cover the stinking corpse with dirt.

Comparing Dmitri Ivanovich Pisarev’s observation with the Cameroonian reality, we would realize with clarity that getting rid of all aspects of this French-imposed autocratic and oligarchic system is our first task. It is only after the complete and irrevocable burial of absolutism shall it be possible for us to set aside our despairs and harness our hopes, strengths, determinations, and potentials to realize the all-embracing dream for a great Cameroon and Africa. It would be a hard and merciless task, but the only path that that would lead to our salvation.

This demanding task is especially on the shoulders of Cameroonians of the post-independence generations. It is from their ranks that the forces, backing, and attention to realize the dream of the New Cameroon would rest. These forces would be the workers (agricultural, industrial and service or tertiary), the intellectuals, academicians, politicians, religious bodies, civil movements, artists, business class, functionaries, students and even the unemployed. Cameroonians would be led by the advanced representatives who would have mastered the selfless, humanizing, unifying and progressive principles and goals of the country’s national idea embodied in its Union-Nationalism and the basic tenets of its social and democratic program. It is through its union-nationalism that Cameroonians would realize the historic mission providence had placed on their shoulders for their well-being and the advancement of the nation and Africa.

We shall be able to boast that we have established the foundation of the New Cameroon, one that is capable of marching forward along the road of the democratic tenets of its union-nationalism that has been revised over the years and found to be compatible with progressive world ideas only when:

·        The advanced representatives of the various forces would have made the new and humanized Cameroonian ideal to be widespread.

·        They would have realized enduring organization, order, competency, discipline and self-discipline within their ranks.

·        They would have extended their arms beyond their confines to consolidate the harmonious cooperation of all the development forces of the land.

It would be on this foundation that we shall transform the present anachronistic system into a modern, progressive and technologically oriented one; and then invest in new ideas, know-how and efforts to build a great producing nation that shall ensure accountability and an efficient production, distribution, and service network. As an indispensable part of this advanced system would be the justifiable social benefits— the eradication of poverty, elimination of poor housing and housing shortages, reduction of diseases to acceptable limits, good sanitation and the provision of the necessary amenities and modern infrastructure.

Politically, this advanced, humanized and progressive system would ensure the total, complete and universal human rights of its citizens. It would be the upholder of their rights, pride, freedom, and equality, a commitment that shall ensure the prevalence of a democracy that is truly compatible with the Cameroonian reality, one that shall ensure the eternal burial of absolutism. This modern, progressive and advanced system shall direct the Cameroonian people in cooperation with the progressive forces of other African countries towards the realization of their fraternal dream of harmony—the actualization of the economic union and political integration of Africa. It is along this path of our union-nationalism that we shall realize the all-embracing-century old Cameroonian dream and be led towards the all-embracing junction that shall realize Africa’s unity through the harmonious cooperation of its union forces. It would be at this stage that Cameroon and Africa shall take their merited places in the world community, while working with other worldly forces to make this world safe and conducive for our children. This extended task is entirely on the shoulders of the post-independence generations.

JANVIER TCHOUTEU                                        FERUARY 15, 1995

CAMEROON: The Haunted Heart of Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

POLITICIANS AND REVOLUTIONARIES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR THE NEW CAMEROON:

Map of the World

Cameroon on a Map of the World

Triple Agent, Double Cross

Politicians are not those who are meant to change a system and take a country out of an impasse into the future. That is the work of revolutionaries. 

Politicians operate in established systems and do the job of politicking to defend, safeguard or promote certain interests, be they individual, group, ethnic, regional, linguistic or national, based on empty phrases or through a clearly defined thought formulation (idea or concept).

Revolutionaries on the other hand are those challenging a system,  expecting to bring it down and institute a new system that would serve the interest of the trodden majority (the suffering or struggling masses). In the cause to bring down the system, revolutionaries do not expect to benefit or thrive from the struggle. Instead, they are prepared to sacrifice everything for the struggle.

The sad thing is that while the Cameroonian struggle to change the system is a revolutionary struggle, most of the leadership in the  so-called opposition parties  talk of politics and expected rewards even though they are still engaged in the struggle to change the system. That is why most of them compromised the ideals of the struggle with excuses that “it is impossible to live on clean politics as a genuine opposition in Cameroon." There are and there have been Cameroonians who selflessly gave in their worth to the struggle and felt it was dishonourable to use the struggle to achieve personal benefits. They were and are the union-nationalists and revolutionaries.

During my years of involvement in the struggle, I finally realized that the system (the Ahidjo-Biya regimes backed by the French mafia group controlling African affairs) feared and respected these revolutionaries and union-nationalists for their genuineness, unwavering nature and integrity. But strangely enough, the politicians who profess to be in the opposition conceived a hatred for these revolutionaries and union nationalists just because these revolutionaries and union nationalists are genuine and are not like them, and because they look with horror at the deception of the politicians who are trying to live off politicking and in doing so, compromised the struggle and betrayed the aspirations of the struggling masses.

Strangely enough, we failed in this phase of the struggle (1990-2002) because politicians led the struggle to change the system (a revolutionary demand) instead of revolutionaries and union-nationalists who are far less likely to be compromised by the negative values of the anachronistic French-imposed system.

Janvier Tchouteu | Friday, 15 April 2005  

CAMEROON: The Haunted Heart of Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

THE POST-SDF-NUDP-CDU PHASE OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE NEW CAMEROON

There is something we have to recognize. The Biya regime and the custodians of the system are the worst criminals to the Cameroonian soul. They are thieves, liars, killers, sadists, election riggers, discriminators, maniacs and what not. But one thing about it all is that they know how to do those negative acts. They are negative perfectionists.

But then, what about us? We, who oppose, resist, reject and are trying to sweep them out of power. Do we know how to do our job? Do we have the resilience to confront them as they do in maintaining the status quo and the benefits they derive from it? Only a scrupulous survivor can defeat an unscrupulous survivor which is Biya, his regime and the French-imposed system in Cameroon.

Some of us became involved in the struggle from its infant days, worked in the SDF at different levels, gave in everything without anticipating anything material in return. By 1994, the party was acutely sick; by 1998/1999 it was a chronic malady; and in 2002, it was terminally ill. A clique was responsible, and those who believed in the revolutionary objectives of the struggle--- the union nationalists who considered the purpose of the struggle to be far above their personal interests or considerations, had come to realize that Fru Ndi and his clique in the SDF had become an impediment to changing the system just like Bello Bouba, Ndam Njoya etc had become earlier. They too had become compromised by the negative values of the system. The Fru-Ndi led clique needed the Biya regime to thrive. And the SDF is almost dead because of them. They too betrayed the struggle. I am proud I quit the SDF in July 2002. It was like a process of self-redemption or like accepting that a church or clergy too had become corrupt and had also become an obstacle to change. It was a painful but necessary thing to do after more than a decade in the struggle and paying a heavy price for it. Thousands of other Cameroonians did the same--- especially the union-nationalists with the revolutionary streak. The best brains of the party and chief ideologue also quit the SDF in 2002.

I must say from my profound observation that we of the post-independence generations still have a lot of work do, based on our thought formulations. Nevertheless, I am happy to add that we have taken the first step in that direction. Many of those commenting in our various fora are now talking of changing the system, unlike the pre-independence so-called opposition leaders who were talking of changing the Biya regime. That is a positive development. Fru Ndi-led SDF, Njoya-led CDU, Bouba-led NUDP etc failed because they were incapable of rising up to the challenge of confronting the depth of the Cameroonian malady(the short comings of the system)and of coming up with an alternative direction and values to lead Cameroonians to the change and a desirable society.

Changing the system calls for fundamental changes in ourselves. This requires rejecting all the wrong values of the system, even if it means doing so to our own detriment (economic, social and political). Such a rejection requires identifying our enemies, who in reality are those who are sustaining the system. That could be us, people in our families, personalities in our tribes or ethnic groups that we look up to, revered figures in a movement or political party that we support or even an idea that we are benefiting from. Besides the mental ability to identify the enemies, we also need the ability to identify the true friends of the people. I say so because during the third phase of the Cameroonian struggle (1990-2002) more effort was made to hunt and betray the true friends of the people (the union nationalists and revolutionaries) by the cliques in the leaderships of the so-called opposition parties, than was made to confront the system and the Biya regime. And unless the true friends of the people--- the union nationalists and revolutionaries lead the struggle, it becomes difficult, if not impossible to imagine that change can ever take place in Cameroon.

As a matter of fact, Ndam Njoya, Bello Bouba and Fru Ndi were all members of the system or establishment before presenting themselves in 1990 as people of the opposition when they realized that the struggling masses were clamoring for change and the system could be brought down. So, it should not boggle the mind of the insightful and informed that these three made peace with the system and now represent different shades of the system or establishment that Cameroonians have been trying to change for over six decades. In the new phase of the struggle to found the "NEW CAMEROON" that would be free, democratic, progressive, just, dynamic, cultured, humane, they and their beneficiaries are irrelevant and act only as detractors working to derail change and maintain the French-imposed system that is leading Cameroon into the abyss.

Janvier Tchouteu                                                           Tuesday, 15 February 2005

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT (SDF) OF CAMEROON: The Role and Path of the 1990-1997 Historic Party of the Opposition in Cameroon’s Quest for Democracy before its Derailment

by Janvier Tchouteu

Notes on Cameroon’s Social Democratic Front (SDF)

by Janvier Tchouteu

ANTI-BAMILEKEISM AS A RETARDING ELEMENT IN THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW CAMEROON:

I have seen purported exponents of change in Cameroon expressing themselves with blinding emotions against an entire people; without doing themselves the favor of rereading their write-ups---a process that works best if they pretend for a moment that they are not the writer. That is the best way of getting an idea of how others will perceive your write up.

It defies logic when these so-called exponents of change hold strong anti-Bamileke sentiments against an entire people who are in their overwhelming majority in rejecting the evil system in power. Why they reserve the hardest and most discriminatory language for these opponents of the system who have embraced an ideology  based on  Cameroonian union nationalism, you, I and others can figure that out. Their values have been deformed by the system and the legacy of that social engineering is a twisted mindset that embraced the divide-and-rule strategy hatched by Jacques Foccart, a strategy aimed at making the Bamileke ethnic group the national scapegoat, and presenting this ethnicity to the rest of Cameroonians as the national enemy within, all in the bid to maintain and perpetuate French  unfettered control  in Cameroon. Now, to the poisoned minds, it is as if the Bamileke people are more of an enemy than the evil system in power. Unbiased advocates of change can best explain the irrationality of these biased minds or their absorption in blinding or negative emotions by analyzing the motives of the anachronistic French-imposed system managed in Cameron today by the Biya regime for the interest of special groups in France and their Cameroonian collaborators that are to be found in all the ethnic groups and regions of Cameroon.

It is illogical or even criminal to judge a person based on his/her ethnic group, because individuals in all the ethnic groups in Cameroon who think in the light of collectivizing blame and hate would draw from blinding preconceptions about other Cameroonians. There are always people out there who have had bad experiences with  person(s) from the  Fulbe, Bamileke, Duala, Bakwerian, Beti, Makaa, Bayang, Batanga, Bassa, Tikar, Bamoun,Ngambay,  Gbaya, Voko, Gidar, Kotoko, Bakossi, Bali, Ngemba, Massa or Kapsiki ethnic groups, etc; and then used that experience to condemn the entire people of that group or tribe. Xenophobia, ethnocentrism, ethnic cleansing and genocide are usually born from that mindset.

The vast majority of Germans three generations after World War Two are still haunted by that era of  Nazism and the treatment of the Jews,  and regret it deeply; yet we have Cameroonians who purport to be exponents of change and  at the same time, try to apportion some rationale or justification to  the Nazi-inspired  and executed hatred.

I will not dwell lengthily on this distraction of anti-Bamileke sentiments coming from people who are engaged in a cause that challenges the discriminatory French-Imposed system, but can not identify their real enemies.

In the 1995 article "HOW COMMITTED ARE WE IN TH STRUGGLE TO CHANGE THE PRESENT SYSTEM", I stated that exponents of change who think that way belong with the category called the confused and one-sided...

 "The third force are the confused and one-sided who are fervently fighting for causes that do not address the general  Cameroonian plight, but rather address the plight of an ethnic group, religious belief, region or linguistic entity. The fact that they are deeply attached to their belief in the righteousness of their cause, and the fact that they consider all those who are not fully behind them as their enemies; this confused and one-sided force for change (which by their demands call for partiality), not only alienate themselves from potential allies for change, but also alienate themselves from the general objectives of the Cameroonian struggle which encompasses their plight.  And in a curious way without them really knowing it, they stall the wind of change because of their divisive actions and directions.”

Anti-Bamilekeism is something I too experienced first hand as an exponent of change in the SDF ( Social Democratic Front) from 1990-2002, on several occasions actually. It is one of the system's cancers implanted in the minds of many Cameroonians that is haunting this nation today. It played a major role in breaking the carefully-crafted cooperation between the different forces in the SDF and led to the pathetic state of the party today. It also affected the UPC (Union of the Populations of the Cameroons) partisan movement during its last years. Exponents of change will never change the system while anti-Bamilekeism and Anglophobia exist in its leadership. Thank God the vast majority of the Cameroonian people east and west of the River Mungo do not see a problem being an Anglophone, even though the French-imposed system is uncomfortable about it.  But it is disheartening when one is forced to observe the morbid expression of anti-Bamilekeism from people who purport to be against the system and who especially come from ranks that have been discriminated upon by the evil system in power.

Hate groups like Hamas killed more Palestinians fighting Israel than Israelis they purported to be out to eliminate. Taliban killed more Mujahedeens (Islamic fighters) than others. The Nazis killed their Jews, even those who fought in the German army during the First World War. Those advocating blinding emotions of hate end up destroying themselves. That phenomenon abounds in history.

We can not afford to confront the evil system in the next phase of the struggle with divided ranks.

Best regards

Janvier Tchouteu

                                                                                       January 15, 2009

CAMEROON: The Haunted Heart of Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

THE CAUSE WE HAVE CHOSEN:

The Union-nationalists of Cameroon are the advanced and humanized Cameroonian patriots who accept the usage of revolutionary, reformative and/or evolutionary methods in the appropriate circumstances to achieve the best for the Cameroonian people. They feel so much for the wellbeing and  future of the  land and its people that  they are prepared to engage  in a prolonged struggle against the  retrogressive system in the country  than  accept conciliation that would  continue depriving  the people of their freedom,  dignity, liberty and  hope.

A person who has Cameroon at heart; a person who grieves over its pathetic vulnerability, bondage, despondence and malady; a person who can not afford to live in indifference; a person who can not live without  thinking, scheming and working to  rid Cameroon of the suffocating bondage of  the French-imposed system  should consider himself  or herself  a Union-nationalist. From revolution as a tool of change, the Union-nationalist accepts that those unworkable, repressive, servile, and anti-people ties, structures, institutions and concepts should be destroyed and new ones created to replace them.  The Union-nationalist also accepts the reformative path in situations where the  demand is for  the improvement or amelioration  of existing structures, institutions, ties, concepts and more;  so that the wellbeing of the people would be enhanced to a state that is  far better than their current situations. Also, by harnessing the evolutionary process of change, the Union-nationalist   stretches pragmatism to the utmost by accepting the fact that change can also evolve in line with the pace of nature. If we bend our heads, cast aside our egoism and egotism and sincerely search for answers to the Cameroonian quagmire, we would observe with blinding clarity that the different aspects of Cameroon’s malady call for revolutionary, reformatory and evolutionary cures―depending on the extent of the malady pinpointed.

Permit me to coin a word for the Union-nationalist who accepts revolution, reformation and evolution as courses to pursue in the progressive change that Cameroon needs. I will call such a person a “revomationist.”

Yes, the majority of Cameroonians have chosen the course or path of revomation. The destination is the realization of the Dream of a New Cameroon embodied in the century old Kamerunian Nationalism that incorporated the prefix “Union” following the partition of the historic German colony of Kamerun after the First World War, and that became revolutionary by advocating for reunification and independence after the Second World War. Yes, the all-embracing nature of Cameroonian nationalism was conceived in 1910, almost a decade before Kamerun suffered the partition of its territory, a nightmarish consequence of the defeat of the German colonial master aggravated by the French-imposed anachronistic system that followed Cameroon’s deceptive reunification and independence. The consequences of the anachronistic system are stifling the efforts of Union-nationalists today.

Still, we do not feel defeated. We understand we have encountered setbacks. We feel undefeated since the times of the German colonial administration. The execution of our first nationalist leadership under the names of Martin Paul Samba (Mebenga Mebono) and Rudolf Duala Manga Bell did not stop us. It resulted instead in the build up of energy that revived Cameroonian nationalism thirty-four years after with the distinction that it sought above all to reunite the partitioned German Kamerun. This ideal of Union-Nationalism to bring together the peoples of the former German Kamerun and lead them to realize an independent, free, democratic, prosperous, liberal and humane country got crushed by its enemies and got usurped by Ahidjo. The result then was the partial reunification of the former German Kamerun and quasi-independence for the land that bears all the hallmarks of a colossal deception where those who put in their blood and sweat to see Cameroon free never made it to power.

Yes, despite the deception and the setbacks to our goals, we have been moving forward in the precarious course of our Union-nationalism, suffering the fires from our enemies, but relentless in pursuing our objectives. We know that despite the overwhelming strength of those who consider Cameroonian Union-nationalists as enemies, they are afraid of the humane and all-embracing nature of the national idea. They know that they cannot defeat Cameroonian Union-Nationalism unless the Cameroonian people allow them to. So far, the Cameroonian people have not given up despite the high price paid in defending the ideal. The price has been so high that some Cameroonians found themselves  tempted  into embracing alternative ideas after the failed  UPC’s (Union of the Populations of the Cameroons) war against the forces (Ahidjo-French alliance) determined to keep Cameroon  in bondage. The lure of conciliation reached unprecedented heights after the Franco-Ahidjo genocide that cost almost a million Cameroonian lives. Following that, many Cameroonians stretched credulity to the utmost by accepting the lies that the country could be built into   a great nation through an alternative course dictated by imperialistic-minded men in Paris and their puppets and collaborators that constitute the Cameroonian system. Thirty-seven years of Ahidjo-Biya rule has proven the conciliators wrong.

Today, even skeptics and cynics who still have Cameron at heart accept the fact that Cameroon’s salvation lies in harnessing the tenets of its Union-Nationalism for the demanding task of rebuilding our potentially great nation. We should not allow the ignoramuses, uncommitted and self-centered Cameroonians to distract us with shouts of an alternative direction.

Yes, we are marching along the difficult course of weathered hopes, all the while aware of the fact that we can achieve the objective of our cause only if we stay united in our Union-nationalism. We are wearied by the attacks of our desperate enemies, but we have decided to confront them and prevent them from banishing our hopes to the doldrums that it has found itself in over the decades. Do not reproach us if you are not up to the challenge of standing up for the country’s Union-nationalism, even if you are with those who are committed to crush it. No matter the price that the cause demands, we will pursue it, rather than accept conciliation over years of perpetrated injustices, underdevelopment, despondence and discrimination. Cameroon’s Union-nationalists would not even accept any acrid offer that comes with giving away parts of their hopes, dreams and integrity. The purpose of Cameroonian Union-Nationalism is to get the Cameroonian people the things that they deserve―their hopes, future, dignity and opportunities.  Those are rational demands that do not deprive anybody at all, even those who are against them.

So, do not fight us in our struggle because we will fight you back. Do not reproach us in your resignation and indifference because you have nothing to offer. Do not try to divert us or hinder us with your futile options and cowardly actions by haranguing about the great word of peace because peace is not possible when our people are being prevented from hoping. There can be no just peace when the Cameroonian people are being deprived of their dignity, future and peace of mind. If you persist, then we are compelled to fight not only against the enemies firing at us, but even against you who consciously or unconsciously, are luring us into the fire of our internal and external enemies. We acknowledge the fact that we share a common past with our enemies and that our future promises to be better if we work together with mutual benefits in mind, but we will never accept a relationship that is devoid of rationalism, social solidarity and humanitarianism.

Janvier Tchouteu                                                        January 28, 1995

Janvier Tchouteu is the author of Triple Agent, Double Cross

CAMEROON: The Haunted Heart of Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu,

The Mistakes To Be Avoided in Building The New Cameroon

by Janvier Tchouteu, 

Flash of the Sun (Compradors Series)

Book 1 of 2: Compradors Series  |