Cameroonian union-nationalists―those who
believe that the different Cameroonian(even African) peoples should dwell
on their mutual compatibilities, resolve their retarding differences
(acknowledging and correcting historical mistakes) and join hands to build an
advanced, progressive, united, democratic, prosperous and liberal state―tend to
have a hard time doing away with the wedge that divisive forces have put
between Cameroon’s different peoples in their bid to divide and rule, and then
exploit the resources of the state to the detriment of the people. So divisive
issue of Northwest/Southwest acrimony that the minority six-decade old French-imposed
systems is fanning. It is truly a delicate task when it comes to coming up with
a balanced opinion based less on emotions and more on reasoning.
By virtue of my birth and upbringing, I am a
Southwesterner, albeit a Bamileke+Southwesterner when we also take into account
my ancestral origin besides other things. But having lived the first
twelve years of my life in the Southwest, and the next twelve years after that
spending portions of each year in both the Northwest and Southwest where my family
blended like locals, I might not be condemned for saying that those factors and
other revelations enabled me to have an insight into this NORTHWEST/SOUTHWEST
issue. Besides, we have people with portions of their blood from both provinces
and dozens of other ethnic groups in Cameroon who are my brothers, sisters,
nephews, nieces, cousins, aunts and uncles.
What is the root cause of vilification in Cameroon? It is
mostly political. It is not social or economic because Cameroonians as
individuals do not have problems per se with other ethnic groups as a whole,
and the overwhelming majority of Cameroonians are economic victims of the
system, suffering from systemic deprivations that will only change after we get
rid of the Evil-French-imposed system. Bamileké bashers, especially those who
grew up in cosmopolitan areas in Cameroon have relatives with Bamileké blood or
buddies or people they admire who are Bamilekés. It is the same thing with
Beti, Bakwerian, Bassa, Fulani, Bayang, Ngemba, NORTHWEST, SOUTHWEST bashers
etc. So, the root problem of all the schisms is political. And it is
aggravated by the system because the system sees divide-and-rule as an
effective tool to exploit in order to continue dividing and ruling the people.
In that regard, the French political mafia that lords it over Cameroon have
been successful in using their puppets to keep us in perpetual bondage.
The political cause(s) of our divide is (are) rooted in our
history, which the vast majority of us were deprived of knowing or were
brainwashed about. There is nothing as blinding as feeling self-righteous in
defending a twisted mindset or conviction. Yes, it is along the line of
self-righteousness that some traitorous Cameroonians of Fulani origin would
think that Fulanis are entitled to power in Cameroon. It is along that same
line that some traitorous Cameroonians of Beti origin would use Martin Paul
Samba’s legacy as an anti-German, blame other Cameroonians for not rallying
behind him, glorify the alliance Beti and Fulani renegades stroke with the
French mafia in Africa (Francafrique), and think it is their right to lord it
other Cameroonians in perpetuity.
Yes, it is that twisted mindset that the
anti-union-nationalists have been using to dominate others. The truth is that
the anti-nationalist or pseudo civic-nationalist political elites in the
Northwest and Southwest, who in reality sold out to the system are the ones
fanning the divide, drawing from the immediate pre-and
post-reunification/independence history of the territory west of the River
Mungo (1954-1972), a period when mistakes were made, mistakes that are now
haunting the political landscape in the NORTHWEST and SOUTHWEST today and may
spill over into society as well. I say it is political because no matter what
is heaped at the local SOUTHWEST population, the vast majority of the people
there do not have an economic or social problem with the NORTHWEST or people
from the NORTHWEST. And they do not have economic, social and political
problems with peoples from other provinces (Bamileké, Bassa, Mboh, Bamoun,
Beti, Fulani, and Duala etc). The common folks in the NORTHWEST do not have
problems with those in the SOUTHWEST either.
We sometimes tend to forget that back in the 1990s, the SDF
under John Fru Ndi commanded more than 80% of the support of the people of the
SOUTHWEST. Achieving that was a Herculean task, when the people of the
SOUTHWEST still thought they had been taken for a ride by the KNDP during its
1959-1972 control of the government of British Southern Cameroons/West Cameroon
and blamed the political leadership from the NORTHWEST for their mess,
especially in translating the political dominance into economic privileges. In
fact, the mess of that era still haunt both Anglophone provinces today.
In fact, I happened to be a part of the Dr. Samuel
Tchwenko-led (Bamileké-led from 1990-1993) team that implanted the SDF in the
SW, winning the majority loyalty of all the ethnic groups in the province. And
it was a tough task convincing our indigenous SOUTHWEST brothers and sisters
that Fru Ndi would be different from the Foncha-led KNDP and wouldn’t lead them
down the path of treachery. Well, Fru Ndi committed more mistakes and
even sold out, turning out to be even far worse than the less-informed John Ngu
Foncha. Should we turn a blind eye to the fate suffered by the respected
SOUTHWEST political figures who were in the SDF, especially those who never
conciliated with the system and decried Fru Ndi’s drowning of a once historic
SDF that was even looked up to by renowned anti-colonial parties in other
African countries? How vocal have we been in denouncing the current mafia in
the current SDF leadership?
Back in the mid-1990s, most Southwesterners denounced and
even ridiculed Oben Peter Ashu’s “Come no Go” madness or diatribe, aimed at
exploiting the political differences of the NORTHWEST/SOUTHWEST so as to make
it a social and economic campaign against Northwesterners. I see efforts
at individual levels by unifiers from the Northwest to be hard on Northwesterners
who have biases against Southwesterners. For most of my life, I have been
chiding bashers from both provinces for their misguided views and have even
suffered a number of times from being bundled with one group or the other and
then targeted.
So, I see a better way forward when the peoples of both
provinces collectively and unabashedly condemn those who in their political
expressions (words or actions) are trying to create a wedge between the
NORTHWEST and the SOUTHWEST in an effort to also make it an economic and social
issue. And collectively, we as Cameroonians should show zero tolerance towards
those who are dividing Cameroonians for economic benefits, in their political
agendas that serve the interest of their foreign masters; and as a result, are
impoverishing us even further.
Janvier
Tchouteu March
03, 2013
Hmm!
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