It is true that Cameroon’s human and physical wealth has been the source of its turbulent history, its pride and the ingredients that give its people a unique flavor. The flavor has produced colorful Cameroonian characters that the curious eye and mind is likely to enjoy by hating or loving them, pitying or angrily denouncing them. These characters provide insights into the human nature and the African continent that is haunted by leaders with the evil disposition.
While other African peoples have picked up arms and warred among themselves to have their country split up, Cameroon is the only geo-political entity in the continent whose inhabitants went to war to reunite its people separated by the legacy of Anglo-French partition of the former German colony of Kamerun. It is the only country where those who fought for its reunification and independence are yet to assume political power, as they continue to languish from the defeat suffered in the hands of the French overlords and the puppets they installed in power. It is the land where you will find Africa’s biggest political deception and sleaziest mafia. It is the country in Africa with the lowest number of heads of state in its history, yet it is a country that is unlikely to engage in internecine war to get rid of the suffocating system.
In power since 1982 is Africa's absentee dictator Paul Biya,who was made the successor of his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo by an order from former French President Francoise Mitterand; Ahidjo, who himself was brought to power in 1958 by the governing Right-Wing in France under Charles DeGaulle to usurp the aspirations of Cameroonians in their liberation struggle led by the historic political party Union of the Populations of the Cameroons (UPC) that was out to reunite French Cameroun and British Cameroons, a party that the French government banned in 1955, a party with more than 80% of the land's intellectuals and even more national support. The French political establishment made sure Ahidjo's power was secured by decimating the UPC's support base in a 12-year war against the party and by killing all the UPC leaders (Un Nyobe 1958, Felix Moumie in Geneva 1960, Ossende Ofana 1966, Ernest Ouandie 1971 etc), leaving Cameroon a nation haunted by an "Unfinished Liberation Struggle". Today, Cameroonians are out not only to get rid of the utocracy of Dictator Biya's, but also to get rid of the French-imposed system that its custodians want to continue with someone else at its helm after Paul Biya answers the call of nature.
Disciples of Fortune
by Janvier Chouteu-Chando
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