Falling Short: Cameroon's Post-independence Intellectualism

The French-imposed system, the Biya-regime that manages it today, is severely weakened. So it boggles the mind that it is still limping along. We understand the neocolonialist aspect of the system; we understand its interest-driven nature, but on paper, Cameroonians of today are more intellectually prepared to dismantle this anachronistic French-imposed than the pre-independence generations it was imposed on.  So, why are we failing miserably in harnessing our strengths, the opportunities out there, the system’s weaknesses; and why are we failing to comprehend the threats looming in the horizon?

As a young man in the 1990s who was deeply involved with the country's No. 1 political force at the time (SDF) with virginal intentions, full of idealism, as a voracious reader and someone considered by some as having a respectable knowledge of our history, I thought I somehow understood Cameroon and Cameroonians. I was also convinced that the pre-independence generations had somehow been compromised (collaborating with the French-imposed system and surrendering after the UPC-failed resistance). So I thought we(the post-independence generations), would be able to complete the job of ending French-neocolonialism and only needed a unifying ideology that draws from the positive aspects of our past hopes, dreams and our different potentials, a unifying ideology based on Cameroonian nationalism, criticism, and self-criticism. I thought our post-independence intellectuals would be able to furnish that fuel, and so wrote extensively on that hope. Apparently, I was wrong.

A shockingly high percentage of the politically-vocal in our generation of intellectuals is more brainwashed, socially-engineered, and is haunted by a tunnel-vision more than those before us, even though we are more specialized. The old folks used to tell me back in the 1990s at a time that my generation was not actively involved in the struggle for the "New Cameroon" that "…You are ahead of your time". Now I feel like I am behind "the times" or behind my time, like an utopist, vis-a-vis my generation that is now mature and at the forefront in the Cameroonian struggle. In a world where people with differences, and where even the different nationalities, races, countries and religions are harnessing their mutually compatible values, tapping on their collective dreams and forging alliances, we have descended to our basest motives at the core of which is a "Native Mindset" with a political underlining that makes many of us nothing but "Tribalists" or "ethnofascist". In many aspects, some of us have become worse than the Cameroonian compradors---looters and mercenaries that are mismanaging Cameroon using the fascist French-imposed system in a manner that is perhaps even worse than the neocolonialists had expected from their puppets. We are making the pre-independence generations look like saints. It is as if some of the ideas developed in the accounts like the ones below were a waste of time and energy.

Cameroon's Post-Independence Intellectuals https://viewsnewcameroon.blogspot.com/2010/09/post-independence-intellectuals-and.html

The Demanding Task for the Post-Independence Generations 
https://viewsnewcameroon.blogspot.com/2010/08/the-demanding-task-for-post.html

I pray Cameroon’s post-independence intellectuals start comparing their castles in the air with reality. I hope 2019 brings forth that revelation.

Janvier Tchouteu                                                       December 17, 2018