Rejecting Ethno-Fascism in Cameroon

 

I am concerned by some of the terms some Cameroonians with ethnofascist tendencies  are using to befuddle if not amaze or hoodwink unsuspecting Cameroonians into going along with their game plans to divide us even further and create microstates based on their dominant ethnicities or group of related languages, or based on a present or former geopolitical entity and other identifiers. They use examples that are solidly nations or nation states  to lend credence to their application of the word(s) nation, nationhood to the geopolitical entities they want to create, geopolitical entities that are diverse, multi-ethnic and even multi-religious; they are trying to create new geopolitical entities where other Cameroonians would be excluded from. I am talking about the ethnofascists among those who are peddling the notion of creating an Ekang State that they are calling a nation, an Amabazonian state that they are calling a nation, and whatnot.

 

One of them talked of an Ekang state whose people are related to the people of the Levant (Syrians, Lebanese, Israelis, Jews, Palestinians, and Jordanians) when modern genetic studies show no interrelationship between the Cameroonian peoples or ethnicities he is talking about and the people of the Levant (as the Cameroonian groups and the Levantines have polar opposite haplogroups, for one).

 

Another talks of an Ambazonian nation from the territory of the former British Southern Cameroons, an Ambazonian nation that is separate from the rest of Cameroon, like the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish. He forgot to understand that these are European nationalities or nations based on ethnicity---having been moulded from the different Celtic tribes of the area; he forgot that those nations have clearly delineated territories, and that other nations like the Cornish people exist in England or the rest of the UK.  In a nutshell, the Cornish people, the Welsh people, the Northern Irish people, The Scots, the English, and other smaller indigenous peoples of Britain are nations or nationalities (words derived from ethnic nationalism as identified by political philosophers, anthropological linguists, and even international law) of the UK. However, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are constituent nation-states of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom (UK) based on their unique nationalities and designated territories where they are or were a majority as a unique people or ethnicity.

 

In the case of British Southern Cameroons,  it became the constituent State of West Cameroon or a federal unit of the sovereign state of Cameroon (The Cameroon Federation) upon its independence and reunification with The Republic of Cameroun (LRC) on October 01, 1961. The other constituent state or federal unit was East Cameroon (the former Republic of Cameroun).  The Federal Republic of Cameroon was then regarded as a sovereign state made up of two constituent states or two constituent federal units, not two constituent nations.

Kamerunists, or union-nationalists always had a "NEW CAMEROON" in mind that would be a civic-nation built around shared citizenship within the state, involving foremost all the ethnic nations (ethnicities) within Cameroon, and based on civic-nationalism, which is an advanced form of patriotism and liberal nationalism grounded on traditional liberal values of equality, freedom, individual rights, multiculturalism, and tolerance.

 

The historic UPC of 1948-1970, the One Kamerun (OK) of Ndeh Ntumazah and Albert Mukong, and the historic SDF of 1990-1997 when the civic-nationalist faction was dominant in the party and before the derailment of the SDF, all embraced civic-nationalism like it is practised in the United States of America. They aimed to create a "NEW CAMEROON", a state based on civic nationhood that would promote the evolution of a unique Cameroonian identity that would be the prototype for the future NEW AFRICA, a New Africa that is developed, free, independent, united, and self-confident.

 

The shortcomings of the geopolitical entity called Cameroon are entrenched in its political control---the Ahidjo/Biya regimes and the anachronistic French-imposed system---and the resultant dysfunctions that is not a reflection of Cameroonians. The decades of social engineering failed to damage the social harmony if not social tolerance among Cameroon’s different groups. More than a century of shared destiny has resulted in an advanced social cohesiveness, which proves that Cameroon’s civic-nationalists are vindicated even though they are yet to get their hands on the levers of power. A good example is the current reality where more children are being born from inter-ethnic relationships in our urban centers than from parents identifying with a single ethnic group. Cameroonians who are socially accepting would be able to realize their full potentials(individually and collectively) after they are politically liberated.

 

A civic nation emerges from a territory of diverse nationalities or ethnicities  only when the 28 Fundamental Principles of  the United States of America’s Founding Fathers, especially the principle which states that “All mankind were created equal.”, are applied, by which The Founding Fathers meant that all mankind, and more specifically the citizens of that territory, are theoretically treated as:

1.  Equal before God.

2.  Equal before the law.

3.  Equal in their rights.

 

So, those with the exclusivist agenda in their separate  dreams to create an Ekang State and  an Ambazonia State do not qualify as civic-nationalists and are incapable of creating a civic-nation out of the fundamentally all-embracing Cameroonian people, a civic-nation that would uphold human decency and promote humanitarian values. Any Cameroonian who holds biases against other Cameroonians based on their ethnicity, religion or language of expression to the point of advocating for the exclusion or the hurting of these Cameroonians he or she does not like, is an ethnofacists, an ancient-thinking mind and a person with either the Demonic Mindset or the Zombie Mindset. They should never be taken seriously, should be dismissed altogether or we can put some sense into their heads.

 

Often times these Cameroonian political monsters lack the empathy to  accept or even relate to the traumas in Cameroonian history---the avoidable deaths from the Franco-Ahidjo war against  the UPC Maguisards (liberation fighters)  and the populations supporting them, and the avoidable deaths from the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

 

Janvier Tchouteu                                                                 October 29, 2021

Janvier Tchouteu is the author of Triple Agent, Double Cross

Janvier Tchouteu is also the author of " The Mistakes To Be Avoided in Building The New Cameroon"

Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa

by Janvier Tchouteu

The Mistakes To Be Avoided in Building The New Cameroon

by Janvier Tchouteu

Why Cameroon Needs a Fundamental Change

by Janvier Tchouteu

Who the Enemies of the People are, and How They are Fighting Against Change: and Others

by Janvier Tchouteu

The curse of Ethno-centricism and Regional Biases in Cameroon, especially West of the Mungo and Metazem Rivers

 

On November 16, 2020, a compatriot  whom I respect despite the fact that we sometimes share opposing political views, wrote on Facebook that:

“In the last few weeks, I have read a series of Xenophobic posts written by CPDM surrogates of both SW and NW origin using nuances to abuse, disrespect and sometimes express hatred against people from NW origin living in the SW... “

 

The compatriot was accused by his friend of making biased statements against others in the past. The compatriots past faux pas could be considered flukes.  All the same, I dwelled on the subject by sharing my views below:

 

 “He is right for accusing you of spewing hatred against other peoples in the past. All the same, I applaud your words above because it shows that you saw the light and now abhor ethnic, racial ...etc discrimination. Good!”

 

Countless times have I interceded against words by some Amba leaders and others supporting the Anglophone Cameroonian (SCNC) cause, calling for doom to befall Francophones and certain ethnicities, especially those east of the Mungo, and more especially the Bamilekes.

 

Something I can claim which none, or perhaps few can, is the experience of having participated in the team that implanted the SDF in the Southwest (SW) in the early 1990s--- a deep participation I should add. And it was a Herculean task convincing many Southwesterners(indigenous especially)  that it was not a “Bamenda Affair” and that it would not be a repeat of the Muna/Foncha etc. or Northwestern  domination of yesteryears.

 

Southwest (SW)-born and bred Bami Anglos played a disproportionate role in the implantation, passing the leadership mantle over to Ndoki Mukete and co in July 1993. The fact that SDF became the dominant political party in the lives of indigenous Southwesterners was a big achievement; and that was done confronting many of our Northwest (NW) brothers in the SW who thought it was “Wia Party” affair, and held some of “US”  responsible for preventing them from controlling the party. Even in Limbe, my base, uplifting Jarvis Muambo who later became the mayor in 1997, was a case in point, against the interest of the NW pal I spent time in jail with as a political prisoner. I did not consider taking my interest into account in that particular indigenization process. The Bami Anglo factor also played an outsized role in convincing Francophones (West and Littoral regions in particular) to join the SDF.

 

The Truth is bitter, but it must be spoken. The successful indigenization of the SDF in the SW formed the base of the Anglophone Movement and greater cooperation between the NW and SW in the SCNC, and later Ambazonia. Oben Peter Ashu acknowledged that during one of his soul-revealing encounters in 1999 with Dr. Samuel Tchwenko (head of the SDF implantation team in the SW from 1990-1993, and front man in luring Littoral and West regions into the SDF).  Alexander Ngomba Motanga, the former Governor of the Northwest Province’s revelation to me in 2000, explaining his decade estrangement from his good friend Dr. Samuel Tchwenko, partly touched on that.

 

 But then, I started observing a phenomenon which I initially ignored in 1994, downplayed later, was perturbed by in 2000 during an encounter with Dutch Professor Koning and Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi in Amsterdam in December 2000, and was crushed by it in 2002. The elites (Nfor Nfor, Nkwi, Professor Anyangwe, Susungi, Ngwasiri, etc) of the pro-secession or SCNC (today Ambazonia) faction in the SDF, overwhelmingly from the Northwest,  were cultivating a narrative blaming Bamilekes and Francophones in general as the ones sabotaging the SDF and Anglophone Cameroonians from realizing their goals. They made Bamilekes in particular the scapegoat. It moved to tagging Foncha completely as a Bamileke man.  I warned in 2011 that these bigots with the “Native Mindset” will create another narrative tomorrow that Fru Ndi is Bamileke. But they even beat my expectations with a thesis by one young man supposedly with the backing of pro-Ambazonia professors from the NW claiming that Bamilekes formed the SDF and that they hoodwinked Northwesterners and Southwesters into voting for reunification in 1961, even though the Founding Fathers of the SDF were all from the Northwest region, and even though results of the plebiscite showed that those districts where most Bamilekes were living in at the time (Victoria and Kumba) voted for Endeley/unification with Nigeria. And we all know that the reunification vote was before the 1962-1964 sweep and destruction of the Bamilekeland by the French army and the Cameroonian army under Ahidjo that France created, a disaster that saw some 10% of the internally displaced (IDPs) moving to West Cameroon, mostly to the Southwest.

 

In one of our exchanges on Camnet some seven (7) years ago, I warned that the Bamileke baiting was coming mostly from a fringe of Northwest origin, and that it would dawn on some that these knuckleheads promoting hate or ostracizing their Graffi relatives (Bamilekes) --- something Southwesterners do not do to the related peoples of the Littoral province --- would turn their attention to Southwesterners too, or that the Southwest people would wise up one day, understanding that after these knuckleheads of  NW origin succeed in eliminating Bamileke/Bassa and Francophone influence with their acquiescence, they would turn to dominating Southwesterners again.

 

 The CPDM, the Biya regime, and the French-imposed system as a whole are exploiting that growing realization of fringe elements of Northwest origin holding chauvinistic views on domination. After all, one Amba spokesperson of Northwest origin said “the population of the Northwest province is four to five times that of the Southwest ”. He thus came across as dismissive… A long time vocal vanguard of the Southern Cameroons (SCNC) cause said half a year ago that;

 “…indigenous Mboh people of the Southwest region are complaining that Amba fighters are targeting them on false grounds that they are of East of the Mungo.”

 

 Were those Amba fighters of Northwest origin? The feeling of being targeted by fighters from another province prevails not only in Kupe Manenguba Division. People in Ndian, Fako, Meme, Lebialem, and even Manyu feel that way too. That is why the concern should be addressed fast  before it gets out of hand, before it degenerates.

 

I hate to see the harmony in the Southwest that I was also involved in building, being trashed by people with the “NATIVE MINDSET”. There should never be any inter-ethnic conflict in the Southwest region or any other region of Cameroon. Those inflaming ethnic hatred should be discouraged and the forces sowing resentment among the different indigenous people should respect their hosts and stop their activities that are hurting the people in the villages and towns.

Janvier Tchouteu                     November 18, 2020

 

 

Janvier Tchouteu is the author of Triple Agent, Double Cross

Triple Agent, Double Cross

Book 2 of 2: Compradors Series  | by Janvier Chouteu-Chando, 

A DEATH IN GENEVA THAT PUT A NATION IN A COMA AND TRAUMATIZED AFRICA: The Assassination of Félix-Roland Moumié and Cameroon’s Unfinished Liberation

by Janvier Tchouteu and Janvier T. Chando

Insight into the lands and People from Kievan Rus: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (An Excerpt of the Insightful 1992 book on Russia and the former Soviet Republics "The Union Moujik")

 The Union Moujik

...

“Yes, they are few. A rapidly increasing number of our people are so docile and feeble-minded that they scream their fanatical support of their leaders and their policies without taking a moment to understand historical and evolutionary truths about the issues that are tormenting them. Back in the day of the Soviet Union, some of our compatriots propagated the notion of ethnic revival in a delirious manner, hardly aware of their full genealogy. Permit to dwell on the sad case of Ukraine.”

“What about Ukraine now? Don’t we already know much about that frontier outpost and its inclination to choose leaders that are against everybody?” Mikhail Pugo intoned.

“My point, my dear comrades, is that Russians by nationality make up twenty-two percent of the population of this promising part of our revered motherland. You will also find ethnic Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Magyars, and other minorities in Ukraine, nationalities that cannot be ignored and should not be ignored. But what is the stupid Galician from Volhynia doing?”

“You tell us,” a shrilling voice in the crowd said.

“Of course, I will. Leonid Kravchuk is pressing ahead with his agenda of creating a Ukrainian Ukraine where the Ukrainian language and culture completely dominate as if there are no other unifying cultures in the land. Is that realistic, I ask you? Mustn’t non-Ukrainian speakers who also constitute ethnic Ukrainians, have a say in the direction of the country’s affairs? Tell me, I repeat. Is that realistic?”

“No,” Boris grunted.

“No, no, no, comrades,” Nikolai Mazepa affirmed.

“Of course, the answer is no,” Eno Gallinin said.

“I can’t even count the number of times I have ruminated this problem over while lying in my bed. Believe me, I always arrived at the familiar conclusion that Ukrainians are unaware of their historical origins. A millennium ago, the world knew Eastern Slavs as the people of Rus, otherwise called Kievan Rus. Yes, our ancestors were Rusyachie or Kievan Rusians. For centuries, the Eastern Slavs identified themselves to others as Rusyachie. Only with further probing down the years did they express themselves as Great Russians, White Russians, or Ruthenians, otherwise called Little Russians or what we know today as Ukrainians. Those three people from Rus are today’s Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian peoples respectively.”

“Isn’t Ruthenia a Latinized version of the name Rus?” Taidje interjected.

“Yes, comrades! Ruthenia was how the Catholic West referred to Rus. The Eastern Orthodox people led by the Greeks called Rus, Rossia, a transcription Muscovy took upon itself, later calling the empire that resulted from its expansion The Tsardom of Rus, otherwise called the Tsardom of Russia. By doing so, Muscovy claimed sovereignty over all the lands of the former Rus, even though the southern and western parts were under the control of Poland and Lithuania at the time. And since Galicia–Volhynia was the first part of the former Kievan Rus that attempted to create an independent entity after the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus, the people of Western Ukraine would like everybody to believe that they are the true successors of Rus or Ruthenia, as they would like to call it. After all, they were Catholicized during the many centuries that they were under Polish, Lithuanian, and Austrian rule.”

“What do you mean?” Taidje queried.

“The people of Galicia hold that Muscovy usurped the role of unifier of Rus. And to counter that more seriously, they are postulating this myth that the people of Moscow were never a part of Rus and that Muscovy did not start as an Eastern Slavic political entity. And to make their point even crazier, they hold that the Eastern Slavs of today’s Russia are different from those who were under the subjugation of the West for centuries. Based on their claim, Ruthenia does not extend to Russia. As a matter of fact, they are even trying to narrow it down by making Ruthenia and Ukraine synonymous, when you and I know that Ukraine means borderland, a reference made to the frontiers of Rus, which included Ryazan, Pskov, Lvov, Galicia-Volhynia, Zaporozhe, Podolia etc. at different times in our history.” 

“Thank you, my dear comrade. You shed a lot of light on that hazy aspect of our history.”

Thank you, Comrade Taidje. To tell the truth, most of our people don’t know that we Ukrainians are descendants of East Slavic tribes that settled in the Don and Dnieper regions, just like our Russian and Byelorussian brothers. We had very little division among us until the advent of Polish and Lithuanian influence and control in what is our historical lands.”

“The damn chauvinistic Polaks set in motion the confusion that is haunting Eastern Slavs today! Now I understand why Gogol wrote Taras Bulba and extolled our Eastern Orthodox heritage. Hmm! I also see why Galicians and some Western Ukrainians don’t get the sacredness of the ties we share as children of the Rodina. They have been Polonized in their religion, in their language, and in their way of thinking,” Yury Turchuk said.

 “I agree with you, Comrade Yury. Poland’s occupation of the western lands that are in Ukraine today did a lot of damage to our sense of oneness or unity! It caused a marked distinction between Ukrainians and their Eastern Slavic brothers of Russia and Byelorussia, even though we share a common Eastern Slavic root that is still strong today. If you pay attention to the different Ukrainian dialects, you will find that they are markedly influenced by Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovakian in the west and that they change as you move eastwards, to the point where the Ukrainian dialects in the eastern regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, and even Kharkov are basically Russian in content but Ukrainian in phraseology,” Nikolai Mazepa said.

“Syntax you mean?” Boris interjected.

“Yes, Comrade Boris. The morphology and phonology in Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian are basically the same. Foreign influences altered the syntax only.”

“The damn Polaks and Lithuanians,” Taidje growled.

“Come on, my Gilyak friend! Why do you take it so hard as if you are someone with Eastern Slavic roots as well?” Boris said with a laugh.”

“I feel Russian too. And I know that in years to come, one of my Gilyak descendants would have Russian blood too. The law of total probability is what I am hinging my argument on, Comrade Boris!”

“Ha, ha...ha-ha!” Boris guffawed, and then continued expressing his mirth as several others joined in the laughter, forcing a smile out of Taidje’s lips.”

“The story you were about to tell, Comrade Ivan!” Taidje said with a shrug.

“You see, comrades! We didn’t have time on our side in the historical evolution that was taking place before the demise of our great country. Time would have bridged those differences caused by alien powers. Time could have bridged those differences even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, had that stupid Galician-Volhynian not become Ukraine’s president. Ah, comrades, he feels little about our mutual solidarity and compatibility. After all, his region was under the control of Poland, Austria-Hungary, and Czechoslovakia until this century,” Nikolai Mazepa cried.

“The grief of our times,” someone commented from the far end of the tavern.

Nikolai Mazepa brooded for a moment and then continued. “I don’t think I’m going off on a tangent on this one. Isn't it true that a disturbing percentage of Ukrainians are unaware of our history; isn’t it true that they are unaware of the fact that for four hundred years, we khokholi shared a common history with our Bulbash and our Moskal or katsap brothers? Did you know that we shared a common history as one nation and one people called Russkie, in what was Kievan Rus at the time? What if Kievan Rus instead of Muscovy had survived the Mongol onslaught and grown to become the Rus Empire, otherwise known as the Russian Empire?”

“The Mongols stopped that from happening. So why even imagine something like that?” Boris said.

“Stretching my imagination, that’s all. Had Kievan Rus evolved into the Russian Empire, the discriminating voices of Russo-phobic Western Ukrainians would have been absent today. Hmm, comrades! The Mongol hordes did a devastating job on our land and derailed our common history with the invasion and destruction of Kievan Rus. Most of the present-day confusion emanates from their conquest. Nonetheless, much of the blame goes to the feeble-minded usurpers who hijacked Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, and then decided to draw from the little differences that arose during those years or centuries our lands were separated from one another, all caused by foreign powers. Yes, comrades, they failed to draw from the things we share that make us a single nation in the Western sense of the word.”

“Khokhol, Moskal, katsap, Bulbash! Some would call those descriptions ethnic slurs, but I am okay with them. Comrade Nikolai, I like the way you used those funny words in referencing our Eastern Slavic brothers. When I said Slavic brothers, I meant those who identify themselves as Ukrainians, Russians and Byelorussians,” Mikhail Pugo said with a mocking smile.

“Forget about Comrade Pugo here. You were about to say something important,” Taidje interjected, fixing his eyes on Eno Gallinin.

“Oh, comrades! It is sad,” Eno Gallinin assented.

“Of course, it is sad!” Nikolai Mazepa affirmed. “I’m a Don Cossack. We Cossacks have been greatly assimilated into the ways of life of what became Byelorussia, Russia, and Ukraine. We are the most lost of all the Soviet peoples if nationality or any other form of identification is considered the basis of classifying people. Some Cossacks from Ukraine join hands with exclusionist Ukrainians and stir the ugly pot of nationalism as if they are unaware of the fact that the bulk of their Cossack brothers is in Russia. I support Comrade Temudin in his similar assertion of Tatars in the autonomous republic.”

“Saboteurs, saboteurs, saboteurs,” Boris muttered with quivering lips.

“Saboteurs, they certainly are,” Nikolai Mazepa growled in a dejected manner and then clenched his fist. “What good shall those heads of state of the former Soviet Republics do to the people they deceived with their rhetoric and now profit by lording over?”

“It is pathetic,” Boris said, paused, and then continued. “I pity the ethnic Ukrainians who do not reside in Ukraine. Fifteen percent of ethnic Ukrainians are accepted as citizens in other parts of the former Soviet Union. Comrades, they love the lands of their births or adoption with the same fierceness as their compatriots in those lands. Like any other settler population, they were overwhelmingly against the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. I’m sure they would have even fought for its preservation had they been asked to decide on it. Didn’t we all witness their high level of support for Gorbachev’s proposal to reform the Soviet Union into the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics? Didn’t our people manifest their support in the all-union referendum in 1991, something you and I know was a progressive manifestation that Boris Yeltsin and his collaborators sabotaged?”

“Stop mentioning the name of that muzhik who betrayed his origins for the illusion of a capitalism he knew little about,” Taidje interjected.

“Yes, Comrade Taidje; yes, my dear comrades. Yeltsin is a whim. He led the leaders of the other Soviet Republics into dishonoring our people’s vote against the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Now, what is my point on this one?” Boris intoned.

“You tell us,” an unknown voice in the crowded tavern hollered.

“All I’m trying to say is that Ukrainians residing in the other former Soviet Republics are the most realistic Ukrainians. Yes, my dear comrades; those Ukrainians do not see themselves as different from their Russian brothers. You can call them Little Russians if you want to. After all, that’s how we of the south have been known for centuries.”

“It is similar to the way we try to get over our divisive history in the hands of foreign powers by calling ourselves White Russians. I don’t buy the ridiculous notion that the whiteness of our Rus is because we are devoid of Mongol blood in our veins,” Natasha Goncharova, the Byelorussian with the knack for reproducing the works of Chagall said, raising her head above the crowd in an effort to be conspicuous. She was immediately hushed down by several murmuring voices that did not approve of her utterances.

“Comrade Boris was up to something important,” Ivan Gamuchin, the head-scratching Krasnoyarsk-born Yenisei Ostyak said in a loud voice.

“Yes, yes…yes,” the crowd affirmed.

“We shouldn’t be harsh to our Comrade Natasha. In fact, there is a high degree of truth in her words. Truth be told, she had a strong point. There is always a nucleus around which we can build something cohesive. If Russia is the nucleus around which little, white, pink, and other words are attached or compounded by the people of our lands to identify themselves, then so be it.”...

Culled by Janvier T.Chando, author of THE UNION MOUJIK, “ Ukraine: The Tug-of-war between Russia and the West https://amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4XWWD/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YWGHMQF2P1RE0PPJXH0…

The Union Moujik

by Janvier Chando, Janvier Chouteu-Chando , et al.

Ukraine: The Tug-of-war between Russia and the West

by Janvier T. Chando,