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
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