Map of the World
Cameroon on a Map of the World
I have observed compatriots with thought formulations that make them impeccable union nationalist who reject the evil system oppressing us by striving for the future New Cameroon that would be an embodiment of liberty, democracy, freedom, progress, unity, peace and advancement. Yet, some of these compatriots sometimes sound like advocates of the system/Biya regime when it comes to the defense of Cameroon's unity. While trying to defend the unity of
Cameroon, it is easy to fall into the trap where one finds himself unconsciously propping up the Biya regime and system. Recently an exponent of change fell into that trap of appearing to exonerate the system and its regimes by minimizing the marginalization of the people in the different regions of
Cameroon. The system bears far more of the responsibility for the people's underdevelopment, and not the other way around.
That some people survive better than others while under oppression does not mean that the different peoples (ethnic groups, nationalities, linguistic entities and regions) were not oppressed and that the system should not be faulted for being anti-people. Every people deserve an entitlement to the resources around them, as is the norm in any civilized nation. The fact that the most oppressed people in the history of humanity (the Jews) are considered by many to be the wealthiest does not mean that it is the fault of other oppressed people who failed to be self-sufficient, or that the underdevelopment of nations and people in Africa and elsewhere in the world is not the open or tacit, full or partial responsibility of foreign powers (directly or indirectly). Some people thrive under adversity while others are retarded or held back by it. But that does not mean that those who thrived couldn’t have done even better if the country had been open, free, just, democratic and non-discriminatory.
On the other hand, I fault kwalar N's article for its intellectual dishonesty. He ended up doing more of a disservice to the people he appears to be siding with. I suggest he does more research to have a better understanding of this nation's history and people.
A little research would have taught him that Buea was the capital of this geo-political entity (at the time German Kamerun) before the capitalwas ultimately moved to
Douala following the eruption of the Mt Fako (Mt Buea or Mt
Cameroon). He would not have missed the fact that in 1910, the first liberation movement in Black Africa was formed in Cameroon under the leadership of Mebenga Mebono (Martin Paul Samba), a multi-ethnic movement that left an imprint in the four southernmost provinces. He would have known that Martin Paul Samba, the Duala king Rudolf Manga Bell and a host of other prominent Kamerunians were hanged by the Germans in 1914 for conspiring with the British, French and Belgians to liberate German Kamerun. That the victorious Allied powers reneged and occupied
German Kamerun instead, partitioned it further and treated it as conquered German territory should be eye-openers to Anglophiles and Francophiles. Kwalar would have known that the pro-German traditional rulers and their people suffered massively after and that the British and French relied on the former anti-German rulers and peoples to consolidate their grip on the partitioned former German Kamerun.
The agendas of OK (One Cameroon) and KNDP (Kamerun National Democratic Party) had strong UPC support. They were the force behind the victory in the plebiscite. Those who voted in British
Southern Cameroons were legal residents (long time and born, so there was no transfer of UPC people to vote in the plebiscite. Meanwhile in British
Northern Cameroons, the registered voters increased by 2.6 times (260%) within a year and a half. (Figure that out). A case in point is the fact that my father, their generation and the generation before them in the family who moved to the "Coast" during the era of German kamerun to work, trade and seek for a better life, like many other ethnic groups in
Cameroon; supported reunification. Look at the historical annals of Saint Joseph College Sassed, the sole at the time and the school that churned out the vast majority of English speaking administrators for the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the backbone of an era of administration many of us are proud of. As an entity, a highly disproportionate number were from across the Mungo. If we are proud of that era, then we should be proud of them too for their honesty, patriotism, integrity and ideas as committed nation-builders of the post-independence Cameroon.
In
Cameroon, the problem is not between Anglophones and Francophones. It is not even tribal or ethnic. It is about an oligarchic system that has no loyalty to the people; it is about a system steered today by the Biya regime, one that cannot muster a majority support in any of the ethnic groups and linguistic entities in
Cameroon. The truth is that yesterday it was Fulani-dominated under Ahidjo. Today, it is Beti-dominated under Biya. Moreover, individuals from all corners and from all the ethnic groups of
Cameroon are involved in the mafia-setup (our relatives, friends and tribesmen).
In the SDF dominated Limbe in the 1990s, I was privy to be working with what many considered to be the nerve of the party's intelligence gathering, and suffice to know that SONARA was a black hole that no patriotic Cameroonian could tolerate (Souleyman, a Fulani etc opposed the pillage by joining the SDF and lost his job, while others stuck with the CPDM and got into SONARA---Francophones and Anglophones alike). Our known petroleum reserves were expected to be depleted in 2008 and production started falling in 1989. Only recent economically viable discoveries (offshore mostly) will allow the reserves to run until 2013. With oil constituting less than 30%(from 80% in the 1980s) of government revenues today and with a decline in economic growth rate, little foreign investments and with Cameroonian businessmen investing abroad, time is on the side of the exponents of change. Makeshift reform moves by the regime in power that are nothing else but whitewash are an attempt to save itself from bankruptcy. It has been parasitic on Cameroonians, forgetting that as the nation languishes toward its death, the evil system too would die.
At a whim, heads of nations have changed the names of their countries, cities, constitutions and history, but that does not change geo-political, social and economic realities. The fabrics of the nation (the people) stood the same. That is the situation in
Cameroon. And the New
Cameroon will be born from the great Cameroonian people and not from the names and slogans that the evil system is using to coat the Cameroonian reality. The system is living an illusion, but it would be foolhardy for disadvantaged Cameroonians to live an illusion as well, an illusion that only gives credit to the regime in power and the anachronistic French-imposed system that has been haunting Cameroonians for six decades.
