Culture and Political Statehood: Reflections on Southern Cameroons Nationalism

By Dibussi Tande

Cultural heritage is important to the identity of a society. In times of need, songs, texts and works of art can be a beacon of hope and comfort. Cultural heritage reinforces the cultural and historical self awareness. Power of Culture

In a recent posting on his blog, Cameroonian political analyst George Ngwane analyzes what he perceives as the exclusively political mindset of activists of the former British Southern Cameroons who are seeking to reassert the region’s identity and “political statehood”. According to Ngwane,

Build Confidence Hypnosis Session

“The Anglophone struggle in Cameroon has, in the main, been a political manifesto aimed at reasserting the statehood of Southern Cameroon, West Cameroon or Anglophone Cameroon, appellations that depend on the generational shift or liberation mind-set of the advocates.”

He goes on to lament that the cultural dimension has been completely absent in the struggle even though culture is a vital and indispensable weapon in the search for a new political dispensation in the former United Nations Trust Territory. As he puts it, “

“for if the constitutional rape of the geo-political territory has had both political and economic toll, part of its redemption can be situated within the building block of a dynamic and potent creative industry within that same geo-political territory.

“That geo-political territory has lost the Tiko, Besongabang, Bali and Weh airports but so is it losing a vibrant media landscape. It has lost its road infrastructure but so is it losing its Art and Culture industry...Today’s national political rainbow threatens by omission or commission to eclipse the distinct Anglophone cultural colours needed to radiate the geo-political territory.”

Ngwane therefore concludes that “cultural entrepreneurship” is the missing piece in the political search for constitutional redress because “every cultural tonic carries along a Mao Tse-Tungian revolution and a Meiji restoration needed for the renaissance of any Kwame Nkrumahian political kingdom”.

Ngwane’s analysis is a very relevant and timely one which begs the question whether a nation can be established on and through politics alone. In this posting, I will take Ngwane’s analysis a step further by asking whether (1) groups fighting for political statehood can be successful if they ignore the socio-cultural angle of their fight, and (2) whether nationalist movements can be truly relevant to the key segments of their target communities if they define and articulate their nationalist struggles only in purely political terms.

Referring specifically to the case of nationalist movements in Southern Cameroon, can they effectively mobilize their geographical and political base without a clear strategy for reaching out to those Southern Cameroonians who are not politically-inclined and who are most likely to be mobilized through social causes and civil society organizations?

To better understand the context of Ngwane’s analysis and my follow-up questions, it is necessary to briefly compare the “Anglophone struggle” of the 1990s and the “Southern Cameroons Campaign” of the 21st millennium.

The Context

The Rainbow Coalition of the 1990s
When the “Anglophone renaissance” began with the wave of political liberalism that swept through Cameroon the 1990s, it was a broad-based movement that went way beyond the mere articulation of political demands or the proposal of constitutional redress to the Anglophone problem. It also included a vibrant cultural component that promoted artistic and literary works (paintings, poetry, theater, fiction, song, etc) highlighting the plight of Anglophone Cameroonians – many of which were publicly patronized, if not subsidized by the leadership in the budding Anglophone movement. In fact these cultural activities were considered an integral part of the renaissance.

Another prominent aspect of the renaissance was the establishment of vibrant Anglophone civil society organizations and pressure groups with issue-specific goals that were not necessarily political -- or at least overtly so. This was the case, for example, of the Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC) and Confederation of Anglophone Parents-Teachers Associations of Cameroon (CAPTAC) which mobilized a large segment of the Anglophone community around issues of equitable access to quality education, and the protection of the Anglophone educational system. It is thanks to these issue-oriented groups that many individuals who would not have otherwise been involved in “Anglophone Activism” became torch bearers of the movement - Not every Anglophone activist was a member of the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM) or necessarily shared CAM’s federalist political vision for the bilingual Cameroon Republic…

What resulted was mass mobilization across the board which united the Anglophone community around broad issues of constitutional redress, political equality, access to quality “Anglo-Saxon” education, and a shared socio-cultural and political heritage. This rainbow coalition created “a thousand points of pressure” on the system.

This pressure was manifested in landmark events such as the memorable workshops on Anglophone literature which resulted in the first major work on that often ignored literature in decades; an endless series of book launching ceremonies organized across the length and breadth of the territory, which served as platforms for political activism and for the promotion of works of art that told the Anglophone story in all its complexity; the Post Night organized by Cameroon Post publications, which rewarded the best political, literary and cultural icons in the Anglophone community, thus reinforcing the notion of a uniquely "Anglophone way of life" in Cameroon; the All Anglophone Conference in Buea, the largest and most diverse political gathering of Anglophone Cameroonians since reunification to discuss their status within the bilingual republic; the creation of the GCE Board after a fierce and unrelenting campaign spearheaded by CAPTAC and TAC., etc.

Radicalization and politicization
Today the socio-political landscape in Southern Cameroons is totally different as a result of a series of events that began in the mid nineties and continued until the end of that decade. The rainbow coalition of the 1990s has faded into the oblivion, and replaced by a more radical and largely monolithic front defined in purely political terms with the sole focus of establishing an independent Southern Cameroons state. 

Protest literature still occasionally pops up in bookstores in Buea or Bamenda. And, occasionally it is possible to stumble across a work of art narrating the journey of Southern Cameroonians in the union. However, unlike in the 1990s, these are largely, if not exclusively, solitary efforts with little or no institutional or nationalist backing. Cultural and social issues seem have become a burden rather than assets, and the much-touted “Southern Cameroons Heritage” is defined only in political terms.

The “struggle” is now a purely political campaign meant primarily, if not exclusively, for the lion-hearted political activists at home and abroad. The “million man army” of the 1990s made up of farmers, civil servants, teachers, illiterate rural dwellers, etc., has been demobilized. The rainbow coalition which actively contributed in placing the Anglophone problem on the national and international map is dismantled.

Some might argue that this is exactly where the struggle should be today and they probably have a point. But one can’t help but wonder whether a revolution can truly remain relevant to its base and eventually succeed in its mission by being totally political… From another perspective, could Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa have kept the flame of resistance burning for decades (with the oppressed masses constantly being roused out of apathy and complacency) without a deliberate policy by the movement to promote a protest culture (through song, photography, painting, fiction, theater, etc.) that resonated not only among the intelligentsia, but also among the masses in the Shanty towns and rural areas? The answer is an emphatic No. 

Hence, in order for the Southern Cameroons revolution (however it is defined) to fully fire up the imagination of Southern Cameroonians and recreate the formidable rainbow coalition of the 1990s, it must imperatively seek to mobilize its base not just around tales of unimplemented United Nations Resolutions, of legal and political victories in Abuja, Banjul and the Hague, etc, but also around those real and imagined cultural and social values that supposedly make the people of the region unique.

For the movement to truly come of age, it must be able to make a clear distinction between (1) the political struggle carried out be a highly focused "lean and mean" ideological machinery with a precise goal and (2) the broader struggle for socio-cultural independence which supports any endeavor (be it from a federalist, provincialist, etc.) that shines the light on the plight of Southern Cameroonians, serves as a tool for mobilization, or increases the relevance of the movement to the daily lives of the people of Southern Cameroons.

Post Script
I just finished writing this piece when I saw a press release from the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) announcing the creation of a SCYL Golden Award for Education which is to serve as a platform for promoting the study and understanding of Southern Cameroons History. Laureates shall receive a three-year free tuition package at the University of Buea. While the political motive behind the award is easy to discern, it is its social component which will most likely resonate in the region, i.e., easing the financial burden of parents who have to struggle to give their children a decent university education. 

At least one SC group seems to have understood that the political path alone may not be the answer, and that the ability to address the immediate, every day non-political needs of the people might hold the key to the mobilization dilemma – Something which Southern African Liberation Movements understood so well ages ago.

Tags: Southern CameroonsNationalismCulture

Comments

[Nkosi Jacob]

A succintly scripted plea for the redynamisation of the Anglophone Struggle. Sometimes I frankly ask myself this question: what distinctly puts me [as a "Southern Cameroonian"] apart from those others who are just "Cameroonians"? What are the qualities that carefully set an Anglophone apart?
One of the missions of the present struggle is to define who we are;what makes us different; and obviously creatively charting new fighting methods! In this light the SCYL initiative is laudable.

[Ebie]

I will take a less diplomatic stance than Dibussi and unequivocally state that the "Southern Cameroons Revolution" will fail without the creation and promotion of civil society organizations in the territory of Southern Cameroons. This is the only way to create "localized" struggles and local-level power - the "thousand points of light" that Dibussi refers to. This is particularly critical because the "fire power" of the movement is currently located in the Diaspora.

SC movements may want to turn to South Africa and learn about the role of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the 1980s which "played a central role in the demise of apartheid and paved the way for South Africa’s transition to democracy" by "coordinating popular struggles on the ground and promoting the standing of the African National Congress."

As one review states, "From the very beginning, it was an open secret that the UDF was ANC-aligned. It was a front of affiliates, but it was also a legal and more or less self-conscious front for the banned ANC, standing in, but without claiming to substitute for it". The UDF "played a central role in formulating an organisational strategy of people's power, both at a conceptual level and in terms of co-ordination and networking. The UDF provided organisational and conceptual links between disparate localised struggles and the overall struggle for national political change, and thereby greatly boosted local-level development."

It is worth noting that the UDF rose to prominence when it exploited the township uprisings of 1983 to mobilize over 700 civil society and political organizations. These uprisings triggered the 1983 uprising was not politics per se, but purely local issues" - rents, despised councillors, education crises". Southern Cameroon groups should take note.

"The UDF was not, particularly, an initiator. However, from mid-1985, it was the UDF (backed by the ANC's Radio Freedom) that began to provide an overall strategic and organisational approach to the uprising, by advancing and popularising the perspective of building "people's power". The objective of the struggle was not just ungovernability for its own sake. Making communities ungovernable, created the necessary, semi-liberated space to begin to build alternative power. Matthew Goniwe's work in building street committees in Cradock, or the formation of peoples courts in many places, or the beginning of "people's education" in schools, or the taking up of civic activities like rubbish removal, soup kitchens, and the opening up of "people's parks" were all cited as examples of the forging of local-level popular power."

Yes, you read it right; rubbish removal, soup kitchens, etc. by the ANC's frontman - a most brilliant strategy indeed, used even by the civil rights movement in the US in the 60s. Dibussi is right; court verdicts and UN resolutions mobilize and excite only the elite.

I recommend anyone interested in the revitalization of SC to read Jeremy Seekings' book "The UDF: A History of the United Democratic Front in South Africa, 1983-1991".

[Joseph Kgositsile]

While Seekings' book on the UDF is interesting, particularly in terms of the structural organization of the front and its 6600 affiliates, there is another book that is probably more relevant to the case of Southern Cameroons because it focuses extensively on the dilemma or tension between unified "national" objectives and disparate"local" aspirations.

That book is by Ineke van Kessel and is titled "'Beyond Our Wildest Dreams': The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa"(384 pages)

"As anyone who lived through that decade knows, the 1980s in South Africa were marked by protest, violent confrontation, and international sanctions. Internally, the country saw a bewildering growth of grassroots organizations--including trade unions, civic associations in the black townships, student and other youth organizations, church-based groups, and women's movements--many of which operated under the umbrella of the United Democratic Front (UDF). "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams" explores the often conflicted relationship between the UDF's large-scale resistance to apartheid and its everyday struggles at the local level.

In hindsight, the UDF can be seen as a transitional front, preparing the ground for leaders of the liberation movement to return from exile or prison and take over power."

JO

[Emil I Mondoa, MD]

Politicos and political activists shall do what they do best. Musicians, intellectuals, writers, poets, entrepreneurs organizers of NGOs should bring their wares to the Southern Cameroonian public square and not wait to be ordered by the political types. Political activists do not have ownership of the Southern Cameroons. Nobody needs to wait for marching orders.

[Rene Mufor]

Hi Dr. Mondoa, I think that it is in the interest of the political activists that Southern Cameroonians develop and emotional loyalty to the cause. What we have now is a kind of intellectual attachment to the concept of a Southern Cameroons state, which in most cases stems from frustration with the politics of "La Republique" rather than any real attachment to that state. So if the "politicos" don't seek strategies and alliances that will lead to emotional loyalty, then the cause is dead.

The article below which is about football in Spain succinctly captures what I am trying to say:
***********************************
By Simon Baskett

MADRID, May 4 (Reuters) - Spain is a country obsessed with soccer known as "el deporte rey" or the king of sports.

Four of the best-selling daily papers are dedicated almost exclusively to the sport, it dominates the television schedules and provides the leading topic of conversation in every bar from Bilbao to Barcelona.

Yet despite the almost insatiable appetite for the game, the Spain side has never been able to inspire the sort of excitement, emotion and loyalty that national teams enjoy in other countries.

In England, Brazil and Argentina life comes to a virtual standstill during the World Cup, in Spain it continues pretty much as normal.

A game involving "la seleccion" generates only a fraction of the interest of the twice yearly "clasico" between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

So why are the Spanish unmoved by their national team?

Part of the explanation is to be found in the powerful regional divisions within the country.

Many of its inhabitants see themselves as Basque or Catalan or even Galician rather than Spanish and practically every region has its own representative team that plays at least one international friendly a year.

When Catalunya play, the Nou Camp is filled to the brim in an emotive display of nationalist sentiment and it is the same when the Basque select are on display at San Mames.

But the Spanish national team has not dared play at the Barcelona stadium since 1987 and last visited the Basque country 20 years before that. It would simply be too much like playing an away match.

POLITICAL BAGGAGE

It is hard to imagine another country where a debate could occur about whether or not a footballer might want to play for the national team because of his political views, but that is the case with Barca defender Oleguer, a self-professed Catalan nationalist.

The Spanish flag carries so much political baggage with it that Chelsea's Basque defender Asier del Horno was reported to be concerned about being photographed next to it when he won his first call-up for the national side.

It is perhaps a blessing in disguise that the present Spanish national anthem has no words as singing it would be fraught with danger for some players.

"Because there is no consensus over the nature of the Spanish state, there is no consensus over the national team," says El Pais sports correspondent Diego Torres.

"Spanish players are not as proud as other national team players when they pull on the national shirt and that pride is a fundamental ingredient in the success of any national side."

Regional divisions are inextricably linked to the unchallenged supremacy of club over country in Spain with both Barca and Real drawing far more interest than the national team,

"In all countries there are strong clubs, but here the clubs also represent powerful political interests and that is the key," says Torres.

"Barca, for example, is more than a club, it represents Catalan identity. This sometimes prevents players from integrating fully into the national side.

"In other countries players belong to clubs, but not to a region or a way of life as many do here. It is very difficult to confront this matter, however, as it is a taboo in Spain."

MEDIA OBSESSION

The media obsession with the big two sides means that whenever the national team gives a news conference questions are about club matters rather than the international clash.

There is uproar whenever a Spain game takes place in the same week as the two teams meet as it disrupts preparations for "el clasico".

The announcement of the Spain squad rarely makes the front pages of the sports press and even during the World Cup, speculation about future signings will often take precedence over the national team's fortunes.

...
Triumph at the World Cup would almost certainly break the shackles that have restricted the national side for so long.

"Success could be the catalyst for change," says Torres. "If Spain achieves something important it will infect the people and help create an identity for the national team. It will also affect the clubs as say it did in France or Italy.

"Spain and Italy are similar in many ways, but in Italy the success of the national team has made it a unifying factor, in Spain its failure has helped maintain the divisions."
************************
If SCnians can get to where the Spanish are with regards to regional loyalty, then the battle will be half won...

[Emil Mondoa, MD]

Rene:
This discussion is part of that consciousness. The recent blossoming on the internet of sites with the Southern Cameroonian/ anglophone point of view is an indication that things are broadening beyond the merely political and entering the cultural space, so there is reason for hope and not despair. Attention brought to this deficit by Ngwane and then Dibussi and you is a challenge to those who have the ability to create content, develop programmes and generate entrepreneurial ventures. All of these are possible even within the repressive environment.

[Dibussi]

Hi Ebie, and Jo,

Thanks for your comments on this topic, particularly the pointers on the UDF. I scouted the Internet after your postings and came across a lot of good material on the Front. One was a review of Seekings' book on the UDF, which you both discuss. The review had this interesting quote:

"The Front consisted of some 600 affiliated organisations. Most organisations fitted into sectors which the UDF had identified as crucial forces for change: youth, civic organisations and women... Among the innovations in the UDF style of anti-apartheid campaigning were the emphasis on local organisations built around BREAD-AND-BUTTER CONCERNS of ordinary residents, its sophisticated public relations, its capacity to reach out to sectors of the South African population which were alienated by National Party politics but not ready to join the liberation movement (the ’middle ground’) and its massive use of a wide array of media, ranging from community papers and posters to buttons and T-shirts." http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=22940981048096

Another article on "South African History online" states that:

"The UDF was able to succeed because "there was a base of existing organisations and networks on which it could build. The organisational base of the UDF reflected the character of South African society in the 1980s: professional organisations with fast-growing black membership; community organisations in settled urban areas; student organisations in the burgeoning secondary and tertiary educational sectors; and youth organisations bringing together highly politicised, well-educated activists and unemployed school-leavers. The power of the UDF was rooted in the growth of the settled black urban population, comprising both the urban industrial working classes and the aspirant black middle classes. Without this patchwork of organisations the UDF would not have been possible: a national association of individual activists along the lines of the Release Mandela Committee, for example, would have been too easy to suppress."

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/organisations/udf/udf-frameset.htm

So the more groups you have militating for a general cause (even with sometimes divergent paths), the more difficult it is for security forces to clamp down on them. However, when you have a largely monolithic protest landscape, effective mobilization efforts are quickly and easily thwarted; the more the merrier... The South African case in general and the UDF in particular, definitely merit a much closer look.

Thanks again for your input.

[Emil Mondoa, MD]

CHICKEN OR EGG?
I think we are avoiding something here. The political activists have done their work very well, making the case for the Southern Cameroons in the last decade. That is their forte.

It might not necessarily be their strength to build the grand loose coalition that is being described here.

Chicken or Egg? Is it because the political types are very strident that the others are not doing their part, or is it because the others with other diverse strengths are not pulling their weight?

[George Ngwane]

One thing I hardly do when I write my articles is to try to explain all what I have taken pains to do;but indeed the comments on Dibussi's abridged and supplementary version of my article 'Creative Industries,cultural entrepreneurship and poltical statehood' are way off target. It may be neccessary to read the entire article on my web so as to refocus on the original debate.
This has nothing to do with creating any friction between polical activists and cultural managers. Indeed you need to stay in Cameroon and watch how even the last atom of Anglophone existence gets carried away in an indigenous arts and culture suicide.
Something can be done about it. Examples of how others are asserting their homegrown cultural identities exist in the Cameroonian polity;we do not need to go to Madiba's land to be inspired.

[Asuambe Michael]

Hi Ngwane,

I happened to have read your brilliant article even before it was excerpted here. I think Dibussi simply built on your theme of cultural entrepreneurship and cultural identity to focus on the appropriation and promotion of cultural agents (and the civil society) for purposes of furthering a much narrower political agenda. In other words, the political potential of culture.

I think this is where your article and his intersect; the militant Anglophone at home or in the diaspora really has no business in the "culture business" (no matter how significant culture may be) unless that culture can be used TODAY as a tool for POLITICAL mobilization... As many in the movement will tell you (and I share their views to an extent), when SC becomes independent, it will forge a new cultural ethos for its people - other African countries did it after decolonization so why not SC? For now there are other priorities. Culture will become a priority only if it serves a political purpose the the movement.

That is the lesson from MAdiba's country which has never been understood even in the early days of multiparty politics when the Cameroon opposition was at its zenith.

To conclude, your article is chapter one in the culture debate, Dibussi's is chapter two, which also includes a civil society component. I bet chapter three, which goes even further, is being written somewhere as we discuss these issues.

This has been a most interesting debate indeed!

[Ambe Johnson]

One thing is certain; culture (be it the imported or home grown variety) is dead in Anglophone Cameroon - a town like Buea doesn't even have a movie theater, although the proliferation of Nollywood films is partially taking care of the vacuum. So there is no culture in the vibrant/living sense of the word - and I am not talking about the folkloric displays of ethnic cultures....

However, I do not buy the argument that "Anglophone Culture" is dead. Until someone proves the contrary, there is and has never been an overaching "Anglophone culture" which distinguishes Anglophone cameroon from "La Republique". We do have tribal cultures that are in many cases closer to those in La Republic than to other cultures in Anglophone Cameroon. Nothing more.

Culture, like nationalism, is largely an ideological contstruct, an invention based on truths, half-truths, exagerations and myths. In my opinion, the challenge is for Anglophone cultural entrepreneurs and political activists to create the myth of a unique and broad-based Anglophone culture which is believable enough to be sold to, and accepted by, the masses.

That is the surest path to cultural redynamisation in the region, and also to political mobilisation. Easier said than done, though...

[ngum]

Bate Besong and his peers- protest playwrights and poets and their predecessor Musinga are the harbingers of that culture that Ambe Johnson is talking about. There is nothing like deprivation and persecution to coalesce the thoughts of even the laziest people. What would the Jewish culture be without the mythical 40 years in the desert or the African-american culture without the Middle Passage and the civil rights struggle? Great musics and literature and esprits de corps have emerged from these. Many of us still read that tragic Jewish book, the Bible and use it as a manual for living life on earth.

[Jen]

I'm doing a coursepaper on Anglophone literature in Cameroon and am particulalry interested in its use as a political tool. Cansomeone advise me on which books/plays/poems I should read? I am fascinated by what some poeple have said about the role of culture in the Southern Cameroonian political identity. Any advice would be appreciated, and also any suggestions where in London I might get my hands on these works. Thanks.

[Dibussi]

Hi Jen,

The place to start your search on the web is at: http://www.batebesong.com/

There also two key articles in the "Cross/Cultures" journal (No. 76)

1. Edward O. AKO: "Nationalism in Recent Cameroon Anglophone Literature"
2. Hilarious N. AMBE: "The Anglophone-Francophone Marriage and Anglophone Dramatic Compositions in the Cameroon Republic".

A google search on Cameroon Anglophone Literature will definitely be of great help

[Dr. A. A. Agbormbai]

This is a brilliant article that cogently summarises the issues surrounding the SC independence movement.

In my opinion this movement is heavily flawed because, as emphasised in the article, it lacks people-orientation. One gets the impression that the goals of this movement are formulated from above and the protagonists are forcing them down the throats of the people, who themselves are tired and apathetic from all the failed political promises of the nineties.

From my own assessment in the last year it is clear that the people are no longer interested in political upheavals or in the sort of radicalism or revolution that the SC protagonists are advocating.

The people are interested only in poverty alleviation and in the immediate improvement of their lives. Yet gaining SC independence cannot be done without adopting measures that jeopardise the livelihoods of the people.

Such measures will go directly against the good governance programme, and this will ensure that the SCNC will be operating against the G8 countries whose support it needs. This problem has ensured that the SCNC is currently pursuing a dead-end for objectives; and the frustrations that many of its members effuse suggest that they still haven't recognised this deadlock and the consequent need to adjust their goals accordingly.

Lacking people-orientation, the SC independence advocates consequently lack flexibility and responsiveness. They are not moving with the times and are blind to critical changes that have an impact on the feasibility of their goals. This blindness is down to the fact that they have become slaves of history, hatred, and revenge.

Strategically the advocates are poor, focusing all their energies on a monotone of tiresome anti-France emotional outbursts that cannot kill a fly. Basically they keep crying over spilled milk and keep revisiting predictable and familiar ground.

The lack of variation and intellectualism in their arguments, allied to the emotional overtones in these arguments, gives the impression that these advocates are cry-babies looking for a mother or father out there to have pity on their troubled souls. And all these in a world that is best compared to a jungle.

Their approach generally is negative, destructive, monotonic, and tiresome, to any objective observer; and all these at a time when the people are looking for their spirits to be uplifted from all the disappointments of the nineties' politics.

In my view their goal of SC independence is currently unattainable, and all the protagonists should refocus their energies on pressurising the government to bring development and wealth to the anglophone provinces.

[SJ]

Dr. A.A. Agbormbai,

Thank you, for this opportunity, once again for me to address this Southern Cameroons issue that is dear to my heart. I have argued elsewhere (as you must be aware) against the narrative that has been perpetuated for ages that all Africans are good for are as passive recipients of benefits or charities from others. This narrative was invoked by Jacques Chirac in the early 90s when he admonished Africans who were trying to create a political environment suitable to their needs in the modern world that they were "not mature enough for democracy ... and should worry about feeding themselves and getting their medcines," obviously like the sub-humans this pernicious historical narrative that accompanied the predation and dehumanization of slavery and colonisation over the centuries against Africans.

It is tragic that an African like you will echo these same sentiments by declaring that "the people are interested only in poverty alleviation and in the immediate improvement of their lives." Unfortunately, you fail to appreciate the humanity that inspires the Southern Cameroons de-colonization struggle. Dr. Agbormbai, what conditions the good life are ideals that invoke freedom and values of humanity: LIBERTY, EQUALITY & FRATERNITY that the nazis quickly changed on occupying France to WORK, FAMILY & FATHERLAND. It was not done without design (and it is not without the similar evil design and inspiration that la Republique du Cameroun (PEACE, WORK & FATHERLAND) that a majority of French colonies in Africa have a variation of the Vichy-nazi motto. This is the essence of our political and human struggle, to exit the rule of France and la Republique du Cameroun. By contrast,the state of New Hampshire in the US has a motto that passionately invokes what we in the Southern Cameroons, and men since the beginning of time have must obey, "Live Free or Die."

In your argument here, you cite the G8(as a source of legitimacy of our humanity?), and the colonial government of la Republique du Cameroun, who you then advise must be pressured "to bring development and wealth to the anglophone provinces."

Either out of malice or ignorance, you seem to be unaware that it is the same government that has dismantled all the institutions that had secured the wealth and development of the "anglophone provinces" and that has implemented a policy where rents and royalties generated from investments in those "anglophone provinces" are paid in coffers in "francophone provinces" if not directly into European bank accounts. One must make note, to those unfamiliar with the Southern Cameroons or what apologists for its colonisation insist on calling "anglophone provinces" that it is not legally part of la Republique du Cameroun (Cameroun Republic). She was not part of her territory when the latter became independent of January 1, 1960 (a date they do not commemorate). The Southern Cameroons has international borders established by international treaties giving her a geo-political identity, and there exists no treaty legalising any union between la Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons per Article 102 of the UN Charter to warrant her brutal presence in the Southern Cameroons.

While you, Dr, Agbormbai seem to despise history in your broadside against the proponents of the Southern Cameroons Independence and Liberation Movement, one should therefore not be surprised that the same arguments you are offering against the de-colonization of the Southern Cameroons are the same that recorded history has Europeans offering against the de-colonization of Africa after World War II. You must have heard Churchill's pronouncement that "I did not become her Majesty's Frist Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire," upon the American inisistence of the moral imperative in the de-colonization of Africa by the European nations rescued from Hitler's colonial eneterprise. While Britain did leave politically, France stayed with the ruse of "Cooperation Agreements" while the Portugese were kicked out in the 70s & 80s after protacted wars of Liberation. My learned Doctor, I will rather be a "slave to history" than an courtier and vassal to ignorance and inhumanity.

You continue, "yet gaining SC independence cannot be done without adopting measures that jeopardise the livelihoods of the people." Which people do you have in mind? The question begs. We recall that colonising the Southern Cameroons necessarily involved adopting issues that jeopardised the livelihoods of the people of the Southern Cameroons such as the dismantling of Powercam and the Yoke Power Station; the looting of the National Produce Marketing Board and its financial reserves including the auctioning of its assets to friends of the colonial regime of la Republique du Cameroun; the dismemberment of the Southern Cameroons into "anglophone provinces," and the introduction of proconsuls as reigning authorities that have disrupted the natural flow of life in the Southern Cameroons. Do you care whose livelihoods these adopted measures continue to jeopardise today?

May I remind you that the end of nazi occupation in Europe did not happen "without adopting measures that jeopardise the livelihoods of the people."

May I remind you that the end of colonisation did not occur "without adopting measures that jeopardise the livelihoods of the people."

May I remind you that the end of slavery did not happen "without adopting measures that jeopardise the livelihoods of the people." As a matter of fact, in Fogel & Engerman's study titled "Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery," it is revealed that eventhough slaves in the American South had higher pecuniary incomes and led longer lives than industrial workers in the North of America and Europe, they still revolted; a revolt that led to a future whose promise was uncertainty, but most importantly freedom. "Live Free or Die" indeed. Freedom from collective domination is a powerful impulse and can only be contained for so long. So even after 500 years, slaves did not give up. According to you, after 500 years the anti-slavery protagonists would have been forcing their notions of freedom "down the throats of the people, who themselves are tired and apathetic."

Dr. A.A. Agbormbai, I am happy that in describing the Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement, you have used words like "slaves to history" "hatred," "revenge,"; phrases like, "generally is negative, destructive, monotonic, and tiresome,"; "heavily flawed because, as emphasised in the article, it lacks people-orientation."

Yet, the colonial regime that beats, arrests, tortures, and kills with impunity have been spared your righteous contempt, excuse me, critique. For that, I admire you greatly. But I also take solace that the Southern Cameroonian Liberation Movement is following the path of others like the Free French and DeGaulle, who were described in similar terms by the nazis and her collaborators. DeGaulle was even condemned to death.

The Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement is advocating the same principles for which ANC and Nelson Mandela were described using terms not different from yours by the aparthied regime. I am quite surprised Dr. Agbormbai that you spared us this time the sobriquet of "terrorists" that you so bravely launched at us in THE POST blog. The history that sacres you so much will record the esteemed company you keep.

However, while you labor to propagate the falsehood that our Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement "lacks people orientation" as the colonisers in Yaounde and Paris would want the world to believe, reality indicates otherwise. Andrew Mueller, the Australian journalist who was promptly arrested and deported by the Camerounese colonial authorities while covering the Southern Cameroons Liberation Movement had this to write after his brief stay in the Southern Cameroons about the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) in OPENDEMOCRACY.NET, he wrote in part, of the SCNC as "a peaceful and very popular, though illegal, organisation." I do not think Andrew Mueller is on the "payroll" or seeking any favors the SCNC!

We watch we amusement as all sorts of people, especially those of Southern Cameroons extraction (even at time when Camerounese like Shanda Tonme, Djeukam Tchameni, and even Adamu Ndam Njoya have in varying degrees acknowledged the legitimacy of the Southern Cameroons struggle) desperately try to minimize and ridicule our movement, no matter how beautifully they package the pronouncements and tie with bow of pretentious sincerity and faux objectivity.

To my Southern Cameroonian freedom fighters, and all those around the world who still hold freedom and justice as an article of faith, I will end by burrowing from the newly re-elected Mayor of New Orleans who invoked the words of Ghandi: "first they ignore you, then the laugh at you, and then they fight you, and then you win."

Once more, Dr. A.A. Agbormbai, thank you for being my muse.

[Ad]

According to Andrew Mueller,

"The SCNC is beset with internal rivalries in the grand tradition of revolutionary groups; the factions give every appearance of hating each other more than they do their ostensible common enemy. While most in the movement adhere, I believe sincerely, to the party line of non-violent resistance, there are those who mutter, worryingly, about Biafra, or even Rwanda (the SCNC’s youth wing, traditionally somewhat hot-headed, has launched its own pirate radio station). An armed conflict here would be a foolish, unnecessary tragedy."

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-africa_democracy/cameroon_3052.jsp

[Dr. A. A. Agbormbai]

SJ,

You write like an idealist rather than a pragmatist. You can produce all sorts of righteous justifications to defend your position but you still do not show awareness of the issues and constraints that drive the world.

Do you think you can really mobilise the SC people in the current climate, when they can see that at least the good governance programme is bringing some improvement in their lives, through its various local projects?

When was the last time the SCNC mobilised the people and received its backing for its actions? How recent is that? Do you have any valid recent statistics regarding the people's support for your current direction?

How trusting are the people that your wild promises are any better than the rubbish they received in the nineties? Isn't it true that you keep giving SC people assurances without ever answering questions about how you are going to deliver a new country to them?

Isn't it true that your inability to deliver a new country to them is motivating them to show greater allegiance to their current country (after all, with the current international focus on assisting Cameroon the times look ever more promising for them)?

Is it wrong to say that the current progressive direction Cameroon is taking (which is based on improving the lives of the people, both sides of the Mungo) is eating you inside because it is working against your best interests (which can only be realised if only bad news can come out of the country)?

Is it wrong to say that your organisation has falsified information about Cameroon (for instance, claiming that Mamfe is a dustbowl when it is in fact tarred) in order to keep all news black about the country? Are all these not evidence that you are working against the best interest of the SC people?

[SJ]

Dr. A.A. Agbormbai,

Thanks once more for engaging me in a debate I think we all honestly need. As a wise man once said, debates are good because it forces those engaged in it to either refine their understanding of the issues being addressed or reconsider their point of view. We stand on both sides of the ideological divide, and while I may learn a thing or two from you, the scorn you have for the discipline of history may forever prohibit you from ever reconsidering your point of view regarding the Southern Cameroons de-colonization issue.

On idealism and pragmatism. I make no apologies for writing or thinking as an idealist. When Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamt of an America for his children, he spoke from the pulpit of idealism. Idealism motivates and inspires others to accomplish their stated goals. As a man of science Dr. A.A. Agbormbai, you will agree with me that the experiments that put man and satellites in orbit and in beyond were conducted under the ideal environs of laboratories and simulated test sites. You pay me a compliment I do not deserve.

Now let's examine the pragmatism you invite me to consider.

On "the good governance programme [that] is bringing some improvement in their lives." It is sad that you did not cite one of the these programs, I'm sure there is a road somewhere being built by the colonizer you could have brought up. But we can not have a healthy debate when you ask for facts and evidence and furnish none. On the other hand, I can tell you that airports in Tiko, Bessonabang, Weh and Bali that could be serving the economic and commercial interests of the people of the Southern cameroons became extinct under a colonial policy of dispossession. Even the Bamenda airport built under the colonial regime now only serves as a military base; maybe that was what it was designed to be all along.

On mobilisation of the SC people and our irrevocable march towards freedom (or the "current direction" in your parlance). In 1996, the SCNC conducted a Signature Referandum that gave her an overwhelming mandate to speak on behalf of Southern Cameroonians and secure their independence as a free people. This is part of the package of documents that made the Southern Cameroons cases in Abuja and Banjul at the African Comission of Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR Communication 266/2003). Not recent enough for you? Tough.

On our inability to deliver a new country to the people of the Southern Cameroons and your wishful hope of their allegiance to "their current country." Again, you replace opinion for fact and evidence. How do you quantify that allegiance to their current country? Is it by the hyper militarisation of the Southern Cameroons by what you describe as their "current country," la Republique du Cameroun? Should not rice, coffee, bananas, corn and other items, instead of bullets and guns be transported in the airports of Bamenda, Bali etc. etc. Why were most these airports converted to military bases? Should not those trolleys I played on as a kid in Tiko be today taking produce to the Port of Tiko as our people trade with the rest ofthe world? Is the absence of these structures and the poverty and resentment it necessarily creates mean allegiance to Yaounde and Paris? Why is the Man O' War Bay a French military post. To elicit a compliance allegiance?

As for our inability to deliver, Doctor, we are in the morning of the struggle; but let me assure you, and maybe to your eternal chargrin, that the Southern Cameroons will become de-colonized and free. One thing freedom fighters have in plenty is patience, we may die in the process but the spirit of resistance to injustice lives forever. 500 years of absolute deprivation did not quench the desires of slaves to be free, if I must remind you.

Once again, and as you perfected through out your presenations you offer no facts or evidence, only opinion. Uninformed opinion at that. What is your idea of the "current progressive direction?" Being a poorly and heavily indebted country? Consistently being ranked as one of the most corrupt countries on earth? Being governed by two Constitutions?

Philip Thornton, the Economics correspondent writes in THE INDEPENDENT of May 16,2006:

"The scale of the exodus of capital from countries with major social problems will raise fears of massive corruption and money laundering that will hurt the welfare of the world's most vulnerable people.

The New Economics Foundation said deposits had risen noticeably over the past five years, with inflows from Cameroon up 516 per cent ..."

Doctor Agbormbai, how is this "improving the lives of the people."? If this qualifies as a progressive direction of la Republique du Cameroun, I will dread to see what your idea of a static la Republique du Cameroun. My brother, you have a very strange way of loving your people.

The SCNC has not falsified information, the pictures that we all see in the media of the infrastructure and decay of the Southern Cameroons speak for themselves. These have been documented, they are not opinions.

Finally, the best interest of the people of the Southern Cameroons lies in them being free from the colonial rule of France masquerading as la Republique du Cameroun. In them having their institutions like a parliament and government that once took care of their well-being and had foreign reserves saved for their children.

The best interest of the people of the Southern Cameroons lies in empowering local communities and individuals as was the case with the Native Authorities (NA), who from local taxation built NA Schools, NA Clinics and maintained their communities in high levels of sanitation and public order.

The best interest of the people of the Southern Cameroons is in reminding them that former PMs: Endeley, Foncha, Jua, never once kept a political foe in prison. Never persecuted political opponents, and never ordered the murder of students by armed government agents.

These are all verifiable facts and not opinions.

A free and independent Southern Cameroons is in their best interest, and that is exactly what they will get. And we'll celebrate in at Bongo Square.

Thank you!

[Ma Mary]

Slavery reigned in America for over 200 years. People who think like Agbormbai would to this day have accepted some version of slavery as "normal and inevitable".

[Dr. A. A. Agbormbai]

SJ,

All I can gather from your response is that you harbour a deep dream but you do not know how to realise it, as a result of which it appears more like wishful thinking. You draw inspiration from past heroes, but you interpret their lives out of context.

Idealism is only the first step to realising an ambition. To accomplish your mission you need pragmatism. This means that you must transform your ideals into practical and workable solutions. All the examples you quote of idealism were later pragmatised in order to attain successful implementation.

Laboratory experiments, theories, principles, and laws must be ultimately pragmatised before they can find successful application; otherwise, they will remain at the experimental or conceptual stage. This is the point that you miss very seriously, and it is why you cannot make much progress with your mission.

Another thing that I notice is your tendency to misinterpret and therefore to learn the wrong lessons from history. Remember that the things that are recorded on paper represent ideas that are 'valid' only up to the time when they were recorded, and this may be very different from the time when they were published.

Where you go wrong so often is your tendency to perform a linear extrapolation of these recorded details arbitrarily into the future. Yet anyone who lives with his eyes open will tell you that life is not that predictable. There are too many unexpected events that can happen in the world that would completely invalidate what we knew only yesterday.

The general unpredictability of the future is a fundamental law of nature. That is why you must use history judiciously and sparingly when predicting future events. It is much more important to keep an eye for critical occurrences that can suddenly change the world scene and cause all previous plans to require adjustment.

On another point, no one denies that the situation in Cameroon is pathetic, and it has been so for as long as we know. You can quote all sorts of examples to highlight this sorry situation, and you can keep on dwelling on them until you die. It wouldn't change the fact that it happened.

No one also denies that this pathetic situation was caused by Biya under the influence of France. This is all recorded history. But is this where life ends? Why should we keep crying, that these things happened? Isn't it better to think positive and focus instead on solutions?

What type of solutions? Feasible solutions! Solutions that can be communicated to the people with evidence, not vague promises. It is much easier to communicate the benefits of the good governance programme to the people than it is to communicate what you promise them. For instance, with the attainment of the completion point the credit rating of Cameroon has improved and with it the potential for increased foreign investments. Such investments will create jobs. This is concrete, not a vague promise.

Finally, in your so-called cited evidence, you ignore all the dramatic transformations that have occurred since April 2005 in the outlook of the people. With all the intellectual debates and learning that have been taking place in the last year or so the people are now more intelligent and are wiser in assessing the information they receive. I doubt very much that in the current climate the SCNC would have much backing from SC people. It would be informative if you could test this assertion and see for yourself.

[sj]

Dr. A.A. Agbormbai,

You write: "What type of solutions? Feasible solutions! Solutions that can be communicated to the people with evidence, not vague promises."

Then comes your vague promise: "with the attainment of the completion point the credit rating of Cameroon has improved and with it the potential for increased foreign investments. Such investments will create jobs." You know too well to wisely use the word "potential." And you sound like France's puppet, Paul Biya's speech writer of the past 24 years.

For argument sake, let us ask France to confirm or dispel your doubts about whether "in the current climate the SCNC would have much backing from SC people." Neither you or I have the power to test this, do we?

But I will tell you that freedom fighters: from slaves, to colonised Americans, to French revolutionaries, to anti-apartheid militants never conducted any referandum to tell them that they were receiving less than God intended for them.

[Dr. A. A. Agbormbai]

SJ,

Your major problem is lack of objectivity. In any case, you can test my hypothesis by simply rallying the people and see what the response will be. You don't need to conduct a referendum.

[DANGO TUMMA]

THANKS, SJ FOR YOUR VERY INFORMATIVE AND
FACTUAL HISTORICAL WRITINGS,
THE PROBLEM WITH AGBOR MBAI, ITS THAT DEEP
INSIDE HIS HEART, HE DOESNT FEEL IT, HE DOESNT KNOW THAT, SOUTHERN CAMEROONS HAD
BEEN COMPLETELLY COLONISED AGAIN BY THOSE
WE EXPECTED TO TREAT US AS EQUAL PARTNERS.
EVEN AS THE FEDERATION WAS ILLEGAL PER UN
ADVISE THEN.
BUT AGBORMBAI. AND THE LIKES FROM THE TYPICAL ( OVERSIDE MAMFE) WHO NEVER SAW
A COMCRETE AND ASPHALT BRIDE LINKING THEIR HOME VILLAGE TO THE WORLD. WHO NEVER SAW A TEN STOREY CONCRETE ,GLASS AND ALUMINUM BUILDING. ONLY HAVE THEM SELVES
ALL BUT SOLD OUT TO THE THUHS AND OCCUPYINGS FORCES OF THE FRENCH -CAMEROUN.
AGBORMBAI ISNT ANY THING BUT THE ( DR) THAT HE
TUGS BEFORE HIS NAME, THATS WHAT MAKES HIM
( AGBORMBAI, IF NOT FOR IT HE JUST ISNT SMART ENOUGH TO PASS A GCE A LEVEL EXAM
ANY WHERE IN THE WORLD.
HE NEEDS RE-EDUCATION. WHAT A SORROW,SAD
SAY, THAT AGBOR MBAI NEEDS TO BE NAKED AGAIN LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD AND START THE
LEARNING PROCESS, ALLOVER AGAIN.

[paolo laurent]

there is only two solutions

Certainly. a people cannot accept to be a second class, colonised people too long. What we need is the following"

A. A REFERANDUM
TO VALIDATE THE ARGUMENT BY BIYA AND AHIDJO THAT SC IS PART OF CAMEROUN EVEN AS HISTORY SAYS OTHERWISE.

B, A WAR OF LIBERATION
TO DRIVE OFF THE ILLEGAL ADMINISTRATORS AND 50,000 ARMED MEN FROM REPUBLIC OF CAMEROUN, WHO ARE PRESENTLY OPPRESSING US.