KUMBA, THE HEALING POWER OF EMPATHY AND HOW WE ARE ALL FAILING AS A NATION
Once labeled as a nation of peace, both politicians and civilians used to boast about the fact that despite harsh living conditions one could go to sleep without hearing sounds of bullets and people mourning their deaths. Cameroon is no longer that peaceful nation both politicians and Cameroonians can brag about. How are we all failing as a nation and how can we overcome by nurturing empathy?
Victory CAMIBON, Jennifer ANAMGIM, Princess NGEMONE, Che TELMA, Rema ZAKAME, Syndi CHEMA, Renny NGWANE These names are haunting me. I am totally against filming a dead body. It is disrespectful towards the dead and their families and it only serves our morbid curiosity and our insatiable appetite for attention. I wish I never saw the images of their soulless bodies. But I saw them and I have to live with that for the rest of my life. I have to deal with that reality. The reality of how we all failed as a nation to protect those little kids. They did not die, they lost their lives and the countless beauty within it. In fact, someone purposely took their life and we are all to blame. The killers, the government, we the people. If you don’t feel any guilt, you’re either a very privileged person blinded by the relative comfort you’re enjoying or you’re simply a heartless person. The famous writer and poet Aimée Cesaire wrote that “it is not the head of a civilization that begins to rot first. It is his heart”
We can all argue that we were not the one holding the guns. That’s true but that’s just a way to clear our conscience from feeling the guilt of these children’s death. Our country is failing and we are all to blame because we were all unable to protect those kids. All of us. You must probably be asking yourself how you could have avoided that tragedy because you were not in Kumba and probably like myself you live outside the country. Well, let’s start from the beginning. I learned in school that democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.To put it simply, it is the government of the people by the people. It derives from two Greek words dēmos which means “people” and kràtos which means “power”. Basically, we entrust our government officials with our power, the power of 25 millions of Cameroonians by voting. In a perfect democracy, election are held and we as a nation we chose do renew our trust because we are satisfied by the government we’ve elected or we decide to vote government officials out because they’re not good enough. President Biya is in office since 1982. They’re claims of rigged elections every single election year but unfortunately, I don’t have any tangible evidence to back those claims since our own judiciary system confirmed his victory. Plus most of us never vote but we are very eager to criticise. It’s vain. We have to live by the rules of the land. I’m a law-abiding citizen therefore even if I’m suspicious and can’t make a move because I need tangible evidence. We the people may have the feeling that we are being robbed. We the people are left with the feeling that our vote doesn’t count. We the people chose massively not to vote having the feeling that our vote is useless. The abstention rate was a record high: 70%. We chose vain complaints instead of voting. 70% of the population chose not to vote: that’s almost 15.000.000 people. That’s the population of over 50 of the biggest cities of our country. FIFTY ! ALL COMBINED ! Yaounde, Douala, Buea, Ngaoundere, Bamenda, Maroua, Bafoussam, Loum, Nkonssamba, Garoua and more all combined. Here’s another way to see things. Those 70% represent more than half the overal population of our country. It is a tremendous power to deal with not to gamble with. I will disagree with Pr Kamto on his strategy of boycotting the elections. The empty chair policy only work when you’re in position of power not when you’re seeking for it. One can make a difference once in power not otherwise.
“Cameroon is far from being a perfect nation. We have to keep in mind that our democracy is only 60 years old. Our president is older than our democratic system. The French democracy in comparison is 231 years old. Let’s be humble and enthusiast about the future”
THE POWER OF FEAR
What happened in Kumba is the result of our failure as a nation once again. We have given the power to our government officials either by voting them in or by refusing to vote them out. Mostly we have allowed our country to fail because we’ve accepted to be ruled by fear. We fear to voice our opinion, we fear that if we get too political, our business is going to be affected, we fear that a bamileke might rule the country, we fear that any other tribe other than the one in charge will seek for revenge, we fear that if we’re not from the tribe in office we will face the wrath of revenge, we fear that northerners are plotting revenge because our first president HE Ahmadou Ahidjo never received national homage and is still buried outside the land of his ancestors, We fear revenge, we fear to protest when government officials embezzle huge chunks of our money, we fear to vote because we think that our vote will not count, we fear to raise our voice when injustice is performed before our own eyes, we fear to go out for a peaceful protest because we might never come back home alive. We fear to say that it is a shame that our president tweeted and did not bother to pays a visit to the families of the victims, he is said to be the father of the nation, which father hears that his children died and sent a state representative ? We fear to voice any criticism while criticism is the backbone of democracy. Criticism is no daughter of sympathy for it is one for progress. We cameroonians who’ve reached the voting age are not children, we refuse this paternalistic way of seeing things, we fear to say that sister Mary is a hero because she was brave enough to call out minister Atangana Nji . Have you forgoten that you were born in Bamenda thefore you should be acting actively to peacefully connect both world, anglophones and francophones ? your speech was appaling. Families lost their child they do not need you to make them feel guilty for their lost. It’s a disgrace and a profound lack of empathy. We fear to do anything because we were told that we will lose everything including our own life. We fear to say that what’s happening to our brothers and sisters and now our children in the south west and north west region is hearbreaking. We fear that we may never make it in our homeland, that’s why we leave our family, we leave our friends to go abroad. We fear to write to our government officials to tell them specific things we’re unhappy about. We should not fear to hold the government accountable because they should always remember that they work for the people, they are our employees therefore we’re their boss, not in a derogatory way that’s just how democracy works: government of the people by the people. We should not fear to tell them that they’re in service to us, not the other way around. We fear our government so much that we blame the French government and other foreign power for our own failures. Yes, they have their fair share of responsibility in this chaotic system, but what about individual responsibility? We fear too much and therefore sometimes we lack love and empathy because i deeply believe that we all want the same thing for our country : PEACE !
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it” Frantz Fanon
Instead we’ve all chosen the comfort of our little lives in Cameroon or abroad all left with either resentment, hate or resignation to deal with. Cameroonians are amongst the most literate and educated people everywhere I go. We’re a country of proud people. We’re so proud we’re still waiting Pep Guardiola to send his apologies to Eto’o. We come out with huge theories on how our country should be run but nobody acts towards that goal rejecting the fault on the government but when come the time to vote we’re nowhere to be found. There’s something we should stop waiting for. We should stop waiting for a saving angel, we should stop waiting for a celebrity to lead, to tweet, to post on Instagram or Facebook. By doing that we step away from our individual responsibilities and project them onto someone else. We Never assume our individual responsibilities. You never know what people are going through, what they’re doing behind the scene. Even if they’re not doing anything that’s with them and their conscience. Ask yourself what you can do and stop looking at what others are doing. We deal with our emotions in different ways.
My good friend Henry once said “solidarity is a shared value amongst Cameroonians, a golden one, but yet we have absolutely no sense of collective interest” we always think that we’re not the devil we think politicians are. Inaction is as equally evil as bad deeds are. Our country is not failing because we have evil politicians, our country is failing because we’re all watching and doing nothing to fix what’s nor going well. 25 millions of Cameroonians are watching. We’re a new generation and we refuse to choose between being dead heroes or living cowards. Every generation blames the one before, I refused to let my children and my grandchildren blame our generation for failing to have measured what was at stake because this could be a huge turning point. It is up to us. There’s an alternative and it’s called action.Action towards a peacefull ending of this. We all want peace. Let’s all come together as a nation, let’s come together as one to find common grounds, to open the dialogue on how we the people could make a change. Frantz Fanon wrote in his book famous posthumous book Wretched of the Earth “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it”. Democracy is the government of the people by the people, let’s all choose in a democratic way how we change and make things move forward. We’re all intelligent people. There’s an old saying in western countries attributed to Einstein that says “everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live his whole life believing that it is stupid”.
Our president is older than our democratic system
Cameroon is far from being a perfect nation. We have to keep in mind that our democracy is only 60 years old. Our president is older than our democratic system. The French democracy in comparison is 231 years old(counting from the french revolution of 1789). Let’s be humble and enthusiast about the future.
EMPATHY, NOUN : THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND SHARE THE FEELINGS OF ANOTHER
We have to build our nation. We cannot achieve that goal if we do not as a whole acknowledge the pain and the suffering our people are going through. We cannot achieve that goal if we do not learn our real history. The truth will always surface. It is better to learn that history both good and bad so that we never repeat the same mistakes. It is not by blaming and shaming that we march toward peace which is something we all agree is good for our nation. Let’s start with some facts here our brothers and sisters of the south and north east region are often mocked, we called them “anglophone” in a very contemptuous way, yet we love what they brought to the nation: their food (Eru, Achu, Ekwang just to name a few) their leaders, HE John Ngu Foncha, HE Salomon Tandeng Muna, HE Augustine Ngom Jua. One should not forget that thanks to them we were able to achieve the reunification of both Cameroons. Even if I’m not in favor of parting ways with both anglophones regions it will be very dishonest not recognize that their unremitting calls for fair treatment has fallen into deaf ears and resulted in a much worse situation. Cameroon is one and indivisible thus all his children should be treated fairly and when we notice something going wrong, it is our duty as citizens to raise our discontent. We francophones failed to do so because of fear, not because we do not care. No Cameroonian should be treated as second class citizens. Look at how we treat our brothers and sisters from that region and ask yourself genuinely if you would’ve loved to be treated that way? Families are being torn apart. The promising silicon mountain was hindered in its progression due to this conflict, many businesses have been closing down. It’s a huge lost for those who took the risk to dream of a better life for themselves while creating jobs that would have benefited our country.
Our ability to go from where we are now and achieve great things is unbelievable. We have the resources both human and under the ground. 46% of our population is below the age of 16 that’s why when children die it is the death of our nation and it is not acceptable. People have been dying under our watch since 2016, we didn’t raise our eyebrows, peaceful protesters were silenced in the first place because they were just asking basics rights, lawyers and teachers branded as terrorist… we shouldn’t wait until there are any death to protest especially those of innocent child. Let’s Erase the fear once and for all. There are some additional details that bears metionning : we francophones were never told the real history of our country. That’s why many of us don’t fully understand the ground roots of this conflict. Many of us think that it has started back in 2016. We’re wrong. I was wrong. the 2016 riots was just the drop of water that broke the camels back. Thanks to Aunty Becky (Rebecca Enonchong) I recently came to know names and events that have never been mentionned during our curriculum: Chief Dr Endeley (KNDP Manifesto, 1961) and the All Anglophone Congress. As we now learn that part of our story we should really ask ourselves why John Ngu Foncha who fought for the reunification in the 60’s turned his back and began asking for scecession. probably because some of the promises were not fullfiled and our brothers and sisters of the south west and north west have the felling that they’ve been roobed.
We were taught a very partial part of our history because it was serving the narrative of people in power in order to validate their point of view. I fully understand why you are bitter and you are right to be bitter. I understand that feeling. We francophones have to understand that those regions were not yet independant and even though they were under tutelage they already have strongs institutions and thriving businesses who died. Your resentment is more than legitimate. What is not legitimate is those taking advantage of this conflict to sparks lights of division. At the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat because francophones who fought for our independance, the independance of all camerounians would be crying if they could see what happenned in the very country they died for. But let’s not diverge from the main problem here because families in Yaoundé and Douala are not being kidnapped, forced to leave their houses and run for their lives.Families in big francophones cities are not puting their loved ones inside graves, people in francophones cities are not mourning their dead children. We feel your pain.
Thinking about all of this i cannot hold back my anger towards the french and the british who really destroyed our continent and our country. We were living our lives in Africa and you came to turn everything upside down. Here we are centuries after fighting for borders you have created. History is something to be reminded. i’m not one to dwell about the past because i rather learn lessons from it so that i can understand my present and work diligently to build better tomorrows. We have to deal with colonisation leftovers and the most important question is this : how to work together today to ensure that history nevers repeats itself ? I may be labelled as a dreamer but i don’t care at all. All great achievements started off as dreams labelled as far-fetched by dreamkillers because eveybody think it is impossible until it’s done.
Therefore I dream of a more unified Cameroon where all citizens are treated with dignity and justice. Together we’re stronger. We danced to Prince Afo-Akom smash hit, Eru is also our national treasure. We all cheered when Pius Ndiefi banged loads of goals for our national team. We share good memories despites harsh living conditions. We can build more of those. But right now, we have to be united for you our brothers and sisters of the North West and the south West. Our message is clear : WE CARE, WE LOVE YOU ! I LOVE YOU, ALL OF YOU. WE WANT PEACE !
Nelson Mandela said that resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that it will kill your enemy.
Abusing the government and calling everyone names won’t change the situation. The blame game is a game we all lose if we chose to play because nobody wins when the family feud. We are a family.
When I was a kid growing up in Yaoundé I attended the French educational system until my Baccalauréat (GCA A level) . My uncle Kunde was a huge fan of Bob Marley and one of his favourite song was Buffalo Soldier in which Bob Marley sings “if you know your history then you’ll know where you’re coming from” we come from colonial oppression but we were able to overcome those times. If western nations were able to have a sit at a table to divide the African continent in general and Cameroun in particular, I deeply believe that we’re smart enough to have a sit at the table of peace. We owe this to our country, for the beautiful things we love about it, our founding fathers (both anglophone and francophone) fought for our freedom not for us to take things for granted and wear t-shirts with their names on it. We owe this fight for future generations but mostly we owe this fight to ourselves. I believe in non-violence. Let’s find a way to put and end to this peacefully.
We all praise Nelson Mandela for what he was able to achieve to bring south Africa together after years of apartheid. After 27 years in prison he did not called for revenge upon his oppressors. This is a message to our governemnt officials. With the help of Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu and many others they came up with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. After the genocide in Rwanda a similar commission was created in order to put a divided Rwanda on the path of reconstruction after the atrocities. Let’s not wait for more blood to be spilt to react. To our brothers and sisters in the northern region hear this: we love you! we stand next to you! we feel your pain! We want a peaceful Cameroun! we have to acknowledge specifities of each and every part of our country. That diversity is a strenght not a weakness. erasing those particularities is wrong. We should embrace them and create a safe space under our nation for them to thrive because we all win when we do so.
Our generation will not be the one who only criticize without bringing tangible solution to the table. We should enter the political debate. We were slowly made to believe that politics is an insider’s thing. You don’t need a phd to understand basics things that are affecting your day to day life. My siblings all attended anglophones schools, I’m the only francophone in the house. I spent a year in GBHS Mbengwi. My junior brother was affected by Bamenda’s 2016 riots also he had to stop going to school. We’re all in the same boat…
Writing is a form of therapy, I love to write this is how I’m humbly contributing. We’re a nation of talented people, hardworking fathers and mothers, famers, doctors, bayam sellam, contractors, lawyers, musicians, police officers, social workers, athletes, teachers, dreamers, painters, entrepreneurs and more : why do you think we’re often reffered to as “africa in miniature” ? we’re so talented and everyone is important to participate peacefully and with empathy to this debate. let’s use the hashtag #EndAnglophoneCrisis all over social media in order to make our voices heard. I know all Cameroonians are dreaming for a better life but for now those dying are our brothers and sisters from the North West and South West Region. We do not forget our brother and sisters in the far North regions who are being slaughtered by boko haram.
I extend my thoughts and prayers to our african brothers and sisters : #EndSars #CongoIsBleeding #ShutItAllDown #AmINext #RapeNationalEmergency Ivory Coast and Ghana we love you too.
We all want our country to thrive. Every want to go to paradise but we’re all afraid to die. We all watch Netflix, foreign movies and tv shows. We’re are all in awe to see how beautiful things are. When I was a kid, I use to dream that it would snow at Christmas like in the Christmas movies I loved so much. Unfortunately, that’s part of the things we see on TV and dream about. Thank God it will never happen because winter is only cool on television. What about others things? guess what? it is possible and all it takes is action. Because of our collective inaction children have died and we’re all to blame. If we want that never to happen again remember this: any action is better than inaction. Let that sink.
in my chilhood, Kumba always came along with the sweet memories of that “kumba bread” my uncle who lived there brought to me every time he was visiting because he knew how much i love that bread. Kumba will never be linked with those sweet memories of my chilhood again
We all need to ask ourselves how we can erase the fear that’s been holding us back for so many years. My intention is not to judge neither to point fingers or divid. We owe this introspective work, all of us, to Victory CAMIBON, Jennifer ANAMGIM, Princess NGEMONE, Che TELMA, Rema ZAKAME, Syndi CHEMA, Renny NGWANE. My memory of Kumba will forever be linked to you. May your souls rest in perfect peace. May the soul of eveyone who died during this confilct rest in eternal peace.
as i was just about to finish the writing of this article i heard the news of students who were stripped naked in school and the kidnapping of at least 6 people in Kumbo. These actions do not serve anything but interest of very ill intentioned people. It is our role as citizens to have empathy for one another and it is the role of the state to protect its citizens. We want peace.
#ENDANGLOPHONECRISIS
UBUNTU
We are all Cameroonians and if we look deeply in our heart, we’ll find more things that connects us to each other and to this country than the opposite. Jovi best put it in his song Man Pass Man Part IV
“Tu es Francophone or you be anglophone? Tara me a be na Cameroun. Maintenant on me demande de choisir Comme si j’avais choisi qu’on m’accouche ici. Commençons du début on go pas à pas, Mes ancêtres sont came de Maroua, le nom de mon couso est Karawa, Là là même je long à Ngola. Les princesses de Bamoun, j’ai même des cousins à Garoua. Moi, toutes mes sœurs sont nées à Douala. On a tous fait l’école à Bamenda. Je know all les motos de Moliko.I say Perika the born me na for Tiko. On est tous des frères, on est tous des bros. On connait le vrai, on connait le faux. On est UN rien ne nous sépare. C’est comme si tu me ask de move le bras. Je prie Dieu qu’il me donne un mouna. Je lui donne un nom de Yokadouma. Pour bâtir la villa pour la mifa, je go tcha mon terrain à Japoma. Le pays de mon père c’est le Mboa’’ Jovi, Man Pass Man Part IV
Nathanaël SANDUO
