Ako-Aya: A Cameroorian Pioneer in Daring Journalism and Social Commentary

18. Ako-Aya and Fraud in the Bota Wharf

217 Chapter Eighteen Ako-Aya and Fraud in the Bota Wharf I t has been argued that the fall of the city of Victor! was caused by the departure of the foreigners who perpetrated the famous fraud in the Bota wharf. The result was that, no second hand clothes were imported, while prostitutes understandably condemned the investigations. D fact, they claimed that it was a flagrant demonstration d jealousy on the part of those who investigated the fraud This argument of jealousy did not stop Ako-Aya from telling us how these girls suffered when the wharf frauds left Victoria. In fact, he did not miss the opportunity to express his total disgust for this fraudulent behaviour by foreign business men. He wrote: i) “WEDNESDAY JANUARY 13, 1971: ASHIYA” “When I was young and used to steal, my old father told me ‘many day for tif man and one day for man wey i get farm.’ So, how else could I take this than when I went over the week-end to visit ay contri girl. Go quick my boy di cam’ she told me. The ‘boy’ turned out to be one of these bald-headed people with very big cars. He immediately passed her ten thousand francs CFA for ‘market money.’ “So as my father said ‘many day for tif man ...’ I use to wonder how somebody can give a girl ten thousand francs every market day, and such days are thrice a week. I used to wonder how a man can buy a frigedaire for a girl, build her a block house, and do all sort of things. I know I am ugly, but how many girls ever fought on my behalf - no they must fight for these rich people who are able to do these things for them. But did they know where the money was coming from -and how many of these girls are involved in Victoria - a legion. These 218 Ako-Aya: A Cameroonian Pioneer in Daring Journalism and Social Commentary female bank clerks in all the banks, these PWD clerks and Highway ‘Robbers.’ Some of these very many girls working in our Bookshops, Government and Corporation offices with their ‘long long sanjas’ all sat weeping because their tycoons had been arrested. What have these wen done, this country they don’t like men who progress’. “Yes, according to these girls even though the Government of the Federal Republic of Cameroon has been cheated to the tune of a hundred milliard for several years, it does not matter as long as they get five thousand francs every market day. What matters to them if the Government is cheated and over five thousand teachers cannot be paid. What matters if Government cannot maintain existing roads, if there were no vehicles plying from Victoria to Kumba to Bamenda. All that matters is if the tycoons can buy them sanjas to cover their gutted feet. “But as far as an enemy to my country is an enemy to me I say Ashiya to all these girls who have been crying themselves hoarse over the week-end. Well all day for tif man but one day and that day is today massa wey i get farm. Ashiya~eh.” ii) “JANUARY 20, 1971: NA JEALOUSIE” While everybody has been showing some concern on the amount of money that has eluded us, money that rightly belongs to you I met two very pretty girls who thought differently. ‘Una di jealouse them’ one of them told me. The one, a dark-slimmed beauty with dual nationality, the other a former beauty queen from the land where coffee bangs and fens. 219 Chapter Eighteen: Ako-Aya and Fraud in the Bota Wharf “Well they said, we were lazy people, unable to work as hard as our brothers, the other side of cross-river. They said we ‘tight hand’ and even if we have money we could not give anybody even one franc. “But they say one of them has ‘medicine pot’ in her room which when stirred while calling somebody’s name, the man must give her money. So, as they say she is very wealthy, with several plots of land and in her house there are several fridges and gas-cookers, as for the carpet you could sleep rather than walk on it. “I have been thinking much of a medicine pot, all the power it holds when these girls...