I Spit on their Graves: Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle in Cameroon

Louis Tobie Mbida´s Naïve Candour

73 Louis Tobie Mbida´s Naïve Candour L ouis Tobie Mbida (alias Baby Doc) passed on “Cameroon Calling” (CC) of Sunday 11th April 1993, to talk about Anglophones and Federalism. Before then, he had apparently participated in the French programme “Dimanche Midi” the previous Sunday, on the same theme. I never listened to the French programme but I did listen to the Cameroon Calling programme. Louis Tobie Mbida deserves to be applauded for his “franc-parler” and naïve candour on “Cameroon Calling” (CC). Louis Tobie Mbida frankly and candidly admitted certain facts that most Francophones, especially those allied with the so-called presidential majority, would never admit. Even the unanglophonic Anglophones, the Judases of our sociopolitico -economic situation, would not be caught admitting these facts publicly. The first of these facts, which “Baby Doc” admitted without equivocation, is that Francophones generally don’t understand what the hell Anglophones are complaining about; they have no idea what “the Anglophone problem” is all about and need to be educated in that respect. The second fact is that words like “freedom,” democracy,” transparency,” “peace,” tranquillity” etc. mean a completely different thing from their French equivalents. The third fact, honestly admitted by Tobie Mbida is that, when Anglophones talk about “Federalism,” the mind of every Francophone immediately goes to petroleum alias oil alias black gold. 74 Godfrey B. Tangwa (Rotcod Gobata) I repeat that Tobie Mbida could be congratulated for these frank admissions. I will surely buy him a bottle of any of the non-boycottable brands of beer if he passes by my favourite drinking spot in Djoungolo. Concerning the first point, it is certainly too much to expect that Francophones can, unaided, appreciate the Anglophone problem. That would demand a level of altruism that does not seem attainable by most human beings. Do you expect the slaveowner or his pampered heir to understand what the slave is complaining about? No matter how sympathetic you want to be, can you feel the pain on my back? It is only the wearer of the shoe who knows where it pinches. This is the reason that freedom is scarcely ever given on a platter of gold; it has to be taken by she/he who is in bondage. Francophones urgently need to be educated on the Anglophone problem and on the hidden fact that the liberation of the Anglophones will be equally the liberation of all other Cameroonians, for the Anglophone cannot liberate himself without at the same time liberating all others in bondage of all types. Concerning the second point, it is very gratifying to have a full-blooded Francophone confirming what this column has never tired of observing (see, for example, “From La Démocratie to Democracy,” CAMPOST, July 30-August 06, 1991). In these matters, as Tobie Mbida admits, Anglophones are several nautical miles ahead of Francophones. By “freedom” a Francophone understands “what the dictator in power permits.” I was with a Francophone friend when the pictures of the 25th March horror in Bamenda arrived. We were both equally horrified. But his first remark was to wonder, not how any responsible government could commit such atrocity, but why the Bamenda people stubbornly went out even when they had been refused a permit. Governor Bell Luc René, who must have authorized the killings, was in Boyo Division, a week 75 I Spit on their Graves: Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle later, qualmlessly preaching democracy and non-violence! No Francophone would see anything wrong with this. Dr. Paul Biya called for “democratic” presidential elections on his own accord. But when he lost, he told us he was a lion and sat tight. Very soon we found even Francophones who had wanted the throne themselves going into alliance with him or conceding his “victory” in the interest of “peace.” The Anglophone political culture is open and libertarian and does not tolerate unjustifiable inconsistencies or deviations from proclaimed policies. John Fru Ndi´s track record is a quintessence of that culture which would be viewed by most Francophones as unnecessary rigidity and stubbornness. Fru Ndi is the only Cameroonian politician who has so far been thoroughly consistent with himself. When Anglophones demand a return to the two-state federal structure - a structure with a firm historical and legal basis - that is exactly what they mean. If they had wanted secession, they would ask for it. And, in fact there are sufficient...