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

A Tale of Anniversaries

151 A Tale of Anniversaries I am scripting this on October 1st 1993. That is my own way of celebrating. So, HAPPY 32nd ANNIVERSARY TO ALL SOUTHERN CAMEROONIANS! Southern Cameroons gained its independence on October 1st 1961. On that day, at exactly zero hour, the British “Union Jack,” representing the authority of Her Britannic Majesty, the Queen, Monarch of the vast British Empire, was lowered all over the territory of Southern Cameroons. As the “Union Jack” was coming down, the green-red-yellow flag of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, with two vertical stars, representing two independent states, was hoisted in its place, because Southern Cameroonians had, in a plebiscite organized by the United Nations on February 11th 1961, overwhelmingly opted for UNIFICATION with La République du Cameroun, which had gained its independence from France on 1st February 1960. All this is solid history. Elementary Cameroon history. Any Cameroonian who doesn’t know the above historical facts should boil his/her yamhead in hot shame. So, the alarm raised by the wrapper-tying, broom-waving chiefs of the South West Province, (this time without the famous elites) and re-echoed by “des forces vives” of the North West Province is really shockingly alarming in its puerility. Through the eyes of the CRTV cameras, we saw these two successive groups of state clowns telling Dr. Biya in Unity Palace that the people of Southern Cameroons were preparing to declare their independence on October 1st 1993. How can an independent state declare again its independence? What the Cameroon Anglophone Movement 152 Godfrey B. Tangwa (Rotcod Gobata) (CAM) and the All Anglophones Conference (AAC) decided was that Southern Cameroonians should start commemorating and celebrating their long-neglected independence day. This decision enjoys the overwhelming support of all Southern Cameroonians, and today will be accordingly commemorated and celebrated in spite of the de facto declaration of a state of emergency by the Biya regime in Southern Cameroons. The only Southern Cameroonians who may not be celebrating with us today are the Nfons (the initial ‘N’ is very important) of the South West and the forty-one “forces vives” of the North West, led by Chief Angwafor III, National Vice-President of Dr. Paul Biya’s CPDM party. If there were any more they would surely also have been shown at the Unity Palace to create the desired impression that many Southern Cameroonians are against Southern Cameroons. Not everyone you see in a track-suit is necessarily an athlete. Not everyone who wears a Bamenda-gown is a Fon. This is what many Francophones especially do not realize. Some Francophones seem to have been very impressed with the “forces vives” delegation from the North West, under the erroneous impression that all those they saw in Bamendagowns are Fons. Many people don’t know that every selfrespecting graffi man has a Bamenda-gown in his wardrobe which he can bring out at a moment’s notice for any ceremony, serious or clownish. Cameroonians abroad generally also take a lot of pride in wearing the Bamenda dress because it always attracts a great deal of admirative attention in its uniqueness. Recall the stir that the Fon of Babungo caused in his magnificent Bamenda robes in Lagos during FESTAC in 1977. There was no Fon, properly socalled , among the delegation from the North West that we saw at Unity Palace recently. Angwafor III who led the delegation could pass for a Fon but, strictly speaking, within 153 I Spit on their Graves: Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle the North West traditional context, he is no more than a chief. He is the chief of a single cosmopolitan town, Mankon, whose “authochthones” like those of most other cosmopolitan cities, have been submerged to a point of extinction, by the “allogenes.” The paramount Fondoms of the North West are wellknown from pre-colonial times. They are four in number: Bali, Bafut, Kom and Nso. No further comment, except to ask if the likes of the Tata Nformi John, J.C. Kangkolo, Felicitas Wongibe, S.K Nyoh, S.W. Tamfu, Atanga Nji Paul and the Royal Spear of Kom (whatever or whoever that is) are what the North West Province could send out anywhere as its “forces vives”? The answer is clearly blowing in the wind! We have witnessed this whole scenario before, prior to the 11th October 1992 presidential elections. Dr. Paul Biya’s capacity for...