No Trifling Matter: Contributions of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon

3 Mondial 90 and the Success of Success

8 francs in the other? A putative smuggler is thus enticed by 2000% gain and his customers save comparatively by patronizing him. Such temptations should not be placed even before saints. 3 3 Mondial 90 and the Success of Success (Published October 25-November 1, 1990) Before “Italia 90” takes its allotted space in the store room of memory and history, we can draw salutary lessons. One of these lessons is that nothing indeed succeeds like success. A hundred advertisers would probably have needed two decades to achieve for Cameroon the world-wide publicity the Indomitable Lions achieved in a fortnight. The instinct to identify with the winner must be second only to the instinct for survival. Or how would you explain the outburst of an English fan during the most thrilling quarter final duel between England and Cameroon on Sunday July 1st ? The English fan is reported to have declared that he wants to become a Cameroonian and some young Nigerian girl is simply dying to be Mrs Roger Milla. I can bet my last 10000 francs that by now some street somewhere other than Cameroon is already named after Roger Milla. One thing for which I had always admired the English people is their spirit of adventurous pragmatism. It is this spirit which led them to nearly conquer the world through colonialism under the concept of “British Empire.” This failed on the brink of success on the strictly political level. But, at the cultural level, no one can doubt that the English have actually conquered the world especially through their language. As I was reading through some very flattering write-ups on Cameroon’s World Cup performance in some British newspapers and magazines, one story particularly caught my attention. This story is in the Times Saturday Review of July 7th , 1990. The World Cup spotlight on Cameroon had sent a certain Briton by name Alan 9 Franks searching for an atlas. Once he ascertained where Cameroon is, he immediately packed his travelling bag and set off for Cameroon! Can you beat that? Well, his enchanted adventure brought him right here and as far as via Mudemba to the Korup National Park which has been described in Britain as a “priceless national asset.” The opening of Alan Franks’ account of his adventure to Cameroon entitled “A Short Walk In an Enchanted Rainforest” is very telling. Writes he: “Cameroon has suffered from a sub-section of the Falklands factor: it is one of those places that sounds as though it might be found up among the ragged bits in the top left hand corner of the British map, only to be hiding in one of the most outrageous, if original, spots on the globe, well beyond the scope of our insular sightlines. Then something big occurs in the place, or concerning the place, and there is a general buying of time while we all go in search of an atlas and re-order our topology. Of such alarms are adult Geography lessons made. “Just as the Falklands conflict did wonders for our knowledge of where the Falklands are, so the World Cup has put Cameroon unto our blinkered map, as the small Central African nation with a population of 10 million which not only made it to the later stages of the competition but also had the temerity to beat the reigning champions Argentina.” The Britons generally have shown more than a passing interest in the Korup forest. In fact, it can be said that when British royalty in the persons of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and His charming wife, Lady Diana, came to Cameroon for the first time ever, a few months ago, it was mainly to see Korup for themselves. If I know the Britons, there must be something in Korup beyond monkeys, giant apes, ants and vicious wasps. Does any Cameroonian know what it is? But to get back to “Mondiale 90,” the success of success and compulsive identification with victors, let us note that everyone has actually forgotten the dismal performance of the Lions during the African Cup of Nations in Algeria only a few months before the World Cup. Of course there are always plausible retrospective explanations. But as long as performance and achievement are the 10 only criteria for credibility, one cannot but side with those who blame the Cup of Nations’ fiasco on the absence of Roger Milla...