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

Let The, Be Anathema

89 Let Them Be Anathema T his past week, the first week of May, many people who happened to have met me were asking me if I practice witchcraft. In Buea, I met one person who was running after me and shouting “Rotcod, Rotcod, son of Gobata! You were right again! You are always right. Are you a wizard? How did you know Bi Mvondo was not serious about the Grand Débat”? Another told me; “But you were too harsh on Ben Muna. The Postman was more objective and gentlemanly.” Well, I am not a wizard and I was not harsh on Ben Muna. As for gentlemanliness, I don’t care for it. I believe that gentlemanliness is only for societies which have transcended the sort of elementary problems we are facing. It is not good to take gentlemanliness like okro soup and swallow a cockroach. I am not only not a wizard but I know nothing about witchcraft. Those who are interested in witchcraft can go and ask one priest called Fr. Humphrey Tatah Mbuy who is always talking and writing about witchcraft. The weekend I was in Buea, the said Rev. Gentleman was even launching one of his witchcraft books. I was not harsh on Ben Muna. I’m sure that he himself would agree with me because I hear he is a courageous man who is never afraid to look truth in the face. I’ve also heard that he is a very nice and generous guy. Even Boh Herbert admitted this in his “harsh” piece published in another newspaper. Did Ben´s generosity and niceness prevent some media houses and columnists from coming down as harshly on him as would otherwise have been the case? The answer 90 Godfrey B. Tangwa (Rotcod Gobata) is blowing in the wind. But Ben blundered. He has admitted it and accepted his “punishment” with admirable equanimity. He really seems to have all it takes for a frontline position in public life, except that he is his father’s son. And this is an issue over which popular prejudice will always put reason and logic to flight. It is a very good thing, both for Ben Muna and for the SDF, that he has been reduced to a floor member of the party. If he takes my earlier advice, he will surely achieve all his ambitions in the long run. Yes, the son of Gobata has often been right; so often right that he is tired of being right. It seems to me that most Cameroonians just refuse to face reality, are too calculative of personal interests, or indulge in too much wishful thinking or all of the above. This is one reason that, among the political leaders, it is Fru Ndi who has always been right. Is he a wizard, or does he possess paranormal qualities? No. He is simply honest and earnest about a cause he risked his life to get off the ground, and has continued to risk his life to sustain. This is very evident to the popular massa damnata who also quickly see through all those who want to ride rough shod over Fru Ndi´s back to power they cannot achieve on their own. Those who think that witchcraft was needed to know in advance that Dr. Biya´s grand, sorry, large débat, was an empty false promise, not worth the breath used in pronouncing it, are those who don’t understand our fundamental problem and how it is to be solved. It is this lack of understanding that has put all of us in the quandary in which we are today. There have been several squandered opportunities for a definitive solution of our problem. Dr. Biya said in his April 30th interview that the “large débat” would take place during the first ten days of May. Well, I am writing this after the first ten days of May. Where is the “large débat”? Or, had it already taken place before the interview, as Charles Ndongo so wisely suggested during 91 I Spit on their Graves: Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle the interview? Your guess is as good as mine. Here is mine. I searched in my dictionary, but I could not find “large débat.” I only found “large” in one place and “débat” in a completely different place. Nowhere did I find the two together...