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

Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun

1 Le Cameroun c’est le Cameroun C ameroon is Cameroon. When I was in High School, they used to call a statement of this form a “tautology or logical truth.” Any statement of this form has an informative content of zero. If I tell you that “A is A,” I have not told you anything; you are no wiser than you were before I spoke. In other words, uttering a tautology is as good as making an empty noise. This is a matter of logic. But in Cameroon we even defy logic. In Cameroon, the statement “Cameroon is Cameroon” is not an empty tautology. It is highly informative and significant. It is equivalent to another common expression: “L’impossible n’est pas Camerounais” which can be translated by stating that nothing is impossible in Cameroon. There is nothing so unlikely or improbable that it cannot happen in Cameroon. The explanation for this odd state of affairs would seem to be related to the following facts. Variegated geologic and climatic conditions have made of Cameroon a mixed basket of valuable natural resources. Cameroonians, who are equally variegated culturally and linguistically, are an extremely friendly, hospitable and peace-loving people. But Cameroon had the singular misfortune of falling under the control of the most savage of European colonialists, the French, who for three decades have imposed the most ruthless dictators in the country. What is strange and what could not have happened elsewhere is the fact that this state of affairs has been accepted by Cameroonians, on the one hand, and completely ignored by the outside world, on the other. For nearly three decades, the only things that seemed 2 Godfrey B. Tangwa (Rotcod Gobata) to interest Cameroonians were beer drinking, dancing and football fanaticism. It is scarcely three years since Cameroonians were aroused from their political slumber and they are not even fully awake yet. Until fairly recently, a whole year could pass without mention of Cameroon over world networks like the BBC and Voice of America. The United States of America, the self-appointed and generally accepted policeman of the free democratic world, did not notice until quite recently that Cameroon has the worst Human Rights violation record in all of Africa. The U.S State department’s report on human rights for 1991, published in February, 1992, describes human rights violations in Cameroon as “beyond description.” And yet as recently as 1990, while we were shouting unheard from here, as the government unleashed a reign of terror at the University of Yaounde, the United States invited Mr. Biya and turned him into Doctor Biya by the award of an honorary degree in Agriculture. With such apparent backing and approval from such quarters, should we blame the man for adding arrogance to repressive dictatorship on his return? When Dr. Biya made his infamous address to the National Assembly (June 1991) in which he threatened that “peace” would reign and that his own version of democracy would advance, I remarked in this column that it was only in Cameroon that a Head of State could get away with a speech like that (See “From La Democratie to Democracy” in CAMEROON POST, July 30-August 6, 1991). Before that, Dr. Biya had, during a state visit to France, openly and publicly declared that he was one of the best pupils of the French president. In another African country he would not have been allowed to return. A few years ago, some mischievous people circulated a false rumour in Nigeria that Babangida, the Nigerian Head of State, had a bank account in a foreign country. There were spontaneous riots all over Nigeria calling for his resignation. In Nigeria, government officials and public functionaries are not permitted to 3 I Spit on their Graves: Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle operate foreign bank accounts. In Nigeria, if you are married to a foreigner you cannot work in the foreign or diplomatic service and if you work in the foreign or diplomatic service you cannot marry a foreigner. It makes perfect good sense. You don’t take chances with “National Security.” But in Cameroon, even our Minister of Foreign Affairs is married to a French woman. One of the presidential candidates in the recent fraudulent elections is reportedly also married to a French woman. Which means that we came very close to the possibility of having a French woman as our first...