THESE ARE THE STYLES OF DEBATES FOR CIVILIZED PEOPLE.
Boy-men mud-wrestlers should leave the floor for their superiors to inform the populace.
Did anyone read any personal attack? Nope. Just the point.
Did anyone read any personal attack? Nope. Just the point.
Reaction to Chief Taku's Article by Djeukam Tchameni
I have read with great attention and interest the paper titled "THE OFFSPRINGS OF AUJOULAT AND THE GENOCIDE OF THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS" written by Chief Charles A. Taku. I have found it well written, informative, insightful and positively contributive to the ongoing struggle for freedom and justice in Cameroon.
Since the beginning of the protests movement, I have expressed my full support for the legitimate demands of the Teachers' Unions, the Common Law lawyers, and the civil society organizations that have taken the leadership of the movement. I have commended their willingness to courageously engage in dialogue while using peaceful means of social pressure. I have accused the dictatorial regime of apathy and lack of sincerity in the negotiations and laid at their feet the full responsibility for the deterioration of the situation in the Nord west and South West regions. I have condemned policy brutality against and the killing of peaceful demonstrators. I have stood firmly against the arrest of Barrister Agbor Nkongho, Dr Neba Fontem, justice Paul Ayah, Mancho Bibixy and others who were kidnapped and deported to Yaounde for peacefully expressing their opinions. I have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of their political prisoners.
I have also made clear my ideological stance, the worldview or lenses I used to look at and analyze the recent events in Cameroon. In previous posts, I stated :" I am an African. Better yet I am a Kemet. I claim the glory of Ancient Egypt and the splendor of all of classical Africa. My Continent is rich and diverse but is exploited by foreign and domestic predators. It has a common past, an undeniable cultural unity and will find its renaissance in total political and economic liberation and unification. I am neither francophone nor anglophone. I do not claim as mine nor do I hold dear the French or British cultures imposed upon my people. I do not believe that 45 years of British indirect rule and 100 years of French colonialism and neocolonialism have genetically modified my people into a different species. As an African seeking freedom and unity for his people, I naturally support any group fighting for its legitimate rights. I believe that no group of Africans should be disenfranchised or marginalized by internal or external forces. If this happen, I support their rights to resist by any legitimate means available to them. If they choose peaceful protests, the government is duty bound to allow their free expression, to listen to their grievances and to protect them in the exercise of this fundamental right."
I further posted that « La revendication pour un gouvernement proche du peuple et à son service est une revendication nationale et non régionale. Le débat sur la forme de l'état ne saurait être une question régionale, elle concerne tout le monde. Donc elle me concerne. Du coup, je dois y participer car c'est mon devoir citoyen (…) Le fédéralisme n'est pas une question anglophone mais une question du Cameroun tout entier. Est- il possible d'instaurer une forme de l'Etat pour certains citoyens sans l'instaurer pour les autres? (…). On lutte mieux quand on comprend en quoi la cause des uns et des autres est intimement liée. Quand on comprend que la victoire des opprimés est impossible sans unité. Ce qui faut encourager c'est un discours qui unifie TOUS ceux qui veulent un changement véritable de régime et l'instauration d'un système de gouvernement qui soit proche et à l'écoute Peuple ».
I have always advised the people who appeared to be the leaders of the protest movement to urgently structure a unified and representative leadership, speaking in a unified and coherent voice, and crafting a message that is likely to appeal to and mobilize the support of the majority of Cameroonians. I also urged them to have a coherent strategy aimed against the proper culprits and compatible with the objectives of the protest movement. I did so because any part of my people is my people and whatever problem they have is mine also. I also did because I saw in this movement a spark that could turn into a liberating flame that could sweep the entire country and create a better political and economic dispensation for all its citizens.
I warned against divisive rhetoric that could only benefit the Biya regime. I condemned the tribalization of the issues. Calling the regime a Beti-Ewondo regime is factually incorrect. Saying that all "Anglophones" are being oppressed by all "Francophones" cannot resist the test of truth. It is a major pitfall not to treat with equal harshness the Anglophone politico-administrative ruling elite which is just as corrupt and selfish as their francophone counterparts and allies. It is an undeniable fact that since 1961, the country is (mis)managed by a Yaoundé-based, French-backed, multi-ethnic and bilingual ruling elite. As Chief Taku rightly puts it, these are the "offsprings of Aujoulat (…), a crime syndicate (that) was put in power with a mandate to terrorize, massacre and suppress the citizens of French vassal states in Africa". This multi-ethnic and bilingual crime syndicate is responsible of the suffering of all Cameroonian people.
It is my considered opinion that by distancing themselves from UPC nationalists and by deciding to deal instead with Ahidjo, a French puppet, Mr. Foncha and the KNDP signed away Southern Cameroon to France and the territory became de facto a French vassal state, temporarily and exceptionally allowed to continue to speak in English. For 55 years now, all of Cameroonians (Francophones and Anglophones) are oppressed and suppressed by France and the crime syndicate they put and maintain in power. The oppression may take different forms in various regions, but we have a common oppressor. This situation makes it mandatory that we harmonize strategies, lest the common enemy uses our lack of coordination to pin us against one another. No one can save his own cabin out of a sinking ship. All the disenfranchised and marginalized people of Cameroon MUST unite to overthrow the corrupt Anglophone and Francophone ruling elite, and establish in our country a government whose guiding light is the freely expressed Will of the People.
No struggle can achieve victory unless it has narrowly define its enemy and broadly attracted its allies. Using out of anger or ignorance a discourse that turns potential friends into foes is a sure way to taste the bitterness of defeat. Chief Taku's paper does a fantastic job in laying the foundation upon which an intelligent and winning strategy can be built. It defines clearly the enemy of the Cameroonian People: French colonialists and the Cameroonians members of the crime syndicate they put in power. He also goes down the history to expose the brutal methods that have been used by France and its local allies. The author evokes the 15-year war of liberation in East Cameroon from 1955 to 1970 in which "France (…) perpetrate(d) a genocide that claimed (the lives of) about half a million citizens of La Republique du Cameroun vassal state ;assassinated its liberation leaders, and imposed a slave-master neo-colonial enclave in its African possessions. France then imposed a system of governance by terror and criminality of which genocide is a critical component". The paper shows how the same criminal methods used in the past are going to be used today: "Inspired by the atrocities committed by these neocolonial vampires against their own people, the ideological offspring of Louis Paul Aujoulat tired of feeding on the blood of its own citizens have now turned their attention towards the extermination of the valiant free spirited people of the Southern Cameroons. Not satisfied with the slaughter of armless people of the Southern Cameroons, this government has reactivated one of its ultimate instruments of oppression which is the judiciary to legitimize the assassination of our heroes"
Unfortunately, your paper is tainted by an incorrect blanket statement:" France also wedged an ideological and cultural war in which citizens of its vassal states were totally brainwashed to worship their oppressor and willingly accepted slave status in their relationship with France. They accepted and considered an honour to accept this slave status in order to sustain benefit from a war economy imposed by France on its neo-colonies. For this purpose, they mortgaged the exploitation and rape of their natural resources, the sovereignty of the neo-colonies and their very humanity to their slave masters with pride and joy". It adds that "This criminal policy was tested with success when the assassination of Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandie and other UPC leaders frightened and sent citizens of La Republique du Cameroun into perennial fear and docility. Their fear reached frenzy when they acquiesced to the raising of monuments and statues to honour war criminals and the naming of their remarkable streets in their towns after these colonial and neocolonial vampires"
To describe the descendants of those that took up arms against France and lost 400 000 people in the heroic struggle as "totally brainwashed to worship their oppressor and willingly accept(ing of the) slave status in their relationship with France" is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and a grave insult to the memory dead heroes and the painful sacrifices of living and contemporary freedom fighters. It is baffling to say the least to read that all "citizens of La Republique du Cameroon"- as Chief Taku chooses to call them- as "frightened " and "sent into perennial fear and docility". Of course, he paradoxically contrast these cowardly "Francophones" with "the valiant free spirited people of the Southern Cameroons" who strangely never took a spear against the British or the Nigerians who ruled them for 45 years, and some of whom are fighting today to proudly hold on to their "Anglo-Saxon colonial heritage and culture". This type of baseless assertions is divisive and can sow the seeds for long lasting mutual disrespect and distrust. It brings us back to the days of slavery when "niggers" were fighting over which plantation or slave master was better than the other. By now, we all should have learned that no matter how sweet the (british or french) slave master appears to be, a slave remains a slave and his only salvation is in…quitting his master and the plantation.
Anyone who walks the streets of Douala, Yaounde, Bafoussam, Garoua, Maroua, etc… knows that the anti-French sentiment is just as strong - if not even stronger - than in Bamenda or Buea. This is due to the bitterness that resulted from the long, brutal and genocidal war waged by France against popularly supported Cameroonian nationalists. Of course, not all Cameroonians fought against France and are anti-French today; some (the offsprings of Aujoulat) collaborated with the colonial masters and were (and still are) rewarded with high government positions and sweet business deals. It is therefore always inopportune to make blanket statements about an entire community. For the same reason, it is just as inaccurate to describe all people of former Southern Cameroons as "valiant and free spirited". In so doing, impunity is granted to the criminal elements of the Anglophone politico-administrative ruling elite who hastily joined the CNU-CPDM and have been collaborating with … France since 1961, so they too could benefit from juicy government positions and crooked business deals. Downplaying their responsibility in the plight of the Southern Cameroonians is in my view a serious pitfall.
Having said the above, it is pleasing to see that later on the paper reckons the uninterrupted fight of the "totally brainwashed" against France in East Cameroon, as Chief Taku writes beautifully: "They assassinated Um Nyobe Mpodol and Ernest Ouandie hoping that the liberating ideology they aspired would die with them. Today, that hydra -headed ideology inspired by Um Nyobe and Ernest and others is back haunting them with the revived campaign against La Republique's colonial military pacts, colonial economic pacts and colonial currency" You the Honorable Chief rightly predicts that what did not work East of the Mungo river is likely to fail also in West Cameroon. As he writes: "you will never ever kill a liberation ideology with your weapons of mass destruction or criminal ventures. You failed to do so in the case of your own (East Cameroonian) liberation heroes. You will never ever succeed in doing that to ours (Southern Cameroons) liberation heroes and our people united in seeking freedom". This provides a solid basis upon which solidarity in the struggle may be built and we all should be grateful to Maitre Charles Taku for uncovering such a foundation.
It is my abiding position that in Cameroon, the fault line is not between all "Anglophones" on the one hand, and all "Francophones" in the other. The main divide is between the criminal syndicate of Anglophone and francophone French backed ruling elite, on the one hand and the majority of the "Anglophones" and "Francophones" who are oppressed and marginalized, on the other hand. Sure enough, the marginalization does not take the same form in all regions but the root cause is the same. One patient with a weak immune system may develop tuberculosis, while the second patient with the same condition develops instead a severe skin disease. Would it make more sense for the two patients to argue amongst themselves over the relative gravity of their illness, or should they work together to detect and kill the common virus that has weaken their immune system in the first place.
Only through unity can we all win against the totalitarian French-backed regime of Yaoundé. Unity starts with the discourse uttered by political and opinion leaders. Those who have such a status must speak in the manner that appeals to their constituency while leaving the door open for a wide range of allies. Unity in action is also indispensable as theory without practice is empty. All countrywide and diasporan Organizations seeking to establish in Cameroon is system of government close and responsive to the people should start communicating amongst themselves to find a minimum platform for common action. It is my view that the arbitrary arrest of the leaders of the consortium and others, the military occupation of the streets, the numerous violations of human rights are a "blessing in disguise" as they provide us with a rallying call that could mobilize the entire country and thwart the plans of the regime to keep the contestation in only two regions of the country so they can easily suppress it.
I and my organization are ready to work with any group or organization- regardless of their stated agenda- as long as they are genuinely dedicated to uproot the "offsprings of Aujoulat" and throw them in the dustbin of history, so we may put in place a new political dispensation free from foreign influence and in which the People freely chose those who govern.
Djeukam Tchameni
MDI
January 22, 2017
MDI
January 22, 2017
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