There has been an unprecedented desertion of major streets in Manyu Division of the South West Region since the declaration of war on the ‘Anglophone secessionists by Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya.
For over 48 hours, the young and old, poor and rich, tall and short alike have been spotted with their baggage on their heads, scampering into neighboring Nigeria to seek refuge in that country.
The situation is further exacerbated by widespread news that the Government has dispatched armed troops to the Division to crush those who have been slaughtering military officers.
On Saturday and Sunday, over 15 military trucks filled with armed troops were seen heading to Manyu Division. Such military razzmatazz came less than 24 hours after the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) for Manyu, Joseph Oum II, signed a Prefectural Order, declaring Manyu as a military red zone.
In his Prefectural Order, Oum II earmarked 15 villages in the Division and advised the denizens of the villages to vacate their ancestral sites else they will be treated as terrorists by the uncompromising troops.
Even though the Prefectural Order was further rubbished as fake by the Governor of the South West Region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, the Manyu population heeded the SDO’s warning and took to the heels.
VIVIAN NGUM FOMUKONG SCNC Activist at a protest at the Cameroon high commissioner in London
The government of la’ republic is confused and desperate to arrest anyone that catches their attention. Mr. Patrick ngangang, is a Cameroonian writer based in America, was arrested in Douala to add with many other southern Cameroonians that are locked up. Any educated or noneducated southern Cameroonians. The government of the USA is asking the la’ republic government for the release of Mr. Patrick and the la’ republic government is giving deaf ears. This is how innocent people suffer in prison for no just cause.
Trouble continues in southern Cameroonians
As you all know, the struggle for independence continues as the people of southern Cameroonians are still being followed right to Nigeria where they have run for refuge. The la ‘ republic government are still after the innocent and unarmed civilians who have run to away from their homes for safety.
The government of la ‘ republic is still carrying out genocide in the southern Cameroonians area, killing innocent people, the helicopter is been sent to kill people armed or unarmed. The people are trapped now as the government is sending their fellow brothers who are in the army forces to come and kill them, they are going from village to village and unarmed villagers by taking all their raffle guns, and farm cutlasses that they protect themselves, they even go as far as breaking the bones of the people and leaving them to die slowly.
As you can see, the government is still having the southern Cameroonians in their grip, they adduct people in the night and carry them in a helicopter and drop them far away to die. Which government does this to his own people?
fFROM RIGHT TO LEFT VIVIAN NGUM FOMUKONG, CATHERINE MURING YOMBO. SCNC Actvist at a protest at the Cameroon high commissioner in London
Shooting in mamfe
02:00 am December 15th, the people of mamfe woke up by gun shoot by the soldiers of the rolling government, they also put fire on 100 million liters of petrol sold by the people of manyu to feed their families. The people of Timbaland are insecure and frustrated by this act by their own government who are meant to look after them. We cry for the UN to come to our rescue.
From left to right, Shebu Londo ( chairman SCNC UK), Pride Mbi Agbor (assistant Secretary General SCNC UK), Robert Tamangi ( Adviser SCNC UK).
Law serves utilitarian purposes. It is consciously deployment as an instrument of social
engineering. This instrumentalist use of the law means the law is deployed to socialize,
influence, condition, and orientate individual and group behaviour. The law is also used to
channel the conduct, attitude, thinking and behaviour of individuals and groups towards
predetermined political, social, economic and cultural goals. Every legal order attempts to solve
societal problems by using the threats and promises of the law to channel behaviour in new and
different ways. It is thus to the law that a government ultimately resorts to create institutions
reflective of its image.
The political, social, cultural and economic policies of French Cameroun, including its
repressive, oppressive and colonial policies, find expression in statutes, decrees, regulations,
directives and policy statements and speeches of the Yaoundé colonial regime and its field
colonial officials. This gives French Cameroun the cover to declare the just disobedience of its
arbitrary and despotic impositions as violations of what are in effect mere pretended ‘laws’.
French Cameroun rams an array of ‘laws’ down the throats of the people of the Southern
Cameroons and exacts compliance under pain of draconian sanctions, including death by
hanging. These ‘laws’ are enforced and maintained by the colonial administrative and
repressive infrastructure instituted in the Southern Cameroons. The ‘law’ of the French
Cameroun colonial authority in the Southern Cameroons is therefore gross coercion. It seeks
to promote a colonial ideology and maintains the colonial status quo. It is basically a reflection
of French Cameroun’s colonial hegemony in the Southern Cameroons.
French Cameroun has thus presumed to declare the territory and people of the Southern
Cameroons ‘illegal’, the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation (SCBC) ‘illegal,
Radio Southern Cameroons (RSC) ‘illegal’, the Southern Cameroons Diaspora ‘illegal’, the
exercise by the people of the Southern Cameroons of their right to freedom of thought and
expression ‘illegal, their freedom to receive and share information ‘illegal’, their freedom of
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movement ‘illegal’, and their unquestionable right to free themselves from French Cameroun
rapacious and violent colonialism ‘illegal’.
The ‘law’ declared by that country is first and foremost a means of exercising political,
economic, social and cultural power and control over the people of the Southern Cameroons.
It is the weapon of the colonial authorities in ensuring colonial dependency. It is a weapon that
fosters spoliation, pauperisation, a ghetto environment, and underdevelopment in the Southern
Cameroons. Its role is to conserve and perpetuate French Cameroun hegemony in, and
colonisation of, the Southern Cameroons. French Cameroun makes these laws in its
unflattering image. It shapes them. It defines them. It interprets them. It gives them meaning
consistent with its French-derived distorted world-view and its colonial project in the Southern
Cameroons. It is the ruling material force in the Southern Cameroons. It monopolises the means
of material production in the Southern Cameroons. It daily seeks to control the means of mental
production as well.
Protest 10 dowing street 1st oct 2017 from left to right Catherine Yombo muring, Pride Mbi Agbor, Gutenberg N.pride Mbi Agbor and Catalonia Supports finghting for independence of Abazonia and Catalan
French Cameroun is undeniably the colonial authority in the Southern Cameroons,
exercising, vi et armis, a colonial sovereignty. It continues to do so in defiance of the universal
proscription of colonialism. It continues to do so in violation of the unquestionable right of the
people of the Southern Cameroons to self-determination and to freedom from alien domination.
The right to self-determination is an inalienable and continuing right under international law.
It is a pre-condition to the full enjoyment of political, civil, cultural, economic and social rights.
The 1960 United Nations binding Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples declares that “the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination
and exploitation” amounts to a denial of human rights and to a violation of the Charter of the
United Nations. The Southern Cameroons situation calls for decolonisation of the territory from
the predatory colonial occupation of French Cameroun. Decolonisation will ipso facto put an
end to other gross human rights violations by French Cameroun in the territory of the Southern
Cameroons.
In such an inauspicious environment, it becomes the abiding right and duty of the
colonised people of the Southern Cameroons to destroy, and end forever, that colonial
condition. Part of that creative deconstruction of the colonial condition and narrative is the
demolition of the coloniser’s ‘law’ and legal infrastructure. It follows that a colonised people
necessarily have a right of resistance. Every colonised or oppressed people struggling against
colonial subjugation must necessarily defy the institutions and ‘laws’ of the colonising state.
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This includes openly defying and disobeying the colonial administrators and the colonial forces
of occupation. It further includes dismantling all colonial structures in the colonised and defiled
territory, fumigating and sanitizing the entire territory to render it clean and healthy once again.
The holy duty of any colonised people is to vigorously challenge and destroy the colonial order
imposed on them. For, colonialism is iniquitous. It is tyrannical. It is intolerable. It has
universally been proscribed. Every colonised people therefore have a plain obligation in law
and in nature to resist to the end and by every available means, to disobey and demolish, the
vile colonial order to which they are subjected.
Preceding the day many a people of Southern Cameroons have yearned to enjoy freedom at last, the military deployment in the two zones have been invading people’s premises, major streets and meeting points, to chase away people, beating some and arresting others. In Mile 16, Muea, Ekona, Newtown, Half Mile, Kosala, Fiango, Nguti, Nkwen, Santa, Kumbo, and other places in the Southern and Northern Zones, there has been mass raids and arbitrary arrests since Saturday September 23, 2017. Worst still, is the fact that people’s phones are being seized and searched. Should you have anything regarding the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons, you will be arrested. Many have been locked up at detention camps for no just course.
We Shall Shoot To Kill, If Possible – Bernard Okalia Bilai
Colonial Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, told reporters that the huge military presence in the Southern zone have been tasked to shoot and kill if anyone gets on the street on or before Sunday October 1, 2017. Speaking in a Press conference held Wednesday October, 27 2017 in Buea, the xenophobe cum ‘agent provocateur’ of LRC, told the media to inform the population to stay home for their good, otherwise, they risk facing their end, should they venture the streets on Sunday October 1, 2017.
Mass arrests in Ekona
“I urge you the journalists to sensitise the population to stay home on Sunday (October 1, 2017). We have raised the security alert to severe. So the security forces you see parading the streets have been instructed to shoot at anyone who shall demonstrate on that day. It is of the best interest of the people to stay safe at home on that day,” Okalia Bilai indicated.
Speaking with all arrogance and authority, the colonial occupant even threatened the press to desist from reporting incidents that can fuel demonstrations. He insisted, due to the desperate times we find ourselves, reporters should apply gatekeeping of information at the highest level.
“It will be of your best interest to avoid reporting things that can implicate you. We are in a desperate time and no stone is left unturn. I urge you journalists to apply your ethics of your profession at all course so as to avoid escalation of violence in (Southern Cameroons),” Okalia Bilai arrogated.
Church services, night travel, and even nocturnal social activities, have been placed under suspension. Reports say, within these times, some special forces are being deployed to enter homes and search for any implicating material.
Francophones deployed As Spies & Vigilante
Meantime, some unknown youths are presently being trained on some information gathering technics in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. These young men allegedly from Douala and Nschang, are going to act as government spies, combing the nooks and crannies of Buea, Limbe and Kumba, so they can fish out possible information linked to the restoration of the struggle. Presented in Buea and Bamenda on Wednesday September 27, the men are being equipped with whistles, torches, and communication airtime, to carry out their espionage.
A Revolutionary Friday in Southern Cameroons: One Message to the Occupier – the Colonial Game is Over.
In 1986, the CIA had predicted as a challenge to the Biya regime that …the Anglophone minority is a potential time bomb and should the government fail to respect their cultural and linguistic traditions … an outbreak of violence … would be a significant setback blow to Biya’s effort to develop national unity and reconciliation” In 2017, at the Cameroun National Assembly, the defiant Hon. Joseph Wirba, of the Jakiri Special Constituency, while addressing his colleagues on the Southern Cameroons crisis, made it vehement clear to whoever cared to listen that …”When the People Shall rise, even if you bring the whole of the French army and add to yours, you shall not be able to stop them”
It was a bright sunny and showery Friday, 22nd September, 2017, with blue and white skies all over the Southern Cameroons. The day the people, from the hamlets to metropolises at home and in the entire diaspora, sent shock waves to the entire world with just one message; the 56 years colonial occupation of the Southern Cameroons by La Republic du Cameroon is over. From little children of 5 years old to grandmas and grandpas of over 90 years, the message was the same; Ambazonia is rising to fall no more.
As early as 8:30 am, the small village of Bafia in Muyuka had lit the peaceful protest candle with a mammoth crowd of over 5000 persons, chanting patriotic/freedom songs and matching towards their Chief’s palace with green branches, and the blue and white colours of Ambazonia. Before the spectacular videos and images from Bafia could be digested on social media, Ekona had already caught the fire and that is how the unquenchable protest flames kept on burning the entire Southern Cameroons, until the early evening hours of the day. By night fall, La Republic du Cameroon and her privileged, anti-revolutionary house slaves who believe in a certain one and indivisible Cameroun were already leaking their wounds. This was however not without some casualties on the side of the peaceful protesters, as many Ambalanders were reportedly shot with live ammunition, with approximately 8 deaths recorded, many wounded and many arrested by colonial forces. Surprisingly, the shootings were not only carried out by the brute colonial forces, but also allegedly by colonial administrators, notably the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu and the colonial Mayor of Buea.
Apart from the fact that the peaceful protesters all marched into the palaces and offices of their traditional/ local administrative authorities, brought down La Republic’s flags, sang the Ambazonia National Anthem and hoisted Amba flags; there were some ugly incidents and also spectacular moves made by the protesting Southern Cameroonians that are worth mentioning. These events happened in, but not limited to Victoria, Buea, Mamfe, Menji, Batibo, Bali, Bello and Santa.
In Victoria, the protests turned ugly when colonial forces descended on the peaceful people with teargas and live ammunition, this resulted in counter attacks from the people with stones, objects and mounting of barricades, leading to the burning of LRC’s flag and the dead and wounding of some Southern Cameroonians. In Buea, early attempts by colonial forces to disrupt the protests between Mile and Malingo junction with teargas and water cannons failed, as the crowed strength over powered the colonial forces, matching up towards the Bongo Square.
They were however blocked from the Baptist High School by the intimidating forces. The ensuing encounter was teargas and grenades on the population. A grenade landed on a blank house, caught a gas cylinder and the next thing seen of the said house was fire and ashes. As the population retreated down towards check point, the colonial Mayor of Buea whose home is just about 250 meters away from the main road, was caught up in the confusion. As a result, he allegedly fired two shots wounding one and killing another. The angry population descended on his property with heavy stones and objects, and the results were the pictures of his property left overs circulating on social media.
In Mamfe, it was the colonial S.D.O for Manyu that allegedly shot young protesters to death. In Menji, the uncompromising Lebialem warriors did not only bring down La Republique’s flag at the S.D.O’s office, but compelled the S.D.O who happens to be an Ambazonian to sing the Southern Cameroons Anthem with them as the Amba flag was being hoisted; while in Santa, the colonial D.O for Santa and the Principal of GBHS Santa joined the protests, adorned in Southern Cameroon mufflers, and were later escorted by the population to Matazen where they asked them to cross the border and return to their home country, La Republic du Cameroon. This however did not end without the loss of a protester through gun shots from the brutal gendarmes.
In Bello, the protesters were joined by their representative at the National Assembly of La Republique, while those of Batibo marched to the home of their parliamentarian, Joseph Mbah Ndam who made it clear to them that he shall not return to La Republique’s parliament until he sees the end of the struggle. In effect, the people also declared him the administering authority of Batibo and went ahead to hoist the Southern Cameroons flag in his compound.
In the diaspora, while Southern Cameroonians took hostage UN headquarters in their host countries, the show down of the day was at the UN headquarters in New York where the two distinct peoples of Southern Cameroons and La Republic du Cameroon challenged each other in what has been termed the biggest protest so far in the history of protests at the UN Plaza in New York. From the messages emanating from the two protesting camps, it was crystal clear to the world that the Cameroons is made up of two Countries, the British Southern Cameroons and La Republic du Cameroon. Outstanding in the New York protest was the reunion between leaders of the various Southern Cameroons revolutionary movements such as MoRISC, AGC, SCNC, SCYL and above all umbrella body SCACUF and the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council (SCAGC).
As the population retreated to their homes and destinations towards the end of the day, an estimated 2.5 million Southern Cameroonians both home and abroad were said to have participated in the protests. The message had been sent to whoever cared to listen; Free All Arrested and Southern Cameroons Ambazonia must be free and the time is NOW. Those who thought that the Restoration Movement was made up of a few self-seeking “secessionists” now understand better what the movement is all about. As for the dying regime and those house slaves who have been singing the chorus of a fathom one and indivisible Cameroon, we hope you got the message clearly yesterday.
When people have been pushed to the wall for so long and with their own eyes day in and out they see people disappear into thin air,there is bound to be an explosion or eruption. That is what 22nd September 2017 was to Southern Cameroonians (S C) headed by women/TAKEMBENG or TAKUMBENG. This same day Mr Paul Biya was presiding over his bag of lies at the UN General Assembly in New York. Southern Cameroons schools have not opened since last year and Mr Biya is that bold to talk when he has deprived us of education which is a basic human right. When women come out in their numbers in a mass protest as ‘Takumbeng” in a traditional way,it means that their “eyes have seen their ears”. This is a traditional way of expressing the severity of an offence. Women go out in numbers putting on old clothes,bright colours clothes etc. The case of Friday 22nd September 2017,women were dressed either in red,white or old clothes. Southern Cameroonians have had enough and can no longer accommodate or bare the barbarism of La Republic. Mothers/women can no longer sit and watch their children disappearing. The militarization of our towns and villages,the unlawfully killings, arrests,threats,etc has unleashed the Takumbengs for an out cry for the gods to hear as well as the international community to rescue us and intervene. So many innocent souls have been lost and enough is enough, we want our independence.
Takumbeng or Takembeng are a female social movement in the North West region of Southern Cameroons. It connects with traditional practices where group of women perform ostracizing rituals against individuals in their communities. Glaring examples could be seen as far back as the 1950s and 1960s towards the end of colonial control and in the early years of independent Cameroon. Since the early 1990s especially in the city of Bamenda, Takumbeng protests have taken place which was another horrible period in the history of S C. This was seen more especially during the presidential election of 1992 in which the results were fraudulent in favour of Mr Paul Biya. This resulted to several deaths, arrests, destruction of public structures etc. (For further reading go to
http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://www.yourdictionary.com/africa&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwj2ppDA8MPWAhUGIsAKHV2LDeoQFggiMAg&usg=AFQjCNGB_g0uAoe4vjpwoYUQdW9PXzDg3w
The “takumbeng have been unleashed” and Southern Cameroons must be free.
CATHERINE MURING YOMBO AT A SIT DOWN PROTEST AT THE HIGH COMMISSION IN LONDON
Ahead, ahead and never to give up for the battle is not over yet. The servant will no longer wait to pick up crumbs from the master’s table. Southern Cameroonians will not sit and watch you continue to degrade us to slaves in our motherland. For 56 years we have been deprived of our basic human rights and the time has come now that we say enough is enough. The killing of innocent people, brutality, destruction of our lands and all forms of abuses will not make us give up. On the contrary, our freedom fighting spirits are very much alive and active for the day of jubilation is near.
CHAIRMAN SHEBU LONDO AND CATHERINE MURING YOMBO AT THE PROTEST AT THE CAMEROON HIGH COMMISSION ON AUGUST 13 2017CATHERINE MURING YOMBO AT THE PROTEST AT THE CAMEROON HIGH COMMISSION ON AUGUST 13 2017
Mr. Paul Biya, in fact, you are losing the plot, our people have been killed, unlawfully arrested and detained, our children not going to School for nearly a year now and yet nothing has been done.Our plight ignored and giving a deaf-ear to all the injustices as well as inequalities. But yet you go again wasting money sending a delegation of your croaks abroad to do your dirty jobs in the name of coming over to dialogue with the diaspora, what a shame. Scheming again, as usual, to give an impression to the world that ‘Cameroon is one and indivisible or better still that you are a peacemaker. This is meant to give a good impression to the international community and we will not let you fool the world that you are a democratic leader. We the Southern Cameroonians of UK and the whole diaspora did send a powerful message to you on Sunday 13th August 2017 at Holland Park (Cameroon high commission/Embassy). We must possess our possessions so no amount of your tricks will work. No wonder a meeting was scheduled on a Sunday at the high commission with the hope that we will not attend but since we know you so well we planned 10 times ahead giving you no space to fake a story,
As you return to the La Republic, tell your master Biya that in the UK you were all so shocked to see the British humble police officers protecting the public as opposed to yours that brutalized people, rape women and unlawfully arrest them. Also, tell him that we will not compromise our struggle to anything and will not give up until we take back control. Ahead not to turn back for “forward ever backward never”. We shall continue to fight until our independence is granted, Lord helps us.
FROM RIGHT TO LEFT PRIDE MBI AGBOR (ASG SCNC UK) SHEBU LONDO (CHAIR SCNC UK) Protest at the Cameroon high on 13 aug 2017
After the defeat of the Germans during World War 1, Southern Cameroon was administered by the British administrative traditions, educational and legal system (mainly the Common Law), system of government and management of the local community – which were all done and government by the British by indirect rule.
This therefore goes without saying that the main language of administration, governance and instruction in these parts is English and rightly so – likewise as French traditions and administrative system dominate the French speaking part of Cameroon.
Therefore, judging from the above brief assessment of the way both Cameroons were been administered and governed traditionally, any form of social and economic unrest in an area where English is the main language suggests that there is an issue and only fair to conclude that it is an Anglophone problem within its own right – based on its roots and heritage! This however does not equally imply that, Anglophones have a problem because they are Anglophones but solely because the people feel abandoned, segregated, marginalised, ignored and been treated for long as “second class citizens” – for lack of a better expression! Some of the reasons for this Anglophone problem have been discussed below:
Official name of the country
One of the most frustrating issues of the Anglophone problem is found in the official name of Cameroon. The name of this country: La République du Cameroun as subtle as it might seem is a potential source of the destruction of the country in its current state of affairs.
Going back to the beginning, it is worth-noting that prior to the British and French administration of the Cameroons in 1961, the part that was governed by the French was called La République du Cameroun. But when both parts came together and were united as one, the country was called the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Note the use of the word ‘Federal’ – as this denotes the recognition that at least two political entities had decided to federate.
Three years later, i.e. 1972, the name of the country was now changed to the United Republic of Cameroon albeit against the spirit of the Foumban accords that led to the 1961 federation, however, the term UNITED still was a reminder that there was more than one political structures, identities or entities were not in unity.
This now brings us to the current issue as the name of the country is La République du Cameroun – which clearly highlights if not project the fact that there is no remnant or reminder of Cameroon comprised of two political entities that came together. This is also the exact name of French Cameroon before the federation. I guess the question now remains: what became of the English speaking Cameroon or the Anglophones? Are we no longer part and parcel of this so called “marriage”?
It is for this reason that some Anglophones feel that they have been suppressed, occupied or simply erased from the country entirely.
The language of the law
Another deliberate projection of institutional aberration from the spirit of the 1961 union is that the French mannerisms, language and culture significantly buttress the conception of laws in Cameroon. Inasmuch as the constitution evidently stipulates that Cameroon is a bilingual country, never in the history of Cameroon has a law been presented to the National Assembly in English first. In cases where laws are proposed in both English and French versions, the English version is a translation and as in the case of the revised Penal code tabled in 2016 – the legal implications and quality of the English version is a clear indication of the level of competence (or lack thereof) of the translator.
The undergirding problem here is that if laws are systematically conceived in French, it goes without saying that its application, interpretation and implementation will based on the traditions inherited from the French with no regard for the English traditions and culture. I guess the next question now is this: how is this legal system fair towards the Anglophones especially when the cultures and interpretation of the law is already biased from the unset!
Administrative
This is the one that is really painful and embarrassing to say the least and makes the heart of every educated Anglophone to have their hearts sinking. A country with over 30 Ministries has the inscription of the various names of the ministries in French first, then followed by English underneath mostly with smaller characters, as if was an irrelevant footnote. These are some of the trivial issues that most people might not notice unless they are Anglophones or an activist of equality and human rights.
That notwithstanding, even the websites of the over 30 Ministries are in French and in most cases, the English version is either not updated, not available or Google translated. Information, when made available to Anglophones is therefore not news or is in such poor and inappropriate English that is tantamount to an insult as if there are no educated Anglophones who would have done a better job.
The final example is Cameroon’s relations with the Commonwealth, which could and should have been noticed by members of the Commonwealth of nations. The Head of State has never deemed it necessary, important or vital to attend a Commonwealth Summit but unfailingly attends Francophonie summits which seem to be more important to him than African Union Summits. The presence of the French president at Francophonie summits and the extent of French investment in Cameroon and the diplomatic cards that may be played at these summits may be a factor in the Head of State’s decision to attend. But then, his non-attendance of Commonwealth summits begs the question of why a similar economic rapprochement is not made with countries of the commonwealth or is English Cameroonians not that important for their plights to be heard or benefits to be shared with the rest of the commonwealth member states?
Language of communication
Firstly, inasmuch as the current (Paul Biya) and former Heads of State (Late Hon. Ahmadow Ahidjo) have made numerous speeches lasting over 50+ years, inasmuch as the current Head of State has made some small parts of a handful of speeches in English, no Cameroonian Head of State HAS EVER made a full speech in English. As a matter of fact, Anglophone Cameroonians do not know what it feels like for citizens to hear their so-called Head of State make a full speech in their first official language which could be equated with “seeing a pig fly”
Secondly, no key decisions, appointments, laws or any legal procedures or any state matter has ever been published or announced in English first; nor are Anglophones aware of any such decision for which the French version is only a translation.
There’s a major radio newscast at 3pm in English and a major radio newscast at 5pm in French. There is also a major TV newscast at 7:30pm in English and a major TV newscast at 8:30pm in French all of which are either on the CRTV radio or Television. Critically looking at it and not being biased, could the government of La Republique honestly confirm to the public that for over 50 years, all major decisions have been made between 3:30pm (after the radio news in English) and 5pm (before the radio news in French) or between 8pm (after TV news in English) and 8:30pm (before TV news in French) and thus announced in the next available newscast which happens to be in French? This would be a coincidence that has never and will never happen on planet earth. How convenient!
Another critical element is the fact that the language used on Bank Notes in Cameroon does not a single word in English printed on any of them – could there ever be a scenario in human history where the term marginalisation could be better used? This remains a problem that Francophone Cameroonians cannot complain about except by solidarity – this constitutes an Anglophone problems!
Lack of economic development in English speaking Cameroon
Nothing of a major economic benefit to the people of West Cameroon have gained any interest from the government even when the resources are there to be developed. The Menchum fall comes to mind as an example. Research conducted has suggested that the Menchum fall, if harnessed could provide electricity to the whole of Central Africa. Any reasonable government, taking into account the frequent power failure in Cameroon would jump to this opportunity to make the lives of its citizens better and attract businesses, investments and economic growth. But because this is found in Southern Cameroon, no one cares.
Economic headquarters of most if not all corporations and enterprises have been moved out of the area. A good example is the headquarters of the CDC from Buea to Yaounde. This is the definition of what marginalisation looks like for real
These injustices are real and they affect real people especially the Anglophones. They are so systematic that they seem obviously deliberate and ultimately criminal. It is true that Honourable WIRBA quoted Thomas Jefferson… but I want to quote Honourable WIRBA: When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty”. It is the injustices above that Anglophones are RESISTING hence the cry of an Anglophone problem!
