By
TazoachaAsonganyi in Yaounde
There is an
anthropologist, Robert Brain, who came to my native Lebialem a long time ago
and wrote about the Bangwa concept of the word “friend.” He explained to what
was obviously a Western audience that the word has a double meaning in Bangwa:
it means age-mate for people who were born around the same time; and it also
means people who socialize together, have common interests, common outlooks and
expectations, and aspirations.
Abel Eyinga, AtebaYene and I
were not age-mates. News about Abel Eyinga’s shadow boxing with Ahidjo for the
1970 presidential election from his “safe” abode in Paris and his subsequent
trial and sentencing to a 5-year prison term in absentia for daring the
God-sent “Grand Camarade,” moved quickly around Cameroon by word of mouth to
those of us young students in CCAST Bambili at that time who did not have the
“luxury” that was the radio set. The obscurantist leaders we have had in
Cameroon for over fifty years have been like that. Ahidjo, under the
totalitarian system he set up, held elections regularly but was always the
people’s favorite, God-sent single candidate; his challengers like Eyinga did
so at their peril. His handpicked successor Biya has not been different since
his “democratic” system is not too different from the totalitarian system he
inherited; he organizes elections regularly and is always the people’s favorite
choice because
he always knows how to rig himself to victory.
As for AtebaYene, he was just
what in Cameroon parlance would be a young man of yesterday. But all three of
us were “friends” all the same, because we shared the same wish to see change
in Cameroon; and our paths crossed several times in meetings where the need for
change in Cameroon was discussed. So we can be said to have been friends in the
struggle for change.
It would be recalled that during
a visit to France in February 1983 Paul Biya declared that Cameroonians living
abroad who wanted to return to Cameroon could do so, independent of their
political opinions. Abel Eyinga was one of those who returned home following
that call; he returned in 1991 after he was finally given a Cameroon passport.
He eventually founded a political party, La Nationale, with headquarters in
Ebolowa, his native town.
By 1996, the leader of the SDF
in Ebolowa was KongaKuate René; he had built the SDF into a strong force there.
La Nationale, having just been formed, did not enjoy the same popularity. With
the buildup to the 1996 (municipal) and 1997 (legislative) elections, we
decided in the SDF to open contacts with some emblematic figures like Mongo
Beti, Abel Eyinga, Samuel Eboua and others so they could ride on the coattail
of the SDF to Councils or parliament where we expected that their presence
would be much felt in the struggle for change. I am the one that contacted Abel
Eyinga and Samuel Eboua.
I travelled to Ebolowa three
times to meet and discuss with him, with the blessings of the local leaders of
the SDF. During the first encounter, we put it
Abel Eyinga
to him that the SDF wanted him
to be the head of the SDF list for the municipal elections in Ebolowa. He
showed great interest, and continued to show interest during our second meting;
but at our third meeting, he said the SDF was perceived as an Anglophone party,
and “his” people would not accept that he should join forces with it under the
banner of the SDF.
I met Eyinga again in 2010 in a
structure, Amis de l’urnesacrée (AUS) [Friends of the Sacred Ballot Box], which
we tried to put together in Yaoundé in 2010/2011. Eyinga was our president and
I was the vice, with other members like Ela (Secretary), Maidadi, Eloundou,
Garga, and others, but I never met Abel Eyinga in some half dozen meetings I
attended, so I had no choice but to preside over the meetings. He later
resigned as president because he said we were too interested in elections.
Eyinga seemed to be of the
opinion that our approach was not the best. As helaterstated in an article: « Le vrai combat citoyen à mener en ce
moment, dans l’intérêt de notre pays, n’est pas l’inscription massive ou non pour
des élections frauduleuses; le vrai combat que doivent entreprendre les
partisans sincères et conséquents de la transparence électorale, de
l’alternance et du changement porte sur la nature de l’organe chargé de
l’organisation des élections. Aucuneélectionlibre et honnête ne
peutsortir d’un scrutinorganisé par le Minat, en réalité par le
président-candidat Paul Biya,» [The real Citizen struggle now in the interest
of our country, is not the massive registration or not of electors for
fraudulent elections; the real struggle that
advocates of transparent elections, of alternance and
of change should engage in is the nature of the electoral commission. No
Ateba Eyene
free
and honest election can result from elections organized by Minat, in reality,
by the candidate Paul Biya.
Although we sent some members to
meet him and explain our position, he refused to reverse his resignation
decision. In any case, our later efforts to get AUS registered were frustrated
by the SDO of Mfoundi who decided not to receive the documents at all, since
receiving them would require him to issue us documentary evidence of our
request to register AUS.
Abel Eyinga was suffering from a
degenerative disease that affected his physical stature, so he only went around
in a wheelchair. This did not tamper his enthusiasm and determination to fight
for change in a Cameroon that he considered to be a fascist dictatorship in
black Africa, under the control of the French. I met him in many meetings,
including those that were held in upper floors of storey buildings without
lifts! He showed each time I met him that he was becoming frailer and frailer
until his recent demise.
AtebaYene believed that the
regime in Cameroon is an evil regime in a sense that was different from
Eyinga’s fascist dictatorship under French control. He believed that under the
CPDM regime, the devil had taken over from God in Cameroon with the flourishing
of lodges, sects, mafia networks and magico-anal practices; such devilish
attitudes and practices today open doors to success in all domains of the
Cameroon society, with know-how, talent and excellence no longer being of any
value. He wrote many books about these practices and spoke vehemently against
them.
At one of the several meetings
where we met, a member of the audience told him that he considered a person who
insisted on sharing the same house with “witches and wizards” as a witch
himself. Ateba responded that he was not a witch but he was not afraid of
witches. His sudden demise may just be an indication that if he was not a
witch, he needed to protect himself from witches, or at least distance himself
from them! If these people drink human blood and deal in various human parts
and all types of animal practices for their esoteric power, I am sure that
unlike many of us, they will not spend sleepless nights over the death of
AtebaYene because causing such death is their pastime.
Cameroon is most obviously a
neocolonial dictatorship controlled by the French; it is also a country where
the ways of the devil have become too visible everywhere. Abel Eyinga and
AtebaYene were gadflies that kept reminding us that the gloom-and-doom
situation that caused the rebellion of Um Nyobe, Earnest Ouandie and the others
is still with us. For sure most of us young and old heard their message loud
and clear. As they go, they should know that Man is the unconscious tool of
history’s plan; that their messages may have only caused silent and individual
revolts now, but tomorrow the revolts may be open and collective.
Go well my friends!
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