My Odyssey: Nfon
Mukete signs off in Grand Style!
By
TazoachaAsonganyi in Yaounde
Let me say it
right from the start: “My Odyssey – The Story of Cameroon Reunification”
(SOPECAM, 579 pages, 17 Chapters) is a good book, an important book, a very
welcome book. History is always the loser when actors on history’s stage like
Nfon Victor E. Mukete leave the stage without personal records of how they
fared. He has succeeded to leave the impression in my mind that he is a big man
on the reunification stage. “My Odyssey” did not have to wait until NfonMukete
is 96, or until the reunification is 53 to be published; but as is the case in
Cameroon today, if I say better late than never, many people may think that I
am just borrowing Biya’s phrase used in Buea, as if I did not start hearing and
using it since I entered primary school before reunification in 1961. Yes,
better late than never!
I finished reading the book last
weekend in Buea where I went as a “tourist” to see for myself the “changes” in
the colonial capital that have become the talk of the town, so to say. When I
talked about the book to some friends that attended the “reunification colloquium”
at the University of Buea, they dismissed it with a wave of the hand, saying
that they saw the book in the “colloquium” hall but paid no attention to it
because they knew that NfonMukete could only write a “new deal” version of the
reunification story. They were wrong!
Nfon Mukete
True, NfonMukete can be said to
be a child of two worlds. The first is the Southern Cameroons where he grew up,
and in which he and his contemporaries used their “political capital” as an
asset which they exploited to the advantage and benefit of Southern Cameroons,
against the overwhelming, combined power of Nigeria and Britain. The second is
the world IkomiNgongi paints for the present day Southwesterner
(Anglophone).
By some interesting coincidence,
not long after I put down the book, I read a write-up in The Post Newspaper
titled “How to waste socio-economic, cultural and political capital and get
punished for it,” by IkomiNgongi. He defines “political capital” as a tangible,
palpable asset at the disposal of communities and constituencies, meant to be
used to their advantage and benefit whenever it is necessary; as a people’s
understanding of their own collective self-worth that raises their bargaining
power to bring about deserved developmental and other benefits to a community.
Ngongi also describes
Southwesterners (and I would say Anglophone Cameroonians) as people who seem to
have lost their own sense of community and oneness of purpose in a society that
has been horribly corrupted and devastated by greed and selfishness; people who
are incapable of dealing with objectivity and of facing the truth; people who
have lost their own souls, who are weak and cowardly, who are thoughtless,
divided and “unpolitical;” people who do not know how to use their political
capital. Indeed, he thinks that they are a people who continue to be “thankful”
to a political system that “humiliates, abuses, marginalizes and disdainfully
spits on them”; they have mortgaged the future of their children for present
individual, personal, fleeting benefits.
So, NfonMukete with feet firmly
planted in this second world painted by Ikomi, has written the story of his
(their) exploits in his first world of Southern Cameroons. This has not
affected the clarity of the narrative, but the constraints of his second world
have tainted his conclusions and recommendations. Many such stories usually
suffer from distortion of events by failing memory or by the willful
manipulation of records by participants to improve their appearance before the
bar of history. It is to the credit of NfonMukete that he does not fall prey to
this because much of what he says is supported by “authentic letters of key
players.”
There may be an “intrinsic
goodness inherent in human nature,” to use words from the Foreword of the book,
but human history tells us that left to their own designs, human beings cannot
be trusted not to try to get the better of their fellow men; there is a natural
human tendency, especially those charged with wielding the power of the state,
to prey on their fellow men. This is why humanity adopted the Rule of Law to
hem in power, and govern its exercise.
NfonMukete’s two worlds are variously affected by the rule of law: in
the first, the sacrosanct place of the rule of law and firm belief in its
authority permitted them to use their political capital in their interest; in
the second world, the virtual absence of the rule of law led to reneging on
important agreements, even those signed into law!
Of course, NfonMukete’s
generation made preparations both within their political parties and in
multi-partisan meetings in Mamfe, Bamenda, Kumba, and other places, for their
impending political contacts with “their brothers.” Because of the
unpredictability of human nature, all such “contacts” are usually complicated
operations that need laborious preparation, including elaborate simulation to
guard against the incalculable of history. During such preparatory meetings,
all types of scenarios are supposed to be played out in group discussions, or
at least in the minds of the actors to prepare answers for all eventualities:
what shall we do if the other people do this?; if this or that happens, what
are the steps we will take to address them? Such thorough planning provides
guards against all possible, embarrassing outcomes.
NfonMukete and his
contemporaries did not engage in such thorough planning, so they have been
variously criticized for it. This is why he states candidly that “A lot of
criticism has been made about the [Foumban] Conference and its decisions. But
quite frankly I really do not see what difference I [degreed and experienced]
could have made in it. Ahidjo made a famous statement during the 49th Meeting
of the Fourth Committee of the UN in 1959 when he stated (capitals are
Mukete’s): ‘WE (FRENCH CAMEROONS) ARE NOT ANNEXATIONISTS. IF OUR BROTHERS OF
THE BRITISH ZONE WISH TO UNITE WITH INDEPENDENT CAMEROON, WE ARE READY TO
DISCUSS THE MATTER WITH THEM, BUT WE WILL DO SO ON A FOOTING OF EQUALITY.’ We
had no reason to doubt the sincerity of this statement. There was no issue
involving a struggle by warring factions fighting for conquest over the other
party…”
Hindsight is usually richer in
wisdom than is usually available at decision point. Indeed, NfonMukete pleads
that “We should not assess events at the Foumban Conference as they appear in
hindsight in the 21st Century, but instead as they looked to protagonists in
the 1950s and early 1960s.” Yes, hindsight tells us that their image of
essentially good “brothers” united in the quest for reunification was misplaced;
they failed to integrate the fact that even a “brother” could be equally as
dangerous as the Ibos that humiliated, abused, marginalized and disdainfully
spat on them. That is what IkomiNgoni says our “brothers” are doing to us
today! It is all about power: the behavior of the Ibos was a reflection of the
power they wielded in Southern Cameroons governance. NfonMukete and his peers
could have learned from the history of other peoples like Americans who
discovered shortly after their independence right back in 1776 that their own
“brothers” (Americans) could be equally as dangerous as the English they had
just got their independence from. It is the search of Americans for
self-understanding, their realization that people in power - brother or
foreigner - would not on their own realize the common good, that led to the
answer articulated in the American Constitution of 1789.
So what should be done?
NfonMukete responds that “….I must say that what the leaders of this beautiful,
God-given and blessed country should do is to reflect deeply on what is needed
to remove mutual suspicions…” He also says in the Preface of “My Odyssey” that
“This book can be read at many levels: the literal meaning given by the words
on the page; the philosophical level: a good book has a hidden message, a moral
lesson to be learned.” At the philosophical level, I would say that
NfonMukete’s book is a candid call for our own search for self-understanding to
provide our own appropriate answer that is long overdue. If his generation did not
accept that Ibos and others should humiliate, abuse, marginalize and
disdainfully spit on them, there is no reason for this generation of
“Anglophones” to accept it from their “brothers.” Although NfonMukete’s book is
only concerned with his exploits in his first world, his expression of
disappointment at the neglect of the English language, the rampant corruption
and embezzlement of public funds, and the absence of true decentralization are
clear indicators that he is not totally happy with the state of present day
Cameroon – his second world.
NfonMukete describes many people
in his book as “staunch reunificationists: JN Foncha, ST Muna, SA George, AN
Jua, AW Mukong, WNO Effiom, Nzo EkhahNghaky, B Fonlon, GorgiDinka, I Malafa,
TamajongNdumu, VA Ngu, NdehNtumazah, and
many others. One of the credits of the book is to bring these players and many
others closer to the reader for critical examination. The fact that some like
Foncha and Muna since apologized for their mistakes related to reunification,
and others like Mukong and GorgiDinka think that the decision should be
reversed, while others of French Cameroun origin that he also mentions like R
Um Nyobe, F Moumie, E Ouandié, A Kinge and more had a rough time in the
reunited Cameroon speaks volumes about how their reunification dream fared, and
about the present state of the country.
PM Kale, EML Endeley, LN Namme
and NN Mbile were founding members of the NCNC in 1944; PM Kale, LN Namme and
JN Foncha were founding members of the CYL in 1944; VE Mukete wrote an article
in West Africa Magazine in 1945 criticizing the division of Kamerun by the
Milner/Simon Line. These incidents and many more brought out in the book argue
strongly for the indigenous origin of the reunification struggle in Southern
Cameroons; they debunk the hoary myth that Southern Cameroonians were
influenced in their decision by people of French Cameroun origin settled in
Southern Cameroons. The volt-face of RJK Dibonge who became a “rabid
integrationist” only strengthens the argument.
The ganging up of Endeley and
his party/government against a sick and dying S.A George of Mamfe Constituency
and his sorry treatment by the government until his death would have surely
been of interest to politicians of the other myth of the SW/NW divide if it was
Foncha’s government, not Endeley’s. The incident is a strong message that what
a province, a region, a people need above all else, is a strong society of well
informed, critical and engaged citizens capable of giving themselves the right
institutions and the right leaders – strong institutions in a weak society can
also be as oppressive as strongmen.
The mastery of the English
Language by the author of “My Odyssey – The Story of Cameroon Reunification”
and the authors of the various documents published in the book is another
irrefutable testimony that the standards of today’s education are far lower
than those of yesteryears. The reader will not only enjoy reading the words on
the pages, but will obviously enjoy indulging in the exercise of decoding the
“hidden” philosophical message in the book.
What is sure is that some people
are made for troubled times; others for routine. More importantly, some people
are meant for sowing the wind, and NfonMukete is one of such; others are for
reaping the whirlwind, and the present generation is burdened with that.
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