The Median Newspaper

The Anglophone spirit is a driving force in Cameroon’s unity
By Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle

Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle

The venerated American Civil Rights Leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King once uttered the following words to his kinsmen, “we must learn to live together as a nation or we perish together as fools… for the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy”. These words of inspiration and wisdom by a man of vision and destiny to a people on a confrontation course with their destiny was not only prophetic but also useful and pertinent to the victory of the American Black minority in a majority white America. One has to wonder if these words had been taken otherwise by the intended audience, what would the history, plight and future of the African-American citizens been today.  One also has to dare to wonder if with these words of wisdom, well taken as was the case the success of the civil rights cause in America is a living reality or myth in terms of the plight and destiny of African-American in a majority white America? While the answer to the first question is not applicable because the civil right movement followed the MLK wisdom and method, the answer to the second question is an obvious  yes in the sense that, the civil rights movement in the USA was successful and the plight and destiny of the African-American in a majority white USA is a reality and not a myth for many of the over forty million African-American citizens of the USA – one nation under God in the belief that out of many came one nation – the United States of America with all its hyper greatness and super powerdom.

    In the last two decades, a corpus of literature and other forms of expression and association have gone public discourse exhibiting  the feelings, aspirations, frustrations and propositions of some Anglophone Cameroonians about our national unity, its foundations, it logic, its history and even its value and relevance. This corpus of literature can be classified into three main typologies of opinion and propositions. Of the first category are those Anglophones who in spite of their past and their known public profile take the view that the unity of Cameroon does not exist because they disagree with the state of affairs in such issue area as public policy or constitutionalism. Of the second category are those Anglophones who take the view that the unity that occurred and exist is a myth rather than a reality because they see difficulties more than opportunities and consider that these difficulties are a reflection of bad faith on the part of the majority. Of the third category are those Anglophones who take the view that the unity movement cause was wise, a noble and conscientious cause and given the imperfection of man however, heroic he/she may be, the imperfections encountered or experienced are human and will be corrected by succeeding generations while preserving the bases and the virtues of unity for future generations as a matter of destiny. This is the view I share. While these diverse voices are legitimate and are expressions of the freedom of speech that characterize, the rule of law which is the operational mode of current governance in the country, there is a real concern for any conscientious Cameroonian in general and conscientious Anglophone in particular that the dichotomy of view points carries the risk of creating distortions and sterile disharmony in the current political and social atmosphere and worse still, there is the real risk that the younger generations and those yet unborn, might be deprived of the opportunity to appreciate their country’s history and chart a better future for their country and themselves. It is the renowned and well famous scientist, Albert Einstein, who once said, “learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning for, you have to learn the rules of the game and then play it better than anyone else. You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by avoiding it today.”
    The challenge of the Anglophone Cameroonian is both cultural and political. The challenge is cultural in that as Albert Einstein’s Wisdom states, you can’t solve a problem by running away from it or trying to modify its contours or worse you cannot afford not to be men in the face of perceived or real challenges. “Man as the philosophers hold, is like steel, when he looses his temper or himself, he looses his worth. The challenge is political in that the Anglophone heroes and forbearers of our national unity bequeathed to us the current generation the wisdom of magnanimity in rightness, the virtues and the nobility of accommodation and compromise, the humility of respect for and deference to constituted authority and belief in the imperfection of man and the greatness of a common destiny for our common Fatherland-Cameroon. We of the current generation, the post unity generation, have an abiding duty to be more positive than our forbearers as the late statesman and world icon Nelson Mandela, teaches us, “the more positive you think, the more positive the outcome will probably be, for it always seems impossible until it is done”. The Anglo-Saxon character traits or attributes of the typical Anglophone Cameroonian was instrumental and self evident with our reunification and our unity heroes of yesterday until today. The debate however distorted that is currently fashionable has a populist strain such as it dwells on language as the use of insensitive and rather gallery attractive notions like zero option, annexation, assimilation, colonization, illegality, secession, separation, hoisting of flags, Ambazonia, Southern Cameroons republic and a return to the original two state federal option. This language may “all sound good for the gallery and is indeed a reflection of the reality of the existence of the rule of law and its attendant political and civil freedoms in our country. The language is nonetheless distorted at times and carries the ingredients creating a psychosis which at best is of bad taste and confusing.
    Yet after fifty three years of reunification, and on the occasion of 42 years of our unification, the use of this outmoded and outdated notions does not place us in the great minds and visions of these great statesmen, the Fonchas, the Munas, the Endeleys, the Mbilles, the Juas, the Muketes, the Kalles, the Egbes, the Tamfus, the Gallegas and Angwafors. These were all at the end of the day and after 1961 pro-unificationist Anglophone Cameroonians. They never envisioned separation or secession after 1961. Theirs was the vision of unity is an opportunity more than a difficulty. For them, unity is strength, unity is greatness and unity is noble and virtuous. What else can the current generation ask from these heroic men of Anglophone expression and consciousness more than appreciation and gratitude for the great lesson of history and nation building they have bequeathed to us? What must we bequeath to the generation of youths coming up? A vision of opportunity or a vision of difficulty? Who in the Cameroon nation of today will deny the reality of Anglophone achievers second to none in every domain of national life, the Munas, the Ndumbes, the Ngus, the Lantums, the Monekossos in medicine; the Musonges, the Etahs, the Ndumus, the Sendzes in civil engineering; the Kalles, the Munas, the Besongs, the Guanmesias, the Endeleys, the Itoes, the Nyos in-laws; the Fonlons, the Bokossa, the Kisobs, the Nkwis, the Fansos, the Ngohs, the Njeumas in academia; the Nnangas, the Ches, the Menyolis, the Ngohs, the Muketes in business and industry. Who in their folly or machination can risk the justice of popular acclaim by relegating these icons of Anglophone achievement to the status of second class? Not in the Cameroon nation of our forbearers. Not in the Cameroon nation of the new deal and not in the Cameroon nation of tomorrow.
    There is only one inescapable conclusion that can be drawn from the preceding analysis. That inescapable conclusion is that after 42 years of unification which was overwhelmingly consented by over 98% of all Cameroonians and after 53 years of reunification with over 70% of Anglophones of the then Southern Cameroons-Cum West Cameroon and today North West and South West Cameroon consenting in a U.N supervised and sponsored plebiscite, the Cameroon nation has scored many successes in its Unity and that Unity in 42 years has been real for both Anglophones and Francophones alike in many ways. The difficulties encountered and experienced are the challenges of the current generation of politicians and statesmen and the solutions are no more difficult than they were 53 and 42 years ago. These challenges will find solutions in positive propositions such as the policies of effective decentralization; the policies of institutional capacity building and efficacy; the policies of constitutional adaptation where necessary with constitutional provisions of equal opportunity provided for Anglophones and a renewed sense of coherence in Anglophone positivism in thought, attitude and proposition. Of course, no one expects the debate to stop after all, ours is a democracy by choice and inherently, discussion, debate and conversation are part of the game. However, let there be a modicum of integrity, patriotism and a sense of common vision so as to mould the future rather fear it as seems to be the case with the current debate.