arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

CAMEROONIANS, WAKE UP… WAKE UP, CAMEROONIANS… PEOPLE ARE WATCHING YOU!!!
A Letter From Exile to my Fellow Cameroonians
By Thierry ONGA.

The year 2004 approaches. Another electoral year, with the presidential election has the horizon October 2004. And already voices are heard, claiming the discouragement, the resignation of the Cameroonian people, and the easy victory of the dictatorial régime of Paul Biya, facing the apathy of all democratic forces, and a divided opposition. You said "Deja Vu"?

Strange, that the memory of these words of "Petit Pays Omega " come so sharply to my mind, lately. Me, quoting the Camerounian musician, as a title to a serious comment on the political situation of "the homeland"? Really odd, how the memory selections and retains facts, which very often escape from the conscious reflection. Far from announcing a possible beginning of madness, my psychiatrist thinks on the contrary that it is a completely normal phenomenon. I Let me explain: At the time when I still lived in Cameroon, I was of those, many, who listened to his music more by distraction than for anything else. It should be reminded that the singer has never really shine for the quality or the depth of his messages. The talented musician is as well reputed for his multiple successes as for the controversies he never stop raising with obvious delight, as well as his temperament, “a bit” authoritative (soft euphemism?). Proofs of this are the numerous defections from his group, throughout the years. But He, it is today the characteristic of those who are accustomed to be "on top", like one says, with the "organizing country", that is the ruling party RDPC!

But I must admit this time, to the credit of the artist, that these words strike the spirit of who is determine to give them a sense, direction, some kind of "focus", not just some words of soft mockery, as they were originally meant. I say focus, preferring this term to that of "militant" for the cause of an unspecified political formation. I certainly do not want to be carried by a polemic similar to that which followed the use of the "Liberte" of Anne Marie NZHIE! Anyway, these words used here in own way of exhortation, reflect well enough my state of mind. Let us bet, however, that he will not appreciate the context and the use that I will make of them... Enough for the title, let’s get to the purpose of this article.

Yes, dear Cameroonians, PEOPLE ARE LOOKING AT YOU, AFRICA, THE WHOLE WORLD LOOKS AT YOU! ! ! It is true that lassitude, natural after all these years of unfruitful attempts, as desperate and expensive in life and human dramas as it has been so far is real, and perceptible. But the resignation is not an option. Cameroonians are a people of lions. And there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded lion. Yes, it is never too late, sang Late TCHANA Pierre, (RIP). It is never too late to hope to see a real change of Regime in the Government and the institutions of the Republic, in the mentalities, in Cameroon. For all those who died, for all the tortured, the handicapped for life both physical and mental because of the democratic repression of the movement in Cameroon. For all these years of hope, privations, sufferings, punishments, physical and moral handicapped. We do not have the right to lower the arms now. Never. A direction should be given to our sufferings, by barring the road, once more, with the RDPC. I have the heart breaks, when I think has all these people, these friends, these brothers, men and women who, with the current of the decade 1990, very lost: their goods, the human dignity, life and, for most fragile, top of the cruelty of this mode, reason...

The current situation is all the more preoccupying now that it clearly appears to the observer that the framework and the future of the political system in place in Cameroon is based not so much on its system of repression (which remains certainly effective, but has lost most of its superb, with the deaths of "dinosaurs", such as Jean FOCHIVE) but much more on the fear-panic which it continues to maintain vis a – vis crew the populations, by a tribal-apparatus of propaganda who deepens the spirits in the phantasmagoric idee of chaotic post-Biya era, as often seen in so many African countries. Nothing, or so little is said about the positive achievements or assets (are there any?) of a man has the personality as changeable as "the eternal holiday-maker of Etoudi". A dictatorial régime thus, but with a "ghost" leadership, “mou” according to the expression first used by General De Gaule; a system based on the power of the State, the armed forces and a consumed art to handle the ethnic issue; a despotism which lasts 20 years and more...

Moreover, stability and peace in Cameroon rest only on the maturity and the will of the only Cameroonian people. The regime in place in Yaounde knows it well, which has already engaged in one of these insidious campaigns of misinformation, and defamation of the opposition in which it excels. Long-time recipe, unfortunately! The internal quarrels between the opposition parties is a sad disappointing thing, and has now became a soft distraction in Cameroon, and the subject of dissentions for only Cameroonians of the Diaspora, nostalgic of the years 1990.

The truth is that the "soft mode" of Paul Biya would be beaten by no matter whom. With the proviso of having a free honest democratic election. But that, one knows it, remains a pious wish... Until proved wrong! Let us be realists: I do not even know if the opposition will still avoid this time the usual easy set-up of presenting numerous alternatives to the candidate of the RDPC, in October of the next year. As for the to the Cameroonian people, it is probable that innumerable demonstrations will be repressed (the repression are probably already taking place, without trace, in the funeral silence of the police machinery of the regime), there will be the hundreds of arrests, as tragic and yet anonymous as they usually are, as many people will be incarcerated, tortured, killed... The tradition of the elections under Biya will be probably respected. The order will reign... "His" democracy will advance... And another quotation, one!

But I would like to finish my paper on a merry tone, to point out the formidable capacity of "recuperation", "to rebound", like a lion, of the Cameroonian people. One People, a single nation, that I like in a manner also singular, and whose destiny imports me more than all. And it is a passage of another song of "Petit Pays" which comes to my mind, to express this optimism, even against any reason. Because men pass, individuals die (even Heads of States...) but the people remain...
« On est fiers et contents, d'etre tous unis, pour le meilleur et pour le pire, allons-y, en avant ! CAMEROUN, O BOSSO ! ! ! »
© Thierry ONGA, 2003.