tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28388939346498641482024-02-08T09:31:53.028-08:00Nsah Mala's Literary CreationsIjim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-52521465429751984942016-12-28T06:38:00.003-08:002016-12-28T06:38:54.087-08:00Preparing an Exam under Gunshots: My Experience with Inter-tribal War<header class="clearfix header-metadata" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #41413c; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, "Nimbus Sans L", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding-bottom: 0.5em;"><div class="header-metadata--title clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;">
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<span style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;">The first gunshot that roared across our village around midday that day was very unlike any other gunshot we’ve ever heard in Mbesa village. It was unlike the shots that announce fresh deaths among the Mbesa; and it was not a usual shot from a local hunter in one of our forests such as the Ijim Mountain forest hunting game. Rather, it was the sound of a gun in the hands of a man hunting another man at Ibal-Ansang. It was the beginning of a war; a war which is neither old nor new—a war pitting brothers against brothers, Mbesa against Oku, for decades!</span></div>
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That day was February 13, 2007; a day my memory has deliberately decided never to divorce with. It was just two days after we had celebrated Cameroon’s National Youth Day on 11 February in total joy and tranquillity. One day after the Youth Day celebration, some women from our village went to their farms around Ibal-Ansang, Ansang, Adongtang and Ambikui’i. They were suddenly attacked by some armed young men from our neighbouring village, Oku, which has been laying claims over portions of one of most fertile forests in that area since 1892. The reckless young men chased our women, collected their farming tools such as hoes and machetes and set their farm huts (known in Mbesa as mentoa ma gveinse) ablaze. There were a few skirmishes here and there that day, but our women felt somehow unsafe without our men so they decided to return home and keep the latter informed. The young men from the other village also went home and rallied their men and women. Men and women from both villages met at the fighting field early on February 13, and began by exchanging insults which forced tempers in both camps to mount until a man in our opponents’ camp pulled the trigger of the gun whose shot roared across our village that day.</div>
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For the next three weeks or so, thunderous gunshots kept yelling across the skies of our village. Locally-made and imported guns alike continued to mess our airs with galaxies of smoke, as we locked horns with our neighbours in fierce, bloody battles. Our adversaries soon discovered that their gunshots were always lousy because they persistently missed their human targets. They then resorted to bringing down our corn farms with well-filed machetes, setting countless houses—both grass-thatched and zinc-roofed houses—ablaze, looting our animals and other valuables such as aluminium roofing sheets, sofas, carved wooden chairs, sewing machines, among others.</div>
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In the midst of all this chaos, schools were still operational in our village. My classmates and I were in Form Five that year (fifth grade in secondary school), preparing to write the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O Level). Our classes were disrupted every now and then as some villagers fleeing the escalating intertribal war to neighbouring villages like Akeh and Ajung sometimes ran through our school campus at Government Secondary School (GSS) Mbesa. I still remember one father, Babe Simon Feyufe alias Takekuf who narrowly escaped bullets from the enemies’ camp, fled out of his Ntimati compound, ran through Asuh and Adom, and found himself right inside our school campus, and could never explain when and how he ran up the Fetatinyim hills below the school campus at Ibal. Mr Chia Philip Yemeh, one of my teachers then, and I helped remove a bullet from the skin of his head! The war kept on heightening as days went by, with many women and children escaping with some of their most valuable belongings to neighbouring villages and safer quarters of Mbesa like Njinagwa. However, in spite of the huge numbers of our people fleeing the conflict, my friends and I in school did not seem to be much affected. One day, while people were escaping other parts of the village through our school football pitch to hide in Njinagwa and Akeh, I peeped through one of the windows of our class and saw Ba’a Manga’a, walking slowly across the field with his third leg, his walking stick. That is when I cried out to my classmates that the war had reached its peak because old Ba’a Manga’a was believed to be a very strong man in terms of traditional medicine who could not run away from whatever form of threat. We had been told as toddlers that when war broke out for the first time between our two tribes in 1982 he did not run. He only hid himself along the banks of one small stream near his compound; then some men from the enemy camp searched, found and inflicted numerous wounds with machetes all over his body. When our people discovered him beside that stream, it was days after the incidence and his wounds were already rotting. So nobody believed he could live again, but he surprised everybody as he healed himself and survived the almost-incurable wounds. So I could not see him fleeing danger and I dare stay!</div>
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Three of my classmates, Cornelius Ngum Ngong aka Jagua, Liberty Songang Nshom aka Song and Conrad Guo Nsom, and I decided immediately to escape to Fundong, the headquarters of our division and personally narrate our ordeal to the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) and the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education in Boyo Division. All other students and teachers in our school took to their heels, prematurely ending classes. We passed through my family compound at Njinagwa where we took along some women and kids to hide at Laikom (the Kom Fon’s Palace) on our way down to Fundong. As we took the Laikom direction, others fled to Akeh and Ajung. It took us more than six hours of trekking—climbing and descending hills and walking across the Ijim Mountain Forest and Plain with children fastened on our backs and heavy loads on our heads—to reach Laikom.</div>
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When we arrived at Laikom, we met many other Mbesa refugees already lodged at the Guest House of the Palace, mainly old women, nursing mothers and children. There was no mediatisation of our refugee status and conditions, probably because we were victims of an intertribal war, which for some is not a major conflict. But, don’t we know that conflict is conflict? Another reason for the absence of mediatisation is that as soon as the war broke out I called the CRTV severally and in vain. I would call and inform them that there was an on-going and escalating war between our two villages. And they would not send any journalist on the field and would equally not inform the public. Perhaps the CRTV did not want to react because our village does not have big people in government and again because our adversaries initially thought they would give us a crushing defeat in the war. But once they noticed that things were getting sourer and sourer on their side, our adversaries quickly informed the CRTV and it reacted promptly. Before doing so, they had attempted to kill our brothers and sisters who were in Government High School (GHS) Ilak-Oku, since we did not yet have a high in our village by then. Thank God that the Divisional Officer for Oku Subdivision and his gendarmerie company commander came to their rescue and before the end of that year GSS Mbesa was raised by the government to Government High School (GHS) Mbesa!</div>
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Given my status as a Mbesa prince, we entered Laikom from a special backdoor where only princes and princesses are allowed to pass when they want to meet the Fon (traditional ruler) of Kom. We narrated everything to the Fon who had begun receiving other Mbesa refugees since morning. And when we brought in all the refugees to him, he became emotionally upset at the sight of trembling old women, nursing mothers and children who have walked all the way through the extensive and dangerous Ijim Mountain Forest. The Fon quickly walked down memory lane, recalling similar situations involving land grabbing from Oku in Mbesa in 1982 and 1988. As the Paramount Fon for Boyo Division, the Fon, His Royal Highness Foyn Vincent Yuh II, cursed the Oku and vowed before us that never again in life should a Boyo (Kom) man have something to do with an Oku man. That Oku has given Mbesa enough of their trouble and it was time to publicly declare them enemies of Boyo Division. He ordered for two cocks to be slaughtered and cooked with some corn fufu for us. He served some of us drinks, especially palm wine and we stayed in his company and continued to lament the deplorable state of affairs back in Mbesa. Arrangements were made for some of the Fon’s many wives to accommodate those refugees who would not have space in the already-full Palace Gest House. My classmates and I spent one night there.</div>
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The next day, we took off very early in the morning for Fundong to meet the SDO and the Delegate. We trekked for about two hours and when we reached Fundong, we were told the SDO had gone up to meet with the SDO for Bui Division (where Oku belongs) at Mbesa via Belo the previous day while the Delegate was out of town. What a disappointment for us! We felt cheated by fate! Nevertheless, we understood that the presence of the two SDOs in the village meant things will soon return to normal. Back at Laikom, we further learned that some people had arrived from Mbesa just after we left to announce that the two SDOs have come to Mbesa with some gendarmes and things were somehow calming down. So we took some of the refugees with us and a few belongings and returned to Mbesa to gauge the situation before sending word to others to return too. The following day, nearly every refugee was back in the village, but the heavy presence if gendarmes did not only create an atmosphere of unease but was also unable to keep things totally under control.</div>
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Despite the presence of the gendarmes from Boyo and Bui, the conflict persisted and the North West Regional Governor deployed two trucks of gendarmes to Mbesa, and not in Oku, because the Oku come and fight over our land right inside our village. The gendarmes however were overtaken by the bloody nature of the intertribal war and the dexterity with which our people handled guns and were crushing our enemies. Some of our women were even more active in the war than men; a woman would run after and catch an enemy or pull away a wounded or killed one. Some of them were shot at, but only a few bullets would penetrate parts of their bodies. Then they would stop, squeeze out the bullets and continue fighting to the grand surprise of the armed forces who on their part were falling down to avoid stray and targeted bullets from the Oku. But fortunately for us, no Mbesa person was killed; only a few people sustained heavy injuries. This frightened the gendarmes and surprised the villagers more and more! </div>
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The year 2007 marked the fifth year of my part time photography job which was helping me meet some of my school needs. One day, the Divisional Officer (DO) for Belo Subdivision Patrick Pelopo wanted to visit the battle fields around Ibal-a-Nsang and invited me to come along with him as a photographer. While taking photographs of his tour of the battlefields, we picked some bullets from the enemy camp and the DO identified them as military bullets. He noted that in his book and promised to send his report to hierarchy so that the Oku should explain to the government where they were getting military bullets from. The story however just ended like that and we were not surprised because we know that there are numerous sons and daughters of Oku occupying top military and penitentiary positions in Cameroon, including at the time a regional governor and a minister of state! Given the chronic corruption and tribalism that has eaten deep into the fabrics of national life in Cameroon, it could not surprise anybody that our adversaries were exercising the law of might is right. Some of their people we shot and identified in the war were uniformed people currently in service. This, particularly the strong presence and influence of our enemies in government, also explains why since 1982, our government has not been able to render us justice in the land dispute in question.</div>
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Sometime in April there was an exponential increase in the number of daily gunshots in the village. This made it impossible for us to concentrate and study for upcoming our GCE exam in June that year, 2007. This really disturbed and traumatised some us. Some of my friends and I who were residing at Itinikum for daily evening prep classes at the St Agnes Catholic Parish Mission premises gathered in Jagua’s room to ponder our fate and decide what to do in order to continue preparing for the fast-approaching GCE exam. It was a very sad moment of our lives as students, in an examination class for that matter! It was a veritable mourning mood for us! So we decided to immortalise it in a photograph.</div>
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With my mates in mourning mood, Credit: Nsah Nsah and Nshom studying at Njinagwa, Credit: Nsah</div>
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Thereafter, I suggested and Jagua and Song agreed that we escape to the calm plains of the Ijim Mountain Forest and find shelter among the cattle Fulani (Bororo) there where we could study well for the exam. Once the three of us agreed on the suggestion, we set off for Ardo Musa’s compound at Ijim on the road to Fundong, passing through my native quarter of Njinagwa. We were on the move again, just like many other people in the village. Given that Ardo Musa had been my father’s friend and later on my own friend, he warmly received us, offered us a spare room in one of his numerous houses where were staying and studying. He also offered us two brand new blankets and instructed his three wives to serve us food whenever we needed to eat. We spent about one week there. Sometimes we studied in our room and sometimes we went out and laid to study on the soft, green, carpet-like, cattle-pasture grass around his compound. From time to time, we would come to the hills above Mbesa and listened to the roaring gunshots from the battlefields. Sometimes, we would come down to Njinagwa to find out if our people were all safe and whether or not the war was getting over.</div>
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The armed conflict soon subsided thanks to the continuous deployment of armed gendarme officers. We left Ijim, came down to the village and resumed our classes just like any other pupil or student and teacher. Makeshift classrooms were rapidly built for the primary school pupils of the Catholic Mission Primary School (CS) at Ntimati because the enemies had burnt down the church and other buildings that were hosting their school until that time. At Government Primary School Fetongle, a new Cameroon national flag was bought because the same enemies had torn the one they met hoisted in the school campus when both teachers and pupils had fled for their dear lives the day the enemies used petrol and matches to set more than 300 Mbesa houses ablaze! Our enemies were lawless troublemakers who did not respect any restricted areas at wartime! Theirs was more or less of guerrilla warfare, with much focus on the looting and destruction of property given that they could not shot any of us to death because that piece of land rightfully belongs to us. Does the Bible not say that, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free?”</div>
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By the time we were writing the GCE examination that year, a majority of the armed gendarmes were no longer in the village since the war had considerably subsided. But two gendarme officers were instructed to secure all students writing the GCE in the lone accommodation centre of the village at GSS Mbesa. The presence of these uniformed officers, though to our advantage, also kept some students in a state of uneasiness. Some people naturally fear the gun and people in uniform! On the day we finished writing the exam, in my capacity as our school senior prefect, I was assigned to carry the sealed carton containing the written scripts to our school principal’s private residence, at Fetongle, from where his Toyota land rover would transport the scripts to the GCE Board regional office in Bamenda town. When I carried the carton, I was accompanies by the GCE Board-send Superintendent, our school Principal and some discipline masters and the two gendarme officers. I also decided to immortalize this occasion in photographs.</div>
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Two gendarmes and others at GSS Mbesa, Credit: Nsah Nsah carrying GCE scripts in middle, Credit: Nsah</div>
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I wrote eleven papers in the GCE Ordinary Level that year. When I was registering for the eleven papers in September 2006 I was sure of obtaining eleven ‘A’ grades in the exam. However, once war broke out on February 12, 2007, my hopes started oscillating. I however remained optimistic and hardworking despite the chaos caused by the war. In spite of our numerous displacements and interruptions of lessons, when the GCE results were proclaimed in August that year, I still did well in the exam; I passed in all my eleven papers, scoring a total of 25/33 points. I hope no one will ask me where the other eight points went to. The obvious answer is in the war. Then how would one expect me to forget such experiences?</div>
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Nsah, Ngong and other friends celebrating tGCE success in a palm wine parlour in Santa, Credit: Nsah </div>
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By February 2016, exactly nine years after the third phase of this war erupted, things had not yet completely returned to normal. After 2007, the Mbesa people took the issue to the Bamenda High Court and till date there has never been a hearing, only adjournments after adjournments! And there have been occasional, light confrontations between the two villages. This got heightened in February 2016 to the extent that about three hundred Mbesa women decided to stage a trekking but peaceful protest from Mbesa to the Regional Governor’s Office in Bamenda. These women, accompanied by our village Fon His Royal Highness Foyn Gilbert Njong III, trekked a distance of close to 100 kilometres in two days, without any sleep, from Mbesa through Belo to Big Banbanki (Kijem-Keku) en route to Bamenda town to meet the Governor. The Fon of Big Babanki, noticed the marching women and out of pity and concern for their security—as they were heading towards uninhabited parts of his village at night en route to Bamenda via Bambui, pleaded with them to spend a night in his palace. The women hesitated but finally agreed and he ordered enough food to be cooked by his many wives and servants and served to the Mbesa women. He also informed the Governor of the situation and the latter finally came over to Babanki, met and discussed with the women. He listened to their cries for an end to be put to the persistent attacks they have been receiving from their Oku brothers and sisters since 1982 so that peace may reign. The Governor listened to them and promised to visit the disputed area in Mbesa within two weeks. He ordered the SDOs for Boyo and Bui, Dos for Belo and Oku and Paramount Fons for Boyo and Bui to organise peace consultation visits with the Fons of Oku and Mbesa in view of finding lasting solutions to this age old conflict between two brotherly villages. The visits were organised accordingly. Although close to two months afterward, he finally came to Mbesa accompanied by the SDOs and Paramount Fons of Boyo and Bui as well as the DOs of Belo and Oku for an on-the-spot evaluation of the problem. But unfortunately, no agreement was reached in the presence of the Governor whose intention was to demarcate the boundary between these two communities once and for all. The Oku continued to lay claim to Mbesa land, violating all boundary pillars that have been erected between us since 1988. The Governor could not proceed amidst such behaviour. So he left with the two conflicting maps that the two communities had presented to him, promising to come back in the nearest future once he has studied the maps in order to indicate the right boundary. Since then, visits have been intensified between our two Fons, with each of the two Fons now having set foot in the palace of the other after more than 30 years of no visits! We only hope and pray that lasting peace will reign between us in the days ahead!</div>
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While we hope that this conflict comes to an eternal end, I would like to conclude here with some of the numerous lessons I have learned from it so far, especially since 2007. War is not good and we should all fight to end war, including terrorism. War affects all aspects our lives: it causes deaths, destroys property, injures people and causes unwanted displacements; it contributes to poor performance in education, among other effects. There are many internal refugees due to intertribal wars in Cameroon and elsewhere whose voices are often neglected as global attention is focused on crises like those of Syria, the Central African Republic and terrorist activities like those of Boko Haram and ISIS (see my publication in Stories for Humanities: FrontieresWalls, 2016). Women and children suffer a lot from armed conflicts and women have a great potential to ending conflicts. The Trekking protest staged by Mbesa women has sparked off many positive actions which are most likely going to bring an end to the Mbesa-Oku land dispute. My personal experience with war has increased my love for humanity as can be seen in my writings and commitment to world humanitarian activities. I have written on why continuous production of arms brings about war, on the Syrian war, on the Mbesa-Oku war, on illegal immigration, to name but these. I am a digital advocate of the World Humanitarian Submit and an online volunteer at World Pulse where I have joined global female leaders in solving global problems such as ending war and hunger. I am also a Focal Point at the World Youth Foundation and a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiatives (YALI) Regional Leadership Center (RLC) West Africa Dakar 2016, currently working to legalise my NGO which aims at empowering vulnerable people, promoting innovative education and combating clandestine immigration in Africa. Above all, I want to preach peace wherever I go in the world!</div>
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© 05 August 2016, Nsah Mala (Kenneth Toah Nsah)</div>
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Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-57150160961734379342015-06-06T08:48:00.000-07:002015-06-06T09:10:18.394-07:00A Review of Bites of Insanity by Dr Yvonne Ngwa<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">An accession to a
higher rung of the ladder of social criticism, <i>Bites of Insanity</i> portrays its author as a topical writer who
beholds and ponders on the contemporary occurrences of his society and of the
world at large. In 57 poems, subdivided into 10 different parts, Nsah Mala
variously gazes at the negative and the positive in his society. The nascent
Mbesa bard lambasts power abuse in a society that could be his but is also a
prototype of any African nation; decries the lost glory of the African
tradition sacrificed at the altar of ingratiation and materialism; makes a wry
commentary on the insalubrities of the capital city of Cameroon; satirises the
uninformed Cameroonian’s ignorance that exposes him/her to the lethal blows of
malaria (cholera and other diseases); deplores the ambient ecological
destruction, man’s moral depravity as well as depicts human frailty in the face
of accidents and deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Though virulent in
his representation of these ills, the poet has obviously not given up on
humankind. Hence, he enjoins society to value relationships; he also celebrates
the people who positively impacted his life, and hails successes achieved and
creativity. New-Age Muse or End-Time Literary Prophet? Nsah Mala resorts to a
rich repertoire of poetic devices, vivid description, wacky terms, dark humour,
and scatology—among others—to raise critical issues about modern man’s
condition. After <i>Chaining Freedom</i>, this
second collection of poems progressively establishes this budding writer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Yvonne
I. NGWA, PhD<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lecturer,
ENS Yaoundé<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Visit the following link to grap a copy: http://www.langaa-rpcig.net/Bites-of-Insanity.html</span></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-55536548936324927102015-06-06T07:45:00.000-07:002015-06-06T07:45:16.676-07:00I DON’T WANT TO BE PRESIDENT<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t want to
be</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">President;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just want to
be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Resident:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But assured<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That any
Resident <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Can become
President;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That any
President<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Can become
Resident.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I don’t envy <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Your Presidency;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I do admire <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">My Residency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Like the village
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">My mission <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Is to envision <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Freedom for all
and sundry<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And to uproot
all thorns on path to Presidency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I don’t want to
be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">President;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just want to
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Resident:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But confident <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That all
Residents<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Are embryo
Presidents;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That all Presidents<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Are egg-shell
Residents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(Bastos, 29 May
2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-35597517047801758612015-05-21T22:48:00.003-07:002015-05-21T22:48:59.380-07:00Republican Parasites (Poem)<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">REPUBLICAN PARASITES<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In this plantain
Republic,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Human parasites
and rubbish<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Are scattered
and spread everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Like wild
locusts on green fields.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While we chock
in smelly vapours of rotting dirt,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">These voracious
human parasites are busy sucking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Our banana
Republic to anaemic and epileptic levels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There is no pity
in Republican business!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Our national
blood is sucked into endless parasitic intestines<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As
white-agbadaed and black-coated parasitic zombies parade streets,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Preaching
country love, exhibiting latest cars, spacious mansions...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lousily
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">These parasites
sprinkle sandy dust on disappearing national cakes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And spread
political fog and clouds on eroding national hills<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And press thirsty
engine saws on whithering national baobabs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And handpick all
fresh buds sprouting on quaking national fields.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Land of gory!
Land of parasites!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thou of death
and sorrow, our only bar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thine demotion,
thine be hunger,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And deep
embezzlement forever more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(Mbankolo,
February 15, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-90633523369368082362013-06-28T11:01:00.001-07:002013-12-14T04:13:28.850-08:00MY LIFE HAS BEEN A BUSY ONE (Short Story)<link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Csalle1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Csalle1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Csalle1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"></link><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">My uncle,
<i>Babe</i>AmbroseToah, who<span> </span>was working at CDC Tiku, <span> </span>told me—or it was guessed at the civil status
registry in those days—that I was born in the month of Christmas on the 30<sup>th</sup>
day in nineteen hundred and thirty eight. In those days, our fathers’ memories
were mighty libraries that could store as much information as possible,
especially facts, figures and dates. But unfortunately enough for me, I barely
saw my father. He died when I was just about four years old. Since my father
succumbed to death as early as 1942, as I was told too (did I know years and
dates by then?), my exact date of birth remained a fertile ground for guess
work. But one thing that everybody knew or still knows squarely well about me
is my name—Nkainbi Richard Bangsi.<o:p></o:p></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>In
1954, sixteen years after my father’s death, I started schooling. I was
compelled by circumstances to combine schooling and business in order to
provide for my school needs given that my father was no longer there. I was
dealing in castor oil. I would buy it in and around Mbesa and export it to
British Nigerian markets such as the Onitsha Market. That fetched me fabulous
sums of British pounds; pounds because Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons at
the time were still administered by Great Britain…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>“Richard,
you better go to school now.” That was DonatusGwedji advising me. Excuse me,
did I say Donatus? No. That is not how I used to call him. I called him “Good
Friend” because he was indeed my best and most−trusted friend. Even now, I
still call him like that, although I only refer to him now in past tenses. The
Lord called him back home before the year 2011. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>“I
was still thinking about going to school, Good Friend”, I told him while
wondering who was going to pay my school fees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>By
then Good Friend was in Standard Five in Nkar, in the Nso area. It would appear
that he read the verses of disturbance and hesitation on my face like a
soothsayer reading cowries on a mysterious mat. Then he explained to me that
the colonial authorities in Nigeria had made it clear that education between
Infants One and Standard Two was free of charge. That meant that should I start
schooling I would only begin to bother about school fees after Standard Two. By
that time I would already know how to write my name, at least. I quickly made
up my mind to go to school, especially as the idea had come from, or was
strongly supported by, a very good friend of mine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Thank
God that the lone school in Mbesa at the time, Catholic School Mbesa, ran from
Infants One to Standard Two. I therefore enjoyed free education at the same
time with the joy of studying right at home, in my own native village. That
gave me the possibility to plan for studies in the senior classes which did not
exist in Mbesa. Four years came and passed like a flash of lightning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Then
I left for Djottin, in the Noni area, to enroll in Standard Three on
self−sponsorship. I used to earn some money there by doing petty jobs such as
clearing farmlands and carrying goods on the head for traders. I still
continued the castor oil business while there, but at a minimum level. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>When
I completed Standard Six, there was nobody to sponsor my studies in secondary
school. The needs of secondary education—including fees, books, rents,
transport faire to and from the school site, etc.—were far above my limited
means now. I gave up all the dreams of going to secondary school. All my
attention and aspirations were now shifted towards becoming either a uniform
man or a successful and renowned farmer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>I
tried in vain on several occasions to be enrolled into the army. And I finally
gave up the idea of becoming a soldier. Farming then became an unavoidable path
for me to take to the land of success. I then got into farming with my entire
mind, soul and strength. That is how I embarked on planting coffee—both the
Robusta and Java species—in my compound, in Anyuoeh. I also planted some coffee
in my farm at Anda’ang. In all, I planted close to two acres of coffee. And
when my coffee wanted or wants to bear, it hits its chest in doing so.<span> </span>Fully involved in farming the way I did, I
have never been ranked among idle fellows in Mbesa.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>In
1969, I decided to find my left missing rib. The search took me down to
Njinikom where I found my lovely Theresa Mbu. In strict Roman Catholic
tradition, Theresa and I tied the knot of our love on September 17, 1969. That
day! I will never ever forget that day. Our wedding was one of the best in
Mbesa. It was more than just marvelous, so to speak…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Before
the year 1969 ran out, I began my political career. I joined the lone Cameroon
National Union (CNU) of Ahidjo in the capacity of Branch Secretary for the
Mbesa Branch. Five years later, I became Branch President for that party and
stayed in that capacity for long. Later on I became the Subsection President
and maintained that position for long too. Presently, I am the Deputy Officer
for CPDM Boyo II Section, in Belo.Meanwhile, I keep on playing politics and
still occupying many posts of responsibility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>My
love for personal development eventually spread like cypress branches into
collective development. After all, what does it profit a man if he becomes a
millionaire in a poor and inaccessible village? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>“They
say they need you in the palace on <i>Kfééfèè</i>.
Have you heard, Babe Richard?”That was Nawain Susana Jenkuo delivering His
Royal Highness Foyn Thomas Toah Njong’s message to me. In Mbesa we address the <i>Fon</i>—Foyn or traditional ruler—as “they”
which is an expression of respect.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>In
reply I told her: “Yes, I have heard, <i>Nawain</i>
Susana. Thank you for bringing the palace message to me. But I hope they need
me for something good…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>“Well,”
said her, “I suppose it is good, but just go and hear from the palace”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>When
I got to the palace, I was told that they have called me to make me the
Secretary General of the newly−created Mbesa Traditional Council. I later on
occupied the positions of president, vice president and simple member within
the same council. Each time I attempted to resign from the council after having
served in it for so many years my attempts were foiled. Eventually Foyn Toah <i>got missing</i>—passed away—and Foyn Gilbert
K. Njong III was <i>rubbed</i> to replace
him. The new ruler too has never allowed me to take leave of that council. I’m
however happy, very happy, that I’ve never fought for any post there. All the
posts I’ve been holding there have been offered to me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>The
development of Mbesa was intricately linked to mine in one way or the other,
given the posts I held in that council. That is why I spearheaded the creation
of the Mbesa Area Development Association (MADA) between 1963 and 1983. The
Mbesa Action Committee (MAC) which was created in 1982 was re−christened Mbesa
Area Development Association one year later.<span>
</span>Even before the 1980s, Babe Gwedji Andreas Nshom (alias Ba Malase) and I
had already conceived the idea of a development association for our dear
village. The first seeds of the association were the Mbesa Social and
Development Groups I had created in major quarters of Mbesa before 1982. These
groups were formed in the following quarters: Ibal−Ichim, Soalam, Fetongle and
Ntoh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Babe
Andreas and I had been sent with some money to DO Geoffrey’s Office in Bamenda
in 1963 to negotiate a serious land issue concerning Mbesa and Oku. DO Geoffrey
looked into the matter—because we were naturally right in it—, but did not
accept the money. We brought back the money and decided with Foyn Toah to use
it and construct the Mbesa Inner Palace—the Nsaang. This money had been
contributed by all the inhabitants of Mbesa the way Christians contribute
offertory in church.<span> </span>Although the people
of Mbesa accused Babe Andreas and me of having embezzled the money, we had
brought it back. In fact, Babe Andreas and Foyn Toah had used the money to makeplanks
to be used in constructing the Nsaangwithout informing the people of Mbesa. They
did this while I was in Limbe at the time. And it was in 1982 that I came back
from Limbe, correctedmy friend`s and Foyn`s error and apologized to the people
of Mbesaon their behalfbefore proceeding to create the Mbesa Action Committee,
MAC. This money was not ours and so we could not use it by any means. The good
use of this money in constructing the royal palace taught us the lesson of
collectively contributing for the development of our community.<span> </span>This is how the idea of MADA sprang up and
was materialized in 1983. By popular acclamation, I was made pioneer president
of MADA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>I
served as MADA President General for four years and it was during my reign that
MADA realized the Health Centre project. When it was time to hand over the
control of the MADA Health Centre to a missionary body, I organized a vote
between the Catholics and the Baptists and the Catholics won. That is why that
Health Centre is run today as part of the Saint Martin de Pores Catholic
Hospital at Njinikom. Thereafter, I was elected MADA treasurer and I held this
post for four years too. I was also the Chairman of the Health Centre until it
was fully integrated by the Catholics and duly authorized by the state of
Cameroon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>In
the 1980s, I rose to the highest level in my political career. That was when
the Cameroon National Union was transformed into the Cameroon People’s
Democratic Movement (CPDM) by Paul Biya in the early 80s. I was elected as a
CPDM Municipal Councilor for the Fundong Rural Council, in the then Menchum
Division, before the creation of Boyo Division. I served in that capacity until
when FruNdi’s Social Democratic Front (SDF) won over the love of a greater majority
of Mbesa following the events of the early 90s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>When
happiness visits you, you must start preparing to receive the sorrow it has
come to announce. While I was prospering in politics and making much more money
in the 1980s, especially out of my business and farming produce, another sad
event added onto my father’s death in my life. This time around, my mother,<i>Nawain</i> Martina NdoasakVitoin, suddenly
passed away…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>My
development tentacles also grew towards the church. Together with people like
Babe DonatusGwedjiNgong, Babe Christopher ChimseFinji and others, I worked hard
to help the Mbesa Roman Catholic Community to disjoin the Djottin Parish in
Noni and to join the Fuli Parish in Kom. Later on, the Archdiocese of Bamenda
raised the Mbesa Roman Catholic community to a parish, St Agnes Catholic
Parish, Mbesa, in 2002. This was during the reign of late Archbishop Paul
Verdzekov of the BamendaArchdiocese. In the same vein, I was the pioneer
president of the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission for Mbesa for a
period of nine years. Presently, I am an adviser in that very commission. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Seven
years after the creation of the parish, the saddest event of my life then
occurred. I saw the cold ha<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2838893934649864148" name="_GoBack"></a>nds of death wrap up my
dearest Theresa and put her into the never−satisfied mouth of the earth. She
finally surrendered to death after visiting so many hospitals. The story
leading up to her death went thus: In 2008, she went to attend a Catholic Women
Association meeting at Fuli, Kom, and got sick while there. From Fuli, she went
to visit some children of ours who reside in Bamenda and used that occasion to
consult in a hospital at Bali. She came back from Bali and the sickness
continued thereby making her go for consultation at the Saint Martin de Pores
Catholic Hospital, Njinikom, where she wasreferred to the Catholic Hospital in
Shisong, Banso. She spent a month in Shisongwhere she underwent a surgical
operation. The sickness persisted and she went back to Saint Martin de Pores
Hospital where she gave up the ghost on 02 June 2009. She just died like that!
However, she left behind twelve children to mourn her and eventually mourn me
when my own turn comes to finish my pilgrimage here on earth.<span> </span>These children, two boys and ten girls,
continue to make some traces of joy crisscross the ringlets of old age and
sorrow on my forehead. Two of the girls have chosen to serve in the Lord’s
vineyard as reverend sisters. The first of them is Bertha Yafi Bangsi, or Reverend
Sister Bertha, if you like. And the second of them is Sister Emma
ItanghiFebunevi Bangsi. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>Will
posts of responsibility ever allow me to take a rest? When will I ever go on
retirement? May be, only in Heaven, if God does not appoint me there too. You
cannot imagine that I’m still serving in that traditional council. The council
was recently transformed by the Boyo Senior Divisional Offer into the Mbesa
Crown Council. And once more I have been appointeda member of it. After all, I
have always felt optimistic and capable of handling all posts assigned to me by
whosoever and wherever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span> </span>My
life, as you can see, has been a busy one. I’ve been working like a waterfall,
working for the church, working for the world, working for Mbesa and working
for my family and myself. I am, I believe, one of those who are born to serve,
and not to be served….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">THE END!!! <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(c) January 2013
Nsah Mala<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(I
wrote this short story based on an interview I conducted with him (Babe Richard
B. Nkainbi) on Monday July 16, 2012.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Author’s Contacts<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Tel: </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(+237) 7429-1746<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Emails: </span></b><span lang="EN-US"><a href="mailto:nsahmala@gmail.cm"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">nsahmala@gmail.cm</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="mailto:nsahmala@yahoo.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">nsahmala@yahoo.com</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="mailto:ibrahimkennetho@yahoo.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ibrahimkennetho@yahoo.com</span></a></span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
BIOGRAPHY FOR BABE NKAINBI RICHARD BANGSI</div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-5290534593711780222013-06-28T10:56:00.004-07:002013-06-28T11:03:28.700-07:00PARTY POLITICS IN CAMEROON 50 YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE AND REUNIFICATION<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
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located between the Central African and the West African sub regions of the
African continent. Between January 1st 2010 and October 1st 2011, the country
will clock 50 Years of liberation from colonial bondage. On January 1st 1960,
the country began her Independence process when the French-speaking part of it,
east of the River Mungo, was granted Independence by France under the watchful
eyes of the United Nations Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld. This portion of
the country adopted the name “La Répulique du Cameroun”, translated into English
as The Republic of Cameroon, under Alhadji Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo as
President. The Independence of the whole territory known today as the Cameroons
took a further step on February 11<sup>th</sup> 1961, when the English-speaking
part of the former German Kamerun, West of the Mungo, voted in their majority
to acquire Independence by Reunifying with their brothers and sisters from East
of the Mungo. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">This was during the February
11<sup>th</sup> Plebiscite of 1961. This decision was concretised on October 1<sup>st</sup>
1961. This was the day on which the two parts of the country got reunified, to
look like what the country was during the German Colonial era known as Kamerun.
The two Cameroons thus adopted a new name known as THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF
CAMEROON, with Ahidjo as President and J.N.Foncha as Vice-president.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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Today is almost half a century since all these events occurred. The issue at
stake is that the country which seemed to be very prosperous shortly after
Independence is today paradoxically found amongst some of the worst countries
of the world in terms of corruption, poverty and the mismanagement of public
funds. This paradox finds an explanation in almost all the basic functional
units and circles of the country’s existence such as Politics, Economy,
Education, Religion, amongst others. This brings to mind the whole idea of the
purpose of this discourse. This work will concentrate on the role of the
various Political Party systems in Cameroon since Independence on the present
situation of the country.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
In fact, since independence, Cameroon has been fluctuating between Monopartism
and Multipartism. Between 1961 and 1966, the country operated on Party
Pluralism which ended in 1966 with the formation of the Cameroon National Union
(CNU) by President Ahmadou Ahidjo and his close collaborators. Amongst the
numerous reasons Ahidjo raised in favour of Mono-party politics, some were
valid while others were not. When he plunged the country into this party
system, it later on turned out to be “Presidential Absolutism”. This explains
why Multi-party politics was reintroduced in the 1990s, though at the price of
“bloodshed”. Today Cameroon is standing somewhere between Monopartism and
Multipartism as it will be seen later in this essay. In this kind of situation,
we need to revisit our past so as to adjust in the present and be able to
confront the challenges of the future. In this regard, therefore, this work
will focus on the periods 1960/1961 to 1966, 1966 to 1990, and 1990 to Present
without failing at any available spot to state how the future of the country
should look like.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Multipartism
in Cameroon between 1960/1961 to 1966</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">When the Federal Republic of
Cameroon got full Independence on October 1<sup>st</sup> 1961, she was placed
under Ahmadou Ahidjo as President and J.N.Foncha as Vice-President. These two
statesmen had been the brain behind the Federal Constitution for Cameroon which
was adopted at Foumban between the 17<sup>th</sup> and the 21<sup>st</sup> of
July 1961. The Constitution had authorised the functioning of Multipartism in
Cameroon at the time. In the State of East Cameroon, which was French-speaking,
there were many Political Parties operating, among which one can name the
following: Union Camerounaise (UC) of Ahidjo, Mouvement d’Action
Nationale Camerounaise (MANC) of Charles Assalé (Premier of East Cameroon),
Parti-Socialiste Camerounaise (PSC) of Charles Okala, Union des Populations du
Cameroun (UPC)—the legal wing led by Theodore Mayi Matip, Democrats Camerounais
(DC) of André-Marie Mbida, Front Nationale Unifié (FNU) formed by Mbida, Okala,
Matip and Bebey-Eyidi in 1962, etc. In the State of West Cameroon, politics was
orchestrated by political parties such as the Kamerun National Democratic Party
(KNDP) of Foncha, the Cameroon People’s National Congress (CPNC) of Dr E. M .L.
Endeley, the Cameroon United Congress (CUC) of Solomon Tandeng Muna, the One
Kamerun (OK) of Ndeh Ntumazah , etc. Although these parties played
politics between 1961 and 1966, Ahidjo had begun as early as September 1960 to
express his desire for a “Grand National Party” in Cameroon. He began a play
with the expressions “Grand National Party” and “Parti Unifié”. In order
to make Cameroonian politicians buy his idea, he took them aback in November
1961 when he changed the first expression in favour of a “Parti Unifié”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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The reasons President Ahidjo and those who supported his One-party idea
advanced were varied. To begin with, there was the feeling by Ahidjo that the
Monopartism was going to foster national unity amongst Cameroonians. This was
because he thought that the various political parties in the country either
operated on tribal or regional tendencies. That his UC, for example, was only
popular in the Northern parts of the country while Foncha’s KNDP was mainly
interested in the affairs of the Bamenda grasslands where it was popular. Thus,
Ahidjo argued that the coming together of all Cameroonians under the canopy of
a single political party will be a visible step towards the promotion of
national unity in the territory. Ahidjo also argued that the one-party scheme
was going to put an end to the so many political infightings that were common
within the different political parties. Between 1963 and1965, the KNDP of
Foncha was shaken by sagas such as the one between Muna and A. N. Jua on the
one hand over the post of the Vice-chairman of the party and that between
Ekah-Nghaky and E. T. Egbe on the other hand over the post of the Secretary
General of the party. Similar to the argument based on national unity, Ahdjo
also insisted that the one-party regime was going to promote a spirit of
patriotism amongst Cameroonians. Another reason was the fact that Ahidjo wanted
to emulate the example of some other newly independent African countries such
as Ghana (with the CPP of Nkrumah) and Tanzania (with the TANU of Julius
Nyerere) which had adopted the one-party system. Also, in the President’s
opinion mono-party politics was going to promote economic growth in the country
through the implementation of a common economic policy void of opposition.
However, it became clear, especially after the introduction of Monopartism
in 1966, that Ahidjo had used it as a means of consolidating his stay in power.
This was because he felt threatened in his position as President by some
influential Cameroonian politicians such as Foncha, Jua, Muna, Assalé, Okala,
etc. He was afraid that some political parties could form a coalition in the
event of any presidential election in the country and will succeed to outdo
him. Thus, with a single political party under his command as the party
chairman, he was going to remain the “natural candidate” of the party in the
event of any election.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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Motivated by such factors and/or reasons, Ahidjo embarked on the use of a
variety of strategies to bury Multipartism in Cameroon. He began by playing
over the use of the expressions “Grand National Party” and “Parti Unifié” as
used in September11960 and in November 1961 respectively. Politicians who
opposed the scheme were threatened, intimidated, and arrested such as the “Gang
of Four” in 1962. These four were Mbida, Okala, Matip and Eyidi, who had
addressed a manifesto to Ahidjo in which they strongly rejected the one-party
scheme. In April 1962, Ahidjo and Prime Minister Foncha issued the
Ahidjo-Foncha Communiqué in which they made it known that a “United Front” will
be formed between their two political parties in the House of Assembly. This
convinced the “Gang of Four” who saw the scheme as a fait accompli and, thus,
after their release, they pledged their full support for the scheme. Newspapers
which expressed anti-one party ideas were all banned so as to stop them from
intoxicating Cameroonians who will oppose the project. There was also the
use of persuasion by Ahidjo and other members of the Executive Bureau of the UC.
In this light, Ahidjo paid an official visit to Buea in West Cameroon in 1963.
The main aim of the visit was to hold persuasive talks with leading politicians
such as Endeley and Muna. Endeley’s CPNC supported the idea of the one party
regime and Muna’s CUC did same as soon as it was formed in 1965. It is also of
prime importance here and now to mention the “Train Affair” of 1962. In this
year, Ahidjo had ordered for the arrest and imprisonment of some 30
Cameroonians in Douala who were mainly objectors to the one-party scheme. He
later ordered that they should be transferred from Douala to Yaoundé. Between
Douala and Yaoundé, 25 out of these 30 detainees died mysteriously while on-board
a train. This incident became known as the “Train Affair”. It was clear that
Ahidjo knew how and why the 25 detainees had to lose their lives. Such an
inhuman act strained relations between Cameroon and the Papacy and some other
international bodies. Then, the final straw that broke the camel’s back came in
June 1966 with the organisation of the Yaoundé Meeting by Ahidjo. The meeting
was attended by politicians from the two federated states. There were 8 members
from the UC, 2 from the KNDP, and 1 each from the CPNC and the CUC. There
should be no surprise that only one party came from East Cameroon. In fact,
before 1966, Ahidjo’s political manoeuvres had forced politicians on the
opposition bench in the East Cameroon Houses of Assembly to cross-carpet and
join his UC. After deliberations in the meeting, representatives of the four
political parties in attendance agreed on the formation of a single party in
Cameroon. This decision was followed by the dissolution of their parties.
Muna’s CUC was the first to be dissolved, that is, on August 6<sup>th</sup>
1966. Foncha’s KNDP followed suit on August 13<sup>th</sup>, while Ahidjo’s UC
was the third to be dissolved on August 21<sup>st</sup> 1966. Endeley’s
CPNC was dissolved on August 27<sup>th</sup> 1966. Meanwhile a committee had
been put in place during the Yaoundé Meeting of June 1966 to draft the status
of the new party that was soon to be created. The committee finalised its work
and handed it over to Ahidjo. Thus, on September 1<sup>st </sup>1966,
Cameroonians waved adieu to party pluralism when His Excellency President
Ahidjo announced the birth of a single political party in the country known as
The Cameroon National Union (CNU). This only meant the addition of the French
adjective “Nationale” to Ahidjo’s former Union Camerounaise, thus, baptising it
under its French name as the “Union National Camerounaise” (UNC). In fact,
Ahidjo had successfully absorbed all other parties in the country into his own
party. Consequently, the one-party dream which he had had as early as 1960 was
now a reality.<b> </b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> Monopartism
in the Federal Republic of Cameroon between 1966 and 1990</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">In persuading Cameroonian
politicians to put all their hands on plough of the one-party project, Ahidjo
had painted a very attractive image of the system. From the strength of the
arguments he raised in its favour, one would have expected the period 1966 to
1990 to be a kind of “Political Paradise” for Cameroonians. But paradoxically,
the era of Monopartism was an era in which all such apparent hopes were shattered
down. In fact, it was an era in which the one party regime lived to disprove
the validity of almost all the reasons for which it had been put in place.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> For
instance, far from achieving the much desired national unity, the one party
regime worked in favour of tribalism and nepotism. From 1966 to 1982, Ahidjo
surrounded himself with untouchables consisting of family relations and fiends
all from Northern Cameroon. When Paul Biya took over power in 1982, he too
filled in almost all the government positions with people from the South,
thereby frustrating Cameroonians from the West and other regions of the country
who were kept in the periphery of national life. Therefore national unity and
patriotism which were used as convincing points in Ahidjo’s campaigns for
monopartism remained far-fetched dreams.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
Instead of fostering economic development, Monopartism bred socio-economic
crises and/or hardships in the country. This was because it encouraged the
mismanagement of public funds, unemployment, social unrest, lack of
transparency and accountability.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
Monopartism was also noted for gross violations of Human Right. For example,
critics of the Biya regime usually described his Human Rights records as being
deplorable. In reaction to this situation, Western Countries often reminded the
regime of its poor human rights records and decided to link all their financial
aid to Cameroon to an improved Human Rights record and good governance.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
West Cameroonians lived to regret their loss of the semi-parliamentary
democracy which they had practiced before 1966. In addition, corruption began
eating into the fabrics of the Cameroonian society. After 1982, Cameroon
experienced unprecedented capital flight, corruption, and embezzlement of
public funds from both low and high quarters. There was also over
centralisation of power. When Paul Biya ascended to power in 1982, he preached
the doctrine of “rigour, moralisation, and democratisation”. But as soon as he
assumed power, all these principles became a theory whose practical aspect was
blowing in the wind. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> The one party
system of government coupled with the Federal Constitution of October 1961 made
the two heads of states between 1961 and 1990 become dictatorial and imposing.
For instance, most Cameroonians of the former British Southern Cameroons
origins argue rightly that it was the one party regime that gave way to the
introduction of Unitarism in the country in 1972. Ahidjo was the national
chairman of CNU and his voice was always final on any national issue. He
exploited the absolute powers infested on him by the Federal Constitution to
dismiss from his government all West Cameroonians who posed as obstacles to the
project of the Unitary System of Government. Such persons were in favour of
Federalism. In 1968, Augustin Ngom Jua was dismissed from the post of Premier
of West Cameroon in favour of S.T. Muna who was in favour of Unitarism. Two
years later, that is, in 1970, despite constitution prohibition, Ahidjo
dismissed J. N. Foncha as the Vice-president of the Federal Republic of
Cameroon and replaced him with Muna who now held cumulating functions. This was
because of Foncha’s pro-federalism inclinations. Still in that light, it is
important to mention that the use of the “List System” for the election of the
members of the various Assemblies in the country also worked in favour of the
change to Unitarism in 1972. This was a strategy instituted by Ahidjo and
through it he successfully filled in all the Assemblies in the country with
politicians who supported the idea of the Cameroon becoming a unitary state.
The Political Bureau of the CNU also pledged its full support for the Unitary
State. More of Ahidjo’s dictatorship and wickedness got exposed through the way
he intimidated, arrested, imprisoned, and maltreated some of the opponents of
the unitary state. A case in point was the arrest and imprisonment of Albert
Mukong (Author of the novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prisoner
Without a Crime</i>) because of his opposition to the Unitary system. For fear
of arrest, Ndeh Ntumazah (May his soul rest in perfect peace!) went on
self-exile to England where he died in 2010. In the end, since the Referendum
of May 20<sup>th</sup> 1972 was organised under such conditions, there was
bound to be no opposition to it. The electorates of the Unitary Constitution in
the Referendum were shown only the shiny side of the coin. In fact, there was
nobody or group of persons to sensitise the electorates on some of the demerits
of Unitarism. Thus, on May 20<sup>th</sup> 1972, by a vote of 99.9 percent,
both West and East Cameroonians voted to become a Unitary State. The name of
the country changed from “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Federal
Republic of Cameroon”<b> </b></span>to “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The
United Republic of Cameroon”</span>, followed by changes in the country’s
National Flag and Constitution.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
On his part, Paul Biya used presidential absolutism embedded in the spirit of
Monopartism to change the name of the country from “The United Republic of
Cameroon” to “The Republic of Cameroon” in 1984. The French-speaking portion of
the former German Kamerun had adopted the name “La République du Cameroun”
translated into English as The Republic of Cameroon at independence on January
1<sup>st</sup> 1960. Thus, most English-speaking Cameroonians argue rightly
that the change of name was an expression of “assimilation” or “colonisation”
of the former British Southern Cameroons by the former French Cameroon. The
Bill bearing the proposal of the change of name by Biya in January 1984 had
gone through the Assembly without meeting with any opposition. This was because
the country operated under the one-party system and all those who were against
it did not have any legal political platform on which to voice out their
opposition. In the end, the country went home with the name that ignored the
rich historical past of its constituents and this could be blamed largely on
Monopartism and “presidential absolutism” or call it dictatorship. However, no
matter what name the nation bore, there was still a very long future that lied
ahead of her.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
From the foregoing paragraphs, one could say that the Federal Republic of
Cameroon which had changed its system of party politics at an infant age of
about 5 or 6 years was not going to maintain the system. In fact, she was going
to be changing political party systems just like a menstruating woman changing
her sanitary pads. Thus, before the last years of the 1980s everything pointed
out that Cameroon was still going to undergo a metamorphosis in the domain of
her regime of party politics. Actually, a change of regime in the future was
going to be unavoidable given that Ahidjo and Biya had championed the one-party
regime with “personality cults” and a greater majority of Cameroonians, both
the young and the old, were now sitting on the “Complaining Bench”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> <b>The Return to
Multipartism in 1990</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Multipartism which was re-launched
in Cameroon in 1990 at the expense of bloodshed was a process which had begun a
few years before 1990. Though the general conduct of CPDM militants in the late
1980s vis-à-vis the re-launch of Multipartism contradicted the fact that this
was a process, it will be necessary to recount the countdown to it. One would
not be totally wrong to state that the process of the re-launch of Multiparty
politics in Cameroon began in 1982 as reflected in President Paul Biya‘s
policies of “rigour, moralisation, and democratisation” which formed the bases
of his policy speeches as the new President of The United Republic of Cameroon.
In November 1983, one would not also be completely out of track to mention the
Constitutional amendment which gave room, though in theory, for
multi-candidates in presidential elections. Article VII of the Constitution now
authorised other candidates other than the chairman of the CNU to stand for
presidential elections, though through a number of conditions that no one of
the candidates could ever fulfil. For instance, the candidate had to have at
least Five years Residence in Cameroon, had to provide 500 signatories from
important Cameroonian personalities such as Members of Parliament, Traditional
Chiefs and/or Fons, Governors, Divisional Officers, Municipal Councillors, and
other Members of the Central Committee of the CNU. These 500 signatories were
to be constituted of 50 each from each of the 10 Provinces of the country. In
fact, this constitutional provision could be compared to a situation of giving
one’s fowl corn enclosed in a transparent container. However, one counts this
as a step towards real democracy because such an idea as a whole, though
theoretical, would have been a taboo in the days of Ahido’s CNU. In 1987, a
Multi-candidate list was introduced at the level of Municipal Elections. These
elections were held in November of the same year, that is, 1987. In the 1988
Parliamentary Elections, the “Khaki” and “White” lists were introduced. This
also gave room for political competition, though still within the context of
One-Party Regime. All such gestures served as a clear indication that the
CPDM’s monopoly of political power was going to be shaken in the future. As a
result, between February and March 1990, thousands of CPDM militants and
sympathisers marched throughout the country in protest to the eminent
re-introduction of multiparty politics despite the fact that the county’s
constitution provided for it. Amongst those who marched were retired and/or
sacked government ministers, ministers in government, provincial governors, top
government officials, senior district officers, district officers, mayors, top
military officers, and of course, high ranking officials of the CPDM. Motions
of Support were fired to the Head of State against the reintroduction of
Multipartism. In response to such actions, Paul Biya told his Militants and
supporters of the CPDM on 9<sup>th</sup> April 1990 that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Je vous ai compri</i>” (I have understood you). He went on to caution
them to be prepared for political competition. The Head of State was acting
under both internal and external pressures. The internal pressures included the
following: Those who wanted to create political parties argued rightly that the
Constitution of Cameroon provided for multipartism; Biya was also blamed for
having failed to concretise his principles of “rigour, moralisation, and
democratisation”; instead of fostering the much desired national unity, the
one-party system had bred nepotism and tribalism in the country; the
socio-economic crises in the country were blamed on the one-party especially by
leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon; newspapers and radio
programmes also demonstrated the nakedness of Monopartism (for instance, “Le
Messager”, a newspaper published by Pius Njawe, and “Cameroon Calling”, a
National Radio programme run by Anglophone journalists), etc. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
The external pressures on their part included the following: The influence of
the collapse of the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbatchev’s policies of “Glasnot”
and “Perestrioka”; the influence of the IMF and the World Bank; the influence
of the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s; the influence of France—Cameroon’s
highest financial donor by then; and the influence of the Harare Declaration of
the Commonwealth of Nations on Democracy and Human Rights, amongst many others.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> Meanwhile Barrister
Yondo Black was so courageous that he openly called for the creation of other
political parties in Cameroon and he made an attempt to form one. He was
arrested and detained in Douala. The Bar Association of Cameroon led by Barrister
Bernard Muna (son of S. T. Muna), a baron of the one-party regime, supported
Black’s ambitions. In defence of Black, the Bar Association pointed out that
constitutionally every Cameroonian had the right to form and/or belong to a
political party. At this point, it would appear that the supporters and
sympathisers of the lone CPDM must have regretted why they had forgotten to
amend the Constitution so as to reverse such a clause! However, they must have
embarked on finding out a way of solving this seeming problem, though the
present situation was vibrating and trembling like an earthquake. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> The
trembling situation did not come to an end until when another daring
Cameroonian dealt a serious blow to the One-party political regime that had
existed in the country since 1966. This was when Ni John Fru Ndi launched the
Social Democratic Front (SDF) party in Ntarikon, Bamenda (Headquarters of the
thence North West Province) on May 26<sup>th</sup> 1990. The launch of this
party was an event which can be referred to as “The City Chemist Roundabout
Massacre” given that Six (6) Cameroonian civilians were killed and others
wounded there by the National Forces of Law and Order that President Paul Biya
had dispatched to prevent the party launch from taking place. However,
supporters of the thence one-party regime argue that these six died in the
course of a stampede which occurred within the dispersing crowd. Should it be
so, the next question will be: Who caused the crowd to be dispersing and why,
if not the dispatched forces? Whatever the case was, a goodbye had been waved
to Monopartism and the new-born baby known as Multipartism had received the
baptism of blood. Thus, the long awaited multipartism, though bought at the
price of bloodshed, had come to stay or so. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the midst of the political turbulence that followed the
May 26<sup>th</sup> 1990 event, the thence government of the former CPDM
political party authorised the already existing Multipartism. This was when a
Law was signed in December 1990, re-introducing multiparty politics in
Cameroon. Apart from the so many political parties which were created
thereafter as a direct consequence of this law, some other important things
happened in the country. There was the “Operation Ghost Town” organised by opposition
leaders to demonstrate their bitterness in some major cities in the country.
Presidential elections were organised in 1992 and the CPDM won, though the SDF
argued that its victory had been reversed in favour of the former. In 1996, a
new constitution was introduced in Cameroon which distinguished between the
three arms of the government for the first time: the Executive, the
Legislative, and the Judiciary. The constitution also provided for the respect
of Human Rights. It extended the Presidential term of office from 5years to 7
years, RNEWABLE ONCE. From 1996, to present, another problem has been that of
knowing whether truly Monopartism was abolished in the 1990s and whether the
Multipartism that exists in the country is within correct limits.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">20 Years
After 1990: Is it Monopartism or Multipartism that operates in Cameroon?
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">After the re-introduction of party pluralism in Cameroon in 1990, the one
funniest thing on the Cameroonian political landscape is that one cannot for
certain say which political regime is functioning in Cameroon. What really
obtains in Cameroon at the moment is “exaggerated multipartism” and on the
other hand “monoparitism”. If one says that multipartism in Cameroon is
exaggerated, he would not have been faulty at all. Shortly after 1990, the
country counted more than a hundred and fifty political parties. By 2008, there
were 207 political parties in Cameroon. Such a number is alarming and causes a
lot of inconveniencie in the country. In fact, Law No 90/56 of 19<sup>th</sup>
December 1990 that governs party politics in Cameroon allows for an unlimited
number of political parties in the country. This phenomenon is termed in French
as “Le Multipartisme Integral” and I dare call it “exaggerated multipartism”.
The problem at hand now is that of answering the question of why such an
alarming number of political parties in Cameroon.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> One of the
reasons for the existence of so many political parties in Cameroon is the role
of the ruling CPDM political party. In fact, in his essay titled ”Cameroon: Why
so many Political Parties (207)?”, Dibussi Tende holds that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.4pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">“The CPDM is routinely accused of sponsoring the creation of dummy
political parties whose role is to muddy the political waters, serve as relay
points for the government’s so unpopular position issues of the day, and dilute
the strength and the votes of the opposition”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such an assertion is true when one remembers
that it was the MDR (Mouvement pour la Défense de la République) of Dakole
Daissala that teamed up with the CPDM in 1992 to give the latter a majority in
Parliament. Again, a few days to the presidential elections of 2004, there was
a party that surrendered its electorate to the CPDM. Some political analysts
consider so many other parties such as Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC as a branch
of the CPDM. On his part, Francis Nyamnjoh in “Africa’s Media: Democracy and the
Politics of Belonging” opines that “The Multiplicity of parties [in Cameroon],
most of which had no existence outside the personality of their founders, can
be explained by the government’s interest in dissipating real democracy.” In
this way therefore, the exaggerated multiplicity of parties in Cameroon will
never allow for any real opposition or its victory.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> It is also
plausible to argue that the so many political parties in the country have
emerged from the love of money, self-centredness, and the unwillingness to form
a coalition of opposition political parties. For instance, some of the
so-called “mushroom” parties in the country are interested in generating money
from campaign money and filling the pockets of the party leaders with. Some of
the parties are formed due to intra-party wranglings and the unwillingness to
cede certain positions in the party to others and even for a good chunk of
opposition parties to form a coalition or a united front. In this vein, one can
cite the Alliance of Progressive Forces (APF) of Barrister Bernard Muna which
was formed after some power struggle within the SDF. There are many party leaders
in the country who are accused of having huge financial accounts in foreign
banks, a sign that party money is directed into private pockets. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> At this point, it is
important to list some of the political parties amongst the 207 that exist in
Cameroon presently, though the number might have increased since 2008. Amongst
the about 207, one can cite the following: the ruling CPDM of President Paul
Biya, the main opposition SDF of Ni John Fru Ndi, the UPC of Augustin Frédéric
Kodock, the CDU of Dr Adamu Ndam Njoya, the UNDP of Maigari Bello Bouba, the
ADD of Garga Harman Adji, the MP of Jean Jacques Ekindi, the APF of Bernard
Muna, the MDR of Dakole Daisala, the FSNC of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the UDP of
El Hadj Lawan Bako, etc.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> On the
other hand, one is not completely out of the rails to say that from 1960 to
present it is Monopartism that is operating in Cameroon. It must be recalled
that the CNU of Ahidjo which was born and baptised on September 1<sup>st</sup>
1966 was re-baptised as the CPDM during the Fourth CNU Congress that held in
Bamenda from 21<sup>st</sup> to 24<sup>th</sup> of March 1985 following the
Abortive Coup d’Etat of April 1984 in Cameroon. For the new-born CPDM, though
its chairman preached “rigour, moralisation, and democratisation” in the early
1980s, its militants protested against the re-launch of Multipartism in the
country before 1990 and it was only after the “Ntarikon Bloody Event” of
May 26<sup>th</sup> 1990 that Paul Biya signed the law providing for
Multipartism in Cameroon. These were early symptoms that the party did not like
to lose its monopoly of power to some other political party or parties. True to
its thoughts, it has maintained this monopoly of political power for close to
half a century, that is, from 1966 to present.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> In order
for this lone ruling party since Independence (remember that the CNU of 1966
was just an “enlargement” of Ahidjo’s former Union Camerounaise), it has
adopted a good number of strategies in order to stay in power including the
sponsoring of the creation of so many other political parties in the country.
As already discussed earlier in this write-up, these numerous parties help
weaken the strength of the opposition as its votes are shared by many parti<i>es,</i>
some of which even sell theirs back to the ruling CPDM.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Another strategy is the use of
money and the linking of governmental projects to party politics. For instance,
it is argued, rightly or wrongly, within political circles that the CPDM uses
money to stimulate the writing of “Motions of Support” to its chairman since
2008 or even before. In fact, it looks like it has been planned that before the
2011 Presidential Elections in Cameroon, sub sections of the CPDM all over the
country shall have written at least a motion of support to the national
chairman of the party. There is rarely a news edition over CRTV television or
Radio wherein a motion of support-writing ceremony is not presented. This means
that the party is not planning to vote a new candidate who will represent it
during the 2011 eminent elections. History has proven that Paul Biya is an
“indomitable” candidate for the CPDM and by maintaining him on the top list of
the party means that Cameroon will continue under its monopoly of power for
quite a long time. In fact, for as long as its national chairman lives (and
they can rig elections).</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
Moreover, some of the opposition parties argue rightly and or wrongly that the
CPDM is using the policy of manipulating and rigging of elections in order to
stay in power. For instance, the SDF argues that its victory was proclaimed in
favour of the CPDM following the 1992 Presidential Elections. Indeed, in spite
of the introduction of transparent ballot boxes in the electoral process in
Cameroon there has never been an election in the country, be it council,
parliamentary or presidential, without the SDF and some other opposition
political parties complaining of fraud on the part of the CPDM. If this is
true, then, it will be truer if we consider that the usual majority of the CPDM
in the House of Assembly has often given the party undue advantage. It was
thanks to this majority position that the CPDM and its national chairman
amended Article VIII. ii (Eight point Two) of the Cameroon Constitution in 2008,
thereby giving Paul Biya the room to contest in the 2011 Polls. The opposition,
especially the SDF, also argues that the Executive Bureau of ELECAM, the new
body in charge of organising elections in the country, is only made up of
barons of the CPDM. It is therefore believed that in this way, ELECAM will
always twist the results of elections in favour of the CPDM. Also, the Head of
State, Paul Biya, has expressed a lot of reluctance to redress the situation in
ELECAM and, thus, such arguments are very near to the truth.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> In fact, if
care is not taken the CPDM and its militants will plunge the country back into
Monopartism. When this shall have been done, it will only mean that it has
removed the veil under which it now hides given that the UC of Ahidjo was
transformed into the CNU and eventually into the CPDM of Paul Biya which has
maintained an unbroken chain of “victories” in all elections in the country
since 1960. The question now is: What does the future hold for us? Monopartism
or exaggerated multipartism?</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> <b>The Way Foreword</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> This
section of my essay is going to focus on my personal proposals as to how to
maintain a balance vis-à-vis the question that ended the foregoing paragraph.
The only way for Cameroon to avoid “exaggerated” multipartism and or
monopartism is by heeding to advice from within and without. To begin, I believe
that one of the ways will be to limit the number of parties, however not
constitutionally lest it not look like dictatorship, but by burying egoism, the
love for money and forming opposition coalitions. Why not have two political
parties like the USA and Great Britain, the two models of democracy in the
world? I know that some of us will like to talk about “African Democracy”
or “Consensus Democracy” in order to foil my point. If that be the case, then
since we have tried both Monopartism and Multipartism and have seen how and
what they stand for, why can’t we reduce them to about four or six? By so
doing, Cameroon could be setting the pace for other African countries and,
thus, become the model of “African Democracy”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> Again, I
think that Cameroon should emulate the examples of South Africa and Ghana.
Despite all odds, the democracy practised in these two countries, both in terms
of number of political parties and the rotation of power is not very far away
from the Western models of the “government of the people, for the people, and
by the people”. There are no two definitions of democracy. Thus, we are either democratic
or we are autocratic. So, let’s beware!</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
In addition, it will be quite helpful for Cameroonians to stop certain mentalities
such as relating government projects to party politics. For instance, if
leaders were to be changed because they do not work well, then American leaders
might never have been changed. Democracy preaches the alternation of power and
we all also know that too much of anything is a disease. It is the duty of a
government to cater for her citizens. Thus, after elections, we should bury
party sentiments and talk development. The government is people and not parties.
And so, if the government constructs, say, a road in any part of the country,
that is its duty and the appreciation is due her and not the party or parties
that make up the government.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> Equally, it
will not be completely out of place if the Cameroon Constitution is amended so
as to limit the number of political parties in Cameroon to something around
four or six or so in order to avoid the so much financial expenditure of the
government on sponsoring electoral campaigns for the hundreds of parties in
existence. This will also go a long way to facilitate the rotation of power. It
will be making Cameroon play the role of a model of democracy in Africa,
thereby living up to the full expectations and meaning of her name as “Africa
in Miniature”.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
At this junction, my whole work is drawing to its end. Before it really ends, I
will like to conclude as follows: Fifty years after Independence, Cameroon has
been bouncing between Monopartism and Multipartism. It has been proven that
Monopartism is quite bad as it gives room for the abuse of Human Rights,
nepotism, dictatorship, etc. Exaggerated multipartism too is not quite good because
it drains and wastes the financial resources of the country and creates
confusion amongst voters when it is time for Elections. In this way, it will be
advisable that the future of Cameroon should be focused on striking a balance.
This implies arriving at, and maintaining, a kind of “limited multipartism”. If
this is done, the country will rise, before the end of the next 50 years and/or
before 2035, to the rank of a “Developed Country” in developing Africa.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">REFERENCES</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Abraham, Tangwe et al. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cameroon History since 18800: Advance Level
Approach</i>. ----- 2009</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Francis, Nyamnjoh. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Africa Medias: Democracy and the Politics of
Belonging</i>. South Africa: UNISA Press, 2005.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Joseph, Nfi and Paul Ninjoh. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Advance Level Cameroon History: New Approach</i>.
------2008.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Pierre, Sobguong. “Je Connais le Cameroun”. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Yaoundé, 2007.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Tende, Dibussi. “Cameroon: Why
so many Political Parties (207)?”----2008 (http://www.dibussi.com/2007/06/cameroon_why_so.html)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Victor, Julius Ngo. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of Cameroon since 1800.</i> Limbe:
Press Book, 1996.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">THE END!!!</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Kenneth Toah Nsah</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">(Nsah Mala)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Author of:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Chaining Freedom</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (published collection of
poems)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Mandela</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (a play)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Incest in Nyonghasum</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (a play)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Mounting the Stairs of Challenge</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">
(non-fictional essay)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Do You Know Mbesa?</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (non-fictional documentary of
Mbesa)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">Taku</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (a play)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;">The Burden of my Daughters</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"> (a play)...</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: FR;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">nsahmala[at]gmail.com (+237) 7429-1746</span></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-35811349149318360272013-05-06T06:08:00.001-07:002013-06-28T11:02:26.968-07:00THE STUBBORN MINI-SKIRT (Short Story)<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"> Miss Gwendolyn Ajehla was both popular and notorious throughout
Government High School (GHS), Ibamakuo, and even beyond. She was a
teacher of English in the school. And she had graduated<span class="text_exposed_show">
from the Higher College of Education (HCE), Yamandé, with a First-Cycle
Secondary School Teacher Certificate in English Modern Letters some two
years earlier. Given that Miss Gwendolyn was very young and beautiful,
she became exaggeratedly proud. She was barely twenty three years old,
with a light, slim skin and of an average height. <br /> Her popularity
stemmed from her good mastery of the English language and her unbeatable
near-native accent in the language. She had mastered her phonetics and
phonology lessons so well that when she spoke English she almost spoke
like a native of England. Among students, teachers and other inhabitants
of Ibamakuo, she was generally described as the lady who speaks through
the nostrils and can bites her tongue. The biggest flaw in her English,
however, was the fact that she sometimes confused the British and
American accents of it. But on the whole, everybody admired the way she
spoke English. And when it came to teaching that language, she did it
masterly too.<br /> Despite Gwendolyn’s exceptional mastery of English
and her professional teaching skills, she had also earned a very bad
reputation in and around GHS, Ibamakuo. She was very, very notorious for
her immoral and indecent dressing style. Her love for skin-glued
dresses and mini-skirts surpassed a fish’s love for fresh tropical
waters. She would shave her eyebrows—as if to correct God’s errors of
creation!—and paint her lips in both red and blue, all these in the name
of beauty and fashion. Whether in class teaching or elsewhere in
public, Gwendolyn usually looked like a mermaid that has been taken
unawares by the sudden coming of dawn.<br /> All these qualities of
Gwendolyn’s combined to earn for her a multitude of nicknames. Some
people called her “British English Madam” and others, “American Madam”.
And yet some others referred to her as “the White Lady Prof.” Worst of
all, behind her back, everybody called her “the White Prostitute”.
During her lessons, some daring students, especially boys, who occupied
the back desks, would call her some of these nicknames. They would
shorten the last of them and simply call her “White Pros.” Each time she
attempted to identify such courageous and sometimes unruly students she
failed like someone who attempts to wage a war against their entire
village. So many reasons accounted for this failure: the class
enrolments were often too large for her to manage properly, there was
usually strong complicity and collaboration among the students, plus the
fact that the students were all aware that their principal too didn’t
approve of Miss Gwendolyn’s indecent dressing style.<br /> “Madam White Prostitute!” Julius Asaba, who was in Form Five then, called her one morning in front of a handful of students.<br /> “I will report you to the principal”, Gwendolyn told the boy, and
making sure that she articulated all her words like a native speaker of
English.<br /> “Better go and report me to God in Heaven”, Julius
continued, “and have the chance to see how angels and saints dress, you
White Pros. You learnt how to speak English well and forgot to learn how
to dress well…”<br /> At this point, Miss Gwendolyn bowed her head in
defeat and walked away from the boy and his mates. She went straight to
the Staff Room of the school while the students shouted in
confusion—while some of them were cheering Asaba for his courage others
were reproaching him for having spoilt Madam’s day and some others just
went about ululating at the top of their voices.<br /> Before midday that
same day, Julius Asaba had been summoned to an impromptu disciplinary
council. After listening to Miss Gwendolyn’s case, the council members
unanimously decided to slam a three-day suspension punishment on Julius.
The latter wasn’t given any chance to speak, but the school principal,
Mr James Gopte, addressed the council and spoke at length to his
teachers on the need for them to dress properly and avoid such nasty
situations. The funniest thing about the council’s decision was that in
the end no teacher ever cared to prevent Julius Asaba from attending
classes within the three supposed days of suspension!<br /> Who doesn’t
know that the stubborn fly always follows the corpse to its grave? To be
very honest, it would appear Gwendolyn did not learn any lesson from
both the incident with Julius and the principal’s advice—constant advice
for that matter—on the need for decency in the way teachers dress. All
the pieces of advice lavished on her amounted to nothing other than the
act of throwing water on a duck’s back. In reality, not even an ounce of
improvement was seen in her blind rush for “fashionable” dressing. She
kept on dressing as before, always exposing her body like wares on sale
in an open-air market. <br /> One fateful Thursday, Miss Gwendolyn had a
two-hour lesson in Form Three. The class was a morning one; it was
supposed to begin at seven thirty a.m. Miss Gwendolyn made her way into
the class at seven forty-five a.m. amidst wild cheers, shouts and
applauses. The commotion was not caused by her lateness, but rather by
her exaggeratedly indecent dressing. <br /> From her head down to her
feet, everything was a cause for concern. For her hairdo she had long,
thick locks that came down a little above her buttocks. She rather
looked like a reggae-star from a back view. In the place of her eyebrows
conspicuously stood thick, bluish lines. There was no hair at all. The
lightness of her skin overemphasized the presence of these lines, making
her rather look like a scarecrow in a far-away maize-farm. Her lips
were as red as a fire-wound. And nobody could dare say that she hadn’t
applied a full tin of powder on her face. She was putting on a
skin-tight, blue T-shirt with a widely open chest that left her breasts
almost completely naked. Squeezed up in new immaculate breastwears, her
breasts could be compared to nothing other than two fat oranges
hand-squeezed close together into twin babies’ mouths. This T-shirt
occasionally refused to cover her little, round navel. A navel which
disappeared into a bottle-smooth, soft, light stomach-skin. Below this
T-shirt was a stubborn, very stubborn, mini-skirt. The skirt was blue in
colour too. Her long, light, hairy legs continued out of this skirt
down into a pair of blue, high-heeled shoes. The heels of the shoes must
have measured ten centimetres in height or so. What a wonderfully
beautiful, young lady! However, she managed to maintain some silence in
the class from the beginning. The students quickly calmed down because
they were already used to, very used to, her ways, but the worst was
still to come.<br /> The young teacher’s mini-skirt was as stubborn as a
street child. Not only was it too body-tight, but it seemed to have been
made out of some slippery substance. This material would slide against
her soft skin the way prey slides on a python’s spittle. For this reason
it kept on sliding and folding upwards towards her waist. Consequently,
she had to constantly use one of her hands to help pull the skirt
downwards…<br /> The lesson of the day was centred on the comparative and
superlative forms of longer adjectives. She taught the students that
the formula is to add “more” to the adjective followed by “than” for the
comparative and to add “the most” to the adjective for the superlative
as follows: Beautiful—More beautiful than—The most beautiful…The
students quickly grasped the formula. And for each adjective she called
out, they gave her its comparative and superlative forms at the speed of
lightning. She now fully committed herself to the exercise, and was
particularly busy writing on the blackboard and turning back to talk to
the students. In this way, she was carried away by the spontaneity of
the lesson to the extent that she forgot the perpetual war she had
initially been fighting with her stubborn mini-skirt.<br /> Before long,
the skirt folded upwards and sat comfortably round her waist, exposing
her large womanhood. The upper part of her womanhood was so large that
it seemed to have swollen. If she were in Yaoundé, nobody would doubt
that she was a nocturnal worker at either Miniferme or Mvog-Ada. Her
stainless, white drawers were the “string-type” and thus left most of
the carefully-shaved skin of her womanhood bare. It was an awful and
admirable sight at the same time. Most boys in the class must have
wetted their pants!<br /> What called her attention to this terrible
happening was the direction of the students’ eyes. No eyes rose above
her stomach level. All eyes were on her waist and womanhood. As soon as
she noticed the shame and disgrace her stubborn skirt had brought to
bear on her, she freezed on the spot like an erring actor on stage. She
became immobile and speechless like a carved statue. While some students
were fighting hard to suppress their uncontrollable laughter, a
majority of them had gone wild with laughter, shouts, jeers, cries and
ululations. While some banged their desks, others climbed onto theirs
and began singing and shouting all of Miss Gwendolyn’s nicknames: Miss
Prostitute! British English Madam! American Madam! The White Prostitute!
The White Pros…<br /> The noise and disorder in that classroom soon
spread into total commotion on the whole school campus, attracting
students and teachers from other classes. In a very little time, the
door and windows of that class had been flooded by students and
teachers. This created an artificial darkness in the room.<br /> By the
time the school principal and some powerful teachers had pushed their
way through the thick crowds into the centre of the scene they found
Miss Gwendolyn lying—perhaps seemingly—unconscious on the class floor.
Her stubborn skirt was still sitting comfortably round her waist just as
it had been before she “collapsed”. The teachers pulled down the skirt,
carried her to the principal’s Mercedes Benz and drove her to Ibamakuo
District Hospital. <br /> Meanwhile, consternation and disorder continued
on the school campus. Classes unofficially and prematurely came to an
end for that day just like that. Both the students and the remaining
teachers carried the news back home and it kept on spreading in and
around the town like wild fire on a mountain during the dry season. <br />
When she regained consciousness,—did she really go unconscious?— the
Principal and the other teachers present in the hospital talked to her
bitterly about the kind of disorder and shame she had brought to the
school through her headiness and indecent dressing. The Principal was
particularly very bitter to her because, as he put it and it was true
too, he had given her more than enough advice on the importance of
proper dressing. Miss Gwendolyn apologized to them, begged for their
forgiveness and promised to undergo a U-change.<br /> It was under the
cover of darkness that she was escorted back to her room in town. The
worst error committed this time around was that she was allowed to spend
that night all alone in her room despite all that had transpired during
the day. On Friday morning, when Mr James Gopte, on his way to school,
stopped by to check on Miss Gwendolyn, he discovered that the latter had
drunk some poison and died overnight. <br /> <br /> THE END!!! © Nsah Mala 2013<br /> (Monatélé II, Thursday 02 May 2013)<br /> This story got its inspiration from a dream I had in the early hours—at about five thirty a.m.—on this day.</span></span>Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-6341801309729537942013-04-05T03:26:00.000-07:002013-06-28T11:03:58.125-07:00Dividing Calabash (Poem)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Players
and fans and nations</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But
in my village</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But
in Mbesa</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It
must have been misused</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But
in Mbesa</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
calabash divides </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Like
an unbridged river</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And
mercilessly kills</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Like
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">(Mbankolo, 29 March 2013)</span></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-88959404276025639282013-04-05T03:13:00.000-07:002013-06-28T11:05:41.544-07:00After the Coup (Poem--Following Francois Bozize’s Overthrow in March 2013)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
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<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Before the coup</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">He was always right</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">In his gun-point might.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">When he shouted like thunder,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">We, in slum-huts, had to chunder</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">In fear of venomous grenades and
bullets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">But today he is without amullets,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">After the bloody coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Before the coup</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bozize was the hard rock</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And could carelessly mock</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Us behind dark-glassed limousines</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">When escorted to cut-throat French
cuisines.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Limousines in long, long queues</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">No longer parade him in this curfew</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">After the bloody coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Before the coup</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">He made countless flights </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Leaving us without lights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">He owned and ruled the state,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And we were the state.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">An earlier coup gave him this
mission,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">But now he cannot even rule a
subdivision</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">After the bloody coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Before the coup</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bozize was king of elephants</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Trampling us like road-ants</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">While impregnating his wallets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">He pitilessly used us like mallets,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">But today he has lost the game</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And has crumbled till we‘re all the
same</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">After the bloody coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">(Mbankolo, 27 March 2013)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-55806671075759748072012-05-06T04:17:00.001-07:002013-06-28T11:04:19.237-07:00For My Love 2 (Poem)<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>For My
Love 2</b></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">True love deserves
true love as love answers love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And I have chosen you out of genuine love for you I love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Just as God created us
for each other you are for me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">An since love is reciprocal, from heart to heart, you are for
me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Among all the beautiful girls
in the world it is you </span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I have chosen for my love because my heart lives in you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nothing! Nothing at all
can break the bond of our love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Not even jealousy nor distance nor death can break this love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The clock tick tacks twenty four hours everyday from day to
day</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And at
least twenty four times a day I remember you from day to day</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Each time I remember you
efforts in work I double for us and for you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">For the good of our
household, our parents and children, fro us and fro you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Dearest Onion, you have chosen to marry a young man</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Whom you love, trust and
shall love and trust and I am the man</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You have chosen a man to
love, to trust and to admire</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And this man you shall play with, work by and for, support and
inspire</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A man you shall stand by,
walk with, caress and comfort tirelessly</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">As you now make him work,
hope, study, write and love tirelessly</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">So too each time you think
and remember me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You
should stand tall, smile and brighten up for me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should arise and shine forth because I admire you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should work harder
and harder, study well for I count on you </span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should read widely, be as
intelligent as a writer</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should know as it is that you are the wife of a writer</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should read hard at night and during the day as if for a
competition</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because
your husband and brother is a always a man for a competition </span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should take healthy
care of your beauty and body, our body</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because that is where my
heart resides, in your body, our body</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should remain joyful, obedient, honest and
beautiful, I mean you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because I trust, admire, love, count on and adore you, I mean
you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should
remain hardworking, kind, perpetually glad, always hopeful in life</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because you are my
onliest Shallote, the onliest Onion of my life.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When love answers YES</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When love answers PRESENT</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When love answers LOVE</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Then we were made for
LOVE </span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yours
forever NSAH MALA</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thursday March 31</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 2011</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><br /></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Notice!
Notice! Notice!</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yesterday, March 30</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 2011,</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I wrote
this very poem in the morning</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">And I could not find it in the
evening </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">When I wanted to envelop it and send to you.</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nevertheless,
given that the poem had originated </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">From my
heart I have been able to reproduce it</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><br /></i> </div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This morning, (30/03/2011),
verbatim or so.</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is what true love can do! Thanks be
to god!</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><br /></i>
</div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Then,
wonderfully and miraculously</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I found the missing poem inside
one of my books </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Three hours after having written the
second. </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">What a miracle!</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">But then, this has taught me two
things, </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">True love is enduring as I took the pains to rewrite</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
poem and that one artistic piece produced by</span></i></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The same
author twice can never be exactly the same. </span></i> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-76506236498175566002012-05-06T04:14:00.002-07:002013-06-28T11:04:31.600-07:00For My Love 1 (Poem)<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>For My
Love 1</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">True love answers true love for love answers love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And we have chosen each
other out of true love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Just as God moulded me fro you He created you for me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And since love is
reciprocal, I am for you and you are for me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Amongst all the lovely, angelic girls in the world it is you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I have chosen; for my
heart is an empty page without you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Nothing! Not even an axe can break the bond of our
love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Not even
jealousy nor distance and death can break this love</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The clock ticks twenty and four hours everyday, from day to
day</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And I
remember you from hour to hour, at least twenty four hours a day</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Each time you rise from
my heart through my soul to my brain</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And I work harder for our family, you and I
without a tiring brain</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">My dearest Onion, you are
married to the one</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You love and shall love forever, one is to one</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You have chosen a young man</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">To love and admire and I
am the man</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You shall caress, feed, love,
play with, and admire</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You shall pray for, support, work by, and inspire</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You shall protect, preserve,
remember, and love tirelessly</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Just as I do all for you and shall do all for tirelessly</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">So too, each time you think about me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should smile and brighten
up for me</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because
I love you so much, so much</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You should arise and shine like the sun so much and so much</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because it is you I admire, you and only you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must double your efforts
in your studies, I mean you</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because our future hangs on our shoulders</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must read as wide as an
author’s wife for this is on your shoulders</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must study like someone in an intellectual competition</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because your husband, the
sage, is always in a competition</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must take good care your body, our body</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because my heart, your
heart, lives in that body, our body</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must remain
humble, honest, obedient and beautiful</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because for such reasons I
adore you and you are beautiful</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You must remain glad, joyful, hard working and
hopeful in this life</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because you are my onliest Shallote, the onliest Onion of my
life.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When love answers
YES</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When
love answers PRESENT</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">When love answers LOVE</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Life becomes a
life of no END</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Only a life of love and for LOVE </span> </div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Written on
Wednesday March 30</i></span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>th</i></span></sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> 2011</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>By NSAH MALA</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>For NSOM
SHALLOTE</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>To spur her to work hard following</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Her poor
performance in the second</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Term exams for Form VI</i></span></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="RIGHT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-52957661858640910292012-05-06T04:12:00.000-07:002013-06-28T11:04:55.403-07:00CAMEROON NEEDS A PERPETUAL SUNDAY (Philosophical Essay)<h3 class="fw-title">
<b>CAMEROON NEEDS A PERPETUAL SUNDAY </b></h3>
<div class="fw-text">
<b> </b><br />
Sunday is the first day of the week which
originated from the word Sabbath. Though the Sabbath in reality is
supposed to be observed on Saturday, the fact that Jesus Christ
resurrected from the death on Sunday coupled with some other innovations
in the Christian church have made the Sabbath Feast to be observed on
Sunday. This day is the day on which God rested after His creation work
of six days. It is thus a high holy day kept aside for rest, deep
personal reflections, meditations, self-examination, contemplation and
congregational worship. It is a day set aside just like God had set
aside the Jewish family in the days of the Old Testament. It is a day
which necessitates more intimacy with God depending on who observes it
and how he/she observes it. <br />
<br />
But unfortunately, what
takes me aback so much about Sunday in Cameroon is that over the years
and most especially now in the decaying days of Cameroon it is the
only day on which a few Cameroonians pretend to be holy. The rest of
this essay is out to present how Cameroonians spend the other days of
the week and carry the left-overs of their sinful attitudes into the
blessed day of Sunday thereby spoiling the special day which God has set
aside for His true sons and daughters.<br />
<br />
When on a
Sunday morning the gates of God’s holy sanctuary-the church are flung
open, Cameroonian church-goers gallop into it like horses on a PMUC race
in Paris . Some people almost trample on the others and the whole
scenario becomes something only comparable to the European Scramble for
Africa in the early 19<sup>th</sup> century. The paradox of all this
mess is that these so-called Christians first of all carry into God’s
House their bodies which are already contaminated temples of the Holy
Spirit. Some of them come in with full pockets filled with money and
gifts that look like pregnant women they have received in their office
over the week so as to ruin the destinies of some unfortunate, poor, and
intelligent Cameroonian youths. They use such ill-gotten money to dirty
the pure gifts that the few upright ones have brought to honour God
with. Indeed, some sit in church and are quite far away from the
scriptures and sermons as they keep on meditating on how the next day
they shall bribe their son’s, daughter’s… way into ENS, ENAM, ENSET,
IRIC, EMIA, and what have you? Some others think about how the following
day they will erase the name of a poor, unfortunate, innocent and
intelligent Cameroonian youth from an examination list in their office
and put in that of a son, daughter, sister, brother, uncle, aunt,
cousin, niece, friend, boyfriend, and the list continues to flow like
the Egyptian Nile. With all such behaviour, do we now see that the way
we spend the days surrounding Sunday does not in any way warrant our
observance of Sunday? Do we now see that since we only pretend to be
holy on Sundays it would appear that we need a perpetual Sunday in
Cameroon? <br />
<br />
If on a Sunday morning a census of
Cameroon ’s church-goers, not Christians, is conducted, it will reveal
that more than 80 per cent of the country’s population is at least
people who visit the church. These very people, however, are the ones
who stand up against the wellbeing and progress of their fellow bothers
and sisters. It is quite unimaginable that Cameroonians neglect their
sick and underprivileged citizens to be taken care of by foreigners who
go about trying to rub balm where they did not inflict any wound. How
comes it that the Marist Fathers will want to help a student from CCAST
Bambili (suffering from cancer) who is unable to pay for the cost of her
medical operation just find some organs of the Cameroonian government
like the Immigration Police posing as stumbling blocks on their way?
That after having convinced the Italian government to help this poor
girl, the Marist Fathers like Fr. Constant A. of the Our Lady of Fatima
Parish Bambili still spent sleepless nights shuttling between offices
before a passport could be issued for her! That in the end, the Marist
Fathers had to contact the Presidency of the Republic before success
came their way remains food for thought! And that in the end the girl
was allowed to fly is commendable. But that her flight as well as that
of the Marist journalist who was to accompany her to Italy was all
delayed remains something unheard of. Are all these things not done by
the so-called Cameroonian Christians? Do these very individuals not
pretend to be holy on Sundays? Therefore, we really need a perpetual
Sunday in Cameroon so that Cameroonians can abandon corrupt practices at
least for some time and even pretend to be holy or upright.<br />
<br />
The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has been to Cameroon twice: in
1985 and in 1995. In 2009, Benedict XVI in the very capacity visited
Cameroon and launched the book INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS in Yaounde . The
Holy Father has come and gone back. But, where is the notorious
corruption of Cameroon ? Certainly, corruption is still loaming in the
horizon. When he came, may be the rate of corruption was lowered and, as
soon as he left, even when the dust of his visit has not yet begun to
settle down, corruption has resurfaced and this time around on a very
deadly gear. He, like his predecessor, condemned the use of condoms and
before he arrived back in Rome , some of us had begun spreading
information against his doctrine. What then have we learned from his
visit to Cameroon ? Or, did we want him to remain in Cameroon saying
high holy masses like the one of 20<sup>th</sup> March 2009 at the
Ahmadu Ahidjo Stadium to a congregation which forgot the message of his
homily even before they came out of the stadium? This only serves to
confirm that we need a perpetual Sunday in Cameroon .<br />
<br />
During
holy baptism, we are always very happy to promise God that we have
rejected Satan and all his works and ways. Every Sunday before the
sacrament of Holy Eucharist, we usually pretend to renew these promises,
but all we are doing amounts to sacrilege as we are the very promoters
of corruption, bribery, embezzlement, nepotism and other social ills in
Cameroon . So, on Sundays, there is a considerable degree of abstinence
from these ills which resurface before it is Monday morning. We,
Cameroonians, are just telling the world that evil in our country can
only come to a stop if every day is declared a Sunday. We therefore
really need a perpetual Sunday in Cameroon .<br />
<br />
As for
the students, youths and even some unscrupulous aged people, the rest of
the week is always dedicated to fornication, drunkenness, adultery,
jealousy, gossiping, and all what not? But, when Sunday comes, we get up
from this seeming slumber, put up flashy dresses and hurry into the
church like little saints on the Feast of all Saints. In fact, we rush
in to occupy seats in the church and deprive our elders of such seats.
Each time that there is only one holy mass to be said in the Bambili
Parish, I always witness horrible happenings. A young person who can
stand for long prefers to sit down on a comfortable seat in the church
while an old mother or father who is so weak and almost on their way to
the grave stands seat less and breathing like a victim of slaughter. The
youths don’t just care who is standing and who is sitting. At times, I
am tempted to think that the day is not a Sunday, but merely one of the
normal days of the week during which Cameroonians lose their
consciences. As a matter of fact, such behaviour only pushes me to
believe that Cameroon is calling for the declaration of Sunday
perpetual.<br />
<br />
Many more of such sad events can be
recounted which can fill the whole world. So, while I have time, space,
material and God’s inspiration, I will continue to keep you abreast of
them. Indeed, our problem is that we forget to know that every day for
us is already a Sunday. This is only true if we realize that our bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit and strive to keep them as pure as we
pretend to do on Sundays. As Christians, we only need to make Cameroon
and the rest of the world know that Sunday is already perpetual and that
we have only been failing to respect it to the full. Or, have we
forgotten that as Christians we are the light and salt of the world?
Cameroonians and of course dear Christians, let us end corruption and
make the continual observance of Sunday in our lives and save Cameroon
from this scourge of seemingly requesting for the declaration of Sunday
perpetual. To emphasize and conclude, let’s know that Sunday is
perpetual and we just need to observe it fully and by so doing, we shall
create a paradise in Cameroon and on earth. Let us also remember that
Jesus Christ may not come back on a Sunday to meet us in church
pretending to be holy. Let us respect the mobile churches in us and wait
in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.<br />
<b>THE END!!!</b><br />
<br />
<br />
Sunday April 26<sup>th</sup> 2009<br />
Nsah
Kenneth Toah<br />
(Nsah Mala)<br />
Voice of the voiceless!!!!<br />
Contacts:<br />
Tel: +237 74 29 17 46<br />
E-mail: nsahmala@yahoo.com<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b> </b></div>
Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-66522227678688188192012-05-06T04:07:00.000-07:002013-06-28T11:05:15.084-07:00The Time Has Come (Philosophical Essay)<div align="center">
<b> The Time Has Come </b></div>
<div align="center">
<b>
</b></div>
<b> (PHASE I, November, 2008)</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
Did mankind and Cameroonians in particular not know that the voices
of devoted, committed and truthful patriots like Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas More, Nelson Mandela, Albert Mukong, Bernard
Fonlon…are only heard when they are no longer present? Did mankind not
also know that even out of neglected interiors of the world great
prophets and saviours can be born? Did mankind not know that Barack
Obama is of negro parentage and that great people are usually born in
great places and by great people? Did mankind not know that the children
of great people are already in high places and cannot therefore jump,
and that only children from low do jump in order to skip at least a step
in success? If not, then the time has come for us to know so.<br />
<br />
Did mankind and Cameroonians in particular not know that the
pen is mightier than the sword? Did mankind not also know that a house
divided against itself cannot stand and that as such corruption cannot
fight against corruption? Did mankind not know that a person cannot be
appointed through corrupt means to be a combatant of corruption? Did
mankind not that in order to combat corruption we must first of all be
ant-corrupt within ourselves and invite God to come and be the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces against corruption? Did mankind
not know that in a country where Moral Instructions are paid deaf ears
to and where Religious Studies as an academic subject is suffering
threats of elimination from the curricula, corruption must keep on
eating deep into our roots? Did mankind not also know that once you
bribe your way into any job you shall never find comfort in it? Did
mankind not know that one can read, prepare and pray for an entrance
examination into any professional or vocational school and succeed in it
without the usual Cameroonian one million? Did mankind not that there
are some jobs which are not just good for all of us and that for such
reasons God lets us know about this by simply making us fail the
entrance exams or interview, or… into them? Did mankind not know that
when somebody over fails to do something he should try some other thing?
If not, then the time has for us to know so.<br />
<br />
Did
mankind and Cameroonians in particular not know that when an embezzler
of public funds is caught he should first of all pay all that he
embezzled rather than just serve a prison term without refunding this
money into the state coffers? Did mankind not know that every one person
should have only one pay package with the government? Did mankind not
also know that an assertion such as “politics is a dirty game” are a
myth and can therefore be demystified by viewing politics from the view
point of leadership and not rulership? Did mankind and Cameroonians in
particular not know that we do not know that we do nurse dictatorial and
corrupt rulers when we receive money and other material gifts from them
rather than good ideologies and plans of action during electoral
campaigns which lead to their rise to power? Did mankind not know that
certain words such as “non-limited” are not good and should therefore
not be used in democracy? Did mankind not know that it is not good for
one to pretend that there is peace in his country when he doesn’t have a
peace of mind? Did mankind not also know that when undemocratic terms
are used in a country’s national and political books even when we are
already on our dying beds we should rise up and do away with them
because they will certainly affect our young ones adversely in the
future? Did mankind not know that if the word politics is applied deeply
democratically and spiritually it would serve as a visa into Heaven?
Did mankind not know that great biblical leaders like Kings Solomon and
David were both spiritual and democratic politicians? If not, then the
time has come for them to know so.<br />
<br />
Did mankind and
Cameroonians in particular not know that when there is say a civil or
tribal war in a country and the leader is caring and concerned with the
well being of his people he should really takes time and goes there in
person to calm down tensions? Did mankind not know that when there is a
rift or conflict between sections, regions or tribes of a society, the
leader should not settle it by favouring the side that has many people
working in his regime? Did mankind not know that when many villages cry
around another one, then the one in the centre which is not crying
should be carefully examined with warning eyes? Did mankind not know
that a good leader is not one who takes delight in visiting foreign
lands but in handling domestic crises and enhancing national growth
because charity begins at home? Did mankind not know that there is much
joy in being an ex-leader like Nelson Mandela than in being a former
ruler and dictator like Napoleon Bonaparte and all his likes of
nowadays? If not, then the time has come for them to do so.<br />
<br />
Did mankind and Cameroonians in particular not know that the
economic crises and the too unemployment we are going through do not
result from inadequate natural resources but form our individualistic
self interests and mismanagement? Did mankind not know that when non
human factors of production become persistently unproductive, the
entrepreneur should be changed? Did mankind not know that in the face of
so many crises within a state there should be adjustments in its
political arena? Did mankind not know that too much of any thing is a
disease and that even too much of the same person is a disease? Did
mankind not know that even from the very beginning of economics, one of
the factors of production has been and is still being forgotten which is
prayers? Did mankind not also know that those of us who spend sleepless
nights and restless days writing poems, plays, novels, essays,
articles…like this one are doing so because we do love our father and
motherlands? If not, then the time has come for us to do so. <br />
<br />
Did mankind and Cameroonians in particular not know that there
should be no divisions in the Church of Jesus Christ? Did mankind not
know that spiritual peace and the need to know where every religion and
religious denomination today in the world today came from can surely
bring unity in the Universal and Apostolic Church of Christ before He
comes back to establish His endless Kingdom? Did mankind not know that
religious hypocrisy must stop and as such we need to stop worshipping
Christ and at the same time dressing, talking, living or acting in ways
that ways that portray us as perfect incarnations of Satan? Did mankind
not know that God instituted and blessed sexual intercourse only for
matrimony and that out of marriage it becomes the highest and gravest
sin and the source of almost all other sins? Did mankind not know that
those things which block us from God are the best tasty and charming
things of the world like money, sex and food and that deny such things
is to carry one’s cross and follow Jesus Christ? If not, then the time
has come for us to do so.<br />
<br />
Did mankind and
Cameroonians in particular not know that the wages of sin is death and
that as such the wages of the sin of sex is HIV/AIDS which leads onto
death? Did mankind not know that there is no progress, be it political,
economic, social, spiritual or academic when it is blended with AIDS and
other diseases? Did mankind and especially students and youths not know
that success does not come the way of anyone who has divided attention
between hard work, which belongs to God, and involving in sinful
practices, which belong to Satan, because no one can successfully serve
two masters at a time? Did mankind and especially students not know that
Satan has many candidates for his kingdom who include thieves,
fornicators, adulterers, cheats, smokers, drunkards…and that whoever
follows the crowd in doing these things is stupid and sheepish? Did
mankind and especially youths not know that not all what one’s friends,
classmates, age mates, relatives…do should be imitated by that person as
they can likely land him in trouble and distance him from his God who
is the only hope of life for him? If not, then the time has come for us
to do so.<br />
<br />
Did mankind and Cameroonians in
particular not know that while some philosophies and doctrines are good,
others are bad? Did mankind not know that while some philosophies do
acknowledge God’s existence, some do not and thus, one only has to
choose what is good and only it because salvation is personal? Did
mankind not know that it is in this perspective and most especially
because there is a dire need for a better political and spiritual
tomorrow that writers like myself do write? Did mankind not know that we
need to pray for writers like us because we are in great danger and the
angry, satanic wolves of our society will want to devour us for our
truthfulness and commitment? If not, then the time has come for us to do
so…<br />
<br />
<b>I am the voice of the voiceless</b>!!!<br />
<br />
Nsah Kenneth Toah<br />
(Nsah Mala)<br />
Sunday November 16<sup>th</sup>,
2008<br />
CONTACTS:<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2838893934649864148" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ibrahimkennetho@yahoo.com</a><br />
nsahmala@gmail.com<br />
nsahmala@yahoo.com <br />
(237) 74 29 17 46<br />
<b>Thanks be to God! </b><br />
<b> </b>Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2838893934649864148.post-29158994228527940942012-02-02T02:27:00.001-08:002013-06-28T11:12:23.852-07:00Home: Wecome to Nsah Mala's Blog!Welcome to Nsah Mala's personal blog.<br />
<br />
It is a great pleasure for me to share my stories, poems, articles and blogs with you here, dear Reader. I hope that you will find my writings interesting--not in the mere sense of the word "interesting" but in such a way that after going through any of the items published here you should be able to adjust one or two things in your life. And I mean positive adjustment, which should go beyong you and touch the whole wide world....<br />
<br />
I write to positively impact the world and improve the Huaman Condition. This is because I strongly believe in the Healing Power of Literature---I call my literature "Solution-Literature". Every aspect of human life that I chose to comment on, expose or satirise has to be remodelled on principles of morality so that we may enjoy this wonderful work of God's creative imagination....Ijim Mountain Mediahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01874688522325495508noreply@blogger.com0