Top UN Official Confirms A Possible Independent Southern Cameroons

By Eric Tataw for National Telegraph, USA

A long-serving UN official has confided in National Telegraph that Southern Cameroons has the right to be an Independent Country. While insisting we withhold his identity, the diplomat however hinted that procedures must be followed. He explained to National Telegraph's Editor-in-chief, Eric Tataw that Southern Cameroons must follow the Montevideo Convention. He went on that as at now, Southern Cameroons is already on track with this Convention adopted in 1933 on the Rights and Duties of States.

He further told National Telegraph that the Convention requires Southern Cameroons must declare it's intentions which she did on October 1, 2017. He however added that a referendum is imperative. Our interviewee again remarked that according to the Convention, the seceding country must belong within clearly defined boundaries with a permanent population, this to him, Southern Cameroons already has.

Another remarkable revelation is that as country wishing to secede, Southern Cameroons must have a government as he cites the Southern Cameroons Interim Government as a commendable step. He however added that such a government must canvass for friendship and get into relationship with other sovereign states so that each recognizes her at their discretion.

Our source stated firmly that Southern Cameroons has all it takes from the authenticity of its History, Maps and Boundaries to secede from the Republic of Cameroon. He however noted that the UN doesn't have the authority to recognize a state while highlighting that Southern Cameroons must start the process itself by first and foremost sending to the UN an application letter plus a declaration showing will to respect the UN Charter.

He further told National Telegraph that the application letter and declaration will be followed by a review of the Security Council before the 193 members of the General Assembly would vote with a two-thirds majority for Southern Cameroons to be admitted and recognized.

He then cornered National Telegraph that reports from Amnesty International and other media reports on a somewhat Genocide going on in the area, number of detainees, the Refugee situation as shown by Nigerian authorities and reports of militarization, amongst others are exactly like the case of South Sudan before she gained Independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011.

He ended that Southern Cameroons has a fine and perfect case but must follow procedure and Independence will follow, adding that Southern Cameroons residents have a great role to show resistance to continuously echo their case to the UN and other countries as a people who want sovereignty. 

The Biya Regime: Inciting Civil War, Perpetrating Genocide, Terrorism and Repression by Mbiydzenyuy David WANTANGWA

"The only way by which the LRC dictatorship of this man, Paul Biya, can continue to wrangle and make the noise of a "one and indivisible" country over which they have imposed their rule, is to show a legal document, to the satisfaction of the United Nations and other World bodies and above all, to the people of Southern Cameroons, that binds them to his tyrannical regime. Otherwise, all their grip over the people is intrusive, illegal and unrecognized. You cannot perpetrate the reign of terror on a people over whom you illegally impose yourselves with the complicity of a good number of players in and out of Cameroon. The time of reckoning is now. Prove your legality over the people first. We do not need to belabour the point that there is no legal document showing that Cameroon was ever or is one and indivisible as you are wont to quickly yell."

The Biya Regime: Inciting Civil War, Perpetrating Genocide, Terrorism and Repression by

Mbiydzenyuy David WANTANGWA

“if you keep silence in the face of aggression, then you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. (Desmond Tutu) and “it is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest” (Abraham Lincoln).

Introduction to Reality

The manipulative divide-and-rule strategies of the LRC government, shepherded by its leader, the dictator, Paul Biya, spearheaded by some of his government ministers, thugs and elites and executed by their brutal military, and skillfully teleguided by France, their colonial master, had no other purpose than to breed civil war, incite hate and division between the Francophones and the citizens of Southern Cameroons. Unfortunately, they have met with the most intelligent, resolute, and unpredictably strategic handling of the crisis by the leaders of Southern Cameroons in spite of their own shortcomings. The attitude of the LRC government is reminiscent of an evasive regime that has only one tool, called the HAMMER, (repressive criminals in the name of military), and so they force every problem to resemble a nail so as to fit with their sole tool, to hammer it and force themselves on the people. “If you have to win by dividing people, you won’t be able to govern them” said Barack Obama. Legitimacy over a people is merited and sanctioned by constructive democratic management of crises and not my imposing its inadequate, archaic, barbaric, albeit, mediocre, obnoxious solutions on the people. Again, “indigenous people have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”. (United Nations). This is the reality the LRC government will have to face and the hard knot they will have to come to terms with and swallow.

The LRC regime’s handling of what is now popularly called “the anglophone problem” which smacks of a very high magnitude of incompetence, butchery, rapine, or in other words uncontrolled military repression, has led to a lot of reflection and background action on both sides and we publish a series of articles relating to the true aims underlying the regime’s intentions behind this form of archaic tyranny in the 21^st century.

Here we are! faced with a murderous regime that will not hesitate to kill anyone who differs with their agenda in order to have their way to continue the systematic pillage of this fatherland.

Here we are! with a veritably lying, manipulative and Machiavellian leadership that possesses the evil skills of divide and rule politics, corruption of the masses, disruption of the genuine rule of law and whimsical administration of state affairs.

Here we are! faced with a completely “deviant regime, that rules only with a view to personal advantage”. In our earlier Open Letter to the President and to the Episcopal Conference of the Bishops of Cameroon (you can read the letter in its entirety in, www.ambassbay.blogspot.com/...) we exposed some details about this regime which have in the course of these months proven to be undoubtedly true. The claim of the regime over the people of Southern Cameroons has become clearly illegitimate as the people have unanimously rejected the Yaoundé dictatorship which is presently still forcing itself upon them.

Here we are! faced with a group of selfish and uncontrollably greedy fellows who would not hesitate to perform any kind of mean, debasing and inhumane job before their dictator who tosses them around like puppets.

Here we are! with faced with a heap of mediocre administrators who impose their mediocrity upon the masses having sent the whole country and its resources and projects down the drain without any remorse because they glory in keeping the masses in the dark.

Here we are! faced with a bunch of deviant and morally debased criminals who have committed all sorts of crimes against their people, from controversial killings, to corruption, embezzlement, and what have you. The sad list can go on and on.

Here we are! faced with a regime for whom bloodshed is the order of the day, in order to have their way, intimidation, murder and controversy. A regime steeped in the blood of its own very citizens, whom they are supposed to protect. A regime that thrives in evil and wanton disregard for basic inalienable human rights.

Here we are! Face to face with the LRC dictatorship, a bunch of blood thirsty criminals who have sold out their consciences to the devil and clinging tenaciously and desperately to power as if that were the only thing, the only option in life left for them. Power, they say, corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Here we are! face to face with a regime specialized in all sorts of hideous crimes against humanity, backed up a terrible magnitude of lies, coercive techniques, elimination of political opponents under cover of law. After all, they are successively specialized in twisting and bending the law every time according to their secret agendas and whims and caprices especially when they foresee that they will be entrapped by the law. And therefore, this makes of their laws, constitutions, decrees, injunctions etc., a set of Napoleonic codes, capable of changing at any time and which become ridiculous to follow, making a total mockery of the judicial system.

The Language of War, Hate, Terrorism and Violence

We begin this writeup with the following from the Parliamentarian, Joseph Wirba, “IN SHOCK AND IN TEARS!! MY DEAR PEOPLE OF WEST CAMEROON, they are killing our people again! When I tell you, these people do not believe we have blood, some don't believe me. Look at carnage out here! These people will eliminate us if we don't rise up like one man and stop them! They hate us, they spite us, they will "take us out" if they have their chance! We must stop them Now! It is time to take our Peaceful Resistance to a higher level. It is time to let our oppressors know that we have had enough of killing, jailing and maiming of our people!! This Commander in Bui has been known for his contemptuous treatment of our people! He is known for saying that his orders come from the presidency in Yaoundé, and for referring to our people as 'les chiens Anglophone', meaning; 'Anglophone dogs'! Are we surprised he just killed some 'dogs'? My people, our resolve and our preparedness must be strong! Get ready for the second phase of our resistance movement. We must stand up to oppression and we must defeat oppression!!! PLEASE SHARE THIS TO THE WORLD! Hon WIRBA Joseph, signed and sealed with the blood of our fallen heroes”.

Remember, that one ethnic group insisted and called the other “cockroaches” in Rwanda and this led to the Rwandan Genocide – the most gruesome in modern history, the scar from which Rwanda will never recover, no matter the type and quality of solutions offered. I wonder if that illiterate of a Commander in Bui, has ever availed himself the opportunity of knowing that gruesome scenario from which a people has never risen nor been genuinely reconciled. Genuine peace is priceless.

The Regime thugs, protagonists and evil apostles have deliberately refused to represent the situation in its objective reality. And this is how genocide and war begin. To show either their unwillingness to tackle the real problems of the people, they have continuously and stubbornly insisted that it is a language problem, and rather attempting by all means to incite the Francophones against the Southern Cameroonians, that it is a Francophone – Anglophone problem in order to denote that Anglophones hate Francophones and have indoctrinated and incited some weak minded French Cameroonians to react. Some francophones, either out of ignorance, as usual, or blind obedience of the useless system in place, have taken upon themselves to rise up against Southern Cameroonians even without understanding why, or what the problem of the Southern Cameroons is. What would be the result if either the Francophones or the Anglophones subscribe to such an evil label – of course, civil war and to whose interest, that of these leaders who would possessing foreign nationalities, would safely escape into their safe havens in Europe and America and elsewhere in the world.

Here we shall not hesitate, to identify individuals who have used divisive, and hate language that normally brings civil war, hate, terrorism and Violence. The LRC President Paul Biya, on the 31^st of December 2016, referred to the Anglophones as “extremist”. To have labelled a people whose educational and legal systems, the French speaking citizens including himself envy, is uncalled for, and it only indicates his intensions when he nursed a genocide in his official utterance. We often say in English give a dog a bad and hang it. This probably should justify his tyrannical handling of the crisis by using military action to repress peaceful protesters.

The Governor of the South West Region, Okalia Bilai has on various occasions used the following words, he first referred to Anglophones as “boko haram” and later on as “dogs”. The same hate language like his master. Mr. Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the LRC Minister of Communication, has on several occasions referred to Anglophones using the following terms, “secessionists”, “extremists”, “terrorists” and more than enough public evidence exists with videos of their various utterances. Among a myriad of press conferences, he has offered to explain the government position, is worth mentioning, the heart-rending lies, he publicly and shamelessly rambled and mumbled in a confusive language he calls English and full of extreme lies and conscious distortion of reality purposefully geared at misleading international and national opinion. This was after the butchery and mayhem of the 22^nd of September 2017 and especially, the 1^st of October 2017. He dared to praise the brutality of the bestial army of repression they sent into Southern Cameroons. Be they reminded, that such language is against international law, and that as Southern Cameroonians have insisted and continue to insist, they are a peace-loving people. This same LRC government spokesperson, has been insistently talking of some imaginary group of “secessionists” “armed with machetes and bombs” and in an open press conference declared that LRC had killed some of the secessionist fighters. For Minister Issa Tchiroma, to openly prefer and quote the complacent letter of the President of the Episcopal Conference as against the factual and frank declaration of the Bishops of Southern Cameroons whom he shamelessly accused of taking sides with “terrorists”, is to publicly attempt to sow division in the church, which makes of him a veritable advocate of the devil and a dishonest “divide and rule” strategies of the LRC government. Abundant evidence abounds, that lots of lives lost in Southern Cameroons were those of harmless and unarmed civilians who carried peace plants matching and shouting, “no violence” to which the blood-thirsty military did not heed. The profile of those killed does not in any way resemble fighters but of peaceful protesters. It has been characteristic of LRC government to frame up the anglophones, accusing them of arson, but it is clear that the military of LRC is responsible for organizing and carrying out these acts of arson, burning of Sacred Heart College Mankon and the frame-up of arms being discovered in Mbengwi. Only the LRC government can prove these allegations which accordingly are geared towards justifying their repressive acts on the people of Southern Cameroons. The language of terrorism, and others has only initiated from their lips.

The Military as their Instrument of Inciting Civil War and Genocide

To further justify their actions, they have continued to deploy military to perpetrate acts of arson, killings, genocide, rape, torture and kidnaps. The social media is rife with videos of police and military acts of atrocities, torture, killings and maltreatment of the people of Southern Cameroons. The military has always been used by the regime to perpetrate and crack down on the people as its torture and repressive mechanism to suppress the people when they want to express their rights to disagree with the regime. They have manipulated the media, repressed the media and issued orders limiting media reporting. They have continuously interrupted the internet in order that the world should not see the terrible atrocities and genocide being carried out by the police and the military.

The Responsibility of Britain and France

During the recent European Union meeting, the accusation by the German minister upon France and Britain for being responsible for this mess is well justified. Unfortunately, France cannot come in to fight civilians and that is the reason why they keep a conspicuous silence. They are to be held responsible for this mess happening in Southern Cameroons and they keep silence as if that is none of their concerns. Therefore, they have that moral and socio-political responsibility to return in all honesty to restore what they left undone. Their sadistic silence has been very preoccupying.

Other Voices Worth Mentioning

The United nations has cautioned the LRC government over its atrocities over its own people. The insane dictator of Cameroon as usual has not said a word, let alone respond to the many voices calling him to order. The African Union has spoken. The Francophonie probably out of shame, has spoken and other internationally reliable organisations. REDAC (spelling) has written. The Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province have written and now we are writing. The intransigence of the LRC government is very disturbing both in the national and international scenes given the fact that they are signatories to very important and law-abiding treaties and conventions that they have just ruptured in their endless repression over the people of Southern Cameroons. The insane dictator, Paul Biya, carefully teleguided by France, remains unperturbed in Switzerland ruling his country at a delicate time like this, from a distance as usual. The people as well as other well – intentioned opinions cannot keep quiet and watch this genocide over a peaceful, unarmed people and this massive bias and repression which the government is unduly exercising over them.

Manipulating the Press to Propagate this Violence and Hate Culture

The government of LRC is using outmoded, ancient, and tyrannical methods in this 21^st century to repress a people who are assuming their self-determination. They are not just oppressing the people of southern Cameroons, but repressing other media organs not to expose the truth. They have been exposed beyond measure because in spite of the internet shut-down with the complicity of the telecommunications operators, gruesome images have been published and so they cannot cover their crimes enough and so that is why the government spokesperson, Issa Tchiroma can shamelessly lie and praise the hideous crimes committed by the LRC regime on the very citizens they are meant to protect. Needless, to mention that they have lost legitimacy over the people of Southern Cameroons and instead of looking for a solution to genuinely discuss the form of the state that the people want, they still continue to manipulate the press, and impress themselves upon the people who have rejected them.

Where are the Corpses of the Dead LRC?

It is reliably documented, that the LRC military killed and evacuated the dead bodies of those whom they killed, some through helicopter gun fire. Since 2016, when allegations of mass graves were rife in Cameroon, the LRC government kept a conspicuous silence. Some of those released from the prison in Kondengui reliably informed us of recorded deaths amongst those ferried by them to Yaoundé prison. The LRC government has still kept silent, not releasing everyone they captured probably to give false hope to the remaining families that their sons could be alive. The only aim they evacuated the dead bodies of those killed was to cover, alter and wipe out the evidence that they killed. It is clear, and we stand to be contradicted, that the LRC government cannot give a complete and genuine account of those missing due to their military atrocities and murder committed on unarmed people of Southern Cameroons. The blood of human beings is not the blood of animals and so the LRC government is presently being charged for killing and hiding the corpses of those they killed and they will be haunted by the dead. Again, a local Newspaper, published an article, “Midnight burial uncovered in Mile 16 Buea. Allegations are rife, of people having been arrested from Southern Cameroons and carried in helicopters and dropped in foreign territories and regions of the North of Cameroon, so that their dead bodies will never be discovered. The basic question to the LRC government still remains, where are the dead bodies of all those who were arrested, tortured and killed by your military bandits? Can the LRC government ever give a full account of such hideous crimes against its own citizens or can they ever hope to repair the damage and the rupture they have caused to the Cameroonian nation especially the territory of the Southern Cameroons? If the findings of the UNHCR and other international bodies and media organs proves these stories and allegations, right what will the lying miserable slave of the LRC government, the communication minister and spokesperson of the government say? Again, if the allegations of Cameroon having used mercenaries from the Chadian Army proves right, what will they say? Then they are in for a good deal with the people of Southern Cameroons who will never again have anything to do with this evil regime. Did we say that the former government spokesperson lied (the famous “zero mort”), the present spokesperson to say the least, seems to have been mandated by Lucifer himself to consciously derail public and international opinion about the ugly realities of the rubbish they call country?
Stop the Frame-Ups of Arms and Terrorism
It should be clear to any blind eye, that the killings of the Gendarmes, and other military people, the false allegations of having arrested some terrorists as separatists, the allegations of having retrieved arms, den guns, lances, in fact household articles in the names of having seized arms, like they did in Mbengwi are a continuous frame-up from the LRC government. It is ridiculous when you see both the profile of those they claim are terrorists, those arms they claim to have seized. All of these are clearly leading to what they know best, military force and we have gone passed that stage. We have to show our temerity in our decision and non-involvement in arms yet this does not mean that we have lost our right to self-defence. Therefore, the AGC and the ADF claims should have a total rethink since the evidence on the ground is rather showing LRC frame-ups.

God is God, and God will still be God. “No Shaking” as our common folks will say. Our target is BUEA and no one will distract us from it.

Mbiydzenyuy David WANTANGWA

mbiydzenyuys@hotmail.com

Paul Biya And His Thugs Dragged to Court as Published by Chris Bongam

And finally, Ambaland pull these idiots to the International Court of Justice(ICJ); BIYA, RENE SADIE, LAURENT ESSO, FAME NDONGO, BETIDE ASSOMO, BELINGA EMBOUTOU, BAPTIST BOKAM, L ELE L'AFRIQUE, OKALIA BILAI.
The music is beginning to sound differently. The singers have suddenly changed the chorus and the dancers will soon be stranded.

Our Comment: The whimsical dictator and his group of assassins should also treat this lightly as they have always treated other pressing issues. They felt they are not accountable to anyone. Hope they can begin to see that their crimes can be punished also.

Biya's Government Planning Genocide by MoRISC

THE PROBLEM OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN THE BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS by Fr. Gerald Jumbam

THE PROBLEM OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN THE BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS.

What is today called schools in the British Southern Cameroons is a destruction machine put in place by our enemies from LRC. Fr. Gerald Jumbam

"Every day I leave my house...my family knows...for the past twenty years...when I leave my house I know I will not come back home. Every play I write, Any poem I write,  I write as if it is my last poem, as if it is my last book".       Bate Besong

The launching of the Independence Revolution of the Southern Cameroons has been like the umpire’s whistle blow for which Southern Cameroons’ freedom fighters have been waiting on the sports’ ground.  In one short generation a massive package of  new feeling has spiraled into being from all over the country and, for the first time since 56 years, The Southern Cameroons’ present generation begin to picture in their mind’s eye not some green-red-yellow thing, but have imbibed how to see a dove/eagle as symbol and heavenly blue and immaculate white as colors of their much esteemed nation. The enthusiasm that has stimulated this national feeling has been great indeed. I hate to make mysteries out of nothing, but I am seeing a new powerful nation state come to being. I say that the enemies of our progress should know that their obsession with seeing the burgeoning Southern Cameroons destroyed by all means possible is a big waste of time and akin to waiting for the ship at the airport. And therefore, like Dylan Thomas once said of writers, I say today that there is only one position for the Southern Cameroons’ freedom fighter anywhere; that is,upright. This uprightness is the fruit of a self-determination that is legal, forthright and God-ordained. 

There comes a time when man must shy away from fear and speak out his mind for a generation and for institutions that he owes allegiance.My allegiance to the Church (as one of those institutions ) is allegiance to the truth and not to unreflective persons. Christ is truth and his Body is truth’s bulwark and dispenser. It is my contention that the Church (and not that of clericalism or that aligned to State power) has always been the staunchest defender of the Southern Cameroons’ culture and statehood; that the golden eras of the Southern Cameroon history have also been high tides of Southern Cameroonian Church; and that the Southern Cameroon nationalism only would become disordered and perverted when it strays from the guidance of the wisdom of the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ and that of the fear of the Lord. But confusion has visited the Body of Christ the Church today as a result of the problem of school attendance. While a majority of Church faithful are crying foul at the Church’s hierarchy for persisting to open school, some have engaged in stopping this by burning parts of some schools. Because of the recent attacks on schools owned by the Church, it is not clear to the Church hierarchy in British Cameroons whether they should open their schools or not come September 2017. But as a son of the Church I would like to make my own statement about the prevailing situation and thus clarify the Church on this issue of school attendance. 

Will the Church Make or Mar?

When the Catholic Church in France stood in the way of the French Revolution of 1789, the French philosopher Voltaire said this of the Church: “Crush the infamous thing”. The Church in France by taking sides with the oppressor had made itself so unpopular with the French people to the extent that a moral and spiritual institution like the Church became ‘the infamous thing’. The peoples of the former colony of the British Cameroons are today asking for their freedom and independence just as the peoples of the French Cameroon had organized and fought for theirs.

If there is anything which Jesus Christ came into the world to fight for, it was for human freedom. Hear Him: “I have come that ye may have life and have it more abundantly”. If the Church is to remain faithful to her mission of saving life, she cannot be on the side of the oppressors of the human person. Man is made in the image of God and anybody who oppresses man is therefore oppressing God.

The attitude of Amadou Ahidjo and Pual Biya towards the peoples of the former colony of the British Cameroons have been consistently diabolic and has been recorded in the writings of such eminent Cameroonian Catholics as Bernard Nsokika Fonlon( The KNDP Memorandum of 1964, Will we Make or Mar) and Cardinal Christian Tumi (The Political Regimes of Amadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, My Faith: A Cameroon to be Renewed). From the evidence provided by these two eminent Catholics, it is clear that in the struggle for the independence of the British Southern Cameroons, the Church cannot be neutral. She must be on the side of the suffering and oppressed people of the British Cameroons whose sudden clamor for independence and freedom is seriously turning world over the attention of freedom lovers, to this part of the world. 

The Catholic Church has taught dogma for centuries. But a profound study of this dogma reveals that it is a liberating and saving dogma. To be dogmatic on the side of evil and oppression cannot therefore be the right attitude of the Church. Already the Second Vatican Council by insisting on reforms in the Church gave the right attitude the Church hierarchy should adopt towards the so many changes that are taking place around us today. The Church’s social agenda proclaims human freedom and democracy by strongly opposing any encroachment on human dignity and freedom. The Catholic Church in the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province should therefore desist from supporting the evil and oppressive regime of La Republique du Cameroun. 

The struggle to liberate a people has always been fought around the issue of education.

It is the enlightened minority that has always led the masses to freedom. Hence the growth of the Western school in Africa gave rise to the struggle for African freedom and independence. It is indeed around the Ngugi wa Thiongos, the Wole Soyinkas, the Leopold Sedar Senghors and the Denis Brutuses that African freedom was fought. 

That the freedom of the British Cameroons should today be fought around the issue of the school is a reflection of history. 

Why is it that LRC is insisting that schools in the British Cameroons should reopen? So that they may continue to destroy the young minds of our children in their so-called schools. What is today called schools in the British Cameroons is a destruction machine put in place by our enemies from LRC. When the British ruled here, the school system produced the likes of Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, Kitts Mbeboh, Bate Besong, Siga Asanga, Kenjo Jumbam, Asonganyi, Ngoh Nkwain, Charly Ndichie, Bole Butake, Augustine Ngom Jua and Albert Mukong. All these were systematically targeted and killed or silenced by the evil regimes in LRC. 

To what kind of schools then do we want our children to return to? Is it not a wise act to call the attention of the world to the horrible situation in the British Cameroons by keeping our children at home? Is it not proper that we should let the world know that the Ahidjo and Biya regimes have killed all the leading Anglophone intellectuals in Cameroon? And the worst of all after completing the so-called schools, how many of our children are ever employed? Why are our children, in desperate need of jobs, pushed to have sex with dogs and serpents in Kuwait while Francophones are feasting themselves fat on SONARA oil in Limbe?

Our children today are distressingly immoral and the situation is becoming even more alarming. Which school system is producing these reprobates if not of the school system that our Bishops are calling upon our children to return to? Are marks not bought and sold in our schools today? Are examinations questions not made known to the children of the high and the mighty before examinations are written? Do our so-called teachers not transmit marks sexually to our female students? Is mediocrity not rewarded and excellence punished in our school systems today? Is immorality such an important component of our school’s curriculum today that we are unable to see the colossal damage we are doing to the Southern Cameroon youth of today? The answers to these questions are blowing in the wind. 

Our school system in the British Cameroons is so sick that one cannot but take sides with the School Revolution occasioned by the irrepressible Tassang Wilfred and his colleagues Teachers’ Trade Union. To do otherwise would be to sell one’s conscience for a cup of garri. 

The Murder Machine

As a teacher of divine mysteries, I am most partial to education. There is, however, one type of education I would rather the world had never known. It is the assimilationist murder machine French Cameroon has hung on the neck of the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons for decades. It ranks in my mind as one of the most miserable, most morally enfeebling learning processes known to the world.

The metaphor of Mandela is a  fitting one on explaining the narrative going on about school reopening. So much has been said about this proud son of African that my voice would seem to be hard of hearing. Yet, I know I have something of what Mandela represented to his South African people that I do not need to be deceived or distracted by voices that are shallow about the Mandela figure. "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, are his most famous words on education.  I am absolutely delighted to be at home with this subject. We will do well to recall the noble words of Nelson Mandela on education and the context they took in addressing the predicament of South African scholarship. There is time for everything. Therefore let it be known that those words came not from the Mandela of prison cells or from the Mandela of 1990. It was Mandela the president. He had achieved the grossest of all human rights – freedom from tyranny. Then classroom education could come now since they already educated themselves in freedom fighting of the importance of man’s independence, the human person and human dignity. Seek you first the Kingdom of Freedom from Tyranny and all other human rights would be added onto you. Wherever tyranny is so cruel as is in Southern Cameroon, life is threatened, and the right to life is the greatest of all rights. This because without the right to life the talk about education, classroom etc. is meaningless. 

Mandela’s words come in the context of a world that has manifold challenges and that required a modeled excellent tool to answer the multifaceted questions of the African struggle after independence. Mandela as president singled out education, and rightly so. Change in our communities would only come through educated men and women. Yet looking at Mandela’s quotation from another Christian point of view I say that it doesn’t say all that needs be said. Look at the political kleptocrats, the financial thugs, the cabal that rule our government – these are all men and women with what we call education.  Yet they are a disgrace to our our country, to our continent. So the most powerful thing in the world, to us believers, is a person. It is Jesus Christ. It is his Gospel; for “the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory. (I Tim. 3:16). Having an educated person without the wisdom that comes from God, from Allah, from Jehovah, is a waste of resources. Men and women need to be educated alright but that education must build the moral and spiritual foundations of the peoples – and we know very well that there are many educated swindlers and tyrants out there.  So if you ask me, I will rephrase Mandela’s words thus: ‘Education is one of the powerful weapons which can change the world, but the Gospel is the most powerful of them all’.

After all, freedom fighters and human right activists are the greatest educationists of the world. They are greatest because they are experts in humanity, they are greatest because they teach us what man is, what he is capable of. 

They teach the world the worth of human flourishing. They teach us the inalienable rights of man, they bring us to the knowledge of the infallible truths of life. The freedom fighter’s main weapon is education. And let me be clear about this: our sons and daughters within these months of struggle have had an education like never had in the history of Southern Cameroon – the education of the worth of the human person, the education of knowing their rights, the education of living by the Law, the education to freedom fighting, the education of standing strong against injustice and oppression, the education to autonomy and sovereignty, the education of seeing their parents beaten, humiliated, abducted and imprisoned and their indomitable spirit to fight back. That is education of the highest worth – education to virility. These are things they have heard happen in South Africa. They are witnesses to them today in their own land. And therefore our children are in school. They have never stopped going to school. The classroom has changed from colonial emasculating classrooms to decolonizing classrooms building courageous citizenry. And therefore when the Bishops of the Southern Cameroons quote the Second Vatican Council with the benign words on education, they are right. They are right that we would not stop at just classroom talk, we would go after education that mans, education that emboldens, education that speaks of the divine attributes of Truth, Justice, Love, Faith, Hope and Human Dignity. The Church has never stopped teaching these things in pulpits and the personal example of Saints. They have never stopped going to school. So let us give a break to this colonial nonsense called classroom education from LRC educational homicidal education, this murder machine that has assassinated all godly principles in our hearts. I am virulent in denunciation of this murder machine and of celebrating its FINAL FULLSTOP in our land. Let us look up to real things, to real education for our children – and that would come from us, from our kind, from our educated men and woman and not some half-baked nonsense from Francophone forged fries. 

The Conviction of your Independence

The constant seeking of a balance between independence and liberty from tyranny has been the Southern Cameroons freedom fighter’s unavoidable burden and boon. One suspects that to them, independence means courage and responsibility. It means doing things not monitored by fear, but out of conviction. Man’s sense of integrity is noticed when fear has no space in his heart. Little wonder that Peter affirms: “I saw the Lord before me always, for with him at my right hand nothing can shake me.” (Acts 2:14,22-33). This is the conviction of a freedom fighter. Independence  does not question. It does not say, why? Any such skepticism is betrayal. The Questioning is somebody who is still disbelieving and cynical.

Disbelief is the biggest obstacle of a liberation movement. 

It is not a bad thing as such to ask questions, nor to seek to be clarified. But such questions should take the name of examination and not questioning. In fact we cannot without silliness call ourselves at once examiners and skeptics. Those who believe for example that the independence of the Southern Cameroons looms large and seek to be clarified on some things are examiners into that cause.  Some people have denied within them the truth of independence before questioning it. Their questions are clouded with dark clouds, clouds that are impossible to disappear because they are stubborn on their stand. I therefore hold that a true Southern Cameroonian is either penetrated into the truth about his sovereignty or he is not. He is allowed to examine, and he is fake if he examines by questioning the country’s autonomy. The assent to the idea of sovereignty becomes a conviction, a belief. It fires the soul. It entices feeling. It warms our hearts. It enlightens the mind. It emboldens the will. This is conviction  – conviction in the sovereignty of a constituted people. When I see my fears starve to death, that moment I have unbending conviction.

Conviction is saying stop to worries. 

Conviction is not success. It is the power to fail without losing the ground under your feet. Conviction is a stonework of a wall against the flood waters of despair. Conviction is accepting I can’t control everything – that I can throw myself on Someone’s shoulders and say take it all. It is God’s whisper to man to the effect that he is there for him. It is the moment you say with saint Paul I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. No matter how much your soul is shattered, you will not surrender. 

Conviction tolerates what is, conviction is uncomplaining in moments of teething trial, conviction throws itself completely in the hands not only of the future, but on to God. The resurrection message to the apostle was ‘peace’, ‘peace I give to you’. And next to peace, was: ‘fear not’. When we believe God, he puts his peace in our hearts. And it is the only one thing – God – that remains when conviction looses friends and popularity. God.

Priest and Patriot

I believe in standing up to tormentors. I speak because the assault has crossed my personal line. I am a priest of the Kumbo Diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. I was raised up, thanks alone to the sweat and suffering of the English speaking peoples of Cameroon. And as Christ says in the Holy Scriptures, “To whom much has been given, from him much shall be expected”. It is therefore but logical that people of the British Southern Cameroons should expect me to tender an account of the education they gave me. To do thus, I must defend to the last of my energy the Anglo-Saxon school system which brought me up; a school system which is under full threat of destruction by the evil regime in LRC. It is to this call that I am now responding and let every man in the British Cameroons be responsible for the health of his own conscience. 

And that brings me back to the question which has haunted Cardinal Tumi throughout his life: Should a priest be concerned with the political life around him?

Cardinal Tumi has said in his work The Political Regime of Amadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya that a priest is first and foremost a citizen of his country and must vote in elections as a sign that he is a politically responsible being. A priest cannot vote responsibly if he doesn’t take enough interest in the political life of his country, the Cardinal argues. As a theologian I would say that this is sound moral theology today. 

Now, has a priest the right to fight for the freedom of his country? Can a priest be a political nationalist? Church hierarchy in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon would strongly hesitate to give an answer; but the most dogmatic among them would not hesitate to say: “No, he should not”.  One of the greatest mistakes that the early missionaries did was to always identify themselves with the colonial master. For this reason, the first African nationalists tended to believe that the Church was a hidden or spiritual arm of colonialism. Today in independent Africa, this belief ought to be abandoned because the mission of the Church and the State are not the same. Politics and spirituality are not the same fields of study although there are points of intersection. 

Gauging the Political Temperature

To continue to support the neocolonial political structure put in place by the colonial masters who were obviously enemies of African freedom cannot be the right posture for the post-colonial Church in Africa. 

As for me who is seeing very clearly today the injustice done by Great Britain to the peoples of the British Cameroons, I have a great duty to fight for the freedom of my people. It is obvious that if reunification were an issue in the British Cameroons question, the UN and France would not have gone ahead to grant independence to the French Cameroons on 1^stJanuary 1960. By so doing the UN and Britain showed clearly that they had a clear duty to grant independence to the British Cameroons. Hence the prefacing of the Plebiscite question “do you choose to gain independence by joining …”. This means that both the UN and Britain knew very well that the British Cameroons was supposed to be independent. 

It is this independence that I am bent on fighting for, and it is this that all British Cameroonians should fight for. 

This fight has already started on the right battle ground: the School. And anyone who chooses to send his child to the warfront of the school should expect his child to be knocked down by the hot exchange of mortar and artillery. 

For let me tell you that the situation in English speaking Cameroon has become so tense that if the present provocations by LRC are not halted, war will become the only way out of the present dilemma. And in a war theater there will be no place for schools. Are the bishops who are calling for a return to schools actually gauging the political temperature in the British Cameroons? Will any of these bishops have a child to lose in the event of an attack on a school? 

My dear parents, why did schools close up prematurely last academic year? It was because the bishops, the pastors and principals could no longer guarantee in the school milieu safety and security for our children. Are we sure that social tension has not increased with the donkey intransigence of the Government of LRC and its refusal to dialogue with the teachers and solve the educational problems created by the regimes in Yaoundé? And do you think, my dear parents, that the resultant social tension is an appropriate environment foe learning? Let us not fool ourselves. Since 1961 LRC and its hoard of gendarmes have shown that dialogue is not a word in their vocabulary and that they would stop at nothing to oppress and torture the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons. 

Our New Name

I have recently defined my destiny and spelt it its proper name. The brutal thought comes and quickens the desire to want to free yourself from their contemptible yoke. It comes from the tremors of learning that the country where your native land is found and the land you owe your being and name has not in its whole structure of actuality fashioned any space for you. 

One of the key qualities of sovereignty is the ability to spell your proper name, to tell your own story and decide your destiny. We traded our true name and took over something that caged us for 56 years. They did to us what Tortoise once did to other animals in the legendary story our old parents used to tell us around the fireside. It is the story of Tortoise and the Birds. The birds are invited for a great banquet in the Sky and Tortoise their friend convinces them to take him along. They first hesitated because they know how cunning, untrustworthy and covetous their friend the Tortoise is. Tortoise convinces them that he is a changed person, a born-again Tortoise. So the birds accept and decide to donate a feather each to help the Tortoise join them in the flight to the feast. They further fall for the Tortoise’s tale that it is a good thing to change names for such an important banquet. They birds have never heard such a thing, but see it as a wonderful idea. Each one takes a name. The birds carry very boastful and glorious names like ‘the elephant’, ‘queen of peace’, ‘Daughter of Zion’, ‘Star of the Sea’ etc. The tortoise declares his own name. It looks a very strange and unattractive name. He says he would like to be called during the party ‘You all’. The birds give it a laugh and congratulate themselves for taking such a comedian for a pleasure trip. When they arrive the venue of the feast in the Sky, and the people of the Sky present assorted dishes for the feast, he tortoise jumps up and asks the host: “who is this feast intended for?”

“You all of course”, replies the hosts. “You heard them,” says Tortoise to the birds. “the Feast is for me. My name is ‘You All’.

We are told the birds took their revenge by taking back their feathers and leaving the Tortoise high and dry in the Sky. But that does nothing to satisfy their hunger as they get back to the earth hungry.

The lesson, on our struggle, is clear: never again should we take a false name as we did during the 1961 and 1972, even when taking them in playfulness among ‘friends’ and ‘brothers’. 

Just like a plant must have the soil from which it grows, so also a culture must have a political framework within which it grows. 

The destruction of the English State of West Cameroon in 1972 by LRC was therefore a destruction of the political framework within which an English culture could grow in Cameroon. Given the hostile attitude of the French imperialists towards Anglo-Saxon culture in Cameroon these past 56 years of the so-called Cameroon Reunification, it is clear that English culture in Cameroon is completely dead. And nobody can ever accept a political arrangement which leads to its own sterility or death. 

As  I see it, the independence of the British Southern Cameroons is an urgent necessity today. 

It is surprising that the other members of the British Commonwealth Organization could accept a political arrangement which leads to the death of English culture in any part of the world. Conclusively, the membership of LRC in the Commonwealth should be terminated because she cannot be bent on the destruction of English culture in Cameroon and still lay claim to its membership of the Commonwealth. For where are the English examinations today in Cameroon? Where is the City and Guilds? Where is the London Chamber of Commerce? Where are the RSA stages One and Two? The other members of the British Commonwealth should follow the example of South Africa which now houses the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation (SCBC) and press for the independence of the British Cameroons. 

We Shall Fight with Gandhi and King

The time to fight has come, and this fighting will not be done while our children are wangling their way through bullets and tear gas on their way to school.

The battle is on. It must be fought to the end. The necessary tools for this war are Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. for a remodeling of our national moral character. Ten thousand offences are punishable with imprisonment – marching in protest, civil disobedience, speaking your mind, stealing a guava fruit, and after all the excesses of the banana republic at home, the seas of blood they have spilt, the rapist soldiers of state, and the fomented prejudice and jealousies over its citizens are merely argued away and nothing is done. We shall not retaliate with violence. We shall humiliate them with love, with protest, with defiance. As long as the Southern Cameroons is in chains, the only commendable position for the Southern Cameroonian men and women is the position of rebellion.

Genuine Nationalism is Holiness

Restoration of independence is not new wine in the Catholic Church’s cup. The Vatican State itself is the paradigm par excellence. Remember, the Papal states had lost all their lands in 1870 as a result of the unification of Italy.

But thanks to the spirit of self-determination that grew in the hearts and minds of some brilliant Cardinals and bishops especially under the auspices of Cardinal Pietro Gasparri and Pope Pius XII, the clamor for Vatican’s independence became muscular. Mussolini had no alternative in the face of these uncompromising prelates. He bowed to them.  Because of this inflexible determination for sovereignty, the Vatican  did not only retain the autonomy of the present Vatican land; it also received £30 million in compensation for lost lands and the Pope was also given a State retreat house called Castel Gandolfo.[1]

The Vatican city is country located within the capital (Rome) of another country (Italy).  It has its sovereign rights and enjoys the autonomy enjoyed by sovereign nations. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares and a population of just about 1,000 inhabitants. It is the smallest nation in the world and its independence was hard fought, and restored in 1929 against the threatening clouds of Mussolini’s subjugation and political maneuvering.  So in 1928, the Christian Vatican Country stood in the same position the Southern Cameroons stands today. By the daring and the doing of Pope Pius XII the Vatican restored its independence in 1929 with the signing of the Lateran Treaty.  Thus the power of self-determination.

In the 19^th century during the struggle for Italian unification and liberty, Rev. Fr. Vincenzo Gioberti did not hesitate to call upon the Pope to lead the Italians in their struggle for unity and freedom. In 1834 Rev. Gioberti wrote down his views for the liberation of Italy in a book entitled De Primato Morale del Civile degli Italiani. Giorberti worked alongside other Italian nationalists such as Manzoni, Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour for the liberation of the Italian people from foreign domination. 

Today as a Phd student on Moral Theology in Rome, I salute the memory of Rev. Fr. Gioberti whose attitude and activities clearly showed that there is no contradiction between the struggle to be free and the struggle to go to Heaven. 

Rightly understood, nationalism and the priesthood are not incompatible; for genuine nationalism is one of the surest roads to holiness and sainthood. If this were not so, why is it then that the Catholic Church in Tanzania is today calling for the canonization of their first president, Julius Nyerere, if not for his genuine nationalistic character and temperament?

Truly a genuine Christian is a genuine patriot and you cannot like Cardinal Tumi has done, act in a genuine Christian way without impacting on the nation political scene.  Today, like Rev. Gioberti in 19^th  century Italy, I am compelled to be on the side of my people of the British Southern Cameroons in their struggle for independence and freedom. 

So God help me to free my people of the British Southern Cameroons from the ugly claws of a flying and rampaging tyranny in LRC. 

By Fr. Gerald Jumbam 

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[1] Cfr. Wikipedia