An Anglophone Problem?

Maps of Cameroon from 1960-1972

Recently I have read a lot of write-ups on social media and listened to panellist who have all been trying to grapple with what they call “the Anglophone Problem”. Their utterances and descriptions of the problem usually is vague and superficial.  Politicians have come in with a denominator of dividing public opinion so as to make the problem look isolated with no importance. But they must recognize that social crises are the core values of any progressive human society. It is through grievances and social upheavals that most governments in Africa are called to the realities of the common man.

It is now becoming more evident every day that the Cameroonian society is experiencing an array of crises that could, through a combination of complex interplay, create some potentially dangerous shifts — or ‘tipping-points’ — for our everyday social lives. On one hand we are nearing a cusp in how we have abused our cultural and colonial heritage through a combination of deliberate human interventions to subvert one section of the country. On the other hand there is a growing feeling within the two main Anglophone regions of the Northwest and Southwest, that something is seriously out-of-balance with the present administration and regime. In all cases there is a considerable disrespect of the constitution that Cameroon is a Bilingual and Bijural country. Even though this is only a page of a document that has been raped by the regime in power that choses to apply whichever section for its personal interest.

Leading sociologists have shown that societies are far more likely to break down when they’re overloaded with cleavages, marginalisation and discrimination (Emile Duhkiem). As the quality and quantity of stresses increase, the society tends to respond by making its internal institutions more complex. They start looking at details and ask themselves why this and not that. As a state/nation/civilization increases its level of internal complexity, more energy is required to stabilize the system and maintain its working capacity. In other words, the complexity of any system must be regularly fed by an appropriate degree of Participative democracy, rather than a system of dominance and exclusion. When a society gets to this point, there is need to read and review the very basic elements that keep social cohesion by defining in absolute terms the problem, root causes, symptoms and then a way forward.

Who is An Anglophone?

Anybody who studies and uses English language as his/her first language is an Anglophone and same with a Francophone. If we go by this simplistic and pragmatic definition of who an Anglophone is, then it’s safe to say that the problems we are witnessing is not an Anglophone problem. If we reduce it to a simple linguistic problem, then we will fail in tackling the real root problem.  The connotations that have been given to this problem as being an Anglophone problem is so artificial and not true. As an illustration, a person originating from the South Region who was sent to Akwaya as a teacher, ends up having his children as English speakers. The children are all Anglophones, but do they have the same problems like a child born of parents from the two main “Anglophone” Regions? Or another man from Ekondotiti who is in Ayos, has children who grow up and are educated in French. These children are Francophones by education, but do they have the privileges of la Republique? Based on education, you are either an Anglophone or a Francophone, but the problems of where we come from still haunt you. The children of the man from Ekondotiti born and educated in la Republique will still face the same difficulties, whereas, those of a person from La Republique even if they were born and educated in Oku, will still be considered “Citizen Number One” The simplest way to understand this is to have a detailed look on administrative documents in Cameroon. There is always a question of “Division of Origin” and not division where you were born. They once asked my daughter in school her division and she said Wouri, but the school administrator insisted that, it’s not where you are born, but where your parents come from. Thus it’s a problem of Jus Solis, Jus Sanguinis. It is not by error that Nfor Ngalla and the rest call us Southern Cameroonians or Ambazonia. That’s why the Mwalimu George Ngwene posits in his write up, why all Anglophones are Members of the SCNC. People like Victor Julius Ngoh is a prime example of who is an Anglophone by education, but his roots are elsewhere. You can see in his write-ups that are principally designed to frustrate and insult Anglophones.

For those who still think that, the question of these strike actions are baseless let me give them some few symptoms of the problem:

Education: An array of problems exist in this domain. How can a country that has 6 ministries related to education (Higher Education, Secondary education, scientific research, Basic Education, Employment and vocational training, Sports and Physical Education) who all come from one system of the educational Board? If this is not an open and thoughtful attempt to stifle the English subsystem. Can these ministers who are predominantly La Republique and exclusively Francophones understand the Anglo-Saxon system of education?

Sometimes back, the French system came up with the need to reduce and harmonise primary education from 7 to 6 years. In that meeting the English subsystem also asked that the Probatoir be dropped. As we speak, it’s been over 10 years that primary education in the English subsystem has been reduced to 6 years, yet we still have probatoir.

What does CAP, Probatoir and Baccalaureate mean to an English student? Why are our technical schools still under this spell?  Haven’t we asked enough?

Transport: As much as so many people were worried about the OHADA law not having an English translation, its worst in the domain of transport. There is just not one single Aviation law in Cameroon in English. (http://www.ccaa.aero/index.php/fr/espace-documentation-lois-et-codes). Tiko use to be an international airport before independence, yet there is nothing left for us to savour. Roads to and in Bamenda are a dishonour, the ring road is yet to see the light of day, the Kumba mamfe road is an on and off project etc.

Energy: Hydroelectric engineers have affirmed that, the Menchum fall can naturally generate electricity that can serve the entire country and beyond. But Southern Cameroonians will wait for a miracle for that to happen, while Memvele, Sonlolo, Mikim etc have absorbed huge cash from the state.

Health: How can we even talk of an equity when there is no reference hospital in the two Major English speaking regions? How frustrating it is when an old man from widikum is transferred to Douala and he is received with a bonjour by a nurse.

Our Vestiges: Where is powercam, where is the market and produce board, where is Amity Bank? Just so many questions without answers. What happened to our PWD, our community development programs? Where is the head office of the Cameroon cooperative league? I prefer to end here, because the list is in exhaustive and annoying. Bilingualism is a sham on its own.

The problems are many, complex and multifaceted. It will be important for the government to design effective mechanisms to respond to these threats of national unity and integration. But, it is also incumbent on the striking unions to collaborate, design strategies and have a coordinated front. A disjointed organisation, will only serve the powers that be and give them the ability to pick and choose. As said by the Hon Ayah Paul:

The Anglophone is an exemplary crusader for peace. History is there to corroborate that assertion. There is, for instance no contention that there still exists prominent monuments of how Francophones found sanctuaries in our lands as escapees from wars and terrorism. No honest man would dare to deny that few people other than the Anglophones would have suffered with such mature endurance the mistreatment inflicted on them for over half a century, sadly, by the very people the Anglophone had sheltered and treated with phenomenal generosity!

In his unfailing humility, all that the Anglophone has requested over the decades has been dialogue. After AAC 1 and AAC 2, the Anglophone did muster courage and reduced into writing matters that warranted revisiting. For years after submitting the memorandum, the Anglophone waited, begged, prayed and supplicated domineering Yaoundé for even just acknowledgement of receipt in vain. From utterances by some Francophones in authority, it was as if it was intolerable audacity for the Anglophone even just to express dissatisfaction!

It was out of this frustration that the Southern Cameroons’ National Council – SCNC – was born. Its motto till date is “The force of argument and not the argument of force”: meaning, it had and still has predilection for dialogue. When Yaounde replied with ruthless brutality, the peace-loving Anglophone quietly sought but legal redress, understandably, on the international arena. More than two decades since an auxiliary organ of the United Nations of which Yaounde is a member recommended dialogue, Yaounde has continued to prefer the use of torture, maiming and killing. It has been very like the master not being accountable to anyone under the sun for the absolute authority he has over his slaves, including the authority to terminate human lives!

If today it has finally dawned on Yaounde that repression radicalizes while dialogue defuses, it does not have to be just dialogue – Yaounde picking and choosing which Anglophone group to dialogue with. That is divide and rule; and conscious we are that the intention is to weaken us. If Yaounde has become reasonable, giving up the resorting to atrocities to impose its rule, let Yaounde come out with a solemn declaration, inviting Anglophones to the round table. Round table because it will be intercourse between two peoples equal in status! In that event, Anglophones would take a sovereign resolution as to who should speak in their name. That is an inalienable right of the Anglophone – the true Anglophone!

Anything else is unacceptable digression!

Conclusion:

It is my own view that we can — and will — make the shift ‘in time’ towards a positive breakthrough in this struggle. However, whether this will be a smooth ride or not will depend largely upon our own individual and collective actions and responses. Communal humanity possesses great capacity for resilience and re-adaptation. Within us we have the capacity to facilitate a perceptual shift within our various social realities: we can, quite literally, change Cameroon and make it what we wish. Part of this change may come through a new renaissance that has been growing within our political agenda, elites, and civil society organisations. Today, it is almost unanimous from all Political elites that, there is need to rebuild the foundations of our beloved Cameroon. We are not lacking in the creative vision and energies needed to shift into a more harmonious and sustainable Cameroon. What we need is a united front, dedicated leaders and selfless patriots to rethink our unity. A Cameroon for us.

Moses Ngwanah
Social Thinker

An Anglophone Problem?

Maps of Cameroon from 1960-1972

Recently I have read a lot of write-ups on social media and listen to panellist who have all been trying to grapple with what they call “the Anglophone Problem”. Their utterances and descriptions of the problem usually is vague and superficial.  Politicians have come in with a denominator of dividing public opinion so as to make the problem look isolated with no importance. But they must recognize that social crises are the core values of any progressive human society. It is through grievances and social upheavals that most governments in Africa are called to the realities of the common man.

It is now becoming more evident every day that the Cameroonian society is experiencing an array of crises that could, through a combination of complex interplay, create some potentially dangerous shifts — or ‘tipping-points’ — for our everyday social lives. On one hand we are nearing a cusp in how we have abused our cultural and colonial heritage through a combination of deliberate human interventions to subvert one section of the country. On the other hand there is a growing feeling within the two main Anglophone regions of the Northwest and Southwest, that something is seriously out-of-balance with the present administration and regime. In all cases there is a considerable disrespect of the constitution that Cameroon is a Bilingual and Bijural country. Even though this is only a page of a document that has been raped by the regime in power that choses to apply whichever section for its personal interest.

Leading sociologists have shown that societies are far more likely to break down when they’re overloaded with cleavages, marginalisation and discrimination (Emile Duhkiem). As the quality and quantity of stresses increase, the society tends to respond by making its internal institutions more complex. They start looking at details and ask themselves why this and not that. As a state/nation/civilization increases its level of internal complexity, more energy is required to stabilize the system and maintain its working capacity. In other words, the complexity of any system must be regularly fed by an appropriate degree of Participative democracy, rather than a system of dominance and exclusion. When a society gets to this point, there is need to read and review the very basic elements that keep social cohesion by defining in absolute terms the problem, root causes, symptoms and then a way forward.

Who is An Anglophone?

Anybody who studies and uses English language as his/her first language is an Anglophone and same with a Francophone. If we go by this simplistic and pragmatic definition of who an Anglophone is, then it’s safe to say that the problems we are witnessing is not an Anglophone problem. If we reduce it to a simple linguistic problem, then we will fail in tackling the real root problem.  The connotations that have been given to this problem as being an Anglophone problem is so artificial and not true. As an illustration, a person originating from the South Region who was sent to Akwaya as a teacher, ends up having his children as English speakers. The children are all Anglophones, but do they have the same problems like a child born of parents from the two main “Anglophone” Regions? Or another man from Ekondotiti who is in Ayos, has children who grow up and are educated in French. These children are Francophones by education, but do they have the privileges of la Republique? Based on education, you are either an Anglophone or a Francophone, but the problems of where we come from still haunt you. The children of the man from Ekondotiti born and educated in la Republique will still face the same difficulties, whereas, those of a person from La Republique even if they were born and educated in Oku, will still be considered “Citizen Number One” The simplest way to understand this is to have a detailed look on administrative documents in Cameroon. There is always a question of “Division of Origin” and not division where you were born. They once asked my daughter in school her division and she said Wouri, but the school administrator insisted that, it’s not where you are born, but where your parents come from. Thus it’s a problem of Jus Solis, Jus Sanguinis. It is not by error that Nfor Ngalla and the rest call us Southern Cameroonians or Ambazonia. That’s why the Mwalimu George Ngwene posits in his write up, why all Anglophones are Members of the SCNC. People like Victor Julius Ngoh is a prime example of who is an Anglophone by education, but his roots are elsewhere. You can see in his write-ups that are principally designed to frustrate and insult Anglophones.

For those who still think that, the question of these strike actions are baseless let me give them some few symptoms of the problem:

Education: An array of problems exist in this domain. How can a country that has 6 ministries related to education (Higher Education, Secondary education, scientific research, Basic Education, Employment and vocational training, Sports and Physical Education) who all come from one system of the educational Board? If this is not an open and thoughtful attempt to stifle the English subsystem. Can these ministers who are predominantly La Republique and exclusively Francophones understand the Anglo-Saxon system of education?

Sometimes back, the French system came up with the need to reduce and harmonise primary education from 7 to 6 years. In that meeting the English subsystem also asked that the Probatoir be dropped. As we speak, it’s been over 10 years that primary education in the English subsystem has been reduced to 6 years, yet we still have probatoir.

What does CAP, Probatoir and Baccalaureate mean to an English student? Why are our technical schools still under this spell?  Haven’t we asked enough?

Transport: As much as so many people were worried about the OHADA law not having an English translation, its worst in the domain of transport. There is just not one single Aviation law in Cameroon in English. (http://www.ccaa.aero/index.php/fr/espace-documentation-lois-et-codes). Tiko use to be an international airport before independence, yet there is nothing left for us to savour. Roads to and in Bamenda are a dishonour, the ring road is yet to see the light of day, the Kumba mamfe road is an on and off project etc.

Energy: Hydroelectric engineers have affirmed that, the Menchum fall can naturally generate electricity that can serve the entire country and beyond. But Southern Cameroonians will wait for a miracle for that to happen, while Memvele, Sonlolo, Mikim etc have absorbed huge cash from the state.

Health: How can we even talk of an equity when there is no reference hospital in the two Major English speaking regions? How frustrating it is when an old man from widikum is transferred to Douala and he is received with a bonjour by a nurse.

Our Vestiges: Where is powercam, where is the market and produce board, where is Amity Bank? Just so many questions without answers. What happened to our PWD, our community development programs? Where is the head office of the Cameroon cooperative league? I prefer to end here, because the list is in exhaustive and annoying. Bilingualism is a sham on its own.

The problems are many, complex and multifaceted. It will be important for the government to design effective mechanisms to respond to these threats of national unity and integration. But, it is also incumbent on the striking unions to collaborate, design strategies and have a coordinated front. A disjointed organisation, will only serve the powers that be and give them the ability to pick and choose. As said by the Hon Ayah Paul:

The Anglophone is an exemplary crusader for peace. History is there to corroborate that assertion. There is, for instance no contention that there still exists prominent monuments of how Francophones found sanctuaries in our lands as escapees from wars and terrorism. No honest man would dare to deny that few people other than the Anglophones would have suffered with such mature endurance the mistreatment inflicted on them for over half a century, sadly, by the very people the Anglophone had sheltered and treated with phenomenal generosity!

In his unfailing humility, all that the Anglophone has requested over the decades has been dialogue. After AAC 1 and AAC 2, the Anglophone did muster courage and reduced into writing matters that warranted revisiting. For years after submitting the memorandum, the Anglophone waited, begged, prayed and supplicated domineering Yaoundé for even just acknowledgement of receipt in vain. From utterances by some Francophones in authority, it was as if it was intolerable audacity for the Anglophone even just to express dissatisfaction!

It was out of this frustration that the Southern Cameroons’ National Council – SCNC – was born. Its motto till date is “The force of argument and not the argument of force”: meaning, it had and still has predilection for dialogue. When Yaounde replied with ruthless brutality, the peace-loving Anglophone quietly sought but legal redress, understandably, on the international arena. More than two decades since an auxiliary organ of the United Nations of which Yaounde is a member recommended dialogue, Yaounde has continued to prefer the use of torture, maiming and killing. It has been very like the master not being accountable to anyone under the sun for the absolute authority he has over his slaves, including the authority to terminate human lives!

If today it has finally dawned on Yaounde that repression radicalizes while dialogue defuses, it does not have to be just dialogue – Yaounde picking and choosing which Anglophone group to dialogue with. That is divide and rule; and conscious we are that the intention is to weaken us. If Yaounde has become reasonable, giving up the resorting to atrocities to impose its rule, let Yaounde come out with a solemn declaration, inviting Anglophones to the round table. Round table because it will be intercourse between two peoples equal in status! In that event, Anglophones would take a sovereign resolution as to who should speak in their name. That is an inalienable right of the Anglophone – the true Anglophone!

Anything else is unacceptable digression!

Conclusion:

It is my own view that we can — and will — make the shift ‘in time’ towards a positive breakthrough in this struggle. However, whether this will be a smooth ride or not will depend largely upon our own individual and collective actions and responses. Communal humanity possesses great capacity for resilience and re-adaptation. Within us we have the capacity to facilitate a perceptual shift within our various social realities: we can, quite literally, change Cameroon and make it what we wish. Part of this change may come through a new renaissance that has been growing within our political agenda, elites, and civil society organisations. Today, it is almost unanimous from all Political elites that, there is need to rebuild the foundations of our beloved Cameroon. We are not lacking in the creative vision and energies needed to shift into a more harmonious and sustainable Cameroon. What we need is a united front, dedicated leaders and selfless patriots to rethink our unity. A Cameroon for us.

Moses Ngwanah
Social Thinker

The African Anathema

African Union

As earlier posited, the resurgence of political cleavages in Africa is no new event considering the hand-over of the colonial experience which is yet to be put behind Africans. Their hegemonic approaches tend to reduce the African man into a small consummative and non-productive individual, usually second to some other unknown person. Africans will agree that after the colonial rule, they are yet to come to terms that this is only history and as such there is need to put that behind them and move ahead.

Mandela N in Tunis-Tunisia 1994 during an African heads of states summit of the Organisation of African Unity now African Union (OAU-AU) solemnly declared that “I hope that from this day forward, we (Africans) will no longer spend time talking about apartheid nor colonialism but on the integration of and economic development of Africa” (sic). His premises were based on the eroding divisions witnessed between African countries as a result of political polarisation sanction by western imperialism. This was due to the lots of energy spent by African citizens talking about the negative consequences of colonialism neglecting the aspect of revitalising the missing link to break the inertia for the continents progress. I am in no way against that, but I also think it’s time to look forward.

While Mandela was preoccupied about the continents forward movement, his then deputy president, today former SA Head of State-Thabo Mbeki brought up a controversial argument in the parliament while referring to his person as an AFRICAN in 1996 (SABC News 23 October 2007). This statement sparked up a heated debate as to who is an African? No matter the answered they had, the question of the African identity is yet to be digested with resounding success. The continental Africans, the black race of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa where all the epitome of African reality is found etc. Nonetheless, the essence is an all-inclusive overview of the people for the betterment of the continent.

The theme therefore behind the aforementioned perspective can be explained with the problem of African unity. There is a big bang predicament to give the African identity. However, the case is not who is who, but the need for standard integration, interaction and friendly corporation amongst African states. This phenomenon is classic and needs urgent and instant redress. It is the wish and desire from the African people to unite, yet there is a problem that hinders this goal attainment. My analyses here are centred on the institutional inconsistencies that have marred the activities of African people to unite.

RACIAL GRADING.

The question of race is predestined within human beings. While some races are considered superior to others, others simply accept their second class place given to them by some other “superior” race. God who created us all know that we are all the same. This position has been highlighted in cases like Nazism, fascism, apartheid, Semitism etc. Thus Africans are at the crossroads of this social inequality. This is seen in the era of slavery, colonialism etc. Africans are not any different to any other race in the world. They have a brain, a creative mind, thought patterns, culture etc which not any different from any other set of humans. But the case is sour, given that Africans have been reduced to mere consumers. During the colonial era this continent were forced to consume western technology, culture, religion, thought etc. At independence, they were systematically coerced to inherit this and with the wildest monopoly in the race-card game of extreme autonomy over the media, medicine, science and technology. As such, Africans tend to feel dehumanised and inferior. This has generated a state of self-doubt, self-defeat and self-hate making it pretty difficult to get of this complex. As a result, Africans tend to respect and even adore the European, American, and Asian as against his fellow African.

In Cameroon today, a Nigerian is more alien to a European, American same in Equatorial Guinea and many African countries. In Togo for example, a French man or Brazilian pays XAF 10.000 CFA as visa fee upon arrival, meanwhile a Cameroonian pays XAF 25.000 CFA. This alone hinders movement, reciprocity, respect and integration. More so, ethnic dialectics have been an immunisation to this complex issue. This has thus transcended into local ethnic groups within African countries. In Cameroon the situation is appalling whereby ethnic sensitivity is placed at the prime level of the state at the detriment of aptitude. In this retrogressive method, some ethnic groups are inexcusably considered “superior” like it was the case of the Genocide in Rwanda (Tutsi and Hutsu), the same in Nigeria during the Biafra war (Ibos and Hausas,) in Cameroon it’s not any different with several, Anglophones, grass field people (Graffi), northerners, Betis, Bulus etc. Evidence can be found from the western front, that during their racial/ethnic struggles (war) that ended up to be called world war one and two, they had seen the need of pre-emptive diplomacy and large scale unity for a unilateral and wholesome economic growth. This explains the brain behind the European Union (EU). And for Africa not to learn from this will like refusing to accept that the bee produces sweet honey yet it stings. The time therefore is now for the African people to bury their differences for the collective good of all. After all, African people have suffered numerous conflicts which is a benchmark signal for a unity. Without concerted efforts, Boko Haram would have had a heavier toll in Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

IGNORANCE

The literacy level for most African countries is quite low. Though not so much a problem, its effects are however glaring with a futuristic explosion that resonates into the ruling class. The chocolate box of most African countries, show that they are essentially collective rather individualistic as is the case of today. The ignorance surrounding the power of unity is my pre-occupation.

Most African heads of states (Leaders) have an abbreviated relationship with the African Union and pay little respect to African Union Institutions. They are quick to show solidarity to the western world than to brotherly African countries. A sea of African leaders quickly rushed to France after the July 13 Paris attacks, but none showed up in Cameroon when Boko Haram attacked the Northern part and killed scores of people. Neither were they also in Burkina Faso after the Radison Blue hotel attack, same in Cote d’Ivoire etc. They tend to be hasty toward global things as against what really concerns them. All African leader Including Knurunziza of Burundi and Paul Biya of Cameroon were some of the first people to congratulate Donald Trump after his elections in the USA. But Ali Bongo had to wait for weeks before his congratulatory messages could come. In this wise they are often seen seeking friendly rapport outside their African sphere. This situation has a case study in Cameroon, where the president herein will run out to Europe (France), Asia (China) at the expense of even CEMAC meetings let alone African Union summits where he’s been identified as a classy absentee. The problem here is the little considerations given to continental issues. While the position of Kwame Nkruma, Julius Nyerere, is most needy now, the likes of Gadaffi M, Abdoulaye Wade were also exquisite toward this promethean drive towards unity. In 2006 at the invitation of the Chinese statesman, an attendance rate of about 99% was achieved with notorious Heads of States attending in the likes Moubarack of Egypt and Paul Biya of Cameroon. The fun is that there were seen brandishing gallantly as though Africa was there to give to china rather receiving. What a dishonesty, sham and con. This chino-African relationship cannot by any means replace the need for Africa doing its thing by itself. It has even been rumoured that, the war in Sudan has its somewhat backing from China. The question of African unity still remains frivolous to most African leaders.

In their incessant cry for aids (which has never solved any basic problem), the indebting process keeps on. And if they don’t rethink and re-read their lessons, the worst might be fall the African people. In Cameroon, we applauded the attainment of the completion point of the HIPC initiatives but how we got there only God alone knows. The western ideas of Millennium Development goals-MDGs-, Poverty Reduction Strategies, structural adjustment programme-SAP-, neo-liberalism have all not yielded any tangible change. Cameroonians were happy getting to the completion point of HIPC initiative with the pious hope that it’s going to be better. The living standards of Cameroonians have fallen greatly, more and more children unable to go to school, access to medical care near absent. Is it not in February 2008 that Cameroonians were on the street complaining of high cost of basic commodities? Didn’t we evacuate Rigobert Song to Europe because of insufficient medical facilities, the drain derailment of October 21^st is still in our minds.

THE MEDIA

The acute shortage of satellite autonomy by African states have ridiculed continental attempt to savage its image. While the HOS are inextricably concern with western orientations, the mass media also makes sure the cultural sphere is diluted as much as it can. It is either deliberate (western media) or systematic censorship of African media). Western Media bias, Influence peddling and corruption, have all helped in the question of media participation in African unity. Journalists are reputed for giving false information to the public especially with issues of national interest. The tendency to please the omnipotent and omniscience Head of State at all times is the bone of contention here.

While broadcasters are supposed to be the ears and eyes of the citizens, inform and educate them, they have often taken a rather shady position of praise singing. Let me by this example explain what I mean. I am in no way trying to hurt the vision bearers. But, there is a continental Top TV show program called “big broad Africa” widely watched and cherished by youths across the continent and most especially English speaking African countries. In fact the African culture has been reduced to endless kissing. Luckily I am a youth and so would love programs of such designs but cannot stand the brain washing there in. It’s the same with the Urban Music TV channel called Trace Africa. The kind of Music broadcasted to their viewers has a particular taste and orientation, Cinema is not any different with A+.

CONCLUSION.

The trajectory of human dignity is founded on the African man. The cradle of humanity is in Africa, therefore we don’t even need to dream for one second of copying from anywhere. As such Africa perspectives should be people centred geared towards a wholesome Africa. The question of xenophobia as seen in South Africa is real and everywhere in the world. Other parts of the globe have reduced it and contain it, why not Africa? We are only xenophobic because we are poor, frustrated and threatened, lack justice etc.

In Cameroon, this linguistic diversity has been vastly abused and ridiculed. It is the source of political alignments, development orientation, appointments etc. Cameroon is theoretically a bilingual country, but in essence is a French Bilingual Country. The English subsystem of the country has been on a systematic, deliberate and continuous degradation for years. The educational system is threatened, the Bi-jural Justice system Endangered, English Language on the blink of oblivion. How many people who speak and understand this language feel as part of the country Cameroon? All administrative and political agenda have all been in French. The crux of it was been seen in the Latest Senatorial Elections (the Very First of its kind in Cameroon) of April 14th, 2013 where there was massive misrepresentation of the text. The penal code in Cameroon doesn’t carry the same meaning in English and French, the OHADA Uniform law was exclusively in English, All appointments are first done in French and maybe in English. Unity cannot come out of this kind of disenfranchisement. Cameroon like many other African countries must and should think of an original Cameroonian identity that will be for Cameroon and of Cameroon.

Moses NGWANAH

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND NATION-BUILDING IN AFRICA: 

THE CASE OF CAMEROON

There is need to accommodate Linguistic Diversity in Africa instead of sacrificing it on the altar of national unity. The recent uprising in Cameroon has been erroneously judged to be “the Anglo-Saxon rebellion”. Current news reports from Zimbabwe speaks of some “hellish” attempt by a Shona led government to wipe out the Ndebele tribe In Sudan it’s a worsening and ever deepening crises between an Arabic(Islamic) north versus a peril Christian African south. The situation is not any better in Lybia, CAR, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Chad etc.

Have we in Africa, been witnessing the fulfilment of some ominous prophecy that “once the colonialist have gone, ethnicities shall rise against one another, region against region,” political polarization, internal wars, massive refugee camps, devastating famine, diseases and, in the wake of it all a worsening economic situation everywhere? This is Africa more than half a century after liberation from colonial /foreign domination.

If most of the continent’s problems are derived from the complex nature of the African societies, is it not that complexity that the ingredients of a solution are to be found?

In their attempt to cope and grapple with the challenges of retaining and consolidating their hard won independence from western colonial rule, African countries have a number of economic, social, political and cultural problems to contend with. Amongst this is the delicate task to transform a multiplicity of ethnic and cultural patterns into unified and modern nations. It has often been stated that, in an ideal nation, all citizens would be amongst other things, speak the same language and therefore share the same culture and view the world with the same eyes.

According to this conditions, few political entities will qualify as ideal nations. The apparently monocultural countries of Europe contain within themselves linguistic and cultural subgroups, which intermittently claim some form of identity and recognition. This is the case in Spain, Great Britain and to a lesser degree France. In Africa, the various ethno-cultural groups that make up the modern states have, starting from the colonial days, been labelled as “tribes” with rather derogatory and primitive connotations. In itself the question of “tribalism” has become anathema to the idea of nation building and progress.

The point would be, therefore, in the thinking in a number of leaders, to play down or even to do away with the “plague” of tribes for the sake of unity. This article is in fact, a reflection on the question as to whether ethnic and cultural pluralism within African states is an evil to be sacrificed on the altar of national unity, or if it can be accommodated into the national whole as it has been somehow achieved in such lands like Yugoslavia, Switzerland, and the defunct soviet union; whether diversity may contain the cornerstone for building strong-based nation-states

The “big-bang” that was the hectic scramble for Africa by the end of the 19^th century, left the continent torn open and divided between territory-hungry Europeans powers. They latter mapped the limits of their conquest according to artificial criteria, such as ravines, water courses, mountain ranges, or just meridians and parallels, regardless of pre-existing cultural and ethnic entities.

The independent African states that were born around the 1960s inherited the territorial structures as set by their colonial rulers. In fact, the principle of the sacrosanctity of the colonial inherited boundaries has received, and rightly so, the blessing of the Organisation of African Unity today the African Union in its charter.

As they stand today, sub-Saharan African countries with the exception of a few like Botswana, Burundi, Madagascar, Somalia and a couple more contain within their border, an amazing variety of linguistic and cultural communities. These are in many cases more akin to fellow tribesmen living across the border in a neighbouring country than to their actual countrymen. Nowhere has this tendency been more manifest than in the irredentist and bloody quest for “Greater Somalia” in the horn of Africa which has brought political unrest for decades.

While Tanzania is fortunate to have Swahili as a common language on top of some 120 ethnic tongues, Nigeria and Zaire (DRC) count respectively 410 and 540 languages and dialects. With a population of about 37 millions, Uganda has no less than 37 languages belonging to four distinct language families. The effects are glaring with Laurent kunda, the rebel leader in the east commanding part of this multiplicity.

As it is often remarked, the presence of different European languages in Africa constitutes a sizeable obstacle to the realisation of the dream of African unity, the multiplicity of indigenous languages within individual countries, may pose a more immediate threat to national integration. The case of Cameroon is a model for these colonial inherited languages where unbalance relations do exist between one people just because they either speak French or English. Some Ministries in Cameroon  are said to be language sensitive.

Indeed, linguistic diversity underlines regional and ethnic identity and loyalties which potentially can trigger of political tension, rebellions and even attempts to secede. In times of crises, for the most part when certain privileged categories of citizens enjoy undue political power and economic favours, the rest of the population would tend to regroup and close their ranks along ethnic lines to defend and further their rights and interests.

Ethnicity is a force to reckon with in African politics. It finds expression in power structures, economic lines and political alliances of all kinds. This accounted for the creation of federal forms of government in Uganda and Zaire in the 1960s and for the attempted secessions of Biafra and Katanga. It is an important factor in Sudan’s politics and Zimbabwe and in the movements in Angola and Namibia.

In this context, the attempt to revive national cultures and the adoption of such national resounding philosophies as “authenticity” can remain a dead letter as long as its genuine application would entail the re-awakening of “tribal self-awareness” which stand contrary to the reigning centralisation ideologies in many African states.

Up to now, the official language for administration and politics remain for all sub-Saharan African states, with the exception of Tanzania, Uganda which also uses Swahili, the ex-colonial one. English, French, Portuguese, Spanish are still considered as the only efficient means for carrying out national business and for maintaining national cohesion at least at the elite level.

The paradox here lies in the fact that, those foreign languages in which the head of state addresses the nation on critical issues, the national anthem, the constitution and other vital text are written, remain an inaccessible mystery for a majority of citizens. The latter are therefore not only marginalised vis-à-vis public life but they are also made powerless somehow, because, as they say “POWER LIES AT THE END OF THE DICTIONARY”. This can be seen as the origin of the present standoff between Common Law Lawyers in Cameroon and the state. In Malawi there has been an attempt to impose Chichewa and popularise it at the expense of many of other minority languages in the country. Identically, in Zimbabwe, the shona language seems to be taking an upper hand as a predominant language, shadowing the other numerically less important ones.

Any Machiavellian strategy of linguistic and cultural manipulation, with mixed motives, but certainly favouring the interest of those who are in power, may contain in itself the seed of national disunity by provoking resentments from minority groups who feel themselves the victims of an internal form of cultural imperialism which may be less acceptable than the external one. In the Tanzanian context, Swahili has been naturally accepted by the entire country as a national language, without any political manoeuvring. On the cultural side, Tanzania is a success story, not easily imitable anywhere in the region. The continued insistence on the imported languages being the main channels of school instructions to the detriment of children’s mother tongues or familiar local languages, whose educational and cultural virtues are undisputable, has not only logistic and economic justifications, but also strong political overtones. The often assumed inadequacy of African languages for teaching modern sciences is in no way backed by scientific evidence.

Linguist and Anthropologist agree that all languages are in a perpetual progress of growth and adaptation, through borrowing and integration. It all depends on the functions a society assigns them to perform. English, which was once relegated to lower class and menial activities, has risen to become a world language. Latin the former language of the learned and the gentry has fallen to the level of a dead language. Therefore, there is nothing in the nature of African languages which could prevent them from embracing all aspect of modern knowledge.

The assertion that national cohesion and economic development in this war plagued nations of Africa can only be achieved if ethno-linguistic differences are suppressed or at least minimised, needs to be given a second thought. In fact what deserves a fresh reconsideration is the kind of “national unity” or “national integration” that we want. It seems like letting loose the self-assertion of tribal/cultural identity and of ancestral customs and practices may, given certain circumstances, prove detrimental to nation building in the economic, social and political sense. On the other hand, the elimination of a country’s rich and varied cultural heritage in the name of oneness and of western-inspired form of progress, which is commercial and consumption-oriented in nature, may result, in the long run, in the creation of a sterile, shapeless and colourless society having the elements of neither a “tribe” nor a nation.

In any sense, the elimination of cultural differences within a country is no automatic guarantee or magical whip for political cohesion amongst the people. Political and economic inequities between various geographic entities, sub ethnic groups, religious affiliations remain potential disruptive forces. It appears, then, that the solution to Africa’s problem of wedding happily national political unity to cultural diversity lies in a commonly agreed compromise between the various relevant groupings in the country. It seems like our nations need to devise an original blend of democracy, taking inspiration from traditional anthropological concepts that haven proven themselves right in the state crafting system of modern political states.

The proposed order would be a federal or semi federal form of government based as much as possible on the natural divisions of the populations such as ethno-cultural groups. What is needed would be a democratically negotiated allocation of duties, rights and resources, between the common government and regional centres of power.

Within this scheme, tribal or ethno-linguistic groups far from being disbanded and flattened, would be given legal recognition as mini nations in their own right, enjoying their cultural attributes ,values, norms, and having their regional assemblies where some local languages would be used for debates to better the peoples understanding of their country. In Cameroon the national anthem, constitution and other vital text remain an inaccessible mystery. Within this system of governance. This system accounts for the relative stability in Nigeria with its federal system of Administration. There is need to recognise once and for all, that cultural diversity is a necessary condition for the vitality of nations and the survival of humanity. We cannot even suppress it, let alone kill it.

For Economic development, to be genuine, it must be “endogenous”. That means that, it must take root in the cultural personality of the rural and urban communities who, in the spirit of self-reliance, need to define the nature of their needs and problems with sustainable methods to solve them. The Americanised or western handouts have and shall never solve our problems in as much as the cultural undertones are neglected. This accounts to the supreme failure of concepts like the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs), African Growth and Opportunistic Act (AGOA), HIPC initiatives, Poverty Reduction Strategic Papers etc. The center of development should be man, in his own environment, with his own values, resources and motivations.

The citizens of tomorrow who are been polished in schools and colleges have a sacred right to learn as much as possible about their local tongues and cultural traditions. An educational system that is rooted in the cultural creed and originality of each people would not prepare the young for sterile imitation of imported models, but for autonomous and creative lives. A dissection of the cultural provisions within the natural environment would be a needed catalyst to reduce the activation energy which is western.

Within the context of education some form of accommodation needs to be reached between the national languages on the one hand, and on the other, the official foreign language and its cultural load. Anthropologist and linguist will agree that language in itself carries a vital weight in cultural movement. Whether it is English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, etc these languages have their specific functions in inter-African and international levels. In a way they constitute a windowpane that opens up the universal communion.

For more than half century after conquering political ‘sovereignty’, there is an urgent need for African states to re-assess and re-adjust their assumptions, aims and attitudes. They need to sort out their assets and liabilities; in fact, they have just to face up the realities as vivid as they are without any simulation untended to please a western external force. This is more essential if African nations are to step on a firm foot, into this more demanding and challenging 21^st century.

CONCLUSION

In Africa, we are not dead weak as we are been told. We are as of now (be it as it may) the greatest lovers of unity. The subject of African unity has fully fledged nowadays to all Africans. 56 Years after independence, we will all agree that Africa has taken a leap in the wrong direction and has disappointingly regressed. The standards of living, infrastructural development, life expectancy rates etc have all fallen drastically. There are conflicts in Somalia, CAR, Sudan, Congo (RDC), Uganda, famine in Zimbabwe, poverty in Cameroon, diseases in sub-Saharan Africa etc. We cannot even afford to name our problems. Without prejudices and intuitions, I presumably think that Africa is not the most hostile part of the world. If Africa takes a silver medal, then the Middle East will take gold.

There is much we will and must win in unity than in division. Through it we can reduce continental exploitation by promoting the dreams of Kwame Nkruma, Ghadaffi and Mbeki. We can ensure that, our dreams are accomplished, visions attained, hope achieved. Brain drain will no longer be an issue, xenophobia will be buried, diseases conquered, famine eradicated with the millions of bread baskets African has. We shall produce and have a market for our products, America will be forced not only to teach us democracy ( as though it is a vaccine) but will also tell us how to produce cars, computers. If truly they love us, nobody will talk about aids, but technological empowerment.

Though with the atomicity of African societies, and the ever increasing identity of each group compounded by anthropological cleavages, the reality is still clear. My hypothesis is that, the creation of more stable states, through cultural and linguistic provision, conflict, famine, etc will be reduced. When this is achieved, the later will be African unity which will just be a bi-product. Thus, my perspective is inductive. “Charity begins from home”

Obama, told Americans on November 4^th 2008 to believe in themselves and for their future. Africans need also to believe in their aptitude, to ensure a bright future for our children who are already in debts and on credit.

Moses Ngwanah

How Donald Trump swept to an unreal, surreal presidential election win 

“Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States,” said the Fox News anchor, detonating an explosion of cheers from the crowd, “winning the most unreal, surreal election we have ever seen.”
Unreal. Surreal. The words didn’t come close. It was the culmination of an insurgency launched in June 2015 from an escalator in Trump Tower just a few blocks away, that had now swept away all preconceived notions about presidential elections, about what it takes to garner the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, about the self-identity of America.
Eight minutes later, Trump took to the stage at the Hilton, dressed in his trademark blue suit and red tie, striding out to the carefully choreographed soundtrack of the movie Air Force One. He led a train of family and coterie, his young son Barron and wife Melania in front, daughter Ivanka and the rest of the brood behind, diehard surrogates Rudy Giuliani and Ben Carson forming the rear.

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For 18 months, pundits have pontificated about whether Trump would ever be able to be “presidential”, whether he would behave himself long enough to have a stab at winning the world’s most powerful job. And when the moment came, and he presented himself as US president-elect, he did it in classic style: he didn’t appear presidential. Rather, he rewrote the rulebook on what it is to be so.

Yes, he stuck (largely) to the script, and yes, he read from his Teleprompter. But not many historic victory speeches made over the ages have begun with: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business …”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/nov/08/us-election-2016-results-live-clinton-trump?view=map&type=presidential

Not many presidents-elect have gone on to say of their vanquished rival that “we owe major debt of gratitude for her service to our country”, having threatened to jail her on live TV just a month previously. Not many soon-to-be-occupants of the Oval Office have promised to “double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world” while at the same time being the first major party nominee since Richard Nixon to refuse to disclose their tax returns.

This was exactly the opposite of what was supposed to have happened. From the vantage point of most pollsters and pundits, media outlets and political leaders of both main parties, this was going to be Hillary Clinton’s night. She certainly thought so. What now looks like overweening confidence was built into the architecture of New York’s Javits Center, where she was meant to celebrate victory under an elaborate ceiling composed of thousands of panes of glass – an allusion to her 2008 “glass ceiling” concession speech.
In the end, she didn’t even turn up. Was it a final lack of strength from a woman who has proven herself capable of withstanding the harshest knocks (“this political stuff is nasty, and it’s tough”, as Trump put it)? Was it a loss of heart? Either way, Clinton sent in her place John Podesta, the chair of her campaign who unwittingly played no small part in her demise as the subject of WikiLeaks’ hacked emails.
In her absence, he delivered a pitiful appeal to the by now bedraggled Democratic crowd to hang on in there through to the morning.
“We can wait a little longer, can’t we?” Podesta said.
Yes, but only for a little. Within half an hour, the presidency had been called and Clinton’s hopes of highest office were dead forever.

It was sublimely cruel for her that her hopes of finally breaking through that glass ceiling were dashed by a man for whom the first question put to him in a TV debate was why he had called women “fat pigs” and “dogs”, and who just a month before the election was heard on a hot mic bragging about how he made uninvited sexual advances.

Angry protests sparked across US by Trump's shock victory

But then this election night will go down as a sublimely cruel occasion not just for Clinton, but also for the 60 million Americans who voted for her. Sometimes the election gods decide not just to inflict defeat on a party but to do so in the most agonizing fashion, like torturers playing with their victims.
And so it comes to pass that 8 November 2016 goes into the annals as one of the most anguished experiences that one half of the American people have ever been unfortunate enough to have endured.


It all began deceptively predictably, as presidential elections always do. Trump and Clinton watched TV from their Manhattan eyries – the Trump Tower penthouse, the Peninsula hotel – while, like the national treasure he is, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer announced every incoming projection with his usual breathless excitement, even though the results were as portentous as a slab of American cheese.

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First up at 7pm were Vermont and Kentucky, two states that would have put a spring in the steps of their winners, Clinton and Trump respectively, were it not that the outcomes were entirely to be expected. Vermont has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1988 and Kentucky Republican since 1996.
Through 8pm and 9pm the results began to pour in, but they continued to play out according to historic form: Clinton locked down the Democratic strongholds of the eastern seaboard, from Delaware and Maryland up through New Jersey to Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Trump locked down the Republican heartlands of the south and midwest, blazing an early cordon of red states right up the center of the country, from Texas all the way to North Dakota.
So far, so ordinary. In the Trump Bar, 58 floors below the penthouse, about 60 Trump supporters had gathered. The televisions were tuned to Fox News, and the mostly white crowd cheered as more and more states were called. At the Javits Center, thousands of Clinton supporters did the same.
And then the election gods got to work, encouraging their Democratic prey to believe that all was going according to plan by dangling tidbits of positive data.

Who Voted for Trump?

Exit polls were showing a surge of support for Clinton among college-educated white women, suggesting that Trump’s sexist remarks were costing him. Latino voters were showing a historic surge also, particularly in crucial Florida, arousing speculation across cable channels as diverse as Fox News and left-leaning MSNBC that the sleeping giant of the Hispanic vote had truly been awakened this time.
About 8pm, Blitzer hurried across to CNN’s smart board. Clinton was in the lead in the other vital state, Ohio, and if that held it would be “game over”. How many viewers noticed that only 12% of the Ohio votes had at that point come in?

Having raised Democratic spirits, the election gods did not immediately smash them. That would be too easy. Instead, they inflicted hours of exquisite uncertainty, just to draw out the agony.
Florida began to flutter manically right in front of our eyes. “Florida has flipped from Clinton to Trump,” Blitzer exclaimed. “Clinton has taken back the lead,” he declared only minutes later. And on and on, each flip sinking another dagger into Democratic hopes.
As the night went on, America developed new obsessions. Could Broward County in Florida pull in enough votes to secure the state for Clinton? Would Durham County in North Carolina outweigh the rising tide of Trump supporters in the countryside?
But as one by one Trump secured his biggest targets – Ohio at 10.20pm, North Carolina at 10.45pm, Florida shortly after – talk of the unlikelihood of a Republican path to the White House switched to the unlikelihood that Clinton would make it. The race came down to the newly forged battlegrounds that, to give him credit where credit is due, the Republican billionaire always said it would: the corridor of rust belt states that runs from Pennsylvania eastward to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
With Wisconsin added to the too-close-to-call list, a state that Clinton visited not a single time during the general election, so certain was she of its loyalty, Democratic hopes began to plunge as dramatically as Dow Jones futures. The swath of the country that had given birth in the 1980s to the Reagan Democrat now appeared to be spawning his first cousin, the Trump Democrat.

How do I tell my daughter that America elected a racist, sexist bully?

My six-year-old fell asleep thinking Hillary Clinton would be the first female president. Now I have to explain to her why Donald Trump was chosen instead

David Axelrod, the political wizard who helped steer Barack Obama to two victories, spoke for millions when he said that what they were witnessing was America uttering a “primal scream”.
When Pennsylvania was called for Trump, it was all over bar the shouting. At the bar in Trump Tower, when the Republican reached 254 electoral college votes, at around 11.30pm, there had been a roar.
“Trump, Trump, Trump,” the crowd shouted. People jumped up and down. Conversation turned very quickly to the impact President Trump would have. There seemed to be consensus that it would be immediate.

Just after 2am, a ripple went through the crowd. Someone had spotted movement at the side of Trump Tower. People were getting into cars.
“I can see him!” someone shouted. People raised their phones to take pictures. A moment later, the motorcade headed away, up Fifth Avenue. Trump was in one of those cars, and he was going to deliver his acceptance speech.
Elsewhere, it remained only for the shock and awe of what had happened on a momentous night to begin to sink in. Twitter, that reliable arbiter of America’s riven heart, told the story.
“America we hardly knew ye. Certainly I misjudged the country,” came the cry of despair from liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman. His dismay was matched with equal and opposite force by the joy of Richard Spencer, the white nationalist whose movement has been emboldened over the past year and a half by the Trump insurgency.
“We’ve won. #AltRight,” he tweeted, with pointed simplicity.
Let the wild rumpus of the Trump presidency begin.

The woman behind the Trump campaign

Despite the controversies with women that dogged his campaign, Donald Trump is the first presidential candidate to be propelled to the White House under the guidance of a female campaign manager.
Kellyanne Conway became Trump’s third campaign manager when he put her in charge on 17 August. At the time his campaign was foundering in the wake of his comments about the parents of a Muslim-American soldier who was killed in action.
Observers detected a rapid smartening up of the operation, for which Conway, an experienced Republican pollster and political operative who has specialised in advising Republicans on appealing to women, was given much of the credit. She even gained a nickname: “the Trump whisperer”, as supposedly the only person who could impose some discipline on the unpredictable candidate.

Others questioned her direct influence on the campaign, however, with some Republicans suggesting her principal role was to appear on TV. “That’s sort of her job,” a source with knowledge of the strategy told Buzzfeed. “They think she’s good on TV, and they like having her there as the face of the campaign.”
Conway, 49, is a former lawyer from New Jersey who formed the Washington DC-based Polling Company in 1995. She is married with four children, and has known Trump for more than a decade, having lived in one of his buildings and served on the condo board of the Trump World Tower in Manhattan.
Questioned after his victory whether Trump still believed the political system was rigged, she told the Today show: “He certainly would say the system is rigged, and it proved last night that he’s got millions of people who agree with him.”
Esther Addley