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| Paul Biya-President of Cameroon since 1982 |
Photograph
— AFP
The recent developments in the crisis that has
engulfed Cameroon, particularly the English speaking region of the country,
have shown that the crux of the battle goes beyond language. It is a battle for
survival where a largely marginalised people are challenging a western import
that has abused them and seen them pushed to the periphery since the
unceremonious solemnisation of the union in 1961. It is a battle for
recognition, for equality, and for survival. Hence, a fix of just the language,
if it does happen, might just not be the ultimate solution.
It
all started in November when the people of Bamenda, which if southern
Cameroon were to be a country, will be the capital of the English-speaking
region, took to the street to protest the continuous marginalisation by
the government. Days before the protest, policemen went into a school where
students were protesting the use of French in English regions to
harass the students and teachers, hit them with police batons while
dragging career lawyers by their clothes. In the aftermath of the physical
assault, the people fearing for their lives at the hand of the police, who had
now become instruments of oppression, announced a stay at home to protest the
continuous oppression. The strike which has seen schools and courts closed has
now entered its third month.
The English-speaking Cameroonians are protesting
what they describe as political and economic marginalisation, in which
language is being used as the ultimate weapon. The Paul Biya-led government in
June 2016 started posting French-speaking teachers and lecturers to schools and
tertiary institutions in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
The act was not limited to schools, as French-speaking judges who had no
knowledge of English common laws, which operates in the English-speaking
region, were posted to adjudicate and preside over court sessions. This was
done, I believe, to force the people, who would not want to remain
incommunicado, to pick up French if they would want to remain relevant in their
own country. The plan, however, failed to score its goal as the people took to
the street in November
2016 to protest it, while also calling for the implementation of de facto
and de jure bilingualism and federalism in the country.
If the intentions of the government are true,
implementation of a federal state should not be hard. However, the continual
denial of the existence of a people marginalised in two of the ten regions of
the country shows that the government is only interested in achieving a ‘One
Cameroon’ of their own vision, and they are prepared to do that by any means
possible.
For one, the government does not see the use of
French-speaking judges in English-speaking regions as an anomaly, let alone an
imposition. Speaking in November 2016, the Cameroonian Minister in charge of
special duties in the presidency, Atanja Nji reportedly
said there was no Anglophone problem in Cameroon. This view was also
corroborated by the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary while
speaking on Aljazeera’s AJstream. Apparently, the imposition is only normal,
while in contrast, an English-speaking judge cannot preside over a court in any
of the French-speaking regions. How normal is that?
While the importance of achieving a country of one
people cannot be overemphasised, there is also the place of respecting a
people’s right to self-determination. As a matter of fact, monolingualism is
not the way, the only way to unify a country. Canada is officially a bilingual
country which is excelling and the people are living as Canadians – not
English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians.
English speaking Cameroonians are not demanding an
imposition on the French-speaking regions of Cameroon, they are only demanding
that they be treated as a people with yearnings and aspirations. That they be
given jobs that belong to them not discriminated on the basis of their
language, and not be made slaves in their own community.
In reply to their demands, the government for the
past two months has shut down internet connections over the English speaking
regions, while assaults continued on the frontiers of the resistance, and every
other English-speaking Cameroonian the lawless policemen fall upon. Untold
carnage and crime against humanity have being perpetrated by Paul Biya while
the world watches on. The UN being widely regarded as the watchdog of world
politics sits by as well while a people’s right to self-determination is
violently violated.
In spite of all this, the government of Paul Biya
has continued to maintain and deny the existence of a problem –not even a
language problem – in the region. They are, by that way, lending credence to
the atrocities of the police, showing that their actions are backed by the
government. What is happening in Cameroon is basically a recolonisation of the
English-speaking people by the France-backed French speaking regime of the
country. Even though the constitution of the land clearly spells out French and
English as the official languages of the country, official documents continue
to be rendered in French, with no English translation.
This already shows that the government does not
recognise a
people different from the majority. For all they care, there is only one
Cameroon, there should be only one Cameroon, and there must be only one
Cameroon. Cameroon today is a product of a union between the
French-speaking Republique de Cameroon and the English-speaking Southern
Cameroon who opted to join the republic in a federal union while the northern
English-speaking Cameroon opted to join Nigeria.
The plan to unify Cameroon cannot be realised with
the use of force. A people cannot be kept in a union against their wishes. And
their wish here is simple. The government should either recognise them as a
people and a part of
a Cameroon that houses two different people that can be made one or allow
the people have their own state. Self-determination is a fundamental human
right.
The Cameroonian government has two options:
federalism or a two-state solution. However, Paul Biya is having none of
that. The reactions of his government so far have shown that they are far from
accepting anything that tends towards independence for southern Cameroon. For
one, they would have to acknowledge the existence of a problem between the two
regions which until now they have failed to do. Nothing can be done in that
regard. And with a pact signed with France to invade in the wake of any
perceived break or crack in the unholy union, a defiant push for a two-state
solution might turn out into a full-blown civil war.
However, given that the idea of a two-state
solution appears expensive, not necessarily in terms of money, and too far-fetched as it remains foreign to Africa, the closest and efficient solution
would an establishment of true federalism in Cameroon. A federalism which
allows both regions to develop at their own pace, able to control the majority
of resources in their region. This solution will allow for the propagation of
preferred language in every setting within both regions without any problem. It
would also mean that the Cameroon constitution would not only recognise English
as an official language, as it presently does, it will also enforce the use of
both languages of English and French in any and all official settings.
This would enforce the teaching of both languages
at schools, which means every Cameroonian child will grow up to be competent in
both English and French. And since this proposition is also contained in the
very agreement that brought these once separate peoples together in 1961, the
best thing for the government to resolve the lingering crisis is to honour the
agreement, or allow the English speaking region to form a country of their own.
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