Perspective of an Anglo-Franco living in Cameroon

I was the Guinea pig of my family. After 20+ older siblings and cousins were sent to the French schools, I was the first child who tested the English system of education in Cameroon. This made me an oddity, not only in the family - that has called me "Angloz" all my life, but also among my school Admin (whom my parents had begged in 1993, to let me join the school body of C.I.S) and among my friends who called me "the Francophone girl." The only way to defeat the verbal and psychological contempt was to excel at school... 3 years after learning English, I was the best English, Math and Geography student at my primary school, in Class 5 and 6. Passed the entrance into one of the top English boarding schools, Our Ladies of Lourdes in Bamenda, where I was in the Top 5 of my classes, but still I was called "the Francophone girl." 3 years later, went to Sacred Heart Douala, where I aced among both boys and girls in the English system , but still I dwelled "the Francophone girl. " All this while at home, in my family, I was still the "Angloz." Fast forward 12 years later, I get recruited in an international English-speaking Institution, and 2 weeks into my job, I hear some colleagues grumbling about "The Francophone girl" who got recruited...disregarding if I was competent, if I aced the language tests and content tests; but bringing it back to that very thing which I thought I had proved was a non-issue in my life.

Today, about half of my cousins in the family have become Anglo-Franco. Clearly, the English system is greatly respected among Francophones.

That's a summary of my life as an Anglo-Franco. I identify myself as Cameroonian first - I think, speak and write in English better than I do in French; yet still none of the sides of the coin adopts me. It's like being Bi-racial in South Africa... In the middle of the battle of both races, neither white, neither black, Coloured. 

Still, with this dual perspective I have, this is what I want to add to the various discussions online and offline that are happening :

*******Francophone Cameroon : 

Anglophone Cameroon has grievances that have always been undermined and brushed under the carpet, and MUST be addressed, because it's simple injustice. 

We call ourselves a bilingual country, but in truth Anglophones try more to learn both languages (or at least understand) both languages than Francophone. I have the opportunity practically every week to speak to crowds of Cameroonians and before diving into the meat of our discussions, I always make a head count of how many people in our mixed Anglophone and Francophone audience "do not understand English" (you see many hands raise) and "do not understand French" (no hands go up). To me, it is even okay to have Cameroonians who don't speak both languages, but we need to understand each other. That means we should be able to have conversations where I speak my English, you speak your French and we understand each other, the conversation flows...but that is not the current case, and that is unfair. 

With the current matter at hand: The lawyers have legitimate reasons to protest for their system of common law to not be destroyed by the French civil law system. It is only logical to understand that grievance. Teachers have legitimate reasons to defend the Anglo-Saxon educational system, and to keep its integrity. There are many other plights rising from our Anglophone brothers and sisters, and living in a country were oppression is the norm, we must join in solidarity with their cries, not question them for crying.

As citizens of this nation, we must fight against injustice; and rally behind noble causes. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Anglophone Cameroon has been complaining about its marginalization for more than 30 years, and it has only gotten worse. If we don't address their complain, we might have a remix of what is happening in the Far North of Cameroon, and what might happen in the silent East region of Cameroon - - where people have been disenfranchised and marginalized for so long to the point of total poverty and complete disengagement from the nation of Cameroon. We have hundreds of thousands of people in the Far North of Cameroon that don't speak neither French nor English, barely even Fufulde, and have no notion of "the nation" of "the republic" - no wonder extreme violence and terrorism has found fertile ground there. Be happy that Anglophones are vocal about their issues, and to me, that is better than the silent dissidents who come out only when the time for dialogue and conflict resolution has expired. The Anglophones are talking now. They are angry. They are revolted. We must address their grievances, without trying to make them feel like they are talking to hot air, or that they have no basis to voice out their oppression and discrimination made against them. Let us learn from the example of the Grand North that the cry of a people should not be suffocated, but in a proper country, it should at least be addressed. As I've written before, after the Eseka tragic and senseless accident, our government need to understand the concept of responsibility and taking action. 

There is no way a problem can be solved, without first accepting the problem. That's the 101 of problem solving... I've spoken about it in this piece on Cameroon governance before.

In my eyes, I admire the courage and principles of Anglophone strikers. (It makes me reminiscent of Cameroon's freedom fighters we learned about in history books - Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Osende Afana, Ernest Ouandie, the ones who died for our independence from the French colonial masters, but who were forgotten by the regime ones power was given to the French collaborator.) There is a lot we must learn from the Anglophone's ability and capacity to mobilize and stand up for their rights. We must applaud it, and gather some of that principled courage to stand up for our own right. If Francophone Cameroon acted in such ways, refusing to be subject to unfair circumstances, requesting basic human treatments, requesting sane governance, then Cameroon would be delivered from this regime that plunged Cameroonians 40 years back, and is making us stagnate.... 34 years of what as results? Instead of crushing their zeal, let us act in solidarity with them.

******** Anglophone Cameroon : 

Please guard your hearts! Being a minority and being victims does not give you the freedom to have xenophobic attitudes towards the majority. I have noticed in over 2 decades that the "disdain" and "sense of superiority" you have towards "those Francophones" is not productive, it is dangerous to harbor such feelings - it is the same feelings that currently divides Anglophone Cameroon : South Westerners don't want to be called "Bamenda", Bayanguis only want to marry Bayanguis ; Kumbos don't want to mix with Balis, Mbafors don't want to deal with Bakossis... I mean, how subdivided should we be to feel important? In this day and age shouldn't the goal be to unite as much as possible (yes, while preserving our identities). And I know you don't like to hear this, but I'll say it: sometimes also, try to acknowledge other ethnic causes in Cameroon (the Mbororo who are treated so unjustly in your very own regions -- You can't run away from this. We are only holding you accountable to the same freedoms and values you are seeking from the majority); how about the Far Northerners who are practically out of touch with what is happening in the South of Cameroon ; the Easterners who have the majority of the resources this country depends on, yet don't have any respectable Government University, Hospital, or basic infrastructure for their basic human needs). Because at the end of the day, even though there is justice to be made for you, stop thinking that you are the most marginalized group in Cameroon, simply because you are the most vocal of them all. It makes you lose sight of the bigger picture, the common thread that ties us all. Actually, join other groups, and uplift their causes. And don't think that because people are not Anglo-centric then you must exclude them from your cause, and from the debate. You need to be much more inclusive, IF you want to push your cause further across the national territory. 

Plus, we must admit that not all is grey while being an Anglophone in Cameroon. In fact, the competitive advantage you have with the English language is that you are beneficiaries of most UK/US scholarships, jobs in multinational companies and embassies, you know how to obtain grants for your projects, you have the international language that gives you so many opportunities, that say, a rural person in Yokadouma or a fisherman in Campo could never have, if he did not learn English. You have the edge, and so many opportunities for upward social mobility because you can speak and write in English - thus access networks and opportunities that your francophone counterparts will not be able to access, unless they learn English. You have a massive Diaspora, who - if mobilized and focused on the prize - could transform the DNA of this country with the expertise they have amassed in the UK, US, China, Australia, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa... Thank God you are succeeding in all these different sectors. Be happy about that, and use that now to impact more change. 

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To sum it up, for me, our attitude in the face of mediocre governance and injustice in Cameroon should be this: we must turn off the fire in our neighbors house, if not our house might be the next to be burned. That's what the history of Cameroon has shown us. We must not be so blinded by our micro/ethnic/language causes that we forget the bigger problem, that is the problem all regions and ethnic groups decry : We live in an upside down country that is visibly derailing, with poor governance, absence of meritocracy, un-sustainably centralized, out of touch with local realities, in lack of values, with a non-existent culture of results, blind to the cause of the oppressed, and celebrating mendacity and debauchery with full impunity, led by greedy and corrupt people at every levels of the decision making line; a country with no historical vision of our time and place in the world. That's the country in which we live in, those are the rulers we have chosen . That's the system of governance we must collectively fight against ; not divided into Anglophone vs Francophone Cameroon ; or into North vs South, East vs West; Bassa vs Sawa, Bulu vs Bami, Bamenda vs Buea; we are one Cameroon - we must keep our eyes on the prize. Let's pick up the burden of our brothers and run with it to the finish line, and once we have alleviated that burden, we pick up the burden of the other brother, run with it to the finish line; and so on -- concretely what does that mean?

**When the inhabitant of Mokolo says, "Hey, we don't have food, we are malnourished" let us not answer "oh please, there's no malnutrition in Cameroon, when you throw a corn seed in the back of your yard it produces fields of corn." 
**When the Bankim resident says, "50% of our children do not go to school because their parents have no one to keep them with when they go to the farm", we should not tell them "Oh, that's fine. Let them wait for UNICEF help."

**When people from Sangmelima cry that "they don't have 500Frs to transport their cassava to urban markets - just an hour away," let's not tell them "Come on, you live in the back yard of the president, you have nothing to complain about."

** When the Bamileke recalls "the hidden history of the massacre of at least 500.000 Bamilekes during the war of independence and for 10 years after independence (you read that right), how their villages were burned to the floor - because they were Bamileke, and how today, the disdain they have from people - simply for being Bamileke" don't tell them "that's history, and those freedom fighters were terrorists."
**When the Bassas tell us "we must give honors to the Founding Father of Cameroon, Mpodol Ruben Um Nyobe, if not this country will navigate without a direction." Let's not say "well, whether we know of  um Nyobe or not, what does it add to Cameroon?" 

** When the Anglophones tell us "Stop treating us like 2nd class citizens, respect our language and systems of governance" let us not tell them "stop agitating yourselves, we all have problems." 
Again, we should not shy-away from our problems, nor undermine other people's struggles. We must be justice-seekers, and sympathizers to the grievances of people who are oppressed,if not it will come back to the surface in some other form. One thing with history is that, we cannot escape the truth and justice of history. 

For now though, the imminent problem is the Anglophone grievances, let's support them.

In January 2017 though, let's all focus on registration to vote.... The population that wants change is more massive than the one that doesn't, we just need to mobilize to make sure we make changes via elections. And even though many think it's useless to register, let me tell you this: change can be done at any electoral level - from municipal councils, to legislative representatives, to Presidential. Even if you think you can't change presidential, and as many often say "don't see any credible opposition leader" (which is not very true), know that you can change At Least municipal and legislative representatives. 

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 Just imagine if with our massive and collective votes we elected 20 principled, patriotic, progressive and forward looking young men and women into Parliament? The laws and policies that would change in our favor... Imagine if we could vote for 40 principled, patriotic and forward looking youth in our city and town halls around the country, imagine the change, innovation and impact? 

That's how we have to start thinking of the long term. Don't sit back and think you are voiceless and powerless, that the only way to be relevant is on social media; my friend you have power offline, register to vote... Get in the game, and we will change the way this game is played. For now, be confident that YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT in 2018...We will make sure it does.

#OneCameroon #Unity #UnityOfPurpose #OneCause #JusticeForAll #Love #Togetherness #Cameroon #Bamenda #Anglophone #AngloFranco 

#LetsActOffline #OfflineAction #RegisterToVote #WeCanChangeThings #ConcertedEffort #TogetherWeCan #StayFocused 

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@OliSankara 

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Covered in the blood of Jesus / 1John4x4/ Hebrews4:12 / Rom8:31 / 

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