The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect HillTop Voices Bamenda's editorial stance.
The Colbert Factor
How Anglophones are increasingly becoming Angrily Happy with
Night Curfews
This reflection is inspired by the fact that although
introduced as a form of collective punishment to boiling spots in Anglophone
regions, many bona fide Southern Cameroonians, rather than having ill feelings,
are beginning to be thankful to government for helping them recover a part of
their lost culture that was being eroded by
overbearing influence of unregulated francophone night life. It is also
inspired by the fact although the dust to dawn curfew kills other sectors of
activity that flourish more in the night, this is more than compensated by the
fact that more and more people are saving hard earned money as they are pushed
back home earlier than later. It is the more informed by the fact that although
before the imposition of night curfews, people used to stay out late into the
night and come home when children have gone to bed, on grounds that they were
busy at work, the curfew now forces them to meet their children still awake and
in the process, engage in home tutoring for with the children.
Point is, for over the years Anglophones have beaten the
record as champion of creative suffering. The more you inflict pain on him or
her, the more she or he develops a certain je ne sais quoi resilience. Such
creative suffering has made the Anglophones to be able to make the best out of
the worst situation. It is such that even when others are singing a lullaby, he
sings a dirge, and when they sing a dirge, he sings a lullaby.
As veterans of creative suffering, Anglophones have had to go
through all the structures of injustices that Cameroon can pride itself of.
Anglophones volunteeringly accept all such creative suffering as part of their
course of action to make Cameroon better. After all, when Cameroon becomes
better, it is others that enjoy, not the
suffering masses. Just last week, and in an attempt to provide solutions to the
growing unrest in Anglophone Cameroon, a new ministry of Decentralization and
local development was created and a francophone whose voice has never been
heard since the crisis erupted was made minister. Our Adolf Lele Lafrique who
has been having sleepless nights trying to figure out ways and means of solving
the problem and who has been sending all kinds of proposals to Yaoundé, was not
even considered for that key position. As an accepted component of their
struggle and protest, Anglophones do so uncomplainingly. This creative and
redemptive suffering is in response to the cruel and unusual suffering imposed
on them by the ruling establishment, as has been captured in the book: 'Bamenda:
Source of Inspiration for Modern Cameroon.' Truth be told, the advantage with
Anglophones creative suffering is that it can never go in vain. The more the
curfew last, the become. Not bitter but
better.
Imposing collective punishment on a whole population by
decreeing dust to dawn curfews only helps in deferring a dream. As documented
in my book: Bamenda, Source of Inspiration for Modern Cameroon, life has no
meaning without a dream. If you are not living for something you are living for
nothing. 'When a dream is locked up, what happens to it? Does it dry up like a
raison in the sun? Or fester like a sore, and then run? Does it stink like
rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode?' If we go by this poem by Langston
Hughes, it will mean that whether we like it or not, dreamers and dreams are
indistinguishable. A bottled dream emits frustration and has a dynamo effect.
Delayed dreams stink of resentment. Resentment towards themselves that they
could not realize their dreams and resentment towards those who prevented them
from realizing their . feeling of second
class citizenship by Anglophone Cameroonians is a dream deferred. Those in prison
today are a representative of those who have suffered the pain of injustice and
want things to change for the better. That's the main message Mancho Bibixy
handed down to the military judge in Yaoundé, that their actions were meant to
make Cameroon better, not bitter, and that if freed he and his companions would
work towards building bridges of peace and stability. Needless to recall that
in Fru Ndi's last letter to Biya, he reiterated the same message. Needless to
say that if their dreams continue to be deferred it may one day lead to an explosion.
It is not only the new generation of
Anglophone leadership that has been jailed but a completely new Cameroon
spirit. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Anglophones arrested and
incarcerated are representing the aspirations and hopes of a majority of
Cameroonians. They are the new Cameroonian spirit, a spirit yearning for a
peaceful, just and inclusive society. Back to the basics. The origin and
history of curfews date back to the 18th century. The word curfew originated
from the old French word courvre feu, meaning 'covering the fire'. It was an
order signalling the time when a bell rings for all fires in the community to
be put off. This was because houses were built of timber. As time went by
curfews were transformed into laws giving specific times citizens are supposed
to stay indoors, especially from 8 pm till dawn.
If Anglophone reward for fighting to democratize Cameroon
while Yaoundé is fighting to camerounize democracy is curfews, let it be.
Before government could introduce ghost nights, that is, its own version of
ghost towns, activists like Tapang Ivo and others, were already contemplating
the shifting of ghost towns to run from 6 pm to 5a.m. Their understanding was
that people back home were not as supportive of heavy of alcohol each night. To them, ghost night
were the only thing that could directly affect French interests given that
French breweries controlled the largest market share in Cameroon. If government
has now helped them to achieve their objective, who are we to judge.
That was the Muteff Boy's take