Interview First Published by The Guardian Post Daily Newspaper
Colbert Gwain, CIVICUS 2019 Speak Champion for Cameroon
The 2019 CIVICUS Alliance for Citizen Participation Champion for Cameroon has been speaking of the urgency of using the power of dialogue to bridge division and help create connection and understanding amongst Cameroonians. While welcoming the major national dialogue called for the end of this month by Cameron's President Paul Biya as a right step in the right direction, Colbert Gwain holds that Cameroon would have missed a unique opportunity to reconcile With Itself If Secession is not put on the dialogue table.In the interview with Solomon Tembang, Managing Editor of The Guardian Post, he argues that since wishes are not horses for beggars to ride, it is better for the Secession option to be seen to have not prospered on the Dialogue Table than that it was proscribed in the first place because the very reason for dialogue is because some people are calling for Secession. Read on:
First, congratulations on your new appointment. Can we know how this came about and what the job of a SPEAK Champion entails?
I want to first start by thanking you and the entire The Guardian Post team for the tireless job you do on a daily basis. I am proud of the fact that your newspaper has had to overcome initial challenges and through dialoguing with yourselves and the consumer public you have finally raised the bar of Anglo-Saxon journalism in Cameroon. Whether people like it or not, the history of journalism in Cameroon can never be written without The Guardian Post newspaper. The same could be said of your contribution to the dialogue that Cameroon is about engaging in, through your fearless reporting. As to your question, I am fortunate to have been selected as CIVICUS 2019 Speak Champion for Cameroon at a time Cameroonians needed to speak to, and with each other more than before. CIVICUS as you know is an international network of more than 50 000 civil society organizations from across the globe that works on improving the experience of living together in the spirit of a shared humanity. For the past three years, this U.S based network have been organizing what we call SPEAK campaigns involving civil rights movement across the globe. Last year's theme that was on tolerance sort to make people understand that you could differ with someone but tolerate his or her point of view. This year's theme is on Dialogue and I am fortunate to have been selected after a call for applications process. My job is to facilitate dialogue between individuals and amongst communities during my mandate.
If I understand you, it means your SPEAK campaign has nothing to do with the Dialogue that has been called in Cameroon to address the Anglophone problem?
Obviously. That is why I started by telling you that SPEAK is in its third year and that last year Speak events around the world focused on the theme of tolerance. We had a very exciting experience in Bamenda as we organized a mobile film festival in inter-city buses encouraging tolerance between francophones and Anglophones in Cameroon. And although our SPEAK event has nothing to do with the dialogue called by the Head of State, it's important to note that we have the same objective, and that of making society a better place to live in. We cannot be the most connected generation and afford to be the most divided: divided by race, religion, and culture, language, ethnicity, and by those who want us to be divided. I am more than ready to offer my modest contribution to the success of the major national Dialogue that has been called by the Head of State.
What do you think as SPEAK Champion for Cameroon you could be bringing to the Dialogue if you were invited?
Thank you for that question. I would first of all want you to understand that since the start of the uprising in the two English speaking regions I have been involved at various levels in working for a return to normalcy. Together with Dr. Nick Ngwanyam we have proposed several genuine steps that if followed through peace could have returned to the two English speaking regions a long time ago. I remember in one of such meetings in 2017 in Dr Nick Ngwanyam's office in Bamenda, we requested that the Head of State visits the two troubled regions. During yet another larger meeting in Douala immediately after the appointment of the new Prime Minister we made a chain of suggestions that unfortunately were never followed through. At the level of our platform called Northwest Southwest Peace Movement for the Cessation of Violence we have made beautiful suggestions that if given an Opportunity during the upcoming dialogue I would expand on them.
Let's concretely get some of the things you think should feature on the agenda of the dialogue called by President Biya
The first thing I would like to see on the agenda would be Secession. To my mind, the very fact that dialogue has been called is because there is a rising current that rejects the present dispensation and all its works and all its deeds. Not putting Secession on the dialogue would be preparing grounds for future problems. Putting it would be like respecting the chemistry principle of a catalyst that although provokes a chemical reaction but is itself never present in the chemical process. Cameroon would have missed a unique opportunity to reconcile with itself if Secession is not put on the dialogue table. Putting it on the dialogue table would be more to advance reasons why it would not be a wise option now and more importantly what Cameroon as a nation should be doing to make sure people think differently. Being a sticky point, members to the Dialogue could agree to put it to vote at a later time, I mean, in some years to come. Another thing I think should be factored to the Dialogue agenda would have to do with the symbols of state that have since become divisive. Here, I am thinking of the Unity Palace, the the name of the country, and the National Anthem and more importantly, the flag.These things were meant to be unifiers but we have come to notice that unifiers are instead dividing us. Come to think of the fact that our Presidency which is symbol of state is called Unity Palace instead of the Office of the President where the President and his or her family should live elsewhere and come there only to work. Presidents stay long in power because they transform a symbol of state into a family home where children are delivered, they grow up, and go to school and work while living there. The National Anthem is divisive and we need a national conversation on that. Same too with the flag and it's one or two stars. We need a new referendum on the flag every Cameroonians should identify with. The very name of the country is divisive. We are probably the only country on planet earth that has seen name change from Federal Republic through United Republic to Republic in less than 60 years of our independence. As a starting point, and before dialogue proper starts, President Biya should show good faith by reverting the name of the country to what obtained before 1984. Other major suggestions have been made on the content of the new Republic that I do not need to come back to.
You sound very optimistic about the outcome of the upcoming dialogue when many informed Cameroonians and foreign observers see many flaws in both the manner and the matter
I am naturally an optimist. I am a believer in the principle that it's not because your child got drawn in water that you would refuse to drink water. Unlike others I believe the Anglophone problem may not come to an end because of one dialogue. It may need many other major dialogue at home and abroad. Many people who are pessimistic make reference to the Tripartite Conference and the fact that it's resolutions were never implemented. But in the 90s guns were not involved as they are involved now. As SPEAK Champion I am of the opinion that we cease the moment.,that's the carpe diem theme, as if it were. I believe that even simple conversations and structureless dialogues like the one called for in Cameroon, can lead to profound and unimaginable change..At far as SPEAK is concerned, we believe that it's by speaking with others, particularly those with whom we may disagree, that we find common ground, remind each other of our common humanity, and build the understanding needed to work together in addressing our common challenges. Your question gives me an opportunity to remind those going to the Dialogue that the point isn't to engage in a debate where we must win, or try to change the other person's mind, but rather to create a moment of genuine connection that wouldn't have otherwise happened if a national dialogue was not called. For Anglophones coming to the Dialogue, the point should be about shifting the battle front to the enemy's territory through the force of argument and no longer the argument of force.
Let's come back to your Speak campaign proper. How do intend to run it?
The Speak campaign is a global campaign to help give voice to everyone, everywhere. As many of us look around our communities and country, we seem increasingly divided - by identity, ideology, fear, and those trying to turn us against each other. We function with the understanding that it is no longer enough to speak with those who already agree with us. To create real change,, we need to speak with those who don't. The Speak event would culminate in 24 hours of action from 20-21 September 2019. It seeks to bring individuals and communities across lines of division, recognizing that we have more in common than divide us. We encourage people who have not spoken to others for years because of differences in opinion, identity, ideology, culture language and other personal, to make a simple call to those they have been disagreeing with, more to open up lines of communication than to apologize. At our level, we would organize a three hours long call in program over Ndefcam Radio 94.9 in Bamenda where callers would essentially be allowed to talk about people they disagree with and how they hope to bridge the disagreement gab. Within the larger society, we expect people especially in the two English speaking regions to go as far as calling and talking with amba fighters, more to understand why they do what they do rather than convincing them to buy a particular point of view. It's only when we understand people's stand points and feelings that we can effectively engage in meaningful and genuine dialogue with them.
Any last word?
Just to say that Speak is one of the most mediatized events on planet earth today. It was planned to coincide with the holding of the United Nations General Assembly and global climate movement. It shall be followed by millions of people around the world. Through this, we intend to make people understand that ours is a shared humanity and that either francophone or Anglophone, we all have a common future.
Colbert Gwain, CIVICUS 2019 Speak Champion for Cameroon
The 2019 CIVICUS Alliance for Citizen Participation Champion for Cameroon has been speaking of the urgency of using the power of dialogue to bridge division and help create connection and understanding amongst Cameroonians. While welcoming the major national dialogue called for the end of this month by Cameron's President Paul Biya as a right step in the right direction, Colbert Gwain holds that Cameroon would have missed a unique opportunity to reconcile With Itself If Secession is not put on the dialogue table.In the interview with Solomon Tembang, Managing Editor of The Guardian Post, he argues that since wishes are not horses for beggars to ride, it is better for the Secession option to be seen to have not prospered on the Dialogue Table than that it was proscribed in the first place because the very reason for dialogue is because some people are calling for Secession. Read on:
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| Colbert Gwain, CIVICUS 2019 Speak Champion for Cameroon |
First, congratulations on your new appointment. Can we know how this came about and what the job of a SPEAK Champion entails?
I want to first start by thanking you and the entire The Guardian Post team for the tireless job you do on a daily basis. I am proud of the fact that your newspaper has had to overcome initial challenges and through dialoguing with yourselves and the consumer public you have finally raised the bar of Anglo-Saxon journalism in Cameroon. Whether people like it or not, the history of journalism in Cameroon can never be written without The Guardian Post newspaper. The same could be said of your contribution to the dialogue that Cameroon is about engaging in, through your fearless reporting. As to your question, I am fortunate to have been selected as CIVICUS 2019 Speak Champion for Cameroon at a time Cameroonians needed to speak to, and with each other more than before. CIVICUS as you know is an international network of more than 50 000 civil society organizations from across the globe that works on improving the experience of living together in the spirit of a shared humanity. For the past three years, this U.S based network have been organizing what we call SPEAK campaigns involving civil rights movement across the globe. Last year's theme that was on tolerance sort to make people understand that you could differ with someone but tolerate his or her point of view. This year's theme is on Dialogue and I am fortunate to have been selected after a call for applications process. My job is to facilitate dialogue between individuals and amongst communities during my mandate.
If I understand you, it means your SPEAK campaign has nothing to do with the Dialogue that has been called in Cameroon to address the Anglophone problem?
Obviously. That is why I started by telling you that SPEAK is in its third year and that last year Speak events around the world focused on the theme of tolerance. We had a very exciting experience in Bamenda as we organized a mobile film festival in inter-city buses encouraging tolerance between francophones and Anglophones in Cameroon. And although our SPEAK event has nothing to do with the dialogue called by the Head of State, it's important to note that we have the same objective, and that of making society a better place to live in. We cannot be the most connected generation and afford to be the most divided: divided by race, religion, and culture, language, ethnicity, and by those who want us to be divided. I am more than ready to offer my modest contribution to the success of the major national Dialogue that has been called by the Head of State.
What do you think as SPEAK Champion for Cameroon you could be bringing to the Dialogue if you were invited?
Thank you for that question. I would first of all want you to understand that since the start of the uprising in the two English speaking regions I have been involved at various levels in working for a return to normalcy. Together with Dr. Nick Ngwanyam we have proposed several genuine steps that if followed through peace could have returned to the two English speaking regions a long time ago. I remember in one of such meetings in 2017 in Dr Nick Ngwanyam's office in Bamenda, we requested that the Head of State visits the two troubled regions. During yet another larger meeting in Douala immediately after the appointment of the new Prime Minister we made a chain of suggestions that unfortunately were never followed through. At the level of our platform called Northwest Southwest Peace Movement for the Cessation of Violence we have made beautiful suggestions that if given an Opportunity during the upcoming dialogue I would expand on them.
Let's concretely get some of the things you think should feature on the agenda of the dialogue called by President Biya
The first thing I would like to see on the agenda would be Secession. To my mind, the very fact that dialogue has been called is because there is a rising current that rejects the present dispensation and all its works and all its deeds. Not putting Secession on the dialogue would be preparing grounds for future problems. Putting it would be like respecting the chemistry principle of a catalyst that although provokes a chemical reaction but is itself never present in the chemical process. Cameroon would have missed a unique opportunity to reconcile with itself if Secession is not put on the dialogue table. Putting it on the dialogue table would be more to advance reasons why it would not be a wise option now and more importantly what Cameroon as a nation should be doing to make sure people think differently. Being a sticky point, members to the Dialogue could agree to put it to vote at a later time, I mean, in some years to come. Another thing I think should be factored to the Dialogue agenda would have to do with the symbols of state that have since become divisive. Here, I am thinking of the Unity Palace, the the name of the country, and the National Anthem and more importantly, the flag.These things were meant to be unifiers but we have come to notice that unifiers are instead dividing us. Come to think of the fact that our Presidency which is symbol of state is called Unity Palace instead of the Office of the President where the President and his or her family should live elsewhere and come there only to work. Presidents stay long in power because they transform a symbol of state into a family home where children are delivered, they grow up, and go to school and work while living there. The National Anthem is divisive and we need a national conversation on that. Same too with the flag and it's one or two stars. We need a new referendum on the flag every Cameroonians should identify with. The very name of the country is divisive. We are probably the only country on planet earth that has seen name change from Federal Republic through United Republic to Republic in less than 60 years of our independence. As a starting point, and before dialogue proper starts, President Biya should show good faith by reverting the name of the country to what obtained before 1984. Other major suggestions have been made on the content of the new Republic that I do not need to come back to.
You sound very optimistic about the outcome of the upcoming dialogue when many informed Cameroonians and foreign observers see many flaws in both the manner and the matter
I am naturally an optimist. I am a believer in the principle that it's not because your child got drawn in water that you would refuse to drink water. Unlike others I believe the Anglophone problem may not come to an end because of one dialogue. It may need many other major dialogue at home and abroad. Many people who are pessimistic make reference to the Tripartite Conference and the fact that it's resolutions were never implemented. But in the 90s guns were not involved as they are involved now. As SPEAK Champion I am of the opinion that we cease the moment.,that's the carpe diem theme, as if it were. I believe that even simple conversations and structureless dialogues like the one called for in Cameroon, can lead to profound and unimaginable change..At far as SPEAK is concerned, we believe that it's by speaking with others, particularly those with whom we may disagree, that we find common ground, remind each other of our common humanity, and build the understanding needed to work together in addressing our common challenges. Your question gives me an opportunity to remind those going to the Dialogue that the point isn't to engage in a debate where we must win, or try to change the other person's mind, but rather to create a moment of genuine connection that wouldn't have otherwise happened if a national dialogue was not called. For Anglophones coming to the Dialogue, the point should be about shifting the battle front to the enemy's territory through the force of argument and no longer the argument of force.
Let's come back to your Speak campaign proper. How do intend to run it?
The Speak campaign is a global campaign to help give voice to everyone, everywhere. As many of us look around our communities and country, we seem increasingly divided - by identity, ideology, fear, and those trying to turn us against each other. We function with the understanding that it is no longer enough to speak with those who already agree with us. To create real change,, we need to speak with those who don't. The Speak event would culminate in 24 hours of action from 20-21 September 2019. It seeks to bring individuals and communities across lines of division, recognizing that we have more in common than divide us. We encourage people who have not spoken to others for years because of differences in opinion, identity, ideology, culture language and other personal, to make a simple call to those they have been disagreeing with, more to open up lines of communication than to apologize. At our level, we would organize a three hours long call in program over Ndefcam Radio 94.9 in Bamenda where callers would essentially be allowed to talk about people they disagree with and how they hope to bridge the disagreement gab. Within the larger society, we expect people especially in the two English speaking regions to go as far as calling and talking with amba fighters, more to understand why they do what they do rather than convincing them to buy a particular point of view. It's only when we understand people's stand points and feelings that we can effectively engage in meaningful and genuine dialogue with them.
Any last word?
Just to say that Speak is one of the most mediatized events on planet earth today. It was planned to coincide with the holding of the United Nations General Assembly and global climate movement. It shall be followed by millions of people around the world. Through this, we intend to make people understand that ours is a shared humanity and that either francophone or Anglophone, we all have a common future.