2400 Days of Protesting Paul Biya's Murderous Dictatorship in Cameroon

Paul Biya of Cameroon (AFP)

Cameroon is a very small country in West-Central Africa and it may be best known for football (soccer) rather than much else. But the country has very talented and hardworking people who, but for their tenacity, would have been completely broken. Their hard work has however not paid off in the postcolony because the country is lead by a rapacious dictator who has been at the helm of the country for over 35 years now - Paul Biya. Under his regime, the country not only bowed to severe economic crisis which has killed many poor people, but the infrastructure of the country has far diminished. Cameroon is the site of ghastly rail and road accidents that are due to the dilapidated nature of the transportation system. The morality and morale of many people in the country have been almost destroyed as many young people do not appear to see a future for themselves in the country. The healthcare system is so broken that many women continue to die in childbirth and many people continue to die from little, curable diseases. Meanwhile, Paul Biya himself spends much of his time in France and other European countries, especially when he is sick, as he often does, given that is a very old man now.

The flashpoint in the country now is the Cameroon Anglophone crisis which Paul Biya has totally been unable to address, with the country descending into civil war. Schools have closed in Anglophone regions but Paul Biya has been busy cutting the Internet there rather than seeing to it that children go to school. Spreading illiteracy in Anglophone Cameroon seems to be Paul Biya's primary goal now, as he continues to serve the interest of France rather than Cameroonians. His focus on serving France rather than Cameroon has led some to say that he is actually a Frenchman rather than a Cameroonian.
We here at FlourishingAfrica have been protesting this rapacity for 2400 days since Paul Biya rigged the last election. We will continue to do so until he is no longer the dictator of Cameroon. The man is now washed up and has no new ideas about how to move the country forward. Cameroonians deserve much better. Paul Biya has to go.

The Missionary Use of Pictures in Cameroon's War

Anyone who has been following the war in Cameroon, either on Facebook or Twitter, should have seen many photos, including those of dead people, fighting between the so-called Ambazonian fighters and Cameroon's military, houses that are being burnt or already burnt, refugees who in Nigeria or in the forests of Cameroon, wounded people in hospitals, and others. In her work Picturing Pity, Marianne Gullestad shows how some European missionaries in Cameroon use pictures to appeal for help for their work in the mission field. Pictures were one of the ways missionaries from Europe helped the sending churches to see what they were doing in the mission fields so that they may continue to support the work there. However, in order to show that the mission was worth supporting, the pictures sent were those that showed the most miserable conditions to justify why missionaries should continue in the mission fields. In a sense, the pictures we see coming from the war in Cameroon is used for the same purpose - to show that the Ambazonian fighters are doing their work and that the Biya regime is responding in barbarous ways. We see that most of the gruesome pictures are coming from Ambazonia people, the sent ones, (not from the government of Cameroon) and circulated on social media mostly accessed by those in the diaspora. These pictures are therefore ways of motivating those in the diaspora and to ask for more financial help in waging the war. The pictures are often accompanied by brief messages explaining them, as missionaries often did.

The war in Cameroon is therefore a missionary enterprise. Some people have been sent to fight for what they see as the soul of their land, converting others to their cause in the process. Those who do not believe in the cause are demonized, as missionaries sometimes did to those who did not become Christian. Those who are not in favor of the war or the call for separation are the new heathens who are destined to hell. These are sometimes killed or their homes burnt down by Ambazonia people. Those who believe are added to the fold and the process of proselytization continues. The goal is to found a new kingdom. Those who sent the missionaries, as was often the case in the 19th and 20th centuries, are in Europe and the United States. In order to prove that the work for which they were sent is being done, the missionaries/fighters take pictures/films and post them online for all to see. The pictures, as missionaries often did, are always those situated in the middle of the combat, where worse things are happening. Such pictures drew pity for the poor, benighted people of Africa and opened the wallets of parishioners. The pictures Ambazonia fighters post online are often intended to for the same purpose - to open the wallets of those who sent them.

One difference with this war is that both the senders and those sent are Cameroonians (Africans) and the purpose is war. The fight is, however, still for the soul of a people and the senders are still in Europe and America. The pictures are still needed to prove the point of the war. Poor us!

Longue Longue on Colonialism and War in Africa

When Longue Longue made this number the wars were in other places in Africa. Now the war has come to Cameroon and so we may better appreciate this. Bad understanding of African history but point well taken,

Extraversion and the War in Cameroon

The French political scientist who has done much of his work in Cameroon, Jean-Francois Bayart, coined the term extraversion in African studies to describe African history as one that has focused outwardly rather than inwardly. In other words, what happens in the continent has much to do with outside influences and focus rather than the internal dealings of the people. This is especially so in what is happening in Anglophone Cameroon today where events are propelled by people who do not live in the country and for reasons that developed elsewhere.

First, The New York Times recently reported that many of those who are leading the Ambazonia army live in Europe and the United States. Far from the place of action, they urge war. Many of the supporters to the war live outside the country and much of the money raised in fighting the war is also coming from outside the country. This means that the people of Southern Cameroons can themselves not sustain such a war. It is not clear what other foreign powers may be sending help to Ambazonia fighters.

One of the arguments I hear from those supporting the war in Cameroon is that they want to remove themselves from being controlled by France. They rightly see France as source of many of the problems that the country faces today. It was recently reported that the position of France is that Cameroon should remain united and not be fractured, as the Ambazonia people want. When France says this, it is not only a verbal wish as it has battalions set up all over central Africa for just a time like this. It would therefore backup its position militarily but covertly.

France's interest in Cameroon, is however not for the benefit of the people of Cameroon but for the benefit of the French. Cameroonians stand on solid grounds when they decry French intervention in the country. However, since it is in Paul Biya's interest to keep Cameroon under France, he is eternally grateful for French intervention.

The Ambazonia people decrying French intervention, however, do not stand on good grounds because they are doing the same thing Paul Biya is doing and which J-F Bayart rightly saw - mortgaging the Southern Cameroons to foreign interests as well. Given that most of the leaders of this group are in foreign lands and working with foreign groups to see their vision materialize, if Ambazonia becomes independent, it will also be a client state to Western interests. In this light, Ambazonia will not be different from what is going on now in Cameroon. The extraversion will continue, to the detriment of the people. The only question appears to be what kind of extraversion one prefers - the current situation or what may emerge from this war?

Humanitarian Aid and the Refugees from Southern Cameroons

The continued brutality of the war between Ambazonia fighters and Cameroon's military has led to the flight of many from home and hearth that have in some cases been burnt to the ground. While many have fled to the French-speaking region of the country, others have fled into the forest, where they have made make-shift homes. Life in the forest has been unbearable due to the lack of basic means of sustenance. Food, water, and medicine are hard to come by. Women give birth in the forest in very dangerous circumstances. This situation of desperation has rightly pricked the consciences of many who are organizing supplies for those who are refugees in Nigeria and in the forests of Southern Cameroons. Thus, humanitarian aid have been flown from Europe and the United States and the Biya junta is also raising money it claims is intended to help the victims of the conflict.

Even though the humanitarian aids are quite worthwhile, it is also very important that focus should not be placed mainly on this aid as many Southern Cameroonians are doing. Several studies have shown that humanitarian aid may actually lengthen conflict. In other words, humanitarian aid in the context of the war in Cameroon may do more harm than good in that it may help fund the continuation of the conflict.

The provision of humanitarian aid, worthy as this may be, should be done in the context of other measures that are being taken to end the conflict. The best thing one can do for those who are now living in the forests is to bring them to a situation of peace. Those who are providing humanitarian aid should therefore be clear about the vision they have in mind. In other words, what is the purpose of the humanitarian aid. Is it just to sooth the words of the injured so that the war may go on or is it a strategy in a broader framework to bring about peace?

Given that the Biya junta does not even acknowledge that there is a war in Cameroon and Ambazonia people are vowing to fight to the last man or woman, there is no clear path to a state of peace at this point. Without such a clear path, humanitarian assistance is just a means to prolong the war as more refugees are being created each day. The goal of humanitarian assistance should not only be to provide temporary relief for those in agony. It should be to bring about a state of stability where the things that bring agony have been removed. Humanitarian assistance should not be about making war. It should be about making peace. If you are not working for peace, then what you are doing is not humanitarian.