If history is not about the past but rather about the present which has been constructed by the past, then we are justified in claiming that the current strife going on in Cameroon is the harvest of the colonialism. This can be seen from different angles: first, the problem is defined culturally and linguistically as a problem of language and the marginalization of the Anglo-Saxon legacy in Southern Cameroons. Interestingly, the issue is not ethnic or "tribal", as African crises have been notoriously described in the past. The struggle seems to be about which colonial discourse to privilege rather than a clearer vision of the future of a people. The current crisis is a testament that colonial infrastructures have come to stay in Cameroon and that the way forward is negotiated only within the confines of this infrastructure. This shows a profound lack of imagination.
This is even more so given the attitude of Paul Biya's dictatorship towards the crisis. It has been handled in classically colonial manner through the use of violence. This is quite reminiscent of the violence meted out against those who fought against colonial violence during the heydays of independence struggle. Now the struggle is against the same colonial machinery with the only difference being that this machinery is masterminded by black pupils (Paul Biya's word) serving the interests of their masters in France. Compare this with the situation in Catalonia, Spain, where those seen to be leaders of a breakaway movement are taken to court and given due process, where no one was killed in the recent referendum that was outlawed by the state. Colonialism does not work through due process. Its aims can only be achieved through violence because its aims are rooted in illegitimacy and rapacity.
Thus, the so-called Anglophone problem in Cameroon is the harvest of colonialism in two ways. First, the crisis is located in duplicitous colonial discourse that denied the people of Southern Cameroons a right to self-determination and concocted the colonial state that is presently Cameroon. The rapacity of the postcolonial state forestalled any fruitful, imaginative insight that may maintain balance in said situation, exacerbating the fragility of the state. Perhaps a state that is built on duplicity cannot last. Second, the Anglophone problem is a harvest of colonialism because of the response of the Biya junta - through the characteristic violence copied from the colonial state. Instead of addressing the protests of the people through dialogue, the people are thrown in jail and massacred. The blatant disregard which colonial regimes demonstrated against Africans is now being mimicked by the Biya regime. Robin Kelley is therefore right to observe that "while colonialism in its formal sense might have been dismantled, the colonial state" is still with us. In Cameroon, we are fighting about how to live as colonial subjects: are we going to live as British or French? Is it possible to be free within the confines of colonial discourse and infrastructure? Let's see what happens in Cameroon.
This is even more so given the attitude of Paul Biya's dictatorship towards the crisis. It has been handled in classically colonial manner through the use of violence. This is quite reminiscent of the violence meted out against those who fought against colonial violence during the heydays of independence struggle. Now the struggle is against the same colonial machinery with the only difference being that this machinery is masterminded by black pupils (Paul Biya's word) serving the interests of their masters in France. Compare this with the situation in Catalonia, Spain, where those seen to be leaders of a breakaway movement are taken to court and given due process, where no one was killed in the recent referendum that was outlawed by the state. Colonialism does not work through due process. Its aims can only be achieved through violence because its aims are rooted in illegitimacy and rapacity.
Thus, the so-called Anglophone problem in Cameroon is the harvest of colonialism in two ways. First, the crisis is located in duplicitous colonial discourse that denied the people of Southern Cameroons a right to self-determination and concocted the colonial state that is presently Cameroon. The rapacity of the postcolonial state forestalled any fruitful, imaginative insight that may maintain balance in said situation, exacerbating the fragility of the state. Perhaps a state that is built on duplicity cannot last. Second, the Anglophone problem is a harvest of colonialism because of the response of the Biya junta - through the characteristic violence copied from the colonial state. Instead of addressing the protests of the people through dialogue, the people are thrown in jail and massacred. The blatant disregard which colonial regimes demonstrated against Africans is now being mimicked by the Biya regime. Robin Kelley is therefore right to observe that "while colonialism in its formal sense might have been dismantled, the colonial state" is still with us. In Cameroon, we are fighting about how to live as colonial subjects: are we going to live as British or French? Is it possible to be free within the confines of colonial discourse and infrastructure? Let's see what happens in Cameroon.
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