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| Dr Akwanga Stating a Point During Interview |
Wanted dead or alive by
the Yaoundé regime, because of his stance on the Southern Cameroons (SC)
struggle, Dr. Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga, slammed a 20 year jail term
by the Yaoundé Military Tribunal later escaped from the Kondengui Prison in
2003.
On the sidelines of the
2nd Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front
(SCACUF) conclave in June 2017, he argues in Part I of this exclusive interview,
that Yaoundé destroyed the first federation , a system that to him, would never
work for the benefit of Southern Cameroonians.
The Doctor of Philosophy
in Political Science (Conflict Transformation & Peace Studies) from the University
Of KwaZulu Natal South Africa, considered by many as a freedom fighter,
attributes the disagreements among the SC front line liberation movements, to
the fact that the many are yearning for freedom.
As Chairman of the
Southern Cameroons Youth League, SCYL(one of the Liberation
movements) he speaks about arming the struggle and describes Cameroon
government ‘s efforts in trying to resolve the crisis as measures to help
them to continuously keep the annexed under persecution, under control, under
check. Read on...
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| Tough Talking Dr Akwanga |
What
is your appraisal of the struggle for the Restoration of Southern Cameroons which took a different twist more than seven months ago?
In reality I don’t like
to look at the struggle from the prism of seven or eight months because when
you look at it from that perspective you will often lose sight of a number of
things. This struggle has been going on for more than two decades as a struggle
on the grounds of independence.
This struggle took its real shape when a group
of, at that time, Anglophone parents residing in Douala wrote a letter in
1984/85. Hon Jean Jacques Ekindi is fully aware of that letter. They were
complaining about the treatment being given to our people. Not our people in
Douala but our people in the national territory. That letter led to the birth
of the Cameroon Anglophone Movement in 1985.
Barrister Enow Nchong became the
first chairman and later on, the late Ambassador Epie. When he died the acting
Chairman Dr Arnold Yombang became the head of SCARM because the Anglophone
Cameroon Movement transformed itself to the Southern Cameroons Restoration
Movement, SCARM in 1984 after the two All Anglophone Conferences in Buea in
1993 and in Bamenda in 1994.
We
understand the struggle has been on for decades. How did we get to this general
level of the awakening of the Southern Cameroonian nationalism?
What happened seven to
eight months ago is that, the lawyers and the teachers under their various
trade union organisations were demanding
for better working conditions, the respect for common law, better salaries etc. The lawyers did not come
out for federation or independence. What I am trying to explain is that when
they came out they were looking at themselves.
That is what the people are not
realising. The lawyers and the teachers were looking at what was affecting
their world. The population told the teachers and lawyers that if they wanted
them to join, they should look at what was affecting everybody. The population
is what the lawyers and the teachers needed to carry out their strike action,
their pacific way of demonstrating, of saying no to the system, that we need
change in the system. The population now compelled them that if you want us to
be part and parcel of this game that is ongoing, you must follow our own way.
And the way was independence.
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| Common Law Lawyers Protest, Bamenda |
When independence came, as part of the platform
the lawyers now said okay, maybe we might go to ask something that is lighter.
That is how federation came about. What I want to say is that the lawyers and
the teachers and the general population, especially the younger generation of
Southern Cameroonians reignited the flames of an already existing struggle.
There
were talks of how the lawyers and teachers were manipulated. The Cameroon government through the Minister
in Charge of Special Duties at the Presidency, Paul Atanga Nji, said funds
exchanged hands, how some teachers and some lawyers were given money to
destabilise the country?
I don’t know what you
mean. Are they saying the population manipulated the lawyers and teachers
or the teachers and lawyers manipulated the population?
It
was said that some people manipulated the lawyers and teachers who later on, somewhat
“manipulated” the population…
Manipulated negatively
or positively? Are they saying that when the lawyers came out and asked for the
removal of all French speaking judges from our homeland and a total return to
the Common Law System they were manipulated?
I am not sure because we are not lawyers? The lawyers understood the
situation because it is their field and that is where they make their daily
bread.
The teachers who teach know what to teach. If they find people with an
alien language, with a system that is so different being sent into our
classrooms to distort what they have studied, what they are supposed to teach,
they had to intervene. These people come in with half cooked and half baked
knowledge to come and give to our children and the teachers said no, this is unacceptable
and destroying our educational system. Were those teachers manipulated? Is it
not reality? So when the lawyers and teachers wanted better working conditions
and started talking of federation and independence they have been manipulated
by some nationalists by going down that road? There is one thing people should
not forget. The lawyers and teachers at that time were first Anglophones, which
means the Anglophone problem at that time was affecting them.
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| Common Law Lawyers Continued to Protest |
When they moved
from Anglophones to being Southern Cameroonians they are Southern Cameroonians.
Who has manipulated me to know that
I was born under the torture of La Republic du Cameroon? With all the evil
things; torture, rape illegal arrests etc that are being done to our people,
you tell me, I am manipulated to see them?
I know you are asking me a question as a journalist, but I am a
nationalist. And I have told most of our journalists that, while we are
journalists, at this particular moment that we are at war, we cannot practice
journalism but nationalism.
We
can be nationalists but still remain within the confines of the ethics of the
journalism profession…
That is where there is
a mistake because if you go to the war front and you look at the way killings
are being done, the molestation of the students of the University of Buea and
Bamenda, you see the open killings and shootings and the rest. As a journalist
you will put yourself first in the shoes of those people.
You
will report the things that happen as they are…as they happen…
While you are
pretending that you want to do your journalistic stuff with the ethics those
from La Republique du Cameroon don’t follow those ethics.
They are protecting
their Republic. What we are telling them is that we are at war. Do you know the
story of Okokondem ? The Biafra guy who was
reporting about the war (the Nigerian-Biafra War) on the top of a tree?
That is the type of journalism we need at this moment. The journalism in which
you have to take side with what is good. I am not saying that you journalists
should report something that is negative. You must be on the side of the
positive, on the side of the truth. Our struggle is on the issue of truth. You
don’t need to feel guilty that they are going to say you are taking sides.
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| At a Press Conference in Abuja |
That
is your view; Chairman…In the wake of the struggle the government of Cameroon
took a series of measures. Creating Ad Hoc Committees, the Commission for the
Promotion of Bilingualism, the Common Law Bench at the Supreme Court, Law
Departments in Universities… I was wondering whether those measures are efforts
to resolve what is being known today as the Anglophone crisis.
There is no government
in Cameroon what we have is an autocratic regime. Anytime you call it
government gives it some institutional recognition.
But
it has a President, flag, embassies abroad etc…
No. Having embassies
abroad does not make it a government. Let me ask you a question. Idi Amin Dada
had embassies abroad. What happened to him? Everybody knew who he was. Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic
had embassies. Let me put it this way. To dress and put up a trouser does not
make you civilised. Why do we call Paul Biya an ‘animal’ though he does not
carry those qualities? Having embassies abroad makes it a state but that could
be what we call a rogue state. When somebody annexes you, they have the whims
and caprices to decide whatever they want to do. Those guys have not taken
those measures for our good. They are
taking those measures that would help them to continuously keep the annexed
under persecution, under control, under check. It wasn’t for the purpose of
trying to bring the people together.
It was for the purpose of putting us
in what, they call ‘our place’ as
Southern Cameroonians, as Ambazonians or Khuvites or whatever we call
ourselves, in that larger prison yard which they have constructed for us. We
don’t see the walls but the walls are there. They have blinded us and that is
where we find ourselves. So those measures do not resolve our problem of
restoring our independence.
There
has been a big debate about the quest for a return to a federation. Others are
demanding restoration. Some want decentralization to be truly effective. Call
them unionists. We understand that you stand for the Restoration of the
Southern Cameroons Statehood. If government maybe loosen the noose and proposes
a two or more federated states, might things move well again, for the two
Cameroons?
Are you asking me this
as a federalist, unionist or as a spokesman of the regime?
I
am asking you this as someone who is aware of your position in this debate and
as a journalist of course…
I don’t have a
position. The position I have is the position decided by Yaoundé. Yaoundé
decided that the only best way out for the people of Southern Cameroons is
independence through their actions. They have already taken the decision. This
is like a bullet. When you pull a gun the bullet comes out. Even if you realise
it’s an error you cannot run and catch that bullet. The bullet is going to do
what it wants to do. It is the same like words. When you throw out words you
can only say I misspoke but that would not change what the people have heard.
Let me put it this way. This is a French speaking country whether you like it
or not. And there is no Franchophonised country in the world with a federal
system of government. The only reason why Canada has a federal system of
government is because it is an English speaking bilingual country. Secondly
when they put up a federal system of government in Cameroon, which was not our
option, who destroyed it? They destroyed it because it is not part and parcel
of their norm. They are not used to it. They don’t even want a federated system
of government. Even as bad as it is, they would not permit it. To answer your
question I would like to say they have pulled the trigger and the bullet is
out. There is no way they can bring back the bullet. It’s independence all the
way.
I
have also observed that many Anglophone movements came up in the wake of this
struggle. You spoke about SCAM. We also know about the existence of the
Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, Ambazonia Republic, Southern
Cameroons Peoples’ Organisation, SCAPO, the Southern Cameroons Youth League,
SCYL, the Acting Governing Council, AGC, the Movement for the Restoration of
the Independence of Southern Cameroons, MORISC, and more recently, the Southern
Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium- United Front, SCACUF. We have also observed what some critics
describe as serious in-house fighting among Southern Cameroonians and the
movements. What is your reading of this
fighting in relation to the struggle?
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| With Other Restorationists |
If you want to ask that
question to an Anglophone then you are talking to the wrong person. I am not an
Anglophone. I am a Southern Cameroonian. If Anglophones are quarreling that’s
their business. Ask me a question that concern Southern Cameroons.
What
do you make of all the in-house fighting going on within the Southern Cameroons
movements and amongst Southern Cameroonians as the struggle unfolds?
There is in-house
fighting because there is no easy walk to freedom. I earlier explained to you
that we are a people that have been caged for more than 56 years. We are like
in an airtight prison and somebody, surely God, comes up and bore a little
hole. What happens to everybody in that prison? Everybody wants to get a little
bit of air. The strongest ones are trying to push back the weaklings to make
sure that they must be the ones to breathe that first fresh air.
But that is not all.
There are weaklings who are behind who are stronger than the physically strong
because they have money. So they are using their money now to bribe other
stronger people. Not for the stronger people to go and get that air. It is for
them to chase away the other stronger people so that they the weaklings with
money can come and breathe a little bit of fresh air. Until that little hole
becomes a gate not just a door there would be this chaos.
It must be a door
through which everybody can pass through and actually feel that freedom. In
other words until that little hole becomes the total breakdown of that wall,
when everybody can jump out and feel free, until when you will breathe based on
the size of your nose and your nostrils not on your physical strength, there
would be this continuous chaos. If we want to stop this chaos our people must
think. They don’t ask questions. Part of it is due to frustration especially
the younger generation. They counted a lot on our older generation. They count
a lot on us and when most of us are not able to perform it becomes a problem.
Part of the reason why we don’t perform is because we have started dabbling
into politics. We are making a mistake between a regime change, a system change
and the struggle for a homeland. These are three different dimensions. What
happened in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya and even what is happening in Syria is not
the fight for a homeland. They are fighting for regime change that has caused
this trouble all over. We are talking about having our own country which is
called the apex of a political revolution.
It is the apex to build your own
country where you can make your own laws and govern yourself. It’s different
from changing the system. So what is happening now is that with all this chaos
that is ongoing our people do not think that maybe my ideas might align with the
SCYL or SCNC. Others come onboard to say this is a time for me to make a name
for myself, a few minutes under the sun. They create their own organization and
in a country of 8 million terrified, dehumanized persecuted and imprisoned
people for 56 years that is a normalcy. We must think, and think again.
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| Doctors Akwanga and Cho Ayaba |
How
could the in-house fighting going to be checked given that some other tongues
are saying that the biggest battle in Cameroon is going to be fought among
Southern Cameroonians?
That is correct. The
biggest battle would be fought if our people don’t start using their head to
think. I am serious. It might be fought when I am dead because I don’t know how
long I have to live. If we become taken away by sentiments and just simple
oratory, we are not going to anywhere. That is why I have prescribed as a good
medication to end this chaos, the AK47.
That
is an assault rifle?
Yes. I have said when you buy an AK47 to begin the liberation of the
homeland we are going to know now who actually is the ‘kendeh’ (chaff) and
which is the real ‘corn fufu.’ The real people who want independence or freedom
of our homeland would be siftered. The stronger ones who have even the heart to
withstand what is coming, at that time would be there. The rest of the other
people who are social media warriors, who are the top revolutionists, who are
like the Malcolm X of the social media, would all dissipate because of what the
regime would want to do.
This is because if you are only talking I can’t stop
you not to go to Facebook and WhatsApp. But there is one thing I can stop you
from doing. I can begin liberating that homeland and you would have to decide
whether you become a man by casting away fear, or coil yourself and stay quiet.
Are
you talking about an armed resistance to the struggle?
Of course I am saying
that it is the essential commodity for us to go and end this disorder and two,
take back our homeland.
Would
there not be more chaos because some say countries which have fought wars face
challenges thereafter…?
Show me one country
that has fought war and after the war it was not developed and I will give you
a reason why.
Some
countries today remain insecure as a result of such armed conflicts …
South Africa that you
might be thinking about did not fight a liberation war. SA fought to change the
system. It is different from what happened in Zimbabwe which became the
breadbasket of Africa, until autocracy sank in and Robert Mugabe crippled the
economy. That is not all look at Namibia, South West Africa. Go to Wyndot and
see how the country looks like.
It’s not a very big country. Even at its worst
stage, infrastructure that was put down by the Apartheid system is far better
100 times than what you have in La Republique du Cameroon.
Its academic
institutions are far better and stronger than what you will find in LRC despite
the fact that we have not been in their situation. Now people keep saying that
war is going to bring more chaos and the rest. War in our context is a positive
evil. War is not good. I will tell you that.
Why
then opt for an armed resistance, for war?
No I am not opting for
war. We have been told that if we want freedom we must fight for it. That is
what we have been told but you cannot have it without sacrificing for it.
Listen, the Americans fought a war of independence. That is why they were able
to come together and build their country. Till date they are still quarreling.
The people of Texas still think they should break away.
There are some Southern
States which are still clinging to the confederacy. What is important is that,
war changed the United States. Unfortunately the good thing that came out after
WWII was the reconstruction of Germany. Because it was destroyed Germany had to
rebuild itself. It is also the same with Japan. I am not saying that war is
good. I am saying that there comes a time when war becomes a positive good. By
the way we are talking about chaos and war.
Who is the greatest warrior? The greatest warrior is God. God fought
wars for the people of Israel. There were times that God said go in and kill
everybody so that they don’t come and contaminate the good seeds of the people
of Israel, those who were chosen from the ten tribes. He does so because he
realised there are people he created who at a certain time become followers of
Lucifer. That must be destroyed.
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| Standing for Freedom |
People
have also been raising concerns at the fact that schools have not been on or
effective for the past academic year in Southern Cameroons. There are also
claims that it is harming the future generation of Southern Cameroonians.
I don’t want to go back
to the fact that there was a time in Ghanaian and Nigerian history when schools
were shut down for some time. When we look at their educational standards and
compare to our academic system, the Ghanaian and Nigerian academic systems,
were for some time, almost the best in
Africa whether we like it or not, despite the fact that they had those lapses.
Is
that what you want to happen in Southern Cameroons?
That’s not what I am
saying. Listen I feel for our younger ones. I feel for our children who are not
able to go to school. It is not what any of us want. Those who felt that this
matter could be solved pacifically thought that a peaceful resistance, staying
out of school and taking the brunt of the punishment for some time would be
essential than going out on a full scale physical confrontation were mistaken.
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| Graduating with a Bachelors, Criminal Justice and Admin |
We have tried that many have been killed. Many have been kidnapped and
abducted. Some have died or disappeared while others have been picked up and
locked up in different concentration camps all over LRC.
They did not carry
arms but they were killed. They were treated as if they were in a war zone.
The
rest of the world has told us something. The UN told us that it is an internal
issue and they are right. The issue of our children not going to school and our
courts shutting down are not the only problems that we face as Southern
Cameroonians. We face problems bigger
than that. So what we are prescribing is that when you tell students not to go
to school and do all the other stuffs you want to do, what next?
To
be continued….
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