Southern Cameroons Uprising: Resistance rather than collaboration is the only way ¹

Ever since the Southern Cameroons revolution started in 2016, the term “resistance” has been everywhere-thanks to the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.  The people of the Buea and Bamenda provinces of West Cameroon are now reading from the same script-thanks to the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. We now know that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime is not as powerful as we earlier thought and that it has cabinet ministers who do not think properly. The interim leaders have made it very clear that the policies of La Republique du Cameroun must be disrupted and a new, stronger Southern Cameroons must coalesce.

When an oppressive military such as that of La Republique takes over a peaceful nation, the opposition gravitates towards two ends of a continuum. On one side are those for resistance and on the other, collaboration. Attempts by Barrister Bobga Harmony and some Southern Cameroons activists in the US aimed at creating a Consortium in the Diaspora correctly points out that some individuals want to collaborate with Biya, despite the existential threat to the struggle.

But it’s not just Barrister Bobga Harmony and his friends in the US who are willing to sway towards Biya and his Francophone regime. The Anglophone Diaspora is also guilty. Francophone troops invaded your home land, raped and killed your children, arrested hundreds including the leaders of the trade unions representing the interest of the future generations, humiliated prominent elites from your constituency, disconnected internet services, militarized your country and their leader turns around and signs a decree that Francophone should start speaking English to appease you and many of you are now saying that it is business as usual!!!! This is not resistance, not even close.

When the Germans invaded France in 1940, every French citizen had a choice to make. Many rejected the Nazi occupation. They banded together to undermine enemy control, through intelligence gathering, noncooperation, and sabotage. The French Resistance was integral to Allied victory and the end of the Nazi state. This is what the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is asking from Southern Cameroonians.

Like some of the French who decided to seek peace and coexist with the occupation, Musonge, Atanga Nji and the many CPDM political elites who are willing to work with a Head of State that history knows is irredeemable can establish a puppet regime of Anglophones at Bonaberi in Douala just like some of the French did by creating the Vichy government.

Given how much progressive work and resources has gone into this struggle, it is disturbing to see that we do not have a radio station operating from areas such as Calabar and Ikom in Nigeria. To have a “wait and see” approach is a privilege many Francophone including Biya do not have. Women, children, the old and the unemployed are under attack now in West Cameroon. Accepting any form of dialogue with the regime as legitimate is to sanction their oppression.

Total resistance is the only way forward. But the frontlines need dedicated people.  Barrister Bobga was told not to meet with Baba Danpullo, he did!! By escaping to the US, he is no longer a front liner so he too should simply follow the instructions of the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. This struggle is not about UNESCO and the resumption of schools in West Cameroon, it is about the dignity of the English speaking Cameroonian.

Schools should remain closed, ghost towns should be intensified and Anglophone businesses should not trade with La Republique. If you want peace, you should be prepared for war.  The economic and political structures that hold the 84 year old Biya and his ideology up should be under threat. If the SCNC, SCAPO and the numerous Southern Cameroons Diaspora groups are unwilling to resist Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime, then it is on the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium to organize us and proceed with action.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai