Falling Short: Cameroon's Post-independence Intellectualism (Culled from the blog "New Cameroon Views")
First Published on Monday, December 17, 2018, by the blog "New Cameroon Views"
The French-imposed system, the Biya-regime that manages it today, is severely weakened. So it boggles the mind that it is still limping along. We understand the neocolonialist aspect of the system; we understand its interest-driven nature, but on paper, Cameroonians of today are more intellectually prepared to dismantle this anachronistic French-imposed than the pre-independence generations it was imposed on. So, why are we failing miserably in harnessing our strengths, the opportunities out there, the system’s weaknesses; and why are we failing to comprehend the threats looming in the horizon?
As
a young man in the 1990s who was deeply involved with the country's No.
1 political force at the time (SDF) with virginal intentions, full of
idealism, as a voracious reader and someone considered by some as having
a respectable knowledge of our history, I thought I somehow understood
Cameroon and Cameroonians. I was also convinced that the
pre-independence generations had somehow been compromised (collaborating
with the French-imposed system and surrendering after the UPC-failed
resistance). So I thought we(the post-independence generations), would
be able to complete the job of ending French-neocolonialism and only
needed a unifying ideology that draws from the positive aspects of our
past hopes, dreams and our different potentials, a unifying ideology
based on Cameroonian nationalism, criticism, and self-criticism. I
thought our post-independence intellectuals would be able to furnish
that fuel, and so wrote extensively on that hope. Apparently, I was
wrong.
A
shockingly high percentage of the politically-vocal in our generation
of intellectuals is more brainwashed, socially-engineered, and is
haunted by a tunnel-vision more than those before us, even though we are
more specialized. The old folks used to tell me back in the 1990s at a
time that my generation was not actively involved in the struggle for
the "New Cameroon" that "…You are ahead of your time". Now I feel like I
am behind "the times" or behind my time, like an utopist, vis-a-vis my
generation that is now mature and at the forefront in the Cameroonian
struggle. In a world where people with differences, and where even the
different nationalities, races, countries and religions are harnessing
their mutually compatible values, tapping on their collective dreams and
forging alliances, we have descended to our basest motives at the core
of which is a "Native Mindset" with a political underlining that makes
many of us nothing but "Tribalists" or "ethnofascist". In many aspects,
some of us have become worse than the Cameroonian compradors---looters
and mercenaries that are mismanaging Cameroon using the fascist
French-imposed system in a manner that is perhaps even worse than the
neocolonialists had expected from their puppets. We are making the
pre-independence generations look like saints. It is as if some of the
ideas developed in the accounts like the ones below were a waste of time
and energy.
Cameroon's Post-Independence Intellectuals https://viewsnewcameroon.blogspot.com/2010/09/post-independence-intellectuals-and.html
The Demanding Task for the Post-Independence Generations
https://viewsnewcameroon.blogspot.com/2010/08/the-demanding-task-for-post.html
https://viewsnewcameroon.blogspot.com/2010/08/the-demanding-task-for-post.html
I
pray Cameroon’s post-independence intellectuals start comparing their
castles in the air with reality. I hope 2019 brings forth that
revelation.
Janvier Tchouteu December 17, 2018
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