If made regularly, public intellectual discourse and debates would
stimulate development and help the country move forward. Of course, they can
only be made by the highly educated people in our country. But for long years
now those of them who are English-speaking have refused to play this edifying
role. They are rather interested in helping to advance an iniquitous system
whose nefarious mission is to impoverish the innocent masses and subject them
to a life of perpetual servitude
By Douglas A. Achingale*
Have you ever pondered over the intelligentsia in Cameroon? If your response
is in the affirmative, then you must have realized that our country has them in
torrential abundance, Anglophones and Francophones alike. They are everywhere:
in academia, in government, in the civil society… And most of them who have
terminal degrees and other superior qualifications are exhilarated to be
distinguished by the somewhat intimidating titles of ‘Doctors’ and ‘Professors’
that are attached to their names. But those paper qualifications and titles
seem to be all what they have to show as highly educated people. When they are
called upon to ruminate about issues of national well-being, make right
judgment and educate the public so as to help move the country forward, they
glide uncannily into torpor.
Regrettably, this phenomenon is more noticeable amongst Anglophone
intellectuals. In the early 1990s when the wind of change coming from Eastern
Europe was blowing across Africa, the Cameroonian public had a feel of the
‘intellectualness’ of some of them. If they were not in the audio-visual media
– even if against the wishes of the powers that be – to raise public awareness
on important state issues and make incredible recommendations on the way
forward for our nascent democracy, they came out forcefully in the print media
to do the same edifying job.
And so we enjoyed either listening to the thought-provoking arguments or
reading the incisive write-ups of fearless nation-builders such as Tata Mentan,
Sam Nuvalla Fonkem, Bate Besong, Rotcod Gobata, Ntemfac Ofege, Boniface Forbin,
George Ngwane, Akwanka Joe Ndifor, Christmas Atem Ebini, Churchill
Ewumbue-Monono, Larry Eyong Echaw, Julius Wamey, Tande Dibussi Jabea, Jing
Thomas Ayeh, Taadom Sultan, Victor Julius Ngoh, Boh Herbert, etc. For those of
them who were journalists of the state-run Cameroon Radio Television
Corporation (CRTV), their contributions came mostly through the analyses they
made on the TV program ‘Minute By Minute’ and radio program ‘Cameroon Calling’
which today has unfortunately been reduced more or less to a panorama of
government activities.
But feeling uncomfortable with a regime they considered hostile, many of
these intellectuals have gone on self-exile abroad. Some others have simply
‘eaten soya’ or seemingly been intimidated to submission and so have stayed
mute ever since, while one or two others have died. For someone like Boniface
Forbin, he continued with this activity for as long as his sorely unique and
imposing newspaper, The Herald, lived on. Having worked under him for many
years, I also understood that he tried in vain to involve some members of the
academia in this noble endeavour.
There is therefore the absence of meaningful intellectual discourse and
debate in English in Cameroon today, be it in audio-visual and print media
organs whose numbers have significantly increased over the years, or in other
public forums. If Anglophone intellectuals must go out to talk, it is to
portentously justify a system in which a privileged few are seated at the high
table devouring tasty chunks of boneless beef, and the majority crowded under
the table rummaging for crumbs and sleeping rough. It is to invidiously fly the
faded flag of a groggy epicurean, who, despite his being riddled with bullets
of senility by the rifle of time, refuses to relinquish what should otherwise
be in the keeping of a more active, adroit and perspicacious patriot. It is
indeed to directly or indirectly defend their bloated bellies and questionable
bank accounts to the detriment of the hoi polloi.
An adage goes that when the stomach is full, the head is empty. Anglophone
intellectuals today generally have a bovine expression; they cast the image of
overfed layabouts, who, like drooling sedated porpoises, are almost permanently
in deep slumber. Rather than actively enlightening, their activities are
mundane and humdrum. They seem to have pocketed their heads and now reason only
with their stomachs. That is why all they are interested in is to sing the
silly song of a senile potentate and get ‘gombo’, appointments and promotion in
return.
Today, we can count with the fingers of our hand those who stick out their
necks and keep the hope alive in the newspapers. If it is not the acclaimed
public intellectual and erudite Harvard scholar, Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw Ebai,
it is the virulent and insightful former politician, Tazoacha Asonganyi. And
one or two others.
A few politicians, civil society actors and journalists of the private press
who participate in programs like ‘CRTV Club’ and ‘Press Hour’ on CRTV
television and who have the Cameroonian people at heart, often make an effort
to say things that are meaningful and helpful to the vast majority of their
compatriots. Unfortunately their speeches and ideas are most of the time
suffocated by the coordinators of the said programs who would tell you off the
microphone that they are seeking to toe the line ‘for obvious reasons’.
Whatever obvious reasons they may be talking about.
Meanwhile we commend the unalloyed efforts of the presenters and some
participants of the morning talk show on CRTV radio ‘Morning Safari’ to
enlighten the public on certain pertinent issues of state. At the same time we
deplore the decision of the management of the house to stop the firebrand duo,
Alice Esambe Tata and Kange Williams Wasaloko, from presenting the program just
because they were doing their job well.
Scenario
different amongst Francophones
The scenario is different amongst many a Francophone intellectual. There is
no doubt that a good number of them, like their Anglophone colleagues, equally
accept to be led by the nose like asses, owing to sheer greed. But there are
many others whom you cannot stop from feeding the minds of Cameroonians with
progressive ideas.
Watch the Sunday afternoon debate programs on TV channels such as Canal2
International, STV and Equinoxe TV, and read some of the French language
papers. You would agree with me that the Mathias Owona Nguinis, the
Babissakanas, the Bobiokonos, the Pius Ottous, the Henriette Ekwes, etc. are
gritty Cameroonians to be reckoned with.
Many would hasten to say that the foul-mouthed and garrulous Charles Ateba
Eyene belongs to this category of Francophone intellectuals. To my mind, he
only partially does, for he is someone who raises the problem of a fish but
refuses to talk about its head. He fails to understand that a fish starts
getting rotten from the head!
*The author is a Yaounde-based critic, social worker and freethinker
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