Cameroon was already a country of outlaws but since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis last year, security forces deployed to the North and South west regions of Cameroon have completely taken the law into their hands - misappropriating it for anywhere between 500 FCFA and how much anyone who is scared to death of a prison cell is willing to pay.
I am no stranger to being arrested for NOTHING so when that happens, I usually thank God that I have no job to run to- meaning I am always willing to stay with the police for as long as it takes for them to realize I didn’t actually commit a crime to warrant the threats they try to use to scare some change out of my pockets. Unfortunately for me, the last two times I have tried to get my point across, I have had friends who have paid to get me out without my knowledge.
Any- Ha!
Before I continue, you might have noticed that I used an image of the Ghanian police force on this post because in Cameroon, under civil law - as applied by francophone Cameroon, I can be given a life sentence without parole for using the picture of a police officer. If you think I am exaggerating, you might be right but that is really not an impossibility. Maybe now you'll understand why the anglophone lawyers have been fighting for us to maintain our common law system which works with precedent rather than the feelings of the judges and law enforcement.
SO -
I am not one to do a lot of outings but I was literally guilted into stepping out yesterday and I am happy I did because I had the chance to get a first hand experience of what the police have been programmed to think of the anglophones and what they are ready to do to make sure we remain an oppressed minority.
Earlier today, sometime between midnight and 1am, a couple of friends and I were on our way back home from hanging out in Buea. We did everything to avoid running into the police but as the lord works in mysterious ways, he just had to give me my Monday morning article in exchange for a little bit of stress and inconvenience to my friends who I believe do not feel the need to get arrested just so they can confront the police on any and many of the ways in which they poorly execute their functions and get a story.
It was sad that a town that is normally alive up till about 5 A.M was ghost by 11PM at a time when the government stipulated curfew, designed to jeopardize the planned declaration of independence by the state of 'Ambazonia', had expired. I mean we knew that there was a high possibility of us getting arrested but we figured, we had our identification, and there was no official reason for us not to be outside and we are just a bunch of free spirited people that do not want to succumb to threats to our freedom. In fact, we hate that many have been scared out of town.
Reports say dead bodies have been found on numerous occasions since the 22nd of September and all indications point to - the bodies are of people killed in police custody. So you see how people can be scared of leaving their house without their house ( by the way, that is not a mistake, just in case.)
Any- Ha!
So we dropped off one of our friends and while waiting for one of us to walk her to her apartment, a police vehicle pulled up in front of us - armed policemen with face masks jump out, forced one of theirs into our vehicle and asked us to drive to their ‘security’ post. You notice how I quote on quote that security? - Because it should have said “their terrorize them and take a bribe center.”
When we arrived, they identified us, took our ID cards and ordered us to get into one of their security vehicles. They wouldn’t allow us sit on the bench in the vehicle so we were made to sit on the tight ends of the floor of the vehicle. Whole time, I am donning my signature, 'when the police arrests you for nothing smile' knowing fully well that one mishap might take my living body from there to a bush lying lifeless. If you hear the conversations they were having then you’ll know my fears were grounded because as we fear that the citizens of 'Ambazonia' can become radicalized, the police has already been radicalized.
In the police truck, I spark a conversation with one of the officers. First question - Is there an ongoing curfew or an extension of the previous curfew because I am aware the governor had called for a curfew which was supposedly expired? To which he responded, there was an incident that occurred the previous day which caused the curfew to be reinstated. I told him there was no announcement to which he responded, “THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT NEED TO ANNOUNCE, WE JUST NEED TO ASSUME.”
OK Oh. OH CAMEROUN THOU CRADLE OF RIDICULOUSNESS.
I came up with multiple analogies to show him how what he just said makes minus 30 billion sense. I even had to explain to him -the reason we have a constitution and a penal code is because we can’t just assume things. I furthered the conversation by asking him about the infamous CA-PM, and if they, the police also get the messages. I had to explain to him that even if there was a curfew, we would hardly know because most of us heard of the last one through social media which has now been cut off and nobody really listens to or watches CRTV, la porte parole of the government. I asked him why CA-PM could not be used to transmit such ‘important’ messages instead of being used for……you know what I mean. At this point I realized I was asking questions beyond the stretch of his imagination. He was rather complaining about how the anglophones have made them have to work. “Nous on etait tranquil a Yaoundé…”
Then one of the guys who was held with us and made to sit in the middle of the road saw a black snake and alerted the police officers before killing it with his feet. The brigade commander is one talkative woman; shouting all the time and acting like she is on crack cocaine. When the other officers told her about the snake which had just been killed, she concluded that the snake was a totem that came from the mans bag. She ordered him to move his position and sit under the hood of the police vehicle. She started recounting stories of girls in her class that used to have snakes in their bags. She seems to be a super superstitious woman. I think she actually believed her Snake Hypothesis because she freed the man minutes later. Now I am thinking I should get a pet snake and move around with it. At least the police will think they’ll die when they mess with me.
There was another guy. I don’t know his story but the commander’s issue with him was that he was from Bali and according to her, the people of Bali are from Nigeria and they need to go back. She kept reminding everybody she knows her history. I am not even going to expand on this. I believe that is enough to tell you what those people really think of us.
Should we separate or should we not separate. Our country is terribly ill. Our civilization needs an upgrade because truly we still behave like bush animals.