PERSONALITIES OF THE STRUGGLE: Products Of The Failed Socio-Economic System Of Cameroon.
We are restricted mainly to online moods when we attempt to evaluate the climate of people's feelings towards the struggle. Poise Magazine took to Facebook to gather what people were saying about the struggle during one of it's most tense moments. We came up with the follow categories of 'strugglers'.
1. Traditional Fundamentalists - In a recent live broadcast on facebook, Mark Bareta called on the people of Ambazonia to employ any means necessary in the confrontation of military forces deployed throughout the anglophone regions of Cameroon. He stressed on the use of witchcraft/ black magic - singling out villages/tribes like Oku and the Bakweri people who folklore has branded as master practitioners of sorcery. This call has brought to light many of those we refer to here as ‘the traditional fundamentalists’ -Those who believe we can actually invoke lightning and use it in battle and the ‘takumbeng’ have real powers that can transcend the spiritual to the physical world. According to this group, the supreme court has no power over the village chiefs. These traditional fundamentalists have comments like (copied word verbatim):-
“all the jujus coming out on the first should be spoiled any military that comes close to it should die at the point, this is serious.”
“Any MP who doesn't resign now is a fraud. They don't represent the people so they should be arrested and taken to the palaces for trial.
2. Religious Fanatics - Since the beginning of the struggle there are many who hold the belief that only God can fight for them. These are the people that believe you can study for an exam but if God says you will not pass, there is nothing you can do about it. These are the people that run to the church when they should run to the hospital. These are the people that take no responsibility for the things that happen in their lives. They believe everything is happening according to a divine plan and their role whether in or out of the struggle is to sing praises to their God. This set of people have comments like :-
“Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God pray for us siners now and at the hour of our death Amen.”
“Mark forget about magic. Those people are stronger than us in magic. Only God can sttenthern us and give us victory”
”Martin Luther King was a pastor who fought for the freedom of the people and things changed! God hates oppression of his people!”
”Jesus is the answer. Those BIR also have their jujus. Please use Holy Ghost fire on them... please please.....let us use Higher power”
3. Anti Church Gang - Right after the religious fanatics we of course have the Anti church gang whose primary objective is to spell out all the times the church has failed to deliver on its promises or at least live up to our expectations. The Anti Church gang members do not have any strategies to offer. They are not out to tell everyone how to go about the struggle, all they want is to remind us not to put our money in the offertory baskets come Sunday. Their comments sound like:-
“Bishops u called them. Men of which God. Political rascals say bishops. A sorry na people way de still give offering or church contribution”
“ am ready to die and will not expect any stupid so call man Man of God coming for my funeral. You only serve people in church where thighs & offerings are concerned.Away from church and school you become deaf and dumb.”
4. The War Mongers - This group can tend to be the most ludicrous set of people. They all speak with so much confidence like they are reading straight from a page of Sun Tzu’s Art of War but when you read what they write, you would think it is just headset commentary amongst a group of guys playing TEAMDEATHMATCH on Call of Duty Modern Warfare. From this group, you’ll hear things like:-
“They don't care cos it's not their children. We must show example with the Mps. We should kill their children and wives”
“Mark those police and gendames are parating on our land cos we have no Ak47, so we should export AK47 and this nonsence will definitely stop”
“We need to take over an embassy abroad and swear in Sisiku Ayuk Tabe make the world see our new Ruling President of Ambazonian.”
“We must be organised.Let's fund a Gorilla Warfare.Let's bring in specialist from Yemen, Iraq””All people should buy petrol and make petrol bomps. In tye case when those BIRS were abducting our boys in dirty south, every one should have detonated and lighted.”
”Tell taxi men and bike men to match in front...use their cars and bikes to protect the majority...if the military men start to shoot let them march fire (drive fast).
“Those in story buildings should boiled water and wait for them when they approach from ground into your building”
5. The Angry Birds - This group specializes in off-commentary. Their pain manifests itself by draining their intellect. You can identify them by such comments:-
“Okala think he's handsome because of his broken teeth”,
“Arrest the DOs and take them to caves hide them there till further notice”
“Mark a owe u. After this struggle I will give u one of my beautiful sisters to marry. Thanks for your encouragement”
6. The Black Legs - This group consists of a minority of people who have no understanding of what it means to be consistently denied advancement in society because you come from a certain group of people or a certain region. These are what in the U.S era of slavery, you would call house slaves. This group never ceases to undermine what are legitimate cries of a people. These are the types that look up to the likes of Atanga Nji Paul and offer comments like:-
“Its clear now that u guys have got no strategy. Remember you are waging a war agaianst a very organized government with trained military. Statistically every major town in Amba has a military camp. U CAN"T FIGHT THE GOV't .”