I don’t know for sure if this is something which only happens in Cameroon but it appears to be more profound here; or it could still be I just care more about Cameroon so I put it under greater scrutiny. Whatever the case may be, I think it is something we must address and seek to eradicate.
I think it was Mockors who shared an experience of his at a musical show where Vernyuy Tina performed. He talked about someone commenting that Tina needed to change the way she pronounced her words if she wanted to have a successful musical career.
I’m sure Tina is a very stubborn person and with a little less stubbornness, she would have easily given up on her musical journey. In her song ‘Musica’ she sings “Your mental health has made you psycho girl you look like nobody;” You can imagine the life experiences that she has summed up in that line. God forbid Tina was not from Nso where tribalism makes for unconditional and over the board support of their own and she did not speak any of Cameroon’s one million dialects, I doubt she would have been half as appreciated.
One of my favorite Cameroonian singer and songwriter is Amatula. Her pen is world class but I find that among Cameroonians, she is received with a bucket of salt because there is nothing in her music that inherently screams ‘CAMEROONIAN.’ When I released my first video, my cousin almost got beaten for ‘lying’ that he knew me. His friends did not believe I was Cameroonian.
Even though I spoke some pidgin in the song, the concept of the video was not “Cameroonian’ enough for them to believe it was done by a Cameroonian. In fact, my first sponsor, ironically, was intrigued by me because I was doing something uncameroonian. After a heated debate in the class WA group, one classmate had to turn to Shazam to confirm that my song ‘Microphone Check’ was actually mine because it sounded uncameroonian. The most recurring comment on my early musical work was that it was uncameroonian and that was enough reason for me to be categorically dismissed.
I literally grew up in environments where I was not allowed to speak pidgin English. I did not get to learn my dialect for no reason of my doing but somehow you get the unwritten rule that to be recognized as a Cameroonian artist, you have to sing in pidgin and add small contri talk even if those are not things that are necessarily part of you.
Ironically, artists like Asa who is of Nigerian origin and who I could easily put in the same playlist like Amatula will be hailed here while Amatula will be looked upon as the rich kid whose dad paid for the school team jersey; reason she is on the school team.
I mean, someone openly protested my Tino Foy 4 President handle because it is uncameroonian for a young person to think about being president. I know many are in silent protest but that speaks volumes to the mentality we have as to what is possible for a Cameroonian and what is not – all mental barriers we so much try to pass for a universal understanding or agreement of what it means to be a Cameroonian.
In one edition of the Canal D’or, the First Lady sat through stellar performances of great artists like Locko only to stand up in celebration of Nyangono; the furthest south of mediocrity and plain buffoonery – that episode of the Cameroondocks seemed to me like an endorsement of Nyangono style music over everything else.
What we are currently trying to do is run away from our shadows and it is obviously not a smart thing to do. Nowadays when you even correct someone's grammar, you are met with....
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