The title may sound pessimistic and even fatalist, but as a Cameroonian what this country teaches you when it breaks your spirit is that even when you are optimist, you should be more pessimist than optimist.
Last week was a peculiar one with regards to the general ambiance around an AFCON that has had a lot of off-the-pitch moments of worry. Cameroonians banded together against Côte D’Ivoire and supported Egypt in the match that pitted these two football nations. In a rare show of unity, Cameroonians on Facebook and Twitter sounded a battle cry after the betrayal the said they had gotten on the part of Côte D’Ivoire before and after the Cameroon vs Comoros match affair.
After about 30,000 Cameroonians had gone to the Japoma Stadium to support Côte D’Ivoire against Algeria, they could not understand how Ivorians joined other Africans in saying that Cameroonians are cheats and that they deliberately gave false COVID test results to the Comoros team - never mind that an independent lab, contracted by CAF, carries out these tests. Also, never mind that CAF took the decision to not clear a Comoros goalkeeper fit to play even after he had tested negative on the morning of the game.
But the one thing that sparked the fire was the revolution was a tweet by an Ivorian that said that if people died at the Olembe stadium on the day of that ill-fated game, it was God’s way of punishing Cameroon for the cheating they did with the Comoros match. This particular comment hurt a lot of people, and so, war was declared. Cameroonians planned to support Egypt in their game against Côte D’Ivoire. The turnout wasn’t as much as in the Cote D’Ivoire vs Algeria game (30,000 people vs 11,000 people) but Cameroonians had taken the issue even more personal and their support was off the charts.
It was a rare show of unity on a scale that I had never seen before, and many people immediately juxtaposed this support for the Egyptian team against issues the country is going through like the Anglophone Crisis, and said they hoped that going forward, Cameroonians will unite like that to solve the many problems and crisis plaguing the country.
As much as I would want that to happen, I tend to think that is a bit of a far-fetched dream. Let me tell explain.
One of the many slogans that have spawned from this country that I particularly abhor is “La Patrie D’abord.” Slogans like these are not born out a love for the country and out of the need to protect it, but out of an overzealous show of patriotism that is more concerned with protecting the people that are in an institution, than the tenets that uphold, and should uphold these institutions.
A lot of the people who proclaim that particular slogan and the cornucopia of similar phrases are the same people like that one guy during the Geneva protest in 2019 who complained that Paul Biya went there to rest, and asked why Cameroonians not have respect for the father and the patriarch that he is, enough to let him rest.
A lot of things are wrong in our country; tribalism, nepotism, corruption, fear of meritorious individuals and you can add some to the list. The thing is our country, pretty much like communists china, is built around upholding a façade. And this façade is built around preserving the image of the institution, except that the institution is not incarnated by the rule of law and the independence of the different arms of government, and of the strength of the institution itself. Rather, it is incarnated in the president, and the imagery ascribed to him. This can be seen in the strong personality cult we have going on.
In this system, many people stand to benefit from the internal disorder that exists. Individuals have always put themselves before the communal benefit. It is something that happens everywhere. The American congress is after all, one of the most corrupt institutions in the world. The difference, however, with Cameroon, is the terrible lack of empathy, the abysmal proportions to which people want to dip their hands into the cookie jar, and the lack of a fair and equitable system of checks and balances.
The #EndPhoneTax saga is an example of an institution failing in its duty, and the burden of the solution being shifted onto the people. Of course, many people stood the gain and that is why it was thought of as a solution. Ironically we saw people who do not stand to benefit, support the institution. This is because they recognized that the mechanism that produced that terrible solution is the same that makes them benefit in other places. At the end it is all just a game of cupidity and avarice. And money corrupts, tremendously.
And even with the best of Cameroonians that try to distance themselves from such things, growing up in this environment eventually rubs off on you. That is why in the wake of the Olembe deaths, we had faaaar more people fighting the rest of Africa over football, than they did in asking questions about the Olembe deaths.
Lucky for us, CAF has asked for a swift inquiry into the matter, and since everything in Cameroon is a matter of pretense and maintaining the façade to the glory of the “father of the nation” we will have a report soon enough. It will be a huge blow to our aforementioned façade if the finals are not played there.
When it comes to our own internal problems, there are a lot of forces at play. Tribalism alone will make a lot of Cameroonians prefer to live in a street with roads that are not tarred, than to have someone climb to a position in which he will have the roads tarred. A lot of people are looking out for themselves, or carving their own vassal states and fiefdoms. A lot of people tilling the soil in this vassal states are happy because they feel that by working/associating with a person makes them feel superior to others, even when the other person is actually superior. And when actually, the master they want to associate with, is just using them. Trying to bring about equity will create an imbalance that will cause many people to lose a lot; and they most certainly do not want that to happen.
We might never get out of it. It has been ingrained quite much into us. Perhaps if we do, it will likely not happen in our lifetime. So brace yourself, do your part, and hope for the best.
- Wandji Wilfred