There was a time when courage, bravery, and wisdom were more desired qualities in humans but things have since changed. In today’s world, respect is measured in sense of fashion, arrogance in ignorance and size of bank account. It is therefore not much of a surprise that courage is no where to be found in the hearts of many Cameroonians. This I think is the only country in the world where people hide behind cowardice and reprimand those who show courage for being “show offs” who think they are more important than other people. We all know the rhetoric surrounding things like protest demonstrations. We see people who are so afraid of standing for anything digging deep for all the derogatory adjectives with which to describe people who have decided not to lose all self worth and dignity.
I could feel the silent cheering and jeering for my courage when I confronted a customs officer at the Douala International Airport last December. When I tell my friends the story, they are rather surprised that I did not stick around the scene to take in all the ‘social points’ I just scored.
Any-ways
We arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. It was an unusually long time before we could get our luggage. Everyone that was on the plane with me had been waiting at the baggage claim for more than an hour.
Our bags finally started coming out and the the line at the customs was getting crowded. I advanced to the point where there were only two people ahead of my turn in line. I was very impatient myself. I had to work the next day in Yaounde and I didn’t want to have to take the road to Yaounde at night. Just as it was about to be my turn, a custom officer showed up with four white men, and without asking without caring for my presence, tucked them right in front of me so they can get cleared ahead of everybody else.
I mean, even before you can land in Douala, you are reminded in multiple ways that you are now in Banana Republic. All the other reminders I am used to and willing to tolerate but this particular one hurt me so much. We have written extensively on here about how the worship of white is a thorn in the flesh of our society - it really ached me to have to experience white worship at the entry point to my own country. Once again, I was being treated by my own people like a doormat while another man, only by means of being white is held to sainthood.
Any-how?
What’d I do?
You guessed right.
Before the customs officer could finishing directing his white men to get in the line in front of me, I already understood what was going on and I couldn’t help but call out the situation; starting with the custom officer and taking on the white people next. It took about a minute for the white men to realize that I was not going to back down. I insisted that they must tow and follow the line because our time is equally as valuable as theirs. They stood around for a few more seconds hoping that the custom officer’s uniform power will put me under control but they soon realized that I was colorblind to that uniform and even the custom officer himself was embarrassed. I hope they white people were also embarrassed for christ sake.
Very many people started to comment on the situation under their breaths. One beautiful lady smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. My friends think that was the perfect set up for me to get her number but I despised every nod of approval I got because they were all there and they all saw what was happening even before me since I was top of the line. They all knew it was something wrong but they all remained silent. Even when I gave them the face of the protest, they still did not show those white men that there are more Cameroonians that will not accept to be treated like humans of the third degree. In fact, what happened is, my luggage ended up not being checked. It had become in the best interest of the customs officers to get rid of me so they can continue in their nonsense without any more protests.
I’m sure even after showing them that their voices were strong enough to make a difference, they all resorted to silence when I left. I am sure those white men ended up cutting the line once I left. I am sure that they will think of me as the rare exception to the normal. I am sure they will have no reservations when they try to skip the line again. Or maybe you can prove me wrong which is what I actually prefer.
Two things will happen after you read this. Some of you will consider this as something I wrote just to paint myself as this person than is better than everybody else. Some of you will see it for what it really is, just an experience being shared to show you what happens when you chose not to give a blind eye. Until we gain back our dignity, we will never gain back control of our economy.
- Tino Foy