Six Expressions Holding Cameroon Back
The writer identifies six colloquial Cameroonian phrases—from
I love the TV show ‘Narcos’. It is one of the most absorbing and riveting TV shows I’ve watched, and trust I’ve watched quite a lot. In one of the episodes Pablo Escobar or shall I say the actor who plays him says this “Las Mentiras son necesarias cuando la verdad es muy dificil de creer.”
Translated to English, it gives this; “Lies are necessary when the truth is very hard to believe.”
If I could, I’d probably change that to our motto because honestly nothing is more apt to describe the state that we all, Cameroonians, have sedated ourselves into -perpetually telling ourselves lies that confine us into a state of persistent mental servitude because we are afraid to know the truth. And it would seem we are afraid of the truth because it would wake us up from the willing prisoners that we locked ourselves into being. It means we would have to otherwise wake ourselves up from sleep and do something that will get us out of that illusion of comfort.
But funny enough believing in the truth, the real truth, will grow this nation beyond what we could ever dream it to be. Sadly, the lies we keep telling ourselves have been nicely packaged into expressions which we throw around colloquially without any notion of the grave consequences they have on us.
So here it goes;
1. LE CAMEROUN C’EST LE CAMEROUN: Commonly used when we want to deny ourselves something (or someone else something) because Cameroon doesn’t seem to merit better than what it has. Also used in exasperation when the status quo is standing in the way of progress. This expression was popularised by a minister.
2. HOW MAN GO DO?: A popular defeatist expression often used by people who do not want to speak up for their right. Can be heard at the SNEC office when people are waiting in line while the teller is eating comfortably during working hours and not serving customers.
3. N’EST CE PAS LE PAYS VOUS APPARTIENT?: Another defeatist statement and a cry of injustice against elitism. Can be heard when the son of the Director of something at some ministry takes you to the police station and has you locked up because you bumped into his car even though he was clearly on the wrong.
4. YOU THINK SAY YOU FIT? FOR THIS VERY CAMEROON? Yet another defeatist statement offered by those who have been so broken by the system that they believe every new idea cannot work, mostly because they believe some oga at the top will “block it.” Can be heard in quartier bars when the bushfaller is offering drinks.
5. VOUS VOULEZ TOURNER LE CAMEROUN EN LIBYE? The most cowardly expression you will ever hear. Mostly proffered by people with a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. People so used to having nothing that they do not think they can have something better. The Anglophone problem has shown us who they are. You can find them on Facebook comment sections.
6. PETIT FRERE, TALK FINE: We all know this. The greasing of the palm. That time when someone wants you to give them something before they render a service even when the said service can benefit hundreds of thousands of people. It can be commonly heard at the ministry of finance when you go to follow up your late father’s pension. We all need to wake up, people. Your words go a long way to define you.
What other expressions do you know of, that are holding us back? Let us know in the comment section.
- Wandji Wilfred
Le Cameroun c'est le Cameroun
The piece remains vital because it names the linguistic architecture of learned helplessness in a specific place, treating language not as mere speech but as a force that shapes collective agency and national possibility. Its diagnosis of defeatism encoded in everyday talk still resonates wherever systemic frustration hardens into resignation.