I have been to the hottest of war zones from Kembong to Eyumojock, to Mamfe in Manyu division and to Belo, Batibo Bafut and Fundong. I have traveled through Ekona, Kumba, Munyenge, Mutengene and trust me I have seen the saddest and most precarious situations of war stroke communities.
Is it about the once booming Ekona whose roadside houses are all covered in bullet wounds and their surroundings now fit for the rearing of elephants? Or is it about the same sorry situation faced by my once economic giant Belo in Boyo division?
How do more than twenty five thousand people runaway from a single community? Who then will stay there? How do children stay away from school for more than three years and people are comfortable? I remember when I did some part time as a teacher of English Language and Literature in English. I built a wonderful base of communication between my students and myself. The students were mostly very young and innocent. Recently I traveled for one of my perilous investigative journeys to Boyo division and cannot say I am pleased with what my eyes saw. I saw the male students I taught moving about with long guns and reigning terror on their mothers and can now order me about as they wish. Ooooh I nearly wept for the girls but thank God I am an African man who believes in not showing your weakness before a woman. You can guess as myself that they are almost all pregnant. Some have given birth to their second children at 19 and some are pregnant for the second time at 18 with no one to take care of them. Oooh God!! Do we need a Moses for the doors of our schools to open? Can this dialogue of Monday to Thursday be the Moses?
How many more villages shall be burnt? How many more people shall be rendered homeless? How many more women shall be rendered childless and how many more children shall be rendered motherless and fatherless? How many more Amba boys’ heads shall be cut and how many more soldiers heads shall be cut? Ooooh, I lament and want to know if this long awaited dialogue can be our Moses to the land of peace and a land of normalcy where children can again regain their benches and classrooms and teachers who now are an endangered species.
Can English speaking Cameroonians from all shades of opinion, be they of One and indivisibility, Federalism or Ambazonianism put in their most well intentioned efforts to bring this massacre to an end? Ooooh, can this dialogue be our Moses. And send us back to peace?
Let us all take it or leave it. Anglophones have proven a very powerful point and made a very peculiar case and the eyes of the world are fixed on us as we move to dialogue. This is what I have to tell us Anglophone Cameroonians. I know we fear we are poorly represented. Even the finest sieve has one or two invisible holes that will definitely allow one or two unwanted substances pass through. Believe you me the government cannot hide the truth by sieving the wrong representatives from the right ones. There must be some two or three persons out of the hundreds on that table who will stand for the truth and the truth alone shall set us free even if hundreds of dishonest persons were to rise against three or even just one honest person, the truth shall yet prevail. Embrace therefore the dialogue from Monday to Thursday with hopes for a better tomorrow.
We have never been this close to something reasonable since the start of this crisis. To be here, looking forward to sitting on the dialogue table means our heat has been truly unbearable and no sort of refrigerator or AC at the Etoudi Palace or Mvomeka mansion or Swiss chic hotels can cool it off Biya’s head. Let’s therefore see this as the boldest step of a frightened child and encourage it by participating most sincerely with open hearts.
Ask like Fon Angwafor asked through the network of fons on Saturday, September 28, 2019 at Ayaba Hotel without fear of favour, the return to 1961. I also think a return to 1961 is perfect for the moment. But how can you ask if you don’t go to the dialogue table? Therefore take the chance, you who is the people’s representative and don’t fail them.
Remember you are the people’s representative and not the president’s representative or CPDM representative.
This dialogue is our greatest hope.
By Babano Bokalasi in Bamenda