By Sah Terence Animbom
It is said that when you tell a lie to hide the truth, you must be ready to live the rest of your life telling one lie after another only to protect that truth from ever coming out. That has been the case with the government of Cameroon from 1961 till date. The government had systematically kept the real truth around the circumstances surrounding the history of the two Cameroons especially that of the Anglophone Cameroon until November 2016 when out of a sudden the People of West or Southern Cameroon burst out with this extremely rich reservoir of knowledge of all evil and unjust things that had been done to them in the past. This sudden burst was well amplified by one very powerful tool the Internet.
Cameroonians watched very keenly and followed every development from the Lawyers and Teachers strike to the coffin revolution and then to the ghost towns and to a total halt in the educational system in the Anglophone regions. All these were possible through the spread of threats and dangerous propaganda messages on social media. We saw government freaking out and running mad as they tried to look for terribly cosmetic solutions to appease a population they thought were as gullible as in the past but they had a tool; the internet which informed them every second. They had been told the truth of their origin via whatsapp facebook twitter and many other internet applications. Their knowledge of who they are and where they came from and what they truly have was thus deep and it would take more than cosmetic solutions to fool them again.
Government at this point was frustrated and had only one thing in mind. “Cut off their internet completely”. This happened on the 17th of January 2017 and the Anglophone regions of Cameroon were completely void of internet a complete violation of human rights. Cutting off internet access for more than 8million people was truly so much to do and that was just the exhibition of another form of discrimination showcased by government.
From this point, lives changed, in the course of three months we watched mega businesses that depended on internet crumble, we watched thousands of individuals lose jobs and we wondered if the collective punishing of all was necessary. Anglophone Cameroonians felt cheated, despised, inferior, and any other feeling of disappointment that could be felt in a union where people are meant to feel equal but their resolve was even reaffirmed to seek out.
Calls came from international organizations including the United Nations Organization on the Cameroon government to reinstate internet access to Anglophone Cameroon. Another prominent call was the Bring Back Our Internet Campaign by Access Now.
This shutdown became noted as the longest internet shutdown ever recorded in History.
It became evident that the international exposure that was given to the crimes against humanity committed in Southern Cameroon was a big blow to the Cameroon government and they were going to do all it took to hide their crimes from the face of the world which then caused the complete internet shutdown.
If truth be told, the internet has been the most effective tool in the Anglophone struggle reason government fears it even till date. Many are moved to believe that the many irregularities noticed on internet lines in the North West and South West is intentional.
Follow this link to listen to Cameroonian Voices on internet shutdown https://youtu.be/HUVmiSL4rQU