If there is any city in the Southern Cameroons where the events of the Revolutionary Friday were least expected, then it is Buea, the Political Capital of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. Most denizens of Buea and those outside who had been monitoring events in the city had already mapped it out as one of the places where the protests were not going to hold. Even the colonial governor knew he had captured the city and so did not see the protests coming. That is why many are still in shock and disbelieve following the massive crowd that turned out for the peaceful protests, and the resistance put up by the crowd at the Bongo Square before being dispersed by colonial forces.

Since the beginning of this non-violent revolution, the Colonial Administration in Buea has consistently employed all types of tactics to kill the momentum among Buea residents. These tactics ranged from disruption of ghost towns through the acquisition of taxis to ply the roads on such days, expulsion of traders who observe ghost towns from Council owned shops, money influence (bribery), promotion of divide and rule, among others. At a point, the increasing number of taxis plying the roads freely on ghost town days made some passionate revolutionaries to conclude that the people of Buea had either compromised or were very politically docile and complacent.
However, the events of Friday 22nd September, 2017 in the town did not only surprise many, but left the colonial Governor confused and heavily disappointed. It is therefore not surprising to hear him describe the population of Buea as dogs. After Friday’s event, Bareta News caught up with some residents of Buea and sought to know their feelings and what they think is the way forward as relates to the struggle:

In a chat with an educationist in one of the denominational schools who wanted to remain anonymous, he confessed that “I must tell you; the way my body is sweet inside, I cannot really describe it…the people of Buea positively disappointed many of us. From what I know our church leaders really depended on the masses to vindicate them following the legal witch hunt by government that they are supporting the crisis by closing down schools… but what happened on Friday, especially in Lycee Molyko was enough evidence that it is not them closing schools but the security situation is keeping parents from sending their children to schools… I hear students in Lycee were seriously beaten and made to join the protest, while madam Etonde was made to kneel and beg for her life… though this may sound absurd, I think God allowed it to happen so that they should understand what it means to be sabotaging a genuine course which will also benefit them when we are successful.”

Another denizen simply identified as La Pierro, also expressed disbelieve with the events and described the Buea man as a “hypocrite”. “… the people have been very passive in the struggle until Ekema and that Okalia man were already bragging that they were gradually succeeding in taming the struggle in Buea; but did not know that the people of Buea are green snakes. If there is any lesson I learned from the reactions of people on Friday, it is that, you should never trust a Buea man from his physical activities. You should be able to read his mind and know what he or she is thinking and not the drama he is acting in front of you.”

Linonge Joshua, a resident of Bunduma on his part said he is not surprised because Buea is made up of a calm and responsible population that overlooks plenty of government’s excesses not because they cannot act immediately but because they are always planning and looking for one day to pour out all the accumulated anger. He went further to note that it is interesting to hear some MPs resigning already from La Republic’s Parliament. “… if Senator Mbella Moki can grab this opportunity and also resign as the first Law Maker from Fako and Capital of Ambazonia, he must have written his name in the history books of Ambazonia … I say so because he is the only Fako political elite that has been very objective when talking about this struggle … as you can see, Ekema, his bitter political rival has already written his own name in history books in his own way… I strongly feel Mbella Moki should resign now and be counted among men that stood for the people when they needed them most”

Looking at the views of the people, it is clear that the desire to be free is burning among the people and there is every reason to say that our leaders must not fail this time around. They have the full support of the masses and above all they have the support of God. It is a good sign that some of our MPs in La Republic’s parliament have already expressed sympathy for the struggle and have verbally announced their decision to quit the glass house in Ngwaikele, Yaounde. While we congratulate them and call on them to make it formal as soon as possible, it is also necessary that they mobilized their lagging colleagues to join the train to Buea. This will not only fast-track the Restoration process, but will greatly weaken the colonial master’s resolve to put up a resistance that may result to genocide after the declaration of the Restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons.

By James Agbor

Buea, BaretaNews Correspondent