The struggle for the liberation of Southern Cameroons from the stranglehold of La Republique du Cameroun has been going on for decades upon decades without any fruition because of flawed slogans like “We will resist you until we get our freedom” and strategies like Ghost Towns, boycotts and civil disobedience. These have been used repeatedly and in varying degrees for decades because of the gentlemanly, understanding and peace-loving nature of the people of Southern Cameroons. The one thing that has never been done is that La Republique has never had a taste of her own medicine. Anything you resist without attacking will naturally overpower you eventually because resisting from beneath cannot last as long as exerting pressure from above. It’s that simple and logical. To borrow from citizens of La Republique: “ils vont se fatiguer.” Think of it as a wrestling match with your oppressor on top of you. You can resist from beneath but it is only a matter of time before you break. Your best way out is to find a way to punch the oppressor somehow. The time he gasps, that’s your way out of his yoke. Believe me, he will think twice if he plans to get on you again. This is the exact scenario of the struggle for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons. We erroneously think the oppressor lying on top of us with his full might will one day get up and leave because we are resisting and crying from beneath. Even in the game of football, a sport Southern Cameroonians love very much, most tacticians will tell you attack is the best form of defense.

Today we woke up to the news of over one thousand troops sent to Southern Cameroons to add more force and re-energize the oppressor. Yet we prefer to continue suffocating and choking under this weight. What if these soldiers had other business to take care of in their own backyard in La Republique? What if they had to go guard school buildings in La Republique? What if they had to go liberate their own sons and daughters abducted right in their own towns and villages and held captive in unknown destinations? What if their own families had to worry about one of theirs suddenly disappearing? That would be the gasp I mentioned earlier and the chance for Southern Cameroons to restore her freedom. That would be giving the oppressor a taste of his own medicine.

Over the decades, because of the suffering in our land, hundreds of thousands of Southern Cameroonians have fled the land to foreign countries in search for greener pastures. The worst side of this brain drain has been the resettlement of many Southern Cameroonians in the oppressor’s land. In every nook and cranny of La Republique du Cameroun, there is a Southern Cameroonian, either serving as a slave or unable to fully assert his or her identity for fear of repression. Many have been brainwashed to the point where they have become tools against the struggle for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons. However, there are some valiant ones that have grouped themselves into solid communities and have done their best to holdfast to the values and ethics of Southern Cameroons. Such communities can be found in many towns in La Republique like Douala, Yaoundé and Bafoussam. It is our collective responsibility to work with these groups and take the war to the doorsteps of La Republique. The reason why many people in La Republique see the current crisis as something in a distant land looking more like a movie that they can sit and watch on TV at dinner time and worry less about it, is because they don’t have a taste of it and they don’t feel it in their own backyard. Until we go this extra mile of taking the war to their own land, we are doing nothing but a remake of the events of the 70s, the 80s and the 90s.

The annexation of La Republique du Cameroun must be launched as soon as possible. It’s wrong, totally wrong to ask Southern Cameroonians to stay –hide- at home like cowards. For decades they have been staying at home and yet the oppressor has on several occasions infiltrated those homes and abducted them still. So what next? Should Southern Cameroonians stay at home and in the bedroom and under their beds or in the toilets? No! We get out and infiltrate the land of La Republique, until the soldiers stationed in Southern Cameroons realize there is more business to take care of in their own homeland than there is in Southern Cameroons. We all know where to go in any town in La Republique because we have our people living there in big communities, from Maroua to Ebolowa. Someone goes missing in Kumba someone goes missing in Mbanga. They abduct in Buea we abduct in Yaoundé. They burn a school in Bamenda we burn the next in Douala. Let there be a state of emergency but over the entire disputed territories.
The United Nations we are all looking up to is like the chief of your village settling a dispute between you and your neighbor whose daughter is married to that same chief. That chief can only intervene if he sees that his in-law’s life is threatened because his wife will have to leave the palace to go look after the situation. What we have been doing so far is telling the chief that our neighbor, his in-law is a bad man. You can imagine how the chief laughs over the issue with his in-laws when they dine and wine. The annexation of La Republique will bring us the intervention we so much desire.

Go ahead and tag me a warmonger. Thanks and welcome to the war if you didn’t know we were in one already. If we prefer to continue flirting with our rapist decade after decade, crying foul from beneath and saying we are resisting the rape without kicking back, biting a finger off, scratching a face, hitting him with whatever we can lay hands on, then in my opinion it is better for us to just zip it and enjoy the rape because I am yet to see a plunderer who says “I have had enough of the booty, goodbye my friend”. My plea to the current leaders of this struggle is thus: Stop focusing on ways to resist La Republique du Cameroun, focus on ways of attacking La Republique du Cameroun and more importantly, taking the war to their own homeland. It’s doable, very feasible and even without machine guns and tankers. It’s a big game changer.

Ndoh Emmanuel

By a Southern Cameroonian in anguish