" I have a dream that one day, my four little children will not be
judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their
character" Martin Luther King Jr.
... judged by the content of their character. Content of their character.
What a lofty ideal. What a universally correct ideal.
As America celebrated Martin Luther King Jr day, this week, I was
forced to look into the struggle of the black American people as a
whole - their past suffering, present predicaments, but also how far
they have come from the day when a generation of courageous voices
just could not keep quiet anymore. I was particularly struck by the
massive difference one man could make by saying something so
universally true, and so alarmingly obvious that it makes people
wonder why they had not thought of it like that before; it makes them
ask themselves 'What have we been thinking?";it starts a self reflection;
a soul-searching appeal not to emotion or societal norm but to conscience
and common sense. He puts it in such a simple and accessible way
that everyone could to stop, think and take notice. I am glad people took
notice of this vocal generation - our world is better for it. Like Dr. King,
Mandela or Ghandhi, we are pointed towards the fact that it is a moral
handicap to keep quiet on any injustice or bias we find in our
community or society , no matter how small.
It is our duty to call it out, like it is, and hope that
those with the power to change, can hear , listen, rethink, and change
course. Usually not for the betterment of the generation that starts
this change, but in preparation for a generation that will reap the
benefits and be better for it. Something I like to term generational
sacrifice. A worthy idea which has been done before, and an example to
be emulated by all who see a need for a change.
It would be a terrible mis-characterization to compare the struggles
of all these people in the world to something as insignificant as what
I call our 'Anglophone problem'. And this is not what I want to do. I
am simply borrowing the mindset by which these sacrificial generation
of people faced their problems, and postulating that their modus
operandi of 'speaking out , and making it plain ' can engender positive
discourse and possibly change our societal ills, especially when
succinctly and honestly presented.
Every society has its ills.... I think it is a sociological mainstay
for a people to seek and guard their identities by championing their
individuality and superiority, usually at the expense of another such
sociological group. I even contend that identity is a good thing, for
it tells us who we are, and gives us a sense of belonging. But what I
think is wrong with the quest for identity is the latter part of that
statement; when our quest for identity and society overshadows our
humanity and common sense. When a need to feel superior or even just
different, makes the yardstick for judgment identity, not “content of character’.
I want to think we are humans first, and then African, or
Americans later; That we are Cameroonians first, before anglophone or
francophone; That we are Anglophones first before we are 'sawa' or
'graffi'.
I have reduced this really universal concept down to a small
problem in a small nation in a small corner of the world. I am writing
on a problem which hits close to home, my home. But I am writing
because I can't stay silent and watch generation after generation make
the same mistake -consciously or unconsciously - the latter being even
more dangerous than the former.
A little background.
As a Cameroonian , I was born and bred in the English-speaking part of
that nation, whose people are called the Anglophones. Anglophones are divided along
provincial lines; the northwest and southwest . Their people share a
common bond of being governed by the British during colonial times
before being joined to the French part of Cameroon after the colonial
era ended. This is no history lesson; just a pointer towards a very
common ancestry shared by us. As is the case with the whole of
Cameroon. These regions are home to a large array of tribes, and an
even larger set of villages, each with their own heritage, culture and
worldview. But due to colonial boundaries and administrative
geography, the northwest and southwest have fostered a separate
identity following provincial lines, and an animosity against each has
brewed and spread from one generation right down to mine; something
I inherently have a problem with!
Let me tell u a story - My story.
Thing is, I was raised in the southwest by parents from the
northwest. As a child playing with all the other children, we spoke
Pidgin and English together, and I was totally comfortable with them
having a separate tribal language , as we did at home. But as I grew older,I
came to realise there was more to this issue when a set of 'more
informed' kids at school called me 'Mojili' (which loosely translates
to stranger, but in a derogatory sort of way). My understanding grew
as I learned and realized that though I was born and bred here in the
southwest ( and at that time knew more words in the local language
than I knew of my parents language), I was intrinsically not
classified as being a 'sawa'. My name, and not my life , environment
nor influences or character already assigned me into a group of people
far away from those I knew and was born with. If that were all, then I
would have no reason to write this, because heritage follows us
everywhere we go. The issue is that I was not only bundled with the
northwest, but was bundled with the stereotypes and the resentment
felt towards the northwesterner or graffi people, by the
southwesterner or sawa people (both terms technically inaccurate, but
widely and loosely used).
As an assigned 'graffi boy', I was supposedly by nature avaricious,
uncivilised (forget that I learnt my manners from the sawa part of my
world), dirty, uncouth , highly unintellectual and
unsophisticated,having no 'joie de vivre', lacking in swagger and
above all not to be trusted. As a kid, I couldn't understand these
differences, neither could I comprehend the resentment showed to me by
some of my peers. I thought I was relatively civilised, with a good
enough IQ, and my mother used to scrub me spanking clean on a regular
basis!! And having mastered 2 languages (pidgin is a language too),
and knew a couple of words in two others (bakweri and Ngie), I figured
I could be considered quite sophisticated for my age, and I had mad
Micheal Jackson skills ( hence excess swagger)! But helas, that was
not how I was seen. These kids, who were actually worse than me in
school, made it a point to draw the lines with me on the 'other' side
every-time an opportunity arose. Not to worry...I wasn't
'psychologically damaged ' as should be the modern case here (I grew
up in Africa, ok ? We generally come tougher than that!), but I became
painfully aware of this bias and resentment towards the graffi people
in sawaland, my land (or so I thought!).I discovered a deep rift between
who I was, and who I was supposed to be. A divide and
disconnection of my person that had been engendered through
colonialism and fostered through a build-up of resentment that grew
(in my understanding) from the massive resettlement of the graffi in
sawaland due to the enormous natural resources therein, and the
availability of plantation jobs in this region. Furthermore,the 'mixing' of its
people using a job transfer system by the Cameroonian government that
moved families and people all around the country, away from their
tribes and villages also contributed to this resettlement. Terms like
'cam no go', 'Mojili', to name a few were thrown around with
regularity, and even used as a political tool by politicians.
(Cue in Teenage me ) Due to secondary school choice, I had my
secondary and high school education in northwest province. I in turn
came in contact with the graffi side of the stereotypes. Now, my
family name is quite anomalous for the region from which my Dad hails
(some Nigerian tribes also have the name) and fortunately (or
unfortunately), cannot be easily identified as graffi or sawa as most
other names can. Consequently I always got asked in if i was sawa or
graffi, since my name didnt reveal much. Growing up in sawaland, and
now finding myself in the northwest, I quickly realised what sawa
people like myself were supposed to be ; lazy, haughty,
materialistic, dubious and cunning, traitors of the Anglophone cause
(I will not even go there!), having too much joie de vivre, and above
all , not to be trusted!. Whew!
I began to understand that these stereotypes had become so deeply
rooted in the fabric of my society to the level that inter-marriage or
even deep friendship was almost anathema on both sides. A culture of 'we
are better than you' was so far entrenched even with the 'educated' of
both of my societies that if anyone wanted to know who you were...all
they needed to know what the spelling of your name! Content of your
character ? Not needed!... your name was enough! A sort of tribalism
and pseudo-sociological identity groups born from colonial
administrative lines (hence a misnomer) was what we had inherited. An
attitude of distrust which limited avenues of co-operation and
betterment of our Anglophone society in particular, and our country as
a whole. The rift showed up everywhere: in schools, local government,
and churches (yes, church!). Family members and friends will
tell me to marry anyone in the world but a sawa girl or 'Nkwah', because no
matter how they were raised or what God they profess, they will
still only love you for your money and will cheat on you with other
men! And of course my sawa friends could not imagine themselves with
those classless graffi men - all work and no intellect, no life, no
style, no romance ? Nah! Didn't matter if they were the most
accomplished professionals or the most expensively clothed people on
the block, they just didn't have the social swagger and aptitude to
attract or interest them. The verdict was clear ; you are who you are depending
on where you come from. And to keep the 'purity' of our more
superior ways, we will have nothing to do with you, your tribe,
your men or your women.
This is quite an alarming mindset which has been fostered from
generation to generation, given its really pitiful origins. Our
grandparents passed it on to our parents who have passed it on to us.
And from what I see, we are conscientiously passing it on to the next
generation of Anglophones.The saddest thing in all this is how hollow
and ephemeral its origins were. Our ancestries are similar, our
history is similar,our customs are similar, our common language (English) is similar, but our
administrative province different! And that tiny difference causes so
much strife ? How can such an intelligent and sophisticated people like us allow such trivial differences as colonial and political administrative lines build such glaring divides between us ?
Stereotypes are usually kept alive either by lack of knowledge, or
propagated for gain of one over the other. In this case, neither of
the above is in play here as none of sawa or graffi gain any benefit
over the other in actuality, and given how much more educated and
informed our generation has become in a short amount of time, our
behaviour cannot be tied down to a dearth of knowledge.
Our parents maybe had the excuse of little or no integration and hence a lack of
knowledge. They also had the excuse of lower education and interaction
with each other - we don't! We have grown knowing Enanga next door,
and gone to school with Ngwa. Bih was the girl with alot of style at
the school dance and Agbor was the hardest working student on your
university course. Legima and Nkemfack were the smartest kids in your
class; Che and Oben couldn't have been more similar in their dullness!
We have all seen these people , grown with them, and know them. It
doesn't take rocket science to see that a mixture of people brings a
mixture of traits, and we have become even more similar simply by
living with, and growing with, and studying with each other.
Content of character..anybody ?
If we are honest with ourselves as Anglophones, we will know that the
very descriptions we have used for the 'other' can easily be applied
to one or two people we know. And they are not sawa or graffi. Yet we
still propagate this divisive worldview and use these labels with
contempt....just because 'mammi' and 'papa' and uncle said so. We
distinguish ourselves; 'Northwest meeting', 'southwest meeting',
northwest football team' ' southwest social club', not just for cultural
heritage (I am not against cultural and tribal identity) but
in tandem carry on this animosity towards the other, both consciously
and unconsciously. This continues even in the diaspora where one
should think finding another Cameroonian (not to talk of Anglophone)
would be a source of joy, and an opportunity to celebrate the many
more things that bring us together, than those that tear us apart. We
still live in our parents world, and cling onto a worldview which was
passed down to us like a hereditary gene. The only problem is, it is
one built on less than solid foundations and one which hampers the so
many things we can do together. Given the advantages God and life
have afforded this generation- knowledge, power, travel, interaction,
education - we cannot in good conscience make the same mistakes our
parents made, by judging the name of the man instead of the content of
the man. We keep fighting our parents' war of words and
ideologies...thing is, we don't even know why we keep fighting, as the
reasons become less apparent and and the arguments terribly skewed to most of us! But it
seems like we simply can't stop ourselves. We are in perpetual motion,
and like Newton's second law have a lot of inertia . A braking force
is all we need; a call to civility amongst ourselves is really all
there is or at least a good starting point, because in all truth, there is
not much to fight about.
Stereotypes have always existed, and will continue to exist. But time
comes when a stereotype can no longer hold up; when the voice of
reason and humanity rises against it. I think as Anglophones, we are
at that time. We know better, we understand better, we are called to do better.
Name-calling and judgmental statements do not help.
Isolation - one from the other - doesn't help either. Stereotypes may
have some truth, but they are usually very flawed, incomplete , and
definitely obsolete with time and where there is shared knowledge, shared
humanity, and shared causes. We have these in abundance...why not
take advantage of them ? If we make a case of promoting our
individual virtues, then we will have even more cause to celebrate our
society and country when we include our brothers and sisters of the
same tongue!
Our individuality should not breed individualism; the former lends itself to
strong community, the latter undermines it. Maybe I am naive to think deep
routed stereotypes can be dissolved only by discourse and education.
But like all those generations of people before us, who tackled bigger problems
like racial barriers and human rights, I believe voices of reason at the
appropriate time can always go a very long way. For me, this is the
generation to start that discourse; the generation to raise that voice;
this is the generation to sacrifice and end this petty rivalry. At
the end of it all, we all just want to be together and happy, so in
the famous words of Dr King ' Why can't we all just get along?"
SoP - Jan 2011
