Background to the "GOBATA" Columns and Essays
By Godfrey B. Tangwa
I started writing under the pen-name Rotcod Gobata in the early 1990’s, as an attempted contribution to the democratization process in Cameroon, following the so-called "wind of change from the East", in the wake of the collapse of the dictatorships of Eastern Europe, most notably that of the communist Soviet Union, and the awakening effect it seemed to be having on political systems around the world, particularly in Africa. The release of Nelson Mandela from prison around the same period, followed a few years later by the truly miraculous democratic breakthrough in South Africa, added great impetus to this wind of change. In Cameroon, the sudden voluntary resignation of Alhaji Ahmadou Ahidjo, and his handing over of the reigns of dictatorial power to Paul Biya in 1982, had ushered in great euphoria and optimism. Paul Biya rode on the crest of mass popularity as he made moves, under the slogan "rigor and moralization", to democratize and liberalize the hitherto heavily autocratic and centralized state structures.
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checks and balances, and sometimes even in spite of checks and balances, have ended being drunk with power, to the point of madness. I once visited the history museum of the pre-colonial ancient kingdom of Abomey in Benin Republic and was shown the grave of one of its most powerful autocratic-tyrant monarchs who pretended to be immortal and no one had the courage to contradict him. A young lady used to kneel in front of him permanently holding a little bowl into which he could spit, in case he happened to cough. If, by any chance, the sputum missed the bowl, the penalty was the immediate execution of the young lady! 
creatures of the earth can be segregated into the absolutely good and the absolutely bad, into angels and demons, good guys and bad guys, this could not but be the case. The putative axis of goodness and universal benevolence, purportedly acting altruistically on behalf of the whole world, with the prerogative of deciding the ultimate evils of the world and eradicating them by force, clearly stretches from Washington, through Sydney and Madrid to London. But, as has sometimes been remarked, “in human affairs, when all’s been said and done, when all accounts and books have been balanced, when the whole story has been told, we may realize that ‘the good’ were not so good and ‘the bad’ not so bad”. 
human being is rightly defined as a rational animal, even if at times s/he exhibits more animality than rationality; animality and rationality are constantly in a state unstable equilibrium in humans, the one or the other taking the upper hand at any given moment. Rationality, however, remains the necessary and sufficient condition for being human. But, even though rationality defines being human, human beings are not always rational in their behaviour, and to the extent that they behave irrationally, to that same extent are they less than human. Being rational simply means acting in a reasonable manner, pursuing good and justifiable aims, using the most appropriate means to achieve appropriate ends, having a sense of proportion in adapting means to ends, etc.
Although it is often controversial or misleading to make generalizations about Africa, one of the safest and less controversial of such generalizations is that human procreation is highly valued in African cultures. This should not, of course, be interpreted to mean that there are parts of the world or cultures where procreation is not valued. Procreation is a value for human beings in general and within all human cultures. But the ways and manner in which this value is manifested and expressed differs from place to place, from culture to culture, and these differences can be used as a rough gauge of the extent or magnitude to which the value is affirmed or upheld against competing values. There is no part of Africa where children are not greatly valued and where, as a consequence, large families do not exist or polygamy is not practised.
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