FINALLY REPUBLISHED, THE PAST TENSE OF SHIT AS NO TRIFLING MATTER

The Past Tense of Shit…Book One: Contribution of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon [Limbe: Nooremac Press, 1993] was no trifling matter.

Compiled from essays that had appeared in the weekly column of Rotcod Gobata, in the weekly newspaper, Cameroon Post, under the rubric No Trifling Matter, between 1990 and 1993, this collection of 75 essays was seized, hot from the press, and confiscated by governmental authorities, without explanation, let alone justification, to this very day. Well, these essays have now been republished, with a new Preface, under the title NO TRIFLING M ATTER, by Langaa Books (2011). 

 Nearly two decades after the seizure of The Past Tense… the dictatorship in Cameroon is still going strong and successfully impersonating a democracy. Presidential elections are due in about two weeks from today and it can confidently be predicted that nothing will change, barring a miracle. Cameroon missed the train of political change as far back as March 2008, when we all helplessly watched as the ruling regime, for the umpteenth time, savagely raped the country’s constitution and begat a monstrosity under which the incumbent President, serving his second and last septenat, after two previous cinquenats, could be eligible for reelection indefinitely and should never be held responsible for any of his acts as President. From that moment I knew that Cameroon had missed the train for political change for as long as the incumbent President was still breathing.

All that has followed since was to be expected: THE PEOPLE’S CALL, ELECAM, and 53 postulants for the post of President of the Republic! Cameroon is a country where the absurd seems to be in the normal order of things. We seem to lack completely any sense of proportion. It is not inconceivable that any putative group of individuals would write and publish a book persuading or calling upon a particularly performant leader to continue in power. But to publish 5 volumes of a book purporting to be the diversified earnest and pathetic call all and sundry Cameroonians to a 78 year old non-performer to continue wielding absolute power over them, as their ‘natural’ dictator, is beyond the realm of the credible and well into the realm of the absurd. Since 1990, the political elite of Cameroon, anchored on the civil/public service, unlike everywhere else, have gone into partnership with the dictatorship and only a miracle will be able to rescue the country from their strangulating iron-grip. These are the defenders of the status quo, the real dictatorship, who will be ready to lay down their very lives to prevent any change.

In this scenario, it is very instructive to see the role of poverty in the scheme of things. Since the early 1990s the ruling regime in Cameroon had discovered the political importance of keeping the citizenry below the poverty line. The political rewards of keeping the masses below the poverty line are moumoucry and political sycophancy. The complete abandonment of road construction or maintenance in most parts of the country, in spite of the country’s enormous resources, is part of the strategy. Economic activities are impossible without road transportation and without economic activities how can anybody move beyond the poverty line? Meanwhile, a political elite will come by and brandish bank notes you had stopped seeing even in your dreams and you are ready to do his every bidding and die for him, if need be. The political elite, in their various posts, positions and functions have total free reign to do as they please with whatever resources are at their disposal, because there is no systematic accountability. They inevitably mismanage, misuse and embezzle whatever funds are at their disposal, especially for the purpose of financing ruling party activities. And this is where the Leviathan they are serving, putting all their talents and imagination into it, has a terrifying command over their sycophantic loyalty, because at any moment he can catch any of them and throw in jail, with the certainty that, when investigated, s/he will be found to have been corrupt in his/her post, position or functions. Those among them who are really hard-working, converting by whatever means unlikely groups like taxi-drivers, motorbike riders and market-women to become praise-singers of the status quo, are quite secure and need fear nothing, for they are the sacred cows of the system.

Surviving fans of No Trifling Matter are always asking me why I would not resume writing the column, given that there are so many issues and happenings on which they would have loved to read my incisive and provocative thoughts. But, for me, since nothing has changed since the 1990s in the politico-economic situation of Cameroon, I would simply be repeating myself, if I attempted resurrecting the column. I am even more convinced now that I have reread The Past Tense… and its sequel in which I spat on their graves and rested my case in the hands of God.

The ‘cinquantennaire’ of the Reunification and Independence of Southern/West Cameroon is next week, 01 October, and no one is making much noise about it. Why? Earlier this year, on 01 January, we all joined East Cameroon in lavishly celebrating with pomp, pageantry and fanfare the 50^th anniversary of the independence of East Cameroon, properly called La République du Cameroun. At the time of those celebrations we were made to understand that the ‘cinquantennaires’ celebrations would last for 12 months, culminating in the celebration of the Reunification which coincides in date and year with the independence of West Cameroon. So, what has happened?? Have we been deceived and short-changed again? Whatever the case, let East Cameroonians stop posing as the authorities and historians of West Cameroon history. East Cameroon history is no less rich and interesting, let alone controversial, than West Cameroon history and it also needs its own historians and authorities. Let West Cameroonians write their own history. To leave outsiders, no matter how friendly, to dictate our history to us is to succumb to colonialism or slavery.

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