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.

Once, I came from Nigeria and went right to Yaounde to apply for a multiple entry and exit visa to enable me carry out field work in Cameroon for my master’s thesis. I instead got a good rude introduction to the Francophone system of public administration, general orientation, mind set and way of doing things. I was given a long list of documents to compile, for my visa application, including a fiscal stamp of 8000 francs (quite a fortune for a self-sponsored student like me at the time). After submitting the "dossier" and following it up daily for about two weeks, the visa was finally refused on the grounds that I was not a government-sponsored student! In 1986, after having earned my PhD degree two years earlier from the University of Ibadan, I quit a lectureship at the University of Ife and returned definitively to Cameroon under the impression that I had been recruited to teach at the University of Yaounde. I was in for a shock. On arrival in Yaounde, bag and baggage in tow, it turned out that the supposed recruitment had got stuck at the very last stage. I landed into plain joblessness, which lasted for over a year before my recruitment "dossier" (not without the kind intervention of friends and secondary schoolmates well-placed within the system) was finally positively sorted out. You would therefore understand that I felt personally very concerned about the prospect of democratization and liberalization in Cameroon. Some fans of Gobata are wont to refer to me as "the hammer of the New Deal regime" but any careful reader of my narratives would realize that, far from being the hammer, I have been the nail.

By the dying years of the 1980’s, Cameroon’s economy had started nose-diving, and corruption, as never before witnessed, had set in at the highest ranks of government, and Cameroonians were becoming increasingly uncertain as to whether the peaceful revolution of 1982 was a blessing or a curse. In 1990, some Cameroonians, mainly Anglophones, boldly decided to challenge the one party dictatorship in Cameroon by launching a political party (the Social Democratic Front – SDF) in Bamenda.

The first Gobata essays were published, at my own initiative, in a column headed "NO TRIFLING MATTER", in the CAMEROON POST Newspaper, published by Pa Augustine Ngalim and edited by Paddy Mbawa, and which used to appear weekly, if and when its dummy had been censured by the administrators and it had been authorized to appear. The column proved so popular with readers that many claimed they were buying the paper for the column and whenever my piece was not ready the paper was reluctant to go to press.

In 1993, I was persuaded by many readers to make a book of the essays that had already appeared. The result was THE PAST TENSE OF SHIT (Book One): Contribution of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon. Comprising 75 essays, the book was published by Nooremac Press in Limbe. A public launching, to have been presided over by Dr. Simon Munzu, who at the time was the spokesperson of the Anglophone problem and struggle in Cameroon, was planned for 18 June, 1993, in Yaounde. But the "administration" frustrated launching by sealing the proposed venue and by seizing the entire stock of the books on their way from the Press in Limbe to Yaounde.

NO TRIFLING MATTER, however, continued appearing in the CAMEROON POST until 1994 when I felt I had exhausted my originality and would only be repeating myself if I continued writing. I stopped writing, but not before publishing a book of the 50 essays that had been written since the seizure of THE PAST TENSE… The book was given the title: I SPIT ON THEIR GRAVES (Book Two of the Past Tense…): Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle in Cameroon. Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi, the charismatic "book seller" of Bamenda and hero of the defiant launching of the SDF on 06 May, 1990, accepted to write the preface to the book and Simon Munzu wrote the epilogue. This time around we were cleverer than the agents of repression and kept both the time and place of publication a closely guarded secret.

I was, however, not allowed to take my well-deserved rest from scripting. Tremendous pressure from all directions – publishers, editors, readers, friends, colleagues, etc. - was brought to bear on me to continue writing. I reluctantly gave in and resumed writing a weekly column in the CAMEROON POST under the new rubric COCKTAIL…From the Son of Gobata. The column was short-lived (flourishing only between March and July 1994) and this owing to the instability of the newspaper itself and the fact that towards the end of 1994 I left Cameroon for Germany on a fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The fifteen essays of the Cocktail are published as the Appendix to my book Democracy and Meritocracy: Philosophical Essays and Talks from an African Perspective, Berlin, Galda & Wilch Verlag, 1996.

On my return from Germany in 1996, I resumed writing in the same newspaper whose publisher-ship had now been acquired by N. N. Susungi. I wrote under the new rubric: IN THE SPIRIT OF GOBATA, until around June 1997 when the CAMEROON POST collapsed under its own weight from internal problems and virtually ceased appearing. THE POST, with Francis Wache as Editor-in-Chief and Charlie Ndichie as Editor, got erected on the ashes of the CAMEROON POST and I eventually resumed writing infrequent but well-highlighted Gobata essays in THE POST until around 2001 when other time-consuming commitments and frequent traveling made it impossible for me to continue writing. In 1998 I published the last 33 Gobata essays of the CAMEROON POST as Part Two of my book ROAD COMPANION TO DEMOCRACY AND MERITOCRACY (Further Essays from an African Perspective), Bellingham, USA, Kola Tree Press.

The occasional Gobata essays of THE POST are the only ones which have never been otherwise published as a collection. They are available for your reading pleasure on this site which will, moreover, resume regular publication of Rotcod Gobata in the very near future.

Links to the Gobata Essays
1) GOBATA ESSAYS: In the Spirit of Gobata
2) GOBATA ESSAYS: Matters of the Moment
3) GOBATA ESSAYS- No Trifling Matter

Comments

[Feli]

I used to enjoy your column. I own a copy of I SPIT ON THEIR GRAVES (Book Two of the Past Tense…): Testimony Relevant to the Democratization Struggle in Cameroon and whenever I think the struggle for democracy is taking a little too long, I read the preface over and over again , and then I become motivated. Good job!

[Celes]

Good to know that Gobata is waxing stronger. But can we have all you were writing in Cameroon Post as a Document???

[Hi]

The links to the Gobata Essays are above, at the bottom of the essay. They read clearly, "links to the Gobata Essays"

[kingsley wara]

Kudos to Gobata and the Gobata essays-intelligent insights on contemporary Cameroonian political issues presented with an unmatched mix of humour.

[kingsley wara]

Still anxiously awaiting the much cherished Gobata essays