25, December 2017
The Southern Cameroon crisis: bridging the middle ground 0
There is an ongoing crisis in Cameroon. Thousands have fled the English-speaking areas of the country because of violence and unrest, and many are calling for an independent state. What has the government done to alleviate this situation, and does it go far enough?
For several decades, the minority English-speaking community in Cameroon has been expressing its disillusionment with the reunification process that brought the English and the French-speaking parts of the country together in 1961.
They complain about marginalisation and under-representation in the country’s Francophone-dominated administration. Such conditions are in direct contravention to the reunification accords which pledged to preserve the status of the erstwhile autonomous English-speaking state of West Cameroon federated with French-speaking East Cameroon. This union was abruptly terminated in 1972 leading to the dissolution of the State of West Cameroon into two administrative provinces.
This issue of contention has since sparked recurrent waves of protests in Anglophone Cameroon. Fresh protests broke out in October 2016, following a strike by Anglophone teachers and lawyers demanding for educational and judiciary reforms.
Pro-Anglophone movements took advantage of the strikes to demand a return to a federal system of administration that was abolished in 1972 while others have been pushing for the establishment of an independent state, separate from the majority French-speaking areas.
As it now stands, thousands have fled the English-speaking areas because of continued violence and unrest.
Protests, strikes and boycotts
Thus far, protests have largely been nonviolent in nature. These include controversial school boycotts, enforcement of general strikes (known locally as ‘ghost towns’), public protests, advocacy campaigns and the establishment of a governing council to speak on behalf of the Anglophones, which was set up by pro-Anglophone movements in the diaspora.
However, violent incidents such as the burning down of school buildings have also recently been witnessed. The involvement of pro-Anglophone movements in these crimes, however, has yet to be fully established beyond a set of unproven assumptions claiming that their aim was to reinforce continued school shut down.
Current protests have resulted in increased youth radicalisation, the loss of lives, the destruction of property, the imprisonment of Anglophone activists, school shut downs, poor school performance, a slowdown in economic activity, an Anglophone diaspora at odds with the government, a general sense of insecurity and a deep sense of political distrust between the Anglophone communities and the government.
The crisis contributes to the multiple conflicts risks threatening Cameroon’s fragile peace. These include the Boko Haram insurgency infiltrating the country from neighbouring Nigeria and the uncertainty that characterises the peaceful political transition from the 34-year old regime in Cameroon.
Dialogue for peace
This Anglophone crisis is a divisive and politically sensitive subject handled with caution by civil society organisations and Cameroon’s friends and partners.
None of them boldly identify themselves with either side but have however expressed concerns over human right abuses. They have called for dialogue towards sustainable peace. These include the United States Department of the State, The African Union Commission, the United Nations Secretariat for Central Africa, the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, Pope Francis and the Bar Council of England and Wales.
Earlier in the crisis, Roman Catholic Bishops in Anglophone Cameroon issued a letter stating their understanding of Anglophone grievances. They have called for dialogue to facilitate their peaceful resolution. The same call came from the Fons (ethnic traditional rulers) of Cameroon’s North West Region who, like some Independent Opinion Leaders, have urged for the release of pro-Anglophones detainees to foster peace.
Palliative measures
n December 2016, the government responded to the crisis by engaging in talks with members of a civil society consortium that was created to speak on behalf of the Anglophone communities. These talks, however, were short-lived due to the political nature of some of the demands.
In a subsequent controversial move, the state resorted to arresting and detaining the leaders of the consortium. Others went into exile. Access to the internet was suspended in English-speaking Cameroon for three months to curb the flow of information that the government believed was fanning the crisis.
Since then, continued calls for dialogue have largely been ignored. In August 2017, the government sent delegations to discuss the state of the crisis with the diaspora. This initiative was met with stiff resistance from Anglophone activists living abroad.
Nonetheless, the government has begun introducing a series of progressive measures to address some pertinent concerns regarding the effective integration of the Anglophone communities in Cameroonian society.
These include the translation of the OHADA Uniform Act (a law harmonising business transactions in Africa) into the English language, the creation of the National Commission for Bilingualism and Multiculturalism to foster greater national integration, the creation of a Common Law Bench at the Supreme Court of Cameroon as well as a Common Law Department at the School of Administration and the English-speaking Universities of Buea and Bamenda. Some pro-Anglophone activists under detention have also been released.
These, however, have been judged as palliative measures. They do not tackle the root cause of the crisis – supposedly the quest for a federal state or secession. Some pro-Anglophone movements want a neutral third party mediating talks to resolve the crisis.
This is where the deadlock lies and until this is broken, it is uncertain the crisis will end anytime soon.
Source: Reliefweb
25, December 2017
As Trump rages about Immigrants, Cameroonian sisters go to the Ivy League- New York Times 0
Ten years ago, a family arrived in the Bronx from Yaoundé, Cameroon, not speaking a word of English. This Christmas, they are celebrating a feat that would be impressive for any family: Three of the family’s five daughters have been accepted to Ivy League universities.
In a year in which our nativist president would have you believe that immigrants are, at best, a job-stealing drain and at worst, criminals, rapists and people with AIDS, these three remarkable sisters are worth paying attention to. Not just because they are inspiring — they are — but because they are far better ambassadors for this country and exponents of its ideals than the 45th president.
“We brought the girls to this country because there are better opportunities here,” says Flore Kengmeni, their mother, who works as a nurse. “I don’t know of another country where you can try hard, work hard and get somewhere. Where you are given the opportunity to fulfill your potential.”
“This country is built on immigrants,” Francois de Paul Silatchom, their father, a professor of economics at SUNY, starts to say, before his middle daughter, Ella, a sophomore at Yale, interjects: “Our experience as a family is what America is.”
That experience is marked by hard work, optimism, resilience and a persistent sense of gratitude even to have the opportunity.
“Everyone spoke so fast and I guess we speak that fast now, too,” says Xaviera, the youngest of the three, who was accepted to Harvard earlier this month.
They turned to books for guidance. Their parents got the girls library cards and made reading mandatory — “Education is the most valuable asset,” the parents say repeatedly when we meet. The sisters were encouraged to read broadly, from “The Magic School Bus” to “ Harry Potter,” and they practiced English as a family in their two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx’s Pelham Parkway neighborhood.
By the end of their first year at their local public schools, the girls had learned enough English to take the state exams, and were excelling in their classes. But their parents were alarmed that they were finishing their homework during the school day and coming home bored. They asked teachers to assign their daughters more homework. But even that wasn’t enough.
“Something was wrong,” Mr. de Paul Silatchom says. “I started looking for schools that would challenge them and keep them busy. At a school fair, we learned about Democracy Prep.”
At Democracy Prep, a public charter school in Harlem where I met them one recent afternoon, the day begins at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Longer school days, many argue, allow teachers to spend more time on subjects other than math and English, and keep students out of trouble.
Through the school’s Korean language program, the sisters were exposed to a culture completely different from their own, which sparked an interest in global affairs for all of them. Civics is a core part of the school’s curriculum, which Xaviera says showed her that, “Regardless of how disadvantaged you are in society, you have an advantage if you understand how our system of government works.”
When the oldest, Chris, now a junior at Dartmouth, got into the college in 2014, friends and family were elated, but her parents made it clear that the work wasn’t over.
“The night I got into Dartmouth, Mom asked me, ‘Have you done the dishes?’ Getting in was exciting and I knew she was proud, but it was just a regular day,” Chris says.
“They haven’t ‘arrived,’ as people like to say, just because they are into Ivy League schools,” Mr. de Paul Silatchom says. “It’s a good start and a platform of opportunity.”
When speaking, the sisters transition seamlessly between New York-accented English and French, their first language. The irony that they landed at a school called Democracy Prep after immigrating from one of the world’s least democratic countries is not lost on them.
It’s something they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about as President Trump has rolled out various cruel immigration policies, from his proposed travel ban to, in September, rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — an Obama-era program that protected the country’s approximately 800,000 undocumented youth raised in the country from being deported.
“It’s scary to see because this is not the country we know,” says Chris, who along with her sisters, became an American citizen in 2016. “America at its core is principled on immigrants. We came to this country to improve our futures and I feel as American as anyone born here.”
“These girls are more American than Cameroonian,” their mother says. “Can you imagine being undocumented? We were very lucky,” Xaviera adds.
Watching videos of immigration agents separating families in recent months has been particularly difficult for Ms. Kengmeni and Mr. de Paul Silatchom. “I can’t imagine what it’s been like for these children who go to school in the morning knowing they might come home at the end of the day to no parents,” Ms. Kengmeni says.
This year, Christmas break involves running around to pack for Chris’s semester abroad and attending three Christmas Masses, but the family is grateful to be all together, even if it’s for just a few days. They know they are the lucky ones.
Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Watching Ella, Chris and Xaviera, I’d bet good money that they will join those ranks of these world-class leaders. But the question I find myself asking as I leave their school: Who are the young women the Trump administration is currently keeping out?
Culled from The New York Times