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Southern Cameroons Crisis: Involve Women In Peace Talks- YAWC Network

21, November 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Involve Women In Peace Talks- YAWC Network 0

The Global Leadership of the Young African Women Congress (YAWC) Network has held an extraordinary virtual leadership summit to discuss the ongoing Anglophone crisis in Cameroon.

This followed a request by the leadership of the Cameroon Chapter to the YAWC Network Council to intervene in the crisis following recent killings of school children, believed to be related to a long-standing misunderstanding between the Anglophone regions.

The meeting which was held on 4th November 2020 saw the participation of the YAWC Network Council Chair, who also chaired the meeting, the Executive Secretary, the Global President and Vice President of the Network, Executives of the various National Chapters (Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda). The meeting also received insight from experts in the area of law, international relations, conflict resolution, peace and security.

Top on the agenda were strategies to help to encourage genuine dialogue among the various factions while ensuring the safety and wellbeing of women and children by providing relief services to victims.

To set the tone for discussions, the President of the Cameroon Chapter of the YAWC Network, Ms Rosaline Akweba Obah gave a vivid picture of the situation in the country, siting serious acts of abuse and atrocities committed by various factions in the midst of the crises. She said, “The ongoing crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon has left thousands dead, millions rendered homeless as their property and livestock have been destroyed through burning”.

She, together with her executives, responded to questions with regards to her narrative to inform suggestions and resolutions towards the specific requests made to the YAWC Network Council.

Discussing the matter and paying heed to facts and the legalities of the cases, the YAWC Network Leadership resolved that, it would launch a campaign, both virtual (that is involving the use of electronic posters and videos) and physical if deemed safe, to express concern about the crises. Leaders of the National Chapters were therefore admonished to engage their members to engage in the massive campaign that will follow the meeting until the government’s attention is drawn to the intensity of the crises in the country.

In effect, a special appeal would be made to the government of Cameroon to engage the separatists involved in the crises in any approach found tenable. And much of these dialogues should involve women who bear the biggest brunt of such crises. If possible, measures should be put in place as a matter of urgency to ensure that women and children and the vulnerable are protected in the midst of the misunderstandings.

While efforts are being made to restore peace and tranquillity, the summit recognised the fact that many people had been displaced through the crises. The summit therefore resolved to work in tandem with the leadership of the Cameroon Chapter to mobilise resources from all the other nations where YAWC Network is represented to mitigate the current loss victims may be suffering. Resources that would be gathered in this effort will be only non-perishable goods. Leaders were therefore tasked to inform their members to contribute their quota as far as their efforts would enable them to help their brothers and sisters in Cameroon.

In the same vein, the Cameroon Chapter Executives had identified ten (10) girls whose education could be in jeopardy if help was not found since they lost their parents through the crises. The summit resolved to open a unified account and designated to the Cameroon Chapter. The account will be a pool where all members of the YAWC Network could contribute their monies to help fund the education of these girls.

The YAWC Network remains committed to enforcing these resolutions and look forward to partnering other major stakeholders to bringing lasting peace to Cameroon. And more especially, in a way that would safeguard the sanctity of women and the future of the children in the country.

We call on all well-meaning African women to register and be part of the YAWC Network from whichever country they find themselves and be a part of a global movement that speaks and acts for women in true pan-African way.

Source: Modern Ghana

Yaoundé: Activists March for Toilets, Improved Sanitation

21, November 2020

Yaoundé: Activists March for Toilets, Improved Sanitation 0

Activists in Cameroon held events and marches for Thursday’s World Toilet Day, calling on authorities to provide more public bathrooms. Cameroonian authorities say 60% of its 25 million people lack toilets, fueling the spread of diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

School authorities at Yaoundé’s Government Primary School Efoulan say they have close to 2,000 children and teachers but only five toilets, which are often unusable as they run short of water and toilet paper.

The Cameroon Association to Improve Hygiene organized this and similar events in 30 schools in the capital to mark this year’s World Toilet Day. The group’s head, Edmond Kimbi, said hundreds of their members also marched in Yaoundé and coastal cities to demand more and better public toilets.

“It is actually too regrettable that schools and universities have very few toilets, which lack water and are always dirty,” he said. “It is worse when you visit markets, where thousands of people visit the markets each day. The consequences of this is that nearby bushes and dark corners are being transformed into toilets, thereby making our towns always dirty.”

Authorities say a September outbreak of cholera, a bacterial disease spread through dirty water, in the port cities of Douala and Kribi killed at least 90 people.

Dr. Sintieh Ngek, a medical officer with the Cameroon Baptist Convention, said the lack of toilets is spreading disease.

“Waterborne and water-based diseases like cholera, like diarrheal diseases, will be more present, and it is worth noting that these diarrheal diseases are among the leading causes of mortality for children under 5 years of age,” the doctor said. “Secondly, if persons do not have toilets, they turn to use bushes, they turn to use streams. When this happens, bacteria from these feces are easily collected into water.”

Yaoundé hygiene official Gabriel Minou said the city council is partnering with private companies to construct more public bathrooms. Meanwhile, he said, anyone caught defecating or urinating in the street or in rivers will pay fines of up to $20.

Minou said the inability of the Yaoundé City Council to efficiently manage toilets is due to the fact that many users do not want to pay before using the public bathrooms. He said the Yaoundé City Council has ordered its hygiene services to repair public toilets and make sure people pay before using them. Minou said the council has also ordered intercity bus agencies to make sure toilets are provided free of charge to all passengers.

The United Nations’ World Toilet Day seeks to raise awareness of more than half the world’s population living without access to safe sanitation and the deadly costs.

The U.N. says globally more than 800 children under 5 die every day from diarrheal diseases due to poor sanitation.

Source: VOA

French Cameroun Crisis: Two injured in explosion in Douala

21, November 2020

French Cameroun Crisis: Two injured in explosion in Douala 0

Two people have been seriously injured in an explosion that happened overnight into Thursday in Cameroon’s commercial hub of Douala, according to the police.

Witnesses say that the explosive device seemed to have been thrown from a passing motorcycle.

“This is a very busy environment especially at night. Motorcycles were passing when suddenly I heard a very loud sound. It caused much panic and two people who were close to where the explosion occured were injured on the face and leg,” Cynthia Watat who witnessed the incident said.

“We have never experienced this kind of thing in Douala. We need security,” another witness Julius Malo said.

Authorities have ordered investigations into the incident and asked the inhabitants to stay calm and “go about normal activities.”

Police said the attackers “probably” used improvised explosive device that have been used in similar attacks in the capital Yaounde.

According to security reports, there have been over 10 attacks from improvised explosive devices in Yaounde since the start of the year. No deaths have been reported so far.

Source: Xinhuanet

Brigade Anti-Sardinards, Ambazonians making life very difficult for Biya and other CPDM criminals who travel

21, November 2020

Brigade Anti-Sardinards, Ambazonians making life very difficult for Biya and other CPDM criminals who travel 0

Travel, once the ultimate status symbol for Cameroon’s political elite, has become a nightmare for this most privileged class.

It feels like everywhere they turn there’s an angry mob ready to heckle, jeer, and interrupt their activities. Unable to freely protest in their homeland, Cameroonians living overseas have devised a strategy to make their voices heard where they can’t be arrested and charged with dissent.

At the start, these protests on foreign soil were spontaneous and carried out by a few who would find out where their target was staying or working and then ambush them. The deepening Anglophone Crisis and hotly-contested presidential elections in 2018 have pushed the protesters into more organized groups who travel around Europe and America hunting down Cameroonian officials to denounce. Groups from both Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon are partnering to advance their common cause. Francophone Cameroon protesters ultimately want regime change while Anglophone protesters are pushing for secession, but both camps agree on the fundamental issue of human rights and abuses back home.

At home, the jury is still out on the merits of embarrassing government officials on foreign soil. On TV and radio, some pundits have been coy, but there’s a naughty sense of amusement about these protests when people feel safe to talk. There’s strong support online for this kind of retribution, but its critics point out that no matter what’s happening, Cameroonians abroad have no right to bring the country and its symbols into disrepute.

Brigade Anti-Sardinards (BAS), Ambazonians (Anglophone Cameroonians fighting for independence), and their allies aren’t holding back. On September 22, 2017, Ambazonians organized an unprecedented global protest at home and abroad that targeted the U.N. General Assembly in New York. That particular protest saw millions in blue and white wailing at the headquarters of the U.N. and other stations in London, Berlin, Geneva, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., and several others. On their part, BAS has developed an uncanny ability to suss the hideouts of Cameroon’s top officials. Several riots at Switzerland’s InterContinental Hotel, the favorite getaway of Cameroonian President Paul Biya, have led the city’s administration to contemplate the damage to its reputation. The Geneva Council even held a vote to decide if they should declare Biya persona non grata, a poll which he won 43-27.

At last year’s Paris Peace Forum which President Biya attended, BAS made its presence felt with rallies around the events. They even gathered outside the president’s hotel in Paris to protest. Apart from targeting events and vacations, the protesters have also aimed their anger at Cameroon’s embassies abroad. In a coordinated move, they vandalized Cameroon’s embassies in Berlin, Paris, and Brussels on January 26, 2019. Many demonstrations have been staged outside the Cameroonian embassy in London, which has become a fixture in the protest calendar when Ambazonians celebrate their independence on October 1.

Prominent among the demonstrators is the leader of BAS France, Calibri Calibro, whose given name is Abdoulaye Thiam. He has shown a dogged determination to the cause over the years and is a real rallying force within the Cameroonian diaspora. He forced his way into the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, who stopped to listen to his pleas for France’s intervention in Cameroon’s conflicts. Many believe that the encounter led to the release of Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who’d been in jail since organizing protests to overturn the 2018 election results. Not one to shy away from controversy, Calibro led another group of protesters into a church in France where a Cameroonian minister’s family was attending mass. The president’s daughter was also targeted during her stay at the Hotel Plaza Athenee, a luxurious hotel overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris with great views of the Arc de Triomphe and the Seine. Calibro’s activism is born out of the arduous journey he made from Cameroon to Europe on foot, a perilous journey that has killed many Africans trying to find a better life. His experience crossing the Mediterranean Sea hardened his resolve to fight the regime from abroad and his coalition for change, or at least chaos, isn’t relenting.

The bad news for government officials and their families is the level of grassroots work and organization that is going into the effort to make their trips uncomfortable and their hosts reluctant to accommodate them. This doesn’t look like something that’ll change any time soon. The Anglophone and Francophone groups have put together structures to inform, travel, and collect donations. They’re recruiting lawyers and lobbying international allies sympathetic to their cause. They can also easily track flights to monitor their targets, and always record videos that quickly spread over the internet. In their defense, the protesters argue that this campaign of shaming is yielding results. A well-documented traveler with extended vacations abroad, President Biya’s trips are noticeably less frequent.

Apart from what is happening back home, the Cameroonian diaspora has its grievances to contend with. First, the political climate in their host countries has become hostile as the global economy stalls and anti-immigration sentiments rise. Many worry about their future and need real change to happen in their country if they ever have to go back. Dual citizenship also is not permitted in Cameroon, forcing many to choose between the privileges of a foreign passport and their home country. A foreign passport means they give up their privileges when they return home, making it harder to invest and give back to their communities.

The victims of this law are quick to point out the hypocrisy in its implementation, citing high profile figures like footballers who play for Cameroon while carrying foreign passports, or government officials they claim secretly have dual citizenship. These and other grievances are still up for debate in parliament and on the street. In the meantime, the mobs keep jeering, marching, and pelting their prey with eggs and tomatoes while their hosts stand in between, puzzled.

Source: fodors.com

Over 7,000 women and children killed in Biya regime attacks in Southern Cameroons

20, November 2020

Over 7,000 women and children killed in Biya regime attacks in Southern Cameroons 0

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima has obtained French Cameroun military correspondence on almost all instances of civilian harm and casualties ever since Yaoundé declared war against the people of Ambazonia.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader said in a briefing late yesterday that some 7,000 women and children were among civilians killed by soldiers loyal to the regime in La Republique du Cameroun over the past four years.

Dabney Yerima observed that the people of Ambazonia will resist till the last man standing and that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government will push French Cameroun to make public to the international community all coordinates for nearly all confirmed instances of civilian harm and deaths in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

According to the information obtained by the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, the total number of women and children killed by the French Cameroun government forces is somewhere in the range of 6,500 to 7,000.

The coded French Cameroun military correspondence Vice President furthered, indicates that whenever a particular incident took place such as in Ngarbuh and Kumba, the Biya Francophone regime was quick to blame it on Ambazonia Restoration Forces.  

By Chi Prudence Asong

US: Georgia vote recount affirms Biden’s victory over Trump in the state

20, November 2020

US: Georgia vote recount affirms Biden’s victory over Trump in the state 0

After a painstaking recount, Georgia officials confirmed on Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the battleground state on Nov. 3, further narrowing the president’s dubious effort to overturn the election results.

The result of the six-day hand recount of the state’s 5 million ballots had been widely expected, despite baseless allegations from Trump and his allies that Georgia’s vote tallies were suspect because of widespread fraud.

Amid a series of losses in court, Trump’s re-election campaign has shifted to a new strategy that relies on persuading Republican state legislators in crucial states to ignore the election results and intervene on Trump’s behalf, according to three people familiar with the plan.

The campaign has filed multiple lawsuits to try to challenge the results in battleground states that Biden won, as election officials across the country have affirmed that there is no evidence of major irregularities. Judges in three states delivered new legal setbacks to the campaign on Thursday, rejecting claims of improper vote counting.

Biden, a Democrat, has captured 306 electoral votes to the Republican Trump’s 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner of the election, well above the 270 needed for victory.

Georgia’s audit, launched after unofficial results showed Biden leading Trump by about 14,000 votes cast, ended with Biden winning by 12,284, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office. The state is expected to certify Biden’s victory on Friday.

Trump and his allies, including Georgia’s Republican U.S. senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who both face runoff elections in January, have accused fellow Republican Raffensperger without evidence of overseeing a flawed election, an allegation Raffensperger has angrily disputed.

In remarks on Thursday after a call with 10 state governors, Biden called Trump’s attempt to reverse the results “totally irresponsible.”

“It sends a horrible message about who we are as a country,” said the president-elect, although he expressed no concern that the gambit would succeed in preventing him from taking office on Jan. 20.

While legal experts see Trump’s last-gasp effort as unlikely to succeed, they say the strategy represents an unprecedented assault on the country’s democratic institutions by a sitting president.

The Trump campaign has already asked a judge in Pennsylvania, where Biden won by 82,000 votes, to declare Trump the winner, allowing the Republican-controlled legislature to choose the state’s 20 Electoral College voters.

Several prominent law firms have pulled out of the campaign’s legal challenges, leaving Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to spearhead the efforts.

Giuliani alleges conspiracy

At a news conference on Thursday, Giuliani said he planned to file more lawsuits and that Democrats had engaged in a “national conspiracy” to manipulate vote totals, although he admitted he did not have any evidence.

Other members of the legal team floated a theory involving Venezuela and George Soros, a bogeyman of conservatives, although they said they would probably not pursue it in court.

Giuliani said accounts of suspicious activity would ultimately overturn the election, which Biden won nationwide by 5.9 million votes. Some of those accounts have already been thrown out of court.

“We cannot allow these crooks – because that’s what they are – to steal this election. They elected Donald Trump. They didn’t elect Joe Biden,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani’s agitated performance, featuring rivulets of hair dye running down his face, was widely mocked by Democrats.  Others expressed alarm.

“That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history,” tweeted Christopher Krebs, who headed up the U.S. government’s efforts to combat election disinformation until he was fired by Trump earlier this week.

‘No excuse’

Critics say Trump’s refusal to concede has serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 250,000 Americans.

Biden is not receiving the classified intelligence due a president-elect, and his transition team has not received the funding, office space and briefings from current government officials normally afforded to an incoming administration.

He warned the delay could cause additional deaths as the pandemic surges to record levels across the country.

“There is no excuse not to share the data and let us begin to plan, because on Day One it’s going to take us time, if we don’t have access to all this data,” he said in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. “It’s going to put us behind the eight ball by a matter of a month or more, and that’s lives.”

The former vice president has focused on preparing his incoming administration, naming senior staff members and getting briefed by his advisers. He said on Thursday he had selected a Treasury secretary and could announce his pick as soon as next week.

Democratic leaders in Congress sent a letter on Thursday to the administrator in charge of releasing transition funds, Emily Murphy, demanding that she explain why she has yet to recognize Biden as president-elect.

Part of the new Trump campaign effort involves trying to delay certification, the normally routine process by which election results are finalized, a senior campaign official said.

In Detroit on Tuesday, Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers refused at first to certify the results, then reversed themselves, then signed affidavits that they wanted to rescind their certification.

One of the members told Reuters that Trump called her after she agreed to certify the results.

Trump’s campaign dropped a federal lawsuit on Thursday challenging the election results in Michigan, citing the Wayne County officials’ affidavits. Officials said the affidavits were too late to stop certification.

Republican legislative leaders from Michigan are scheduled to visit the White House on Friday at Trump’s request, a source in Michigan said, adding the lawmakers planned to hear what the president had to say.

Source: REUTERS

Football: Cameroonian Youssoufa Moukoko Could Make Dortmund History

20, November 2020

Football: Cameroonian Youssoufa Moukoko Could Make Dortmund History 0

Cameroonian Youssoufa Moukoko could become Bundesliga’s youngest-ever football player this weekend.

Borussia Dortmund’s wonderkid turns 16 today and is now old enough to be in the first-team set-up and could make his professional debut against Hertha Berlin.

Born in Yaounde, Cameroon, the teen has notched an eye-watering 141 goals in 88 games since his arrival in 2014.

Moukoko has been talked about as the ‘next big thing’ to emerge from Dortmund’s academy for several years now and is already an under twenty international football star.

Source: AFP

Spain: Hundreds of migrants evicted from Canary Island ports

20, November 2020

Spain: Hundreds of migrants evicted from Canary Island ports 0

Amid a spike in migrants arriving at Spain’s Canary Islands, hundreds of migrants have been evicted from the camps set up to receive them, forcing them to wander the streets of local villages. Thousands more are said to have been left stranded without food or water.

Military camps have been set up to help overwhelmed reception facilities, but local authorities say the government is not doing enough. The island’s president Antonio Morales has denounced what he calls, the Ministry of the Interior’s continued contempt for migrants and the island, demanding the resignation of those responsible.

Driven by economic hardship around 17,000 migrants have arrived on the Canary Islands this year. According to Spain’s Interior Ministry that’s a 1,000-percent increase from 2019.

In 2019, 1885 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean sea and 2020’s death toll is fast approaching one thousand. Only last week the Spanish OpenArms NGO reported six deaths after releasing a harrowing footage.

Open Arms, the only NGO permitted to carry out search and rescue missions at present, wrote on Twitter:

“Despite the enormous commitment of our medical team, a six-month-old baby has just died. We requested an urgent evacuation for him and other people in serious conditions, but he didn’t make it. How much pain and sorrow!”

The International Criminal Court has sued the European Union saying member states should be prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean. In its 245-page document the ICC says the EU’s deterrence-based migration policy which came into force after 2014 sacrifices the lives of migrants in distress at sea, to dissuade others from seeking a safe haven in Europe.

Source: Presstv

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 gendarmes shot and Killed, CPDM militant injured as Amba Fighters ambush gov’t soldiers

19, November 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 gendarmes shot and Killed, CPDM militant injured as Amba Fighters ambush gov’t soldiers 0

Two French Cameroun gendarmes were killed on Wednesday when their so-called mixed patrol was ambushed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Kissem a locality within Mbiame, in Bui County in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia.

A Cameroon government security source hinted our correspondent that a civilian loyal to the ruling CPDM crime syndicate was also shot in the chest. The regime in Yaoundé has dispatched defense minister Beti Assomo to Bamenda.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the mixed patrol was composed of soldiers from the 51st Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Bamenda and police officers.

 At least 600 soldiers and police officers have already lost their lives in the Southern Cameroons conflict.

According to the UN, 3000 people have been killed since the beginning of the armed conflict. The UN also estimates that some 700,000 people have been displaced by the crisis.

Hundreds of NGOs and humanitarian associations including the Cameroon Concord News Group have documented crimes, kidnappings, abductions, beheadings, mutilations, rapes, massacres of civilians by soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

On October 24, seven children, including one boy and six girls aged 9 to 13, were killed in a school in Kumba reportedly by armed men sponsored by Terrirorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji.

The government attributed the massacre to armed separatists who clashed with the Defense and Security Forces and opposed the resumption of schooling in Southern Cameroons.

By Fon Lawrence in Bmenda

Treatise remembering Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon on the occasion of his 96th birthday

19, November 2020

Treatise remembering Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon on the occasion of his 96th birthday 0

This treatise is dedicated to Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, M.A., Ph.D., (Nui) Dip. Ed. (Oxon), who was born 96 years ago, on 19 November 1924 in Nso, North West Region of Cameroon, died 26 August 1986. He was a government minister and leading intellectual of Cameroon. A man of diverse abilities, Fonlon was characterized as the Cameroonian Socrates. He was a major promoter of bilingualism, as reflected in the Journal Abbia: Cameroon Cultural Review that he founded in the early 1960s.

Dr. Prof. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon is the first English speaking Cameroonian to earn a Doctorate Degree in 1961 at the University of Ireland. The first French Cameroonian to earn a Doctorate Degree was Reverend Father Jean Zoa in 1953 in Biblical Studies at the Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, in Rome, Italy. Prof. Dr. Fonlon did his secondary school education at Christ the King College, Onitsha Nigeria from 1942 to 1945. Later, he studied in Bigard Memorial Senior Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria from 1948 to 1953. He was among the pioneer seminarians at Bigard Memorial Senior Seminary in 1948, together with Monsignor Alphonsus Aghaizu, who happens to be the oldest living Monsignors in South-East Nigeria. He is presently 95 years old and is retired at St. Paul’s parish, Owerri. Fonlon’s one and only desire was to become a Catholic priest. Just before the sub-diaconate, Bernard experienced the greatest crisis of his life. He was informed that he would not be admitted to Major Orders, and that there was no likehood of that decision being changed in the future. This happened in November 1953 at Enugu, in Nigeria. In the midst of the darkness of that crisis, with his hopes for ordination completely shattered. Msgr. Aghaizu describes the scene on August 20, 2020 in his humble contribution to the cause for the beatification of his close friend Dr. Fonlon:“I was due for sub-diaconate ordination with Fonlon 1953 but he was dropped the morning of the ordination, but he maintained his cool, and went with me as previously arranged for a month’s holiday to Msgr. P. Meze’s parish at Maku. The authorities arranged for him to teach at C.K.C his alma mater (1942 to 1945). At my ordination at Uli 1954, Fonlon and three of his friends came from C.K.C to Uli despite the fact that there was ordination same day at Onitsha….After my month’s tour of the stations at Uli Parish, I was due to return to Bigard to obtain my faculties; and I decided to touch C.K.C enroute. I did not go to the Fathers House upstairs but to the teacher’s quarters to stay with Fonlon. Next morning, he followed me to the fathers Chapel and served my mass! The authorities were so impressed at this gesture that they gave him scholarship to study in Cork, Ireland”.

Thus, thanks to his exceptional gesture, between 1954-1961, Fonlon got a Scholarship [from a disappointment to a blessing], and studied at the National University of Ireland, Cork: studied under Professor E. Byrne Costigan, Prof. Drs O’Flaherty, Prof. Servais, Prof. Forgatton at Sorbonne, Paris; Fonlon also studied under Professor Georges Balandier Oxford University and under professor Halls. Had he become a priest, he would not have had the opportunity to serve his country as a Christian and intellectual in politicians as he did for Cameroon. God had other plans for him.

 Academic Qualifications of Fonlon

Fonlon earned the following Academic Qualifications: 1939: Primary School leaving Certificate; 1945: Senior Cambridge Grade One; 1946: The Nigerian Teacher’s Higher Elementary Certificate; 1957: B.A. Honurs, NUI Cork (2.1, Latin and French); 1958: M.A., NUI Cork (First, Thesis: Flaubert Ecrivain, a study of Flaubert’s style, written in French); 1960: Diploma in Education, Oxford University; Ph.D., NUI Cork (Thesis: Bernard Nsokika. La poesie et le reveil de l’homme noir / par Bernard Fonlon, published by Presses Universitaires du Zaire), an investigation into Negro African protest literature in English and in French (inclusing North America, the Caribbean, Africa and Madagascar. This was the the first Ph. D thesis in this field and was written in French under the auspices of professor W. McCausland Stewart (Bristol), Dr. Green (Oxford) and Professor E. Byrne Costigan (NUI Cork). This Ph. D was the first doctorate awarded to a Cameroonian in Ireland; 1986: D. Litt. (Honoris Causa), University of Guelph, Canada. With this extensive study, Fonlon earned three Academic Honours: 1). Nigeria – Patron of the Philosophical Fraternity of the University of Nigeria; 2). USA: Member of the National Geographic Society; 3). USSR: Awarded the Pushkin Medal in Moscow on the 170th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated Russo-African Writer.

 A Genuine and True Christian cum Intellectual in Politics

As far as his political life is concerned, Fonlon served as an interpreter to Amadou Ahidjo, the first Cameroonian President, and later was a Minister, in which he distinguished himself in politics with his moral, spiritual and intellectual life on returning to Cameroon. He held the following post in the Cameroon government: In 1961, he was assistant Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Southern Cameroons; 1961-1964: Charge de Mission (Presidential Aide) at the Presidency, Yaounde, Cameroon; 1964-1968: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; 1968-1970. Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications; 1970-1971: Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare; 1962-: Founder and Director of Abbia, the bilingual Cameroon Cultural Review; 1971: Associate Professor in the University of Yaounde.

Prof. Daniel Noni Lantum, “the right hand man” of Fonlon, who is said to have known Fonlon more than anybody else in Cameroon observes in his book titled: “Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon: An Intellectual in Politics” that Fonlon was an indefatigable, relentless father of Cameroon Bilingualism at work, that Africanist intellectual and learned philosopher of the Presence Africaine up-bringing, that tireless professor of Negro-African Literature of the University of Yaounde from 1978 to 1984, that revolutionary Cameroonian Educationist of the 1960s, that inspiring and unquenching source of Liberty and Democracy even in the Ahidjo Regime (1958 – 1982), that Christian intellectual and politician who was physically present but spiritually absent from the materialism of the political environment of his time.

One of the circles in which Dr. Fonlon left an indelible mark was in politics. His involvement with Cameroon politics was natural as it was inevitable. He was motivated by a genuine desire to bring to the politics of his country the very best intellectual and moral qualities that he possessed, having passed through Bigard Memorial Senior Seminary, with a holistic formation: Intellectual, Spiritual, Pastoral and Human formation which equipped him for politics. It should be noted that Cameroon and indeed Africa was emerging from colonial enslavement to independence and such a critical period needed the best type of leadership that each country could provide. Dr. Fonlon who had foreseen this need and had prepared himself accordingly, believed that those who governed – and politics is to do ultimately with good government – should have the intellectual and moral preparation for such an important and sacred task. He believed with Socrates that “kings should be philosophers” or that those who govern should have the intellectual and moral qualities which true philosophy inculcates. With these principles which Fonlon learnt from Bigard, he distinguished himself in politics and earned eleven Political Honours: 1). Canada: The Canadian Medal; 2). Vatican: A Papal Medal, the Medal of the Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum 1 and 2; 3). France: The Medal Trois Siecles de Cartographie Francais; 4). USA: Medal of the African-American Dialogues; OAU: Medal Issued to the Participants of the First Congres of the OAU, 1963; 5). Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Valeur, Officier de l’Ordre de la Valeur; 6). Tunisia: The Order of the Tunisian Star; 7). Nigeria: The C.O.N. for Distinguished Public Service; 8). India: The Jawaharlal Nehru Medal; 9). Africa: Madale de Vermeil d’Union Africaine et Malgache des Postes et Telecommunications; 10). West Germany: Grosses Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband; 11). Nso: Chieftaincy title, Shufai-wu-Ntu-Ndzev, conferred by the Fon of Nso, for having brought water to Kumbo, where he was born.

Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze states inter alia: “I hold Dr. Bernard Nsokika FONLON in very high regard. I first got to know him in Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria, in the years 1953 and 1954.  He was in his second year theology when I entered that Major Seminary in September 1953.  When he and his classmates were due to be ordained subdeacons in December 1954, the Seminary authorities and his Bishop decided not to admit him to major orders. As a seminarian, I saw Bernard as a learned seminarian.  I still remember how with lustre he sang “Audi Benigne Conditor” during Vespers in Lent.  He took no breakfast.  When other seminarians were at breakfast, he was studying, we believed he was at Latin and Greek! During holidays and in the years after he had to leave Bigard Memorial Seminary, he used to visit one of the Nigerian priests, Monsignor Peter Meze-Idigo who was very kind to him, as he also was to seminarians in general.  Once during those visits by Fonlon to Monsignor Meze at Dunukofia, my parish, I took Bernard to visit my parents at Eziowelle and my father, a good wine tapper, gave him good palm wine which he took gladly.  I still remember that my mother tried to converse with him in Igbo and was surprised that Fonlon did not speak Igbo.  I had to inform my innocent mother that Igbo is not the only language spoken in Africa!I lost track of Fonlon in the years when he worked for a Doctorate in Ireland and another Doctorate in France.  The next time I met him was during the Nigeria-Biafra war, probably in 1968 or 1969.  It was a quick meeting because we were both passengers in Air France flying to Paris from Douala.  At that time, Dr Fonlon was Minister of Communications in the Camerun and I was Archbishop of Onitsha. After that Nigerian civil war, I visited Dr Fonlon in Yaoundé.  It may have been around the year 1972.  I first visited Archbishop Paul Verdzekov in Bamenda.  Then I flew from Buea to Yaoundé.  Fonlon met me at the airport.  I stayed about two days with hm.  I then learned that he was no longer Minister in the Government because President Ahidjo called him and explained:  Bernard, I regret that we can no longer retain you in the cabinet because you put the rest of us ministers to shame, because you are your own driver and you drive an old car. My unforgettable memory of my stay with Fonlon in his flat was that one day his sister prepared a fou-fou lunch for both of us.  During lunch, Dr. Fonlon was so absorbed in our conversation (which was more me listening to his wisdom) that I finished my lunch; he then put together his fork and knife, put his plate aside and continued his learned discourse.   He forgot that he had not eaten anything yet!  I have never in my life of 87 years reached that level of detachment from creatures. On 16 Sept. 1973 he wrote a 28-page booklet:  “An Open Letter to the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda” on the training of future priests.  Excellent piece. Dr Bernard Nsokika Fonlon was a man of high ideals.  He prayed.  He said the Latin Breviary daily.  He loved the Church.  He was not bitter that he was not ordained priest.  In my view, it was an administrative mistake of his superiors that he was not ordained.  It seems to me that they did not understand him enough.  He was the type of professorial intellectual who may seem not the routine parish priest.  As a university priest, he could have answered many needs of the Church.  However, as a lay person, he also did much good. The Camerounians are the best placed to make a judgment on this.  He lived a celibate life.  When I visited him in 1972, I saw that he loved the Breviary. In my view, the Cause of Beatification of Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon could be introduced.  I am happy to be writing these lines on this anniversary of his death. May he rest in the peace of Christ”.  + Francis Card. Arinze. Vatican City, 26 August, 2020.

Prof. Fonlon: Socrates in Cameroon

Fonlon is referred to as the Socrates in Cameroon. However, unlike Socrates, he wrote countless of articles. Although Professor Fonlon died in 1986 at the age of 62, he still lives on, and will do so for very many years to come in his writings, his goals, his noble deeds, and the shining example that he has left us. Dr. Fonlon was indeed a phenomenon so great that it will require many writers and many generations to fathom the depth of his profundity. His literary, intellectual and moral qualities made him a giant among Cameroonians, Nigerians and worldwide. He was a giant who was so much at ease and at home with the peasant villagers and the poor of slum “quartiers” of Yaoundé as he was among university dons of the greatest universities of Europe, North America and Canada. He was as comfortable among Archbishops, Cardinals and priests as he was among students. He knew personally and was friendly with several presidents and political figures of Post-independence Africa among whom one could cite Osagefor Kwame Nkruma of Ghana and Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt. Pierre E. Truddeau, Prime Minister of Canada, was a personal friend of Dr. Fonlon. In each of the many social circles or groups that Dr. Fonlon touched, he left an indelible mark and was admired, respected, and loved because he remained true to himself, sincere, generous, friendly, humble and simple.

 Message of Dr. Prof. Fonlon

Philosopher Dr. Tanju Fidel Kottoh, PhD, who happened to have been born on the day Dr. Fonlon died: August 26, 1986, writes: “What was the message of Professor Fonlon? Professor Fonlon’s message – and he was the very incarnation of the message – was the supremacy of a genuine intellectual life. This is what informed his heroic detachment from material fixations. In step with the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, Professor Fonlon so believed in the primacy of the intellect that he saw genuine intellectual life as the surest panacea to the moral degradation that so potently lured the contemporary African youth. He described the ideal youth, whom he called the ‘genuine intellectual’ in the following words: ‘As Truth’s votary, ever faithful, ever sure, he is committed to wage lifelong warfare against falsehood. And as goodness and beauty are inherent in truth, it follows that he must be a constant seeker of the good and right and an inexorable and implacable of evil and wrong; and a devoted worshipper at the shrine of the beautiful and the sublime”. (Bernard Fonlon, The Genuine Intellectual, Buma Kor, Yaoundé 1978, 114). The Professor’s message was: virtue, knowledge and truth. He preached it vehemently in and out of season. But most importantly, he lived it. He himself was a paradigmatic expression of the heroic virtues he incessantly preached. His writing, teachings, encounters all attest to his desire to ‘walk the talk. ’ Above all, he was thoroughly humble. He said “it is my ambition to live the life of a simple man. The Professor’s humility was overwhelmingly evident”.

Fonlon’s cool and total dependence on Divine Providence is an attitude that ex-seminarians can emulate when they are asked to withdraw from Seminary formation. Fonlon left the Seminary without bearing any grudges. His maturity and attitude when he was dismissed is distinguished and should be emulated by ex-seminarians. Cardinal Christian Tumi, a former student of Bigard also notes in a recent interview conducted on Sunday, October 25 that Fonlon is a Saint because he did good and avoided evil. He also added that the fact that seminarians are in the seminary does not necessarily mean they must become priests, because in the course of the discernment, God might be calling them to other vocations. He challenged the seminarians never to withdraw from the Seminary on their own, but to allow the formators to ask them to withdraw. In addition, Dr. Fonlon lived the Heroic Virtues: Cardinal and theological virtues which are perquisites for the introduction of a cause of beatification. He lived the virtues of Justice in government, Prudence, Temperance and distinguished himself with the virtue of fortitude, include faith, hope and charity.

Fonlon is also an example of a lay person who took part completely in the Church. One reference to the Christian principle of life that was dear to him concerned the spirit of poverty, that is, detachment from whatever is not God. Writing to the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda in his Open Letter of 16th September 1973, on the occasion of the inauguration of the St.  Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Bambui, Fonlon said, inter alia: “In a world that is rank and rotten with materialism, where hedonism is the principle philosophy, where luxury is the summum bonum; there is the crying need for dedicated souls who would go to the other extreme and espouse the spirit of genuine religion, the spirit of poverty, the spirit of austere abstemiousness, in order to wage war against the onslaught of materialist godlessness”. Dr. Fonlon was buried as a priest. He lived a celibate life and lived the life of a priest, despite the fact that he was a lay person. He was buried very close to his friend: Fr. Aloysius Wankuy. The bishop who celebrated his funeral: Bishop Cornelius Fontem Esua stated: “Dr. Fonlon was an illustrious Christian, a man of great devotion and a priest at heart. He was a saintly man, and on account of this, regardless of who he was, I have decided to lay his mortal remains next to those of his closest friend, late Father Aloysius Wankuy…as a sign of our gratitude for his affection and deep attachment to the Church”. 

Dr. Tanju Fidel Kottoh, PhD, Philosopher observes: “Professor Fonlon was a vir probatus – a man whose unflinching devotion to virtue, knowledge and truth was evident and proven by an iconic lifestyle. His death, an event that eclipsed the ‘African intelligentsia and the entire elite of the Negro World’ is a reality that we must face up to. In the words of Professor Bongasu Tanla Kishani “we need to accommodate ourselves to the fait accompli and open our minds more than ever before to their messages”; referring to two legends: Professor Fonlon and Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal. In the same way, he adds that “the world is in desperate need and arguably enthusiastically yearning for the manifestation of the Fonlons of our time; for the citizens of the world marked by an unrepentant commitment to virtue, knowledge and truth. As you continue reading this masterpiece, remember ‘talk is cheap. ’ Only a firm decision to emulate the heroic virtues you are about to discover/rediscover make your time worth its while. Relish every moment even as it energizes you into active participation in The Bernard Fonlon Revolution.” May his soul continue to rest in peace on the occasion of his 96th birthday celebration.

Written by Nchumbonga George Lekelefac

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