By Penn Terence Khan*
While reviewing Cameroun newspapers today September 30, 2021, the headline on L’ANECDOTE newspaper № 1211 of 30 September to 03 October 2021 titled “1ER OCTOBRE NOSO: LA DATE DE TOUT PROVOCATIONS” loosely translated ” 1ST OCTOBER NWSW: A DATE OF PROVOCATION” caught my attention.
The feeling of not knowing our history and general events that make up our daily lives is usually unbearable to us. We feel a certain degree of emptiness and misery. In short, we feel lost. Human beings are created with the desire to know more and it becomes so frustrating when our desires or curiosity are blocked by a system set up only to satisfy the whims and caprices of those who wield power. How does it feel to grow up knowing that that civilization only came to Africa through Caucasians only to learn later in life that Africa is the cradle of civilization?.
Frustrating, right?
The two most important dates that are/were supposed to be celebrated in Cameroun are 1 January 1960 and 1 October 1961 yet these dates are never celebrated nor even mentioned. Southern Cameroonians are even forbidden to mention or celebrate every October 1. Many Francophones just like L’anecdote newspaper see this day as a day of provocation.
This is the day that J. O Fields, the British Colonial Commissioner left Southern Cameroons after lowering the British Union Jack in favour of the flag of the Federal Republic of Cameroon ( Green, Red, Yellow with two stars on the Green signifying TWO INDEPENDENT STATES). The History of Cameroun/Southern Cameroons can never be told without mentioning October 1. The number of Southern Cameroonians who have been jailed or murdered just for celebrating October 1 can not be underestimated.
In other to erase history and remake a history tailored to suit the whims and caprices of Yaounde, Ahidjo insisted on the celebration of 11 February and May 20 as national days. These are the days that remind us (Southern Cameroons) of our misery.
What is worth celebrating on 11 February when in actual sense, we lost our brothers of Northern Cameroons to Nigeria?
What is worth celebrating on May 20 when our people were tricked into voting for a Yes or Oui referendum?
L’anecdote newspaper should have rather be asking her government to celebrate 1 January as the day of the Independence of La Republique du Cameroun and not questioning why Southern Cameroons has never stopped celebrating October 1 which to them is provocative.
Many young French Camerounians like L’anecdote newspaper does not know that it was on this date that France pulled down her tricolor of BLUE, WHITE and RED in favor of the Cameroun Flag of GREEN, RED and YELLOW with no star.
It was on Friday 1st January 1960 that La Republique du Cameroun became independent from French Rule at the Place de fête at Hippodrome (picture attached). Why this independence day historical monument at Hippodrome was later on destroyed and its history erased and forgotten is still a mystery.
Asking the people of Southern Cameroons not to celebrate October 1 is a sheer provocation. It’s like asking President Paul Biya of Cameroun to celebrate his birthday on July 16 rather than February 13, his actual day of birth.
No amount of tanks and guns will ever stop the people of Southern Cameroons from celebrating 1St October.
Happy Independence Day Southern Cameroons.
Penn Terence Khan
Yaounde Central Prison
September 30, 2021
