By Wilson Musa
(Douala, Cameroon- Monday December 11, 2017-Cameroon News Agency)
Every Monday like today is considered a ghost town in the Anglophone regions as Separatist fighters imposed the civil disobedience strategy to make their presence felt, this was instituted on January 9, 2017. But in Agborkem German, a locality in Manyu division, South West region, close to the border with Nigeria, ghosts seem to have visited the area as many deserted due to military invasion.
The people of this village immediately became refugees and some IDPs after Ambazonia fighters, who say they are fighting to restore the independence of the North West and South West regions, killed four members of Cameroon military.
The incident occurred between November 28 and 29, 2017. Four servicemen of the 22nd Motorized Infantry Battalion of the army were coldly assassinated during this attack.
Alarmed by this attack, there was an invasion of the area and a hunt launched by members of Cameroon defense forces to trap down anyone supporting the Separatist ideologies.
Before the crisis started, Activists from the Southern Cameroon National Council, SCNC, were only being monitored during and after October 1, every year ( to avoid any sort of independence celebration) but as the crisis deepened, the government started arresting those who were advocating or supporting the SCNC course, consequently agreeing with separatism.
Rev. Cosmas Obi Okuk, who is a Poet and Civil Rights Activist, has received double blow during this period. The first is that he is a native of Agborkem German, where intellectuals like him are being wanted after the attack, secondly, he has been advocating for Anglophone equality through poetry.
In the 1990s, Rev. Cosmas, used to do more of writing poetic pieces and today his poems hsve become like a prophesy, but this prophesy is what has made his heart to beat faster each time he thinks about what is ongoing in his village. Cameroon News Agency reached out to Rev. Cosmas, who was more accessible because of his missionary works in the Anglophone villages. He explained that before the attack, he used to work without fear but now must be very careful especially as his works are being redistributed and shared by Ambazonia Activists, to boost their claims for independence.
“I used to have poetry programs on Swelaba FM in Douala and another at CRTV Yaoundé. When the issue started, some friends in Kumba and others asked me that they would want to publish some of my poems in their newspapers. These were too radical and gave a lot of backings to the crisis. This one brought me too many security issues,” he told CNA’s Wilson Musa.
One of such poems brought him to his present conditions, which he says, he regretted allowing publishers to make use of his writings.
“I did not do a publication myself through any newspaper. But I read one paper a close friend a journal list in Kumba published” A CRY OF THE FEW”. He had done more publications, perhaps. When the crisis was flaming I was busy with my missionary activities leading the family federation for world peace, and the Universal peace federation activities to educate Ambassadors for peace in the South West and carried out activities in Bafut for 3 months, in the North West.” He emphasized.
One of the poems many picked revolutionary interest in was “A Cry of The Few, written in January 2000. He said sharing this poem to our newsroom was the last thing he ever thought about but for the sake of clarity and safety, he is seeking help from his collaborators and partners, whoever comes across this article.
CRY OF THE FEW
“O we know we are few
But do not swallow us again.
Our fewness equals neither to marginalization nor oppression.
We are not ants in a sea and begged to live on your land,
Nor are we even dust deposited
On your land from a different world.
O we know we are few,
Our star has been swallowed, and
Our identity is ridiculed,
As Anglo-fouls, even as “biaffrans.”
It is too much an assault,
You eat meat and we eat bones.
O leave us plait our administration,
Be the braids, rastas or bacala
Leave us breathe in our pride,
And bathe in our natures too.
That sweet and bitter day
Is crawling nearer and nearer,
You shall frown like dried leaves
And we shall smile like sprouting corolla.
So many dreams came never true
But this is dreamt by me and you.
Our independence is an imminent reality,
For no nature, no God ever made us
To live in such diabolic inhumanity
Of unfreeness and inequality.
O we are few
The unity we accepted was never a crime.
Why should we be tired in minionism?
Half-citizenship and subordination.
Leave us swim in the oceans of our nature,
Leave us drag the wagons of our fewness,
We understand froc-ism is oil and anglo-ism is water.
Now, freedom is sweet
Now, breaking borders is necessary.
O we are few
But do not swallow us
For not every small fish is swallowed by big fishes.
Truly, we ought not hate you
But you have chosen disunity,
You are too heavy on us
You suck us like tape worms.
Please, leave us drink
The milk of our independence.
Please, leave us dance
The lyrics of our nature.”
This poem only became popular after the 2016 Lawyers’ and Teachers’ strike that later developed into what we know today as the Anglophone crisis. But Rev. Cosmas said he had no idea that he will leave from being popular and working with everyone, to living in hiding.
“I was remarkably close to government VIPs and some clergies were against my organization. There is a list of persons issued to the government by different parties finding seats within the struggle. Well, moving and being pointed at, is so risky for me.” He lamented.
Even his closeness with the VIPs became an issue, “I find it more dangerous living both within the francophone with whom some Anglophones share same views against the English people’s uprising. The other side, is living within the English zone where some of us working closely with the administrators were easily taken as black legs(betrayers).
Other poems written by Re. Cosmas include that became a revolutionary piece being used by the Separatists include -It’s Too Much, 1999; Woe, 1999; Wake Up, 1998; Kill Me Unjustly 2001, among others. Asked what was his immediate action, he said, ” To be honest I don’t know what to do nor where to go, but I’ll keep my eyes and ears on the ground. I am a missionary and was supposed to be on the field, but as we talk, I am thinking of an escape route to save myself and my family.” He said.
Rev. Cosmas as a Poet is not alone, English Speaking journalists have begun to sense danger ahead after the arrest of Atia Tilarious of The Sun Newspaper, Amos Fofung of The Guardian Post newspaper among other Buea based reporters.
