OPINION: There was no Christmas in the NW but New Year’s Day should be different. Here’s why

By Hansel Ngala

As the Anglophone Crisis has deteriorated into a civil war – ordinary Cameroonians continue to pay the price for the fighting between separatists and soldiers. On Christmas Day, there was no celebration in the Northwest of the country where separatists have a very strong presence. Streets were deserted, church services did not happen, markets, shops and all forms of business remained closed. These moratoriums have been enforced on all Mondays since the declaration of the ‘independence’ of the state of ‘Ambazonia’ in October 2017.

As I write this, I am quite aware that there was equally no Christmas celebration in Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus Christ whom we worship as Christians. However, the situation in Gaza is due to heavy bombardment from Israeli forces who have sworn not to stop their offensive until Hamas – the militant group whom Israel describes as ‘terrorists’ – are rooted out completely. While there is no comparison to be made between the situation in Gaza and the Anglophone regions of Cameroon in the sense that there is no heavy bombardment of the region as in Gaza – it still suffices to say that Anglophone regions have nevertheless become unsafe. That does not mean that Christmas should not have been celebrated.

Christmas ought to have been celebrated because it is not a political holiday but a religious one. The fact that a ghost town day happened to be on Monday and Christmas also happened to be on Sunday – were just mere coincidences and separatists ought to have allowed the population they claim to be fighting for – to at least celebrate the day.

There is no point in blocking your own people from going to the market to buy and sell, forbidding them from going to church and essentially taking them hostage in their own land. The question separatist leaders ought to be asking now is this: ‘What have we achieved by enforcing ghost towns for the past 6 years?’

Once this question is asked in earnest, they would probably rethink the strategy of keeping the Anglophone population in a forced stay-at-home situation. There is no denying that separatist groups have mushroomed over the last few years because of government’s poor handling of the situation. Government has repeatedly assured the public that they should shun fear and go to school, defy ghost towns and report separatist activity but they failed to convince the public to come out on a day like Christmas to celebrate the biggest holiday of the year. This smacks of either hypocrisy or outright lies on their part.

However, Christmas has passed and like the proverb goes ‘There is no point in crying over spilt milk’. Separatists  (who apparently have a strong sway in the Anglophone regions – or at least in the NW) have one last chance to redeem themselves. They can realize that keeping people at home on Christmas only hurts the population they are trying hard to endear themselves to. No one is coming to save us from this war. The conflict between Israel and Hamas and to a lesser extent now – the one in Ukraine – are more important to the world powers than our war in the Anglophone regions of the country. The point is, it is up to us as Cameroonians (regardless of our political leanings) to solve this conflict. The African Union won’t do it and the United Nations certainly has no desire to do it either.

So separatists have one final chance to redeem themselves and that is to allow the people in the NW and SW to celebrate New Year’s Day. It happens to fall on a Monday and has nothing to do with the political crisis in the region and it is pointless (if not outright foolish) to deter the people you say you are defending, from celebrating a new year. New Year signifies new beginnings, a fresh start, the chance to make amends and I believe that this is the chance for separatists to make amends and allow our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in the Anglophone regions and especially in the NW, to at least relax a bit and start the new year with some joy and happiness.

People need to also make a living and the sales, purchases, etc that they do on New Year’s Day can at least atone for the injustice that was done to them on Christmas Day. I hope they are listening.

Hans Ngala is a freelance journalist based in South Africa.