OPINION: What is the Meaning of 20th May to an Anglophone IDP?
By Colbert Gwain
As a kid, I always looked forward to every May 20th with a lot of excitement. For me, it was all about the campfire, the eating of benye or puff-puff, sugar cane and assorted sweets. For me, 20th May was about travelling from Muteff, my local village kaleidoscope, to Fundong, our divisional headquarters, marching past top administrative authorities and making new friends.
The excitement around May 20th, was so unprecedented to the extent that it took us months, weeks and days to prepare for it. One needed to do all that was humanly possible to squeeze money, to prepare for that phenomenal day. One had to make rounds, and stay late into the night, at Tella Kvimteh’s tailoring workshop, (ostensibly the only famous Tailor in Muteff village by then), with a workshop situated off the jaws of Muteff market square, to ensure the almost torn-to-pieces Catholic school uniform our parents had sewn for us, in lieu of a Christmas dress, was properly patched. Although Tella Kvimteh became the admiration of the village, he could never be pushed to work at a faster pace because, as a graduate of the Mbingo Baptist Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Centre, his chopped off fingers and toes never offered great chances of him sewing dresses on record time. The reason why, he was referred to in the first place as ‘Tella Kvimteh’, because ‘Kvimteh’, referred to his handicapped nature.
After ensuring that your uniform was in order for the memorable trip to Fundong, one then had to make sure his or her Dschang shoes were well patched. Here, one became the blacksmith, as just with an old – and usually crooked kitchen knife and fire from your mother’s kitchen hearth, the deal was done.
With some hard-earned coins from picking left-over coffee grains from the nearby stream and fallen cola nuts from your father’s coffee farm, one was ready for a May 20 field day in Fundong, beginning May 18th evening.
I was as unreflective about the meaning of this national day as anyone could possibly be.
Now I have come of age. I have heard and read a lot about May 20, 1972. Since that reading, I have never thought of May 20 in the same light. To me, this national holiday is more of a day for reflection than a day for celebration. Reflection on how far we, as a country and people have come, and where we must now go.
I need not enter further into the events that led to the putting in place of May 20 as a national day. Many readers understand them better than I do. They could instruct me in that regard. Suffice to say that the events that led to the controversy in Foumban in 1972 that made May 20 as our national day, can only be likened to the egg and chicken situation. They have been taught in our schools – from primary to university. They have been narrated at firesides, unfolded from protest marches, and thundered from pulpits and written about in newspapers. They are as familiar to you reading me now as household words. They form the staple of our national poetry and are woven into the very tapestry of the fabric that binds us as Cameroonians.
But to a marginalized, homeless and suffering Anglophone IDP, what is May 20?
May 20 to many an Anglophone is the day they lost their identity as a people and have been struggling tooth and nail since 2016, to reassert it. It is the day their claim to a federated state was lost. To a marginalized Anglophone, May 20 is the day Anglophones in Cameroon were abused and marginalized and their cultural identity tampered with.
Arrested, detained and later released, respected lawyer and activist Ayah Paul Abine, while arguing some years ago, that since no people are stateless, and since Anglophones have no option at moment – was of the opinion that they should continue to celebrate May 20. But that the greater Cameroon should not see in Anglophones joining in the celebrations the fact that Southern Cameroons were not raped, for as he puts it, the fact that someone reaches ecstasy or orgasm during rape doesn’t mean they were not raped.
Nwachang Thomas, the dissident researcher and historian whose whereabout remain unknown to this day – long made the case that the 20th May, 1972 was an invention to replace the treaty that the Republic of Cameroon failed to sign with Britain on Southern Cameroons, unlike what Britain signed with China over Hong Kong. To Nwachang, when authorities in Yaoundé painfully found out that without a treaty, the Union with Southern Cameroons was illegal, they improvised the controversial Referendum to justify that; in spite of no treaty, Southern Cameroonians voted in a referendum to join La Republique.
The dissident researcher and historian concluded that the inescapable challenge for Yaoundé authorities was to explain whether it was 1st October 1961 that was Independence and Reunification Day or May 20, 1972, that was referendum and reunification day, or both.
He wondered why after indoctrinating our children in primary and secondary schools with such a history, the government still went ahead in 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Reunification in Buea, where President Paul Biya recognized Buea, as once the capital of both Southern Cameroons and German Kamerun.
To most Anglophones and especially the growing numbers of IDPs therefore, May 20 can only mean marginalization, suffering, extra-judicial killings, maiming, poor infrastructural development, second class citizenship and political subjugation.
Just like handicapped Tella Kvimteh in the Muteff case, May 20, 1972, seems to have completely handicapped Cameroon and Cameroonians, to the extent that if something is not done, and urgently, things would never be the same again, however you may perceive it.
Happy 20th May!
Colbert Gwain is a digital rights activist, thought leader, author, radio host and content creator at TheColbertFactor. He has worked as a journalist and commentator on Cameroonian socio-political issues for over 20 years.
