By Joy Bikom
What was billed as a peaceful show of civic expression on Sunday, October 26, and Monday, October 27, quickly descended into chaos, leaving behind scenes of theft, destruction, and disbelief.
Across some Cameroonian cities, like Douala, Yaounde, and Mbouda, protesters who had gathered in response to a presidential election candidate’s call for calm and peaceful mobilization turned the streets into what many now describe as a “chop farm”, a free-for-all harvest of other people’s investments.
Before the official proclamation of election results, Presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma had urged citizens to take to the streets for a nonviolent protest, a symbolic march meant to advocate for transparency, peace, and justice. But as the protest went by, that message had been buried under the noise of breaking glass, the rolling of stolen freezers, and the scramble for goods that did not belong to the marchers.
Videos circulating on social media paint a picture of moral collapse. In one clip, individuals are seen storming CONGELCAM and walking away with fish as if collecting their own property. In another, a man pushes a freezer down the street while a cheering crowd films him on their phones. Elsewhere, entire warehouses of rice were emptied as looters carried off bags on their heads, turning the so-called peaceful protest into a supermarket rush.
In still other videos, bottles of cooking gas were being wheeled away like trophies, while onlookers shouted in disbelief, recording the scene for the world to see.
The irony has not been lost on Cameroonians watching from home. What began as a civic action to defend justice and peace quickly turned into an opportunity for a “chopportunity,” as social media users now sarcastically call it. Many have condemned the incidents as shameful, warning that such acts only discredit the legitimate calls for reform that citizens have every right to make.
Shop owners and businesspeople are counting their losses, many saying they were already struggling before this latest wave of destruction. “I didn’t even vote,” said one trader whose store was emptied. “Now, they’ve voted for me with theft.”
What was meant to be a message of peace has instead revealed a deeper problem: the thin line between protest and plunder, between frustration and lawlessness. And as the dust settles, one question lingers in the public conscience was it really a protest, or just another “chopportunity”?
