TribalMonk Quotes from the Facebook stream

Between 2018 and 2021, the author posted hundreds of one-line reflections on Facebook, most beginning "AMBA:" (for Ambazonia) and signed TM (TribalMonk). This is a selection, grouped by theme.

Roots

• A tree that knows not its roots will become a leaf in the wind.
• If a human moves away from their root, every slight wind will blow them away in all directions. Hang on to your own root.
• A tree without roots will not stand. A community without roots will not stand. A government without roots will not stand. Find the ROOT.
• An idea with no root is like a leaf in the wind: dead already.
• Every African has a fixed address: where their African ancestors are buried.
• Try to transplant a tree from Africa to Europe without its roots, and the tree will die.
• Colonization planted roots, but not deep enough. Indigenous roots remain.
• "HISTORY is the ROOT of the PAST, the STEM of the PRESENT and the LEAVES of the FUTURE."

Culture

• The human is the container, the culture is the content, and the context is the homeland.
• Culture is the root that holds up the tree called a group, a community or a nation. Take it away, and the tree is dead.
• The culture of a kommunity is like the skeleton of a body. Break up the skeleton, and the muscles have nothing to hang on.
• The further you are from your mother tongue, the weaker your speech. The closer you are, the more strength you project.
• Speaking in another man's language is like chewing another dog's bone.
• The original "church" of African Bantu "religion" is the family, where charity begins.
• The real fight among humans is about cultural dominance. That's the thing closest to every human's skin.
• "Francophone", "Lusophone", "Anglophone", "Hispanophone"… colonial constructs to divide and control. Africaphone?

Self-rule and government

• Government by the people is simply "do it yourself". And it's not rocket science.
• Simple Bantu logic: you cannot solve a people's problems without the PEOPLE.
• No power without people.
• When the last mile of government is not local, something fishy is going on.
• Basic human problems (food, shelter, clothing, literacy) are local. The power to solve them should be local too.
• Since a government cannot solve 100% of citizens' problems, it cannot have 100% of the power either.
• Engineers are wary of single-point-of-failure set-ups. A dictatorship is one.
• Elections and appointments should be job interviews. Otherwise, mediocrity is king.
• When your job depends on an appointment, expect disappointment as the next option.
• A "leader" with no marketable skills is a public liability.
• Anyone who likes to be called "leader" should answer without hesitation: "What exactly are you leading?"
• Self-organizing communities are a threat to dictators. To survive, we must self-organize.
• Adults self-rule. If not, how will the children learn to do the same?
• Revolution does not happen until YOU "revolve" YOUR MIND.

Money and the CFA franc

• Money does not solve people's problems. People do. A suitcase full of cash has no value until a human touches it.
• Money on its own cannot cook beans. You still need a human.
• Economics for the oppressed: making sure what goes into your pocket stays in.
• As long as someone else is printing your money, you cannot be free.
• An African central bank is the foundation of true independence.
• The only time you can be sure France has left Ambazonia is when the FCFA becomes illegal currency there.
• Africa: the land is rich, the people are poor. Something doesn't add up.
• Without production, consumption will always be a daily challenge.

Truth and knowledge

• If you don't question everything, how can you have an answer for anything?
• Don't just believe; investigate.
• Truth has all the time. Humans don't. That is the problem.
• You can make up lies (things that never happened), but you can't make up the truth (things that actually happened).
• If you want to control a people, give them two lies, and let them fight over which one is the truth.
• Hiding the truth is like lighting a candle and putting it under the table: it will burn down the house.
• Argument vs quarrel: one grows the mind; the other shrivels the brain.
• In a civilized debate, counter the points, not the person. The content is king, not the container.
• Disagreement in a democracy is not a bug. It is a feature.
• Data is the money of the Information Age. Information without data is as good as no information.
• After a while, you learn there is no magic. But there is algebra.

Work, skills and the youth

• How to prepare for the change that WILL come: use the time now to acquire useful skills.
• True freedom is individual business. Your real struggle is to have a skill that can cook beans (for you).
• Jobs cannot be created in a vacuum. The vision of a kommunity defines the jobs.
• The purpose of life is to solve problems. If you didn't know, now you know.
• The best education for the youth: courses on where money comes from, and where it goes.
• Going to a meeting? Please bring something (not food or drinks) to the table.
• Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Kom

• Kom was founded in the 1700s by a WOMAN. Respect the woman.
• Kom citizens instinctively call each other wâyn nà wom, "child of my mother".
• There are millions of people in the world with no language of their own. So thank the ancestors for itaŋiKom.
• No matter how rich anyone is, no one can buy their own history.
• The indigenous Kom Kingdom is like a flower folded in on itself. Time to unfold.

GrandPa says

• "Confront people where they are, not where they should be."
• "Do not engage in an enterprise if you cannot explain why. 'Why' is the key to the answer."
• "We cannot be standing on two different hills while your hand is in my handbag."
• You live downstream of the village river? Be nice to your neighbours upstream.
• A jumping frog signals a snake in the grass.
• The Earth spins at about 1,000 miles an hour… walk softly.

TM

— Wanaku Verdzekov