Truth Commission in the Cameroons?

There is no way to hide more than half a century (from the 1960s until today) of politically motivated extrajudicial killings, disappearances of citizens, and all the voodoo accounting that takes place at the highest levels of governance in the Cameroons. The global community now knows that, apart from football, the Cameroons is an icon of corruption in this African sub-region.

The question children ask in this part of the world is: "Agreed, there is corruption here (among other ills), but how do we move forward from where we are?"

Which nation? Where is the Cameroons?

Google "Cameroon" and you will find where it is on the map. The real question is: where are the citizens of this place called the Cameroons on the path of development?

It could be a simple question to answer, since decolonization in the 1960s this sub-region has been "governed" by only two individuals, one literally handing power over to the other. So (if you ask me), realistically speaking, there has NOT BEEN A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADER IN THE CAMEROONS SINCE DECOLONIZATION. I hope that did not come as a surprise to you. If it did, take it as Truth Number One.

Belong to the party, or head for the door

When the first Cameroons leader handed power to the current one, the significant thing was the handover of leadership of the only political party in the country: the one party with a central political bureau (similar to the central committee of a communist party), to which every member of government had to belong, or else head for the door.

There was a kind of tussle between the former leader and the current one over leadership of the party. Some say there might have been an arrangement where the former would remain leader of the party and the current one president of the country. But who knows the details of that argument? The former never became leader of the party. In fact, he went into exile in Senegal, where he later died, and he was buried in Senegal too. A truth commission should be able to bring out more details.

After taking over this power from the first president (president of the Cameroons, and leader of the only political party, with a central committee under his thumb), all the next man did was window-dress it: a new name, new party uniforms, new catchphrases, and a pipe dream of a vision that, 35 years later, has come to nothing. Unsurprising (to me, at least).

Why?

Because trying to build something on a bed of lies is a waste of time. It is like trying to grow an iroko tree in the sands of Timbuktu. It won't happen.

A truth commission

Anyone informed about the situation in the Cameroons (and there is a lot to be informed about) concludes that it is complex to resolve. But here is a starting point: spell out the truth, and let the chips fall where they may. For this to happen, we need people of impeccable, upright character, with experience of running truth sessions and of putting together well-documented reports that can stand the truth test at any time, now and in the future.

The people always want to know the truth

How possible is that? Well, for one thing, you cannot tell the truth about now without knowing how "now" came to be. So an exercise of this kind will take time: time that is also valuable for the citizens of this sub-region to learn the facts that make up the truth of who they really are, from past to present. It could also be therapeutic, easing the distress of a people traumatized by a post-colonial history that is turbulent, continuously unsettling, and does not help citizens focus their efforts on a positive vision of the future.

Simply throwing out the past and thinking that blindly forging ahead will lead to… whatever it is citizens are looking for is like saying "no matter how much experience you have, it makes no difference to your current or future actions". Well, experience DOES make a difference. And as a people, the populations of the Cameroons have "experienced" some things they need to reflect on. Hence, a truth commission.

200+ tribes and languages?

A truth commission in the Cameroons should be independent of any government interference. It should record its work and make its final report publicly available to all citizens, in as many languages and versions as required, not just English and French, which are foreign languages in this context.

For everyone to buy into the idea, there should be a guarantee that a citizen who only understands a tribal language (there are over 200) can have their say before the commission, and that what they say will also be heard and understood by other citizens in their own languages.

Ahem!

A truth commission will reset the socio-political landscape and let future generations see it as a landmark: the departure point from the mistakes of the past towards the successes of the future. What a truth commission will NOT do is create or spread more lies.

A national conference? It won't happen.

There was a push for a similar exercise called a "National Conference" (a sort of national discussion of the nation's problems, and how to move on). It never happened. If you ask me, the main reason is that before holding a "national" conference, you have to be sure the "nation" exists. If it really does, what reason under the sun could there be for NOT being ABLE to hold a national conference?

That's another question for the truth commission, among the many that the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of citizens who were disappeared, killed, tortured, imprisoned without trial or exiled will be asking. That's the least they need to move on… into a future of hope and promise.

A note on the name

The use of the word "Cameroons" instead of "Cameroon" or "Cameroun" is intentional. The name comes from the Portuguese os camarões, which means "prawns" or "shrimps". Please don't call me a shrimp. Thank you.

TM

PS: Someone at L'Effort Camerounais was inspired by the same idea of a truth and reconciliation commission, on the South African model, in a 2012 article.

— Wanaku Verdzekov