Thread by @francis_lyon_

Let’s move away from the metaphors for a minute. Cameroon is an arbitrary and artificial creation of Europeans and in 1884 all the ethnicities present in Cameroon today were present. Needless to say these “Cameroonians” never consented to any unity.
Thread
#EndAnglophoneCrisis

https://twitter.com/buhruth/status/1343523284172890112

The Cameroonian identity is solely based on our shared history during the colonial era and the approach to unity must be inclusive. We cannot be homogeneous because we’re too diverse and each of these diverse identities is as equally Cameroonian as the next.
#EndAnglophoneCrisis

The Anglophone Problem which dates as far back as reunification is the result of resistance to assimilation attempts by the government. The government decided that the Cameroonian identity should be based on that inherited from the French colonial master.
#EndAnglophoneCrisis

This is spite of the fact East Cameroon was by no means homogeneous and the French colonial identity was literally violently contested from the mid-50s to 1971 when Ernest Ouandie was executed. Homogeneity was sought because it made dictatorship easier.
#EndAnglophoneCrisis

Obviously by virtue of British trusteeship West Cameroon has a more democratic culture and resisted assimilation, first passively and then since the 90s overtly. This resistance is seen as anti-Cameroonian because the Anglophone identity isn’t seen as a Cameroonian identity.

However, since the country itself was artificially created who’s to say which ethnic, cultural or linguistic identity is more Cameroonian than the others? The solution to the Anglophone Problem is in embracing all cultures and treating them with equal dignity.

Back to the metaphor: Cameroon is a salad bowl and all the fruits equally belong to it. Any attempt to stifle the taste of a particular fruit will destroy said fruit. So the outcome of the salad will be the sum of the fruits in it. #EndAnglophoneCrisis

Our government has been trying to make a cocktail since independence which entails destroying at least some of the fruits. It is better for these fruits to not be part of the bowl if the price for that is destruction. That’s pure survival instinct.
#EndAnglophoneCrisis

I used Anglophone Problem because this crisis is a symptom of the problem. Solve the Anglophone Problem and the current crisis is as good as solved. Of course that means a new constitution that gives equal respect to each identity and accepts diversity #EndAnglophoneCrisis

I know this is lengthy. It should be longer but I’m typing at the end of a very long day and the mind is tired. Please overlook the mistakes. I look forward to your feedbacks, criticisms and corrections.
#EndAnglophoneCrisis