Editorial

There is a cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians that is celebrated May 20 of every year.  The All Anglophone Lawyers Conference Common that took place in Bamenda on May 9, 2015 was forthright to add the critical voices of lawyers in alerting and awakening the conscience of the civilized world to this powder keg that may ignited an unprecedented human and material calamity in a volatile sub-region. Hoping to rely on the national and international focus on the war against Boko Haram to deflate attention from the escalation of this policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon criminalized civil liberties and unleashed an unprecedented assault on the Common Law by deploying civil law Judges to the Common Law Jurisdictions to use the French language in the enforcement of this policy.   To expect Common Law practitioners who are the guarantors of this internationally protected legacy to observe in silent complicity or to do nothing would have given a tacit fig leaf of support to this ongoing crime against the conscience of humanity. The escalation of the cultural genocide that elicited this emergency response by the Common Law Lawyers took a familiar path. Permit me therefore to go down memory lane to trace the oppressive journey that the systemic, asphyxiating and sometime blood targeting of Southern Cameroons on account of their cultural, territorial, economic and demographic specificity has taken.  Between October 29 and December 6, 1958, the last of the UN General Assembly fact-finding missions of four members, Haiti, India, New Zealand and the US) headed by Benjamin Gerig of the U.S to the Cameroons issued a report to the General Assembly of the UN on February 20, 1958. That report like those of the three previous fact-finding missions, ruled out a unification of the British Cameroons and the French Cameroons.  Any talk of a purported unification or re-unification of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroon on October 1, 1961 or May 20, 1972 is pure propaganda based on fraud.  However, due to a now widely discredited report submitted by Great Britain, the fate of the Cameroons under British Trusteeship administration was sealed in unprecedented plebiscites, which offered supposed road maps to independence through alternatives that were inconsistent with the peoples expression of their UN Charter protected right to self-determination.

By the results of the plebiscite organized on February 11, 1961 the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons affirmed their right to attain independence first and then entering into a negotiated union of equals with the independent La Republique du Cameroun.   Ignoring the expressed will of the Southern Cameroons, La Republique du Cameroun with the complicity of Great Britain and the conspiracy by default of the UN colonized the Southern Cameroons and purported to impose a unification option that was clearly rejected by the UN General Assembly in 1959.  A policy of cultural genocide was then put in place to stifle any dissent against the annexation and colonization of the Southern Cameroons.  The now familiar tools that were deployed to attain this criminal enterprise included the enactment of a legislative act amending the Constitution of La Republique du Cameroun of March 4, 1960 to annex the Southern Cameroons, the immediate imposition of  emergency laws applicable in La Republique du Cameroun to the Southern Cameroons in 1963, the dismantlingwithin a period of only five years of the institutions of a façade Federation as well as the democratic institutions of the Southern Cameroons inherited from Great Britain.   The use of the law to attain these criminal objectives was again replicated during the so-called referendum establishing a unitary state on May 20, 1972.  By Decree No. 66-DF-133 of the 17 March, 1966 (extending the State of Emergency in certain areas of the Federated State of West Cameroon”,  Bamenda Division, Mamfe Division, Kumba Division and Victoria Division of  the Southern Cameroonians were subjected to unprecedented acts of state terrorism.  Through individual and collective invasion of privacy, so-called Calle Calles, acts of rape,bestiality, murder, theft and all forms of egregious violations were perpetrated on the people of the Southern Cameroons. At the height of these acts of aggression, the multi-party system that existed in the territory was dismantled and the Francophone system of administration took over the administration of the territory.  Between 1969 and 1971 the regime used the arrest, trial and conviction of Bishop Albert Ndongmo and the execution of Ernest Ouandie on January 15, 1971 to tighten the state of emergency and to intensify the egregious violations within the Southern Cameroons. It is while this state of emergency was in place that the so-called referendum was organized in May 1972. 

There was no valid expression of franchise in this referendum. Apart from the state of emergency, persons of voting age had no real choice but to vote the will of their colonizer in a referendum conducted under terror whose outcome was predetermined. Persons were expected to produce their voting cards at random check points set up in the colonized territory to enforce emergency rule.  Boycotting the façade of a referendum was considered a crime of subversion which could earned the perpetrators jail time at one of the many detention so-called re-education centres notorious among which were Mantoum and Tcholire. This is the atmosphere under which the cultural genocide which is celebrated every May 20 was formalized.  The share magnitude of the crimes perpetrated prior to, during and after May 20 1972 led Paul Biya to attempt to conceal his endorsement and involvement in the crimes.  For this reason, in 1984 he engineered a legislative act reverting La Republique du Cameroun to its identity at independence but maintained the policy of cultural genocide which was put inplace by his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo.  This policy of deception intended to mask the criminal nature of May 20 celebrations. This is one reason why May 20 eludes a definition. The ceremony was named the “Peaceful Revolution” by its architects France and its Cameroun vassal Ahmadou Ahidjo.  With the appointment of Paul Biya as President of La Republique du Cameroun, this appellation was abandoned and replaced with the generic name of “national day celebration” without stating which national event it related to.  Thereafter, the appellation anniversary of “reunification” was adopted. This has lately been abandoned from when Paul Biya chose to celebrate the anniversary of the purported reunification on February 20, 2014. What then is May 20 celebration if it is not a day for the celebration of the cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians?  The resolutions of the Common Law Lawyers detailed this unprecedented assault on the common law falls which fall within the realm of the consistent pattern of systemic violations intended to render the conditions of life unbearable for the people.  The policy if unchecked will further a policy of programmed extermination in whole or in part of a people recognized in international law as such due to their English speaking Southern Cameroons cultural identity. 

 
The lawyers have detailed the egregious violations and suggested solutions which can form a framework for a comprehensive dialogue ordered by the African Commission on Humans and Peoples Rights which the Government of Cameroun, accepted, asked for an extension of time to prepare for, but has so far done nothing further to honour its own engagement.  By this escalation and the impunity with which the Government of Cameroun is prosecuting its policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon is taunting the resolve of the people of the Southern Cameroons and that of the International Community to confront these acts of impunity and criminality with every legitimate means possible. The Common Law Lawyers who are the guarantors of this heritage, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms on the territory have raised this timely alarm to alert the Government of Cameroon and the International Community that there are clear limits to unrestrained policy of impunity and international criminality.   Although addressed to the Government of Cameroon, the resolutions of the lawyers are clearly intended for the International Community whose duty is to promptly intervene to prevent the humanity calamity that this policy is intended to cause.  Placed within the context of the policy denounced in the lawyers’ resolutions, the celebration of the so-called national day on 20 May can best be described as a celebration of cultural genocide. 
 
·        
 Chief Charles A. Taku is currently lead counsel at the
 International Criminal Court
 (ICC) at The Hague.

 

 

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

22.May.2015

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There is a cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians that is celebrated May 20 of every year.  The All Anglophone Lawyers Conference Common that took place in Bamenda on May 9, 2015 was forthright to add the critical voices of lawyers in alerting and awakening the conscience of the civilized world to this powder keg that may ignited an unprecedented human and material calamity in a volatile sub-region. Hoping to rely on the national and international focus on the war against Boko Haram to deflate attention from the escalation of this policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon criminalized civil liberties and unleashed an unprecedented assault on the Common Law by deploying civil law Judges to the Common Law Jurisdictions to use the French language in the enforcement of this policy.   To expect Common Law practitioners who are the guarantors of this internationally protected legacy to observe in silent complicity or to do nothing would have given a tacit fig leaf of support to this ongoing crime against the conscience of humanity. The escalation of the cultural genocide that elicited this emergency response by the Common Law Lawyers took a familiar path. Permit me therefore to go down memory lane to trace the oppressive journey that the systemic, asphyxiating and sometime blood targeting of Southern Cameroons on account of their cultural, territorial, economic and demographic specificity has taken.  Between October 29 and December 6, 1958, the last of the UN General Assembly fact-finding missions of four members, Haiti, India, New Zealand and the US) headed by Benjamin Gerig of the U.S to the Cameroons issued a report to the General Assembly of the UN on February 20, 1958. That report like those of the three previous fact-finding missions, ruled out a unification of the British Cameroons and the French Cameroons.  Any talk of a purported unification or re-unification of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroon on October 1, 1961 or May 20, 1972 is pure propaganda based on fraud.  However, due to a now widely discredited report submitted by Great Britain, the fate of the Cameroons under British Trusteeship administration was sealed in unprecedented plebiscites, which offered supposed road maps to independence through alternatives that were inconsistent with the peoples expression of their UN Charter protected right to self-determination.

By the results of the plebiscite organized on February 11, 1961 the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons affirmed their right to attain independence first and then entering into a negotiated union of equals with the independent La Republique du Cameroun.   Ignoring the expressed will of the Southern Cameroons, La Republique du Cameroun with the complicity of Great Britain and the conspiracy by default of the UN colonized the Southern Cameroons and purported to impose a unification option that was clearly rejected by the UN General Assembly in 1959.  A policy of cultural genocide was then put in place to stifle any dissent against the annexation and colonization of the Southern Cameroons.  The now familiar tools that were deployed to attain this criminal enterprise included the enactment of a legislative act amending the Constitution of La Republique du Cameroun of March 4, 1960 to annex the Southern Cameroons, the immediate imposition of  emergency laws applicable in La Republique du Cameroun to the Southern Cameroons in 1963, the dismantlingwithin a period of only five years of the institutions of a façade Federation as well as the democratic institutions of the Southern Cameroons inherited from Great Britain.   The use of the law to attain these criminal objectives was again replicated during the so-called referendum establishing a unitary state on May 20, 1972.  By Decree No. 66-DF-133 of the 17 March, 1966 (extending the State of Emergency in certain areas of the Federated State of West Cameroon”,  Bamenda Division, Mamfe Division, Kumba Division and Victoria Division of  the Southern Cameroonians were subjected to unprecedented acts of state terrorism.  Through individual and collective invasion of privacy, so-called Calle Calles, acts of rape,bestiality, murder, theft and all forms of egregious violations were perpetrated on the people of the Southern Cameroons. At the height of these acts of aggression, the multi-party system that existed in the territory was dismantled and the Francophone system of administration took over the administration of the territory.  Between 1969 and 1971 the regime used the arrest, trial and conviction of Bishop Albert Ndongmo and the execution of Ernest Ouandie on January 15, 1971 to tighten the state of emergency and to intensify the egregious violations within the Southern Cameroons. It is while this state of emergency was in place that the so-called referendum was organized in May 1972. 

There was no valid expression of franchise in this referendum. Apart from the state of emergency, persons of voting age had no real choice but to vote the will of their colonizer in a referendum conducted under terror whose outcome was predetermined. Persons were expected to produce their voting cards at random check points set up in the colonized territory to enforce emergency rule.  Boycotting the façade of a referendum was considered a crime of subversion which could earned the perpetrators jail time at one of the many detention so-called re-education centres notorious among which were Mantoum and Tcholire. This is the atmosphere under which the cultural genocide which is celebrated every May 20 was formalized.  The share magnitude of the crimes perpetrated prior to, during and after May 20 1972 led Paul Biya to attempt to conceal his endorsement and involvement in the crimes.  For this reason, in 1984 he engineered a legislative act reverting La Republique du Cameroun to its identity at independence but maintained the policy of cultural genocide which was put inplace by his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo.  This policy of deception intended to mask the criminal nature of May 20 celebrations. This is one reason why May 20 eludes a definition. The ceremony was named the “Peaceful Revolution” by its architects France and its Cameroun vassal Ahmadou Ahidjo.  With the appointment of Paul Biya as President of La Republique du Cameroun, this appellation was abandoned and replaced with the generic name of “national day celebration” without stating which national event it related to.  Thereafter, the appellation anniversary of “reunification” was adopted. This has lately been abandoned from when Paul Biya chose to celebrate the anniversary of the purported reunification on February 20, 2014. What then is May 20 celebration if it is not a day for the celebration of the cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians?  The resolutions of the Common Law Lawyers detailed this unprecedented assault on the common law falls which fall within the realm of the consistent pattern of systemic violations intended to render the conditions of life unbearable for the people.  The policy if unchecked will further a policy of programmed extermination in whole or in part of a people recognized in international law as such due to their English speaking Southern Cameroons cultural identity. 

 
The lawyers have detailed the egregious violations and suggested solutions which can form a framework for a comprehensive dialogue ordered by the African Commission on Humans and Peoples Rights which the Government of Cameroun, accepted, asked for an extension of time to prepare for, but has so far done nothing further to honour its own engagement.  By this escalation and the impunity with which the Government of Cameroun is prosecuting its policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon is taunting the resolve of the people of the Southern Cameroons and that of the International Community to confront these acts of impunity and criminality with every legitimate means possible. The Common Law Lawyers who are the guarantors of this heritage, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms on the territory have raised this timely alarm to alert the Government of Cameroon and the International Community that there are clear limits to unrestrained policy of impunity and international criminality.   Although addressed to the Government of Cameroon, the resolutions of the lawyers are clearly intended for the International Community whose duty is to promptly intervene to prevent the humanity calamity that this policy is intended to cause.  Placed within the context of the policy denounced in the lawyers’ resolutions, the celebration of the so-called national day on 20 May can best be described as a celebration of cultural genocide. 
 
·        
 Chief Charles A. Taku is currently lead counsel at the
 International Criminal Court
 (ICC) at The Hague.

 

 

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

22.May.2015

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There is a cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians that is celebrated May 20 of every year.  The All Anglophone Lawyers Conference Common that took place in Bamenda on May 9, 2015 was forthright to add the critical voices of lawyers in alerting and awakening the conscience of the civilized world to this powder keg that may ignited an unprecedented human and material calamity in a volatile sub-region. Hoping to rely on the national and international focus on the war against Boko Haram to deflate attention from the escalation of this policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon criminalized civil liberties and unleashed an unprecedented assault on the Common Law by deploying civil law Judges to the Common Law Jurisdictions to use the French language in the enforcement of this policy.   To expect Common Law practitioners who are the guarantors of this internationally protected legacy to observe in silent complicity or to do nothing would have given a tacit fig leaf of support to this ongoing crime against the conscience of humanity. The escalation of the cultural genocide that elicited this emergency response by the Common Law Lawyers took a familiar path. Permit me therefore to go down memory lane to trace the oppressive journey that the systemic, asphyxiating and sometime blood targeting of Southern Cameroons on account of their cultural, territorial, economic and demographic specificity has taken.  Between October 29 and December 6, 1958, the last of the UN General Assembly fact-finding missions of four members, Haiti, India, New Zealand and the US) headed by Benjamin Gerig of the U.S to the Cameroons issued a report to the General Assembly of the UN on February 20, 1958. That report like those of the three previous fact-finding missions, ruled out a unification of the British Cameroons and the French Cameroons.  Any talk of a purported unification or re-unification of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroon on October 1, 1961 or May 20, 1972 is pure propaganda based on fraud.  However, due to a now widely discredited report submitted by Great Britain, the fate of the Cameroons under British Trusteeship administration was sealed in unprecedented plebiscites, which offered supposed road maps to independence through alternatives that were inconsistent with the peoples expression of their UN Charter protected right to self-determination.

By the results of the plebiscite organized on February 11, 1961 the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons affirmed their right to attain independence first and then entering into a negotiated union of equals with the independent La Republique du Cameroun.   Ignoring the expressed will of the Southern Cameroons, La Republique du Cameroun with the complicity of Great Britain and the conspiracy by default of the UN colonized the Southern Cameroons and purported to impose a unification option that was clearly rejected by the UN General Assembly in 1959.  A policy of cultural genocide was then put in place to stifle any dissent against the annexation and colonization of the Southern Cameroons.  The now familiar tools that were deployed to attain this criminal enterprise included the enactment of a legislative act amending the Constitution of La Republique du Cameroun of March 4, 1960 to annex the Southern Cameroons, the immediate imposition of  emergency laws applicable in La Republique du Cameroun to the Southern Cameroons in 1963, the dismantlingwithin a period of only five years of the institutions of a façade Federation as well as the democratic institutions of the Southern Cameroons inherited from Great Britain.   The use of the law to attain these criminal objectives was again replicated during the so-called referendum establishing a unitary state on May 20, 1972.  By Decree No. 66-DF-133 of the 17 March, 1966 (extending the State of Emergency in certain areas of the Federated State of West Cameroon”,  Bamenda Division, Mamfe Division, Kumba Division and Victoria Division of  the Southern Cameroonians were subjected to unprecedented acts of state terrorism.  Through individual and collective invasion of privacy, so-called Calle Calles, acts of rape,bestiality, murder, theft and all forms of egregious violations were perpetrated on the people of the Southern Cameroons. At the height of these acts of aggression, the multi-party system that existed in the territory was dismantled and the Francophone system of administration took over the administration of the territory.  Between 1969 and 1971 the regime used the arrest, trial and conviction of Bishop Albert Ndongmo and the execution of Ernest Ouandie on January 15, 1971 to tighten the state of emergency and to intensify the egregious violations within the Southern Cameroons. It is while this state of emergency was in place that the so-called referendum was organized in May 1972. 

There was no valid expression of franchise in this referendum. Apart from the state of emergency, persons of voting age had no real choice but to vote the will of their colonizer in a referendum conducted under terror whose outcome was predetermined. Persons were expected to produce their voting cards at random check points set up in the colonized territory to enforce emergency rule.  Boycotting the façade of a referendum was considered a crime of subversion which could earned the perpetrators jail time at one of the many detention so-called re-education centres notorious among which were Mantoum and Tcholire. This is the atmosphere under which the cultural genocide which is celebrated every May 20 was formalized.  The share magnitude of the crimes perpetrated prior to, during and after May 20 1972 led Paul Biya to attempt to conceal his endorsement and involvement in the crimes.  For this reason, in 1984 he engineered a legislative act reverting La Republique du Cameroun to its identity at independence but maintained the policy of cultural genocide which was put inplace by his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo.  This policy of deception intended to mask the criminal nature of May 20 celebrations. This is one reason why May 20 eludes a definition. The ceremony was named the “Peaceful Revolution” by its architects France and its Cameroun vassal Ahmadou Ahidjo.  With the appointment of Paul Biya as President of La Republique du Cameroun, this appellation was abandoned and replaced with the generic name of “national day celebration” without stating which national event it related to.  Thereafter, the appellation anniversary of “reunification” was adopted. This has lately been abandoned from when Paul Biya chose to celebrate the anniversary of the purported reunification on February 20, 2014. What then is May 20 celebration if it is not a day for the celebration of the cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians?  The resolutions of the Common Law Lawyers detailed this unprecedented assault on the common law falls which fall within the realm of the consistent pattern of systemic violations intended to render the conditions of life unbearable for the people.  The policy if unchecked will further a policy of programmed extermination in whole or in part of a people recognized in international law as such due to their English speaking Southern Cameroons cultural identity. 

 
The lawyers have detailed the egregious violations and suggested solutions which can form a framework for a comprehensive dialogue ordered by the African Commission on Humans and Peoples Rights which the Government of Cameroun, accepted, asked for an extension of time to prepare for, but has so far done nothing further to honour its own engagement.  By this escalation and the impunity with which the Government of Cameroun is prosecuting its policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon is taunting the resolve of the people of the Southern Cameroons and that of the International Community to confront these acts of impunity and criminality with every legitimate means possible. The Common Law Lawyers who are the guarantors of this heritage, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms on the territory have raised this timely alarm to alert the Government of Cameroon and the International Community that there are clear limits to unrestrained policy of impunity and international criminality.   Although addressed to the Government of Cameroon, the resolutions of the lawyers are clearly intended for the International Community whose duty is to promptly intervene to prevent the humanity calamity that this policy is intended to cause.  Placed within the context of the policy denounced in the lawyers’ resolutions, the celebration of the so-called national day on 20 May can best be described as a celebration of cultural genocide. 
 
·        
 Chief Charles A. Taku is currently lead counsel at the
 International Criminal Court
 (ICC) at The Hague.

 

 

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

22.May.2015

Hits: 1561

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There is a cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians that is celebrated May 20 of every year.  The All Anglophone Lawyers Conference Common that took place in Bamenda on May 9, 2015 was forthright to add the critical voices of lawyers in alerting and awakening the conscience of the civilized world to this powder keg that may ignited an unprecedented human and material calamity in a volatile sub-region. Hoping to rely on the national and international focus on the war against Boko Haram to deflate attention from the escalation of this policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon criminalized civil liberties and unleashed an unprecedented assault on the Common Law by deploying civil law Judges to the Common Law Jurisdictions to use the French language in the enforcement of this policy.   To expect Common Law practitioners who are the guarantors of this internationally protected legacy to observe in silent complicity or to do nothing would have given a tacit fig leaf of support to this ongoing crime against the conscience of humanity. The escalation of the cultural genocide that elicited this emergency response by the Common Law Lawyers took a familiar path. Permit me therefore to go down memory lane to trace the oppressive journey that the systemic, asphyxiating and sometime blood targeting of Southern Cameroons on account of their cultural, territorial, economic and demographic specificity has taken.  Between October 29 and December 6, 1958, the last of the UN General Assembly fact-finding missions of four members, Haiti, India, New Zealand and the US) headed by Benjamin Gerig of the U.S to the Cameroons issued a report to the General Assembly of the UN on February 20, 1958. That report like those of the three previous fact-finding missions, ruled out a unification of the British Cameroons and the French Cameroons.  Any talk of a purported unification or re-unification of the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroon on October 1, 1961 or May 20, 1972 is pure propaganda based on fraud.  However, due to a now widely discredited report submitted by Great Britain, the fate of the Cameroons under British Trusteeship administration was sealed in unprecedented plebiscites, which offered supposed road maps to independence through alternatives that were inconsistent with the peoples expression of their UN Charter protected right to self-determination.

By the results of the plebiscite organized on February 11, 1961 the peoples of the British Southern Cameroons affirmed their right to attain independence first and then entering into a negotiated union of equals with the independent La Republique du Cameroun.   Ignoring the expressed will of the Southern Cameroons, La Republique du Cameroun with the complicity of Great Britain and the conspiracy by default of the UN colonized the Southern Cameroons and purported to impose a unification option that was clearly rejected by the UN General Assembly in 1959.  A policy of cultural genocide was then put in place to stifle any dissent against the annexation and colonization of the Southern Cameroons.  The now familiar tools that were deployed to attain this criminal enterprise included the enactment of a legislative act amending the Constitution of La Republique du Cameroun of March 4, 1960 to annex the Southern Cameroons, the immediate imposition of  emergency laws applicable in La Republique du Cameroun to the Southern Cameroons in 1963, the dismantlingwithin a period of only five years of the institutions of a façade Federation as well as the democratic institutions of the Southern Cameroons inherited from Great Britain.   The use of the law to attain these criminal objectives was again replicated during the so-called referendum establishing a unitary state on May 20, 1972.  By Decree No. 66-DF-133 of the 17 March, 1966 (extending the State of Emergency in certain areas of the Federated State of West Cameroon”,  Bamenda Division, Mamfe Division, Kumba Division and Victoria Division of  the Southern Cameroonians were subjected to unprecedented acts of state terrorism.  Through individual and collective invasion of privacy, so-called Calle Calles, acts of rape,bestiality, murder, theft and all forms of egregious violations were perpetrated on the people of the Southern Cameroons. At the height of these acts of aggression, the multi-party system that existed in the territory was dismantled and the Francophone system of administration took over the administration of the territory.  Between 1969 and 1971 the regime used the arrest, trial and conviction of Bishop Albert Ndongmo and the execution of Ernest Ouandie on January 15, 1971 to tighten the state of emergency and to intensify the egregious violations within the Southern Cameroons. It is while this state of emergency was in place that the so-called referendum was organized in May 1972. 

There was no valid expression of franchise in this referendum. Apart from the state of emergency, persons of voting age had no real choice but to vote the will of their colonizer in a referendum conducted under terror whose outcome was predetermined. Persons were expected to produce their voting cards at random check points set up in the colonized territory to enforce emergency rule.  Boycotting the façade of a referendum was considered a crime of subversion which could earned the perpetrators jail time at one of the many detention so-called re-education centres notorious among which were Mantoum and Tcholire. This is the atmosphere under which the cultural genocide which is celebrated every May 20 was formalized.  The share magnitude of the crimes perpetrated prior to, during and after May 20 1972 led Paul Biya to attempt to conceal his endorsement and involvement in the crimes.  For this reason, in 1984 he engineered a legislative act reverting La Republique du Cameroun to its identity at independence but maintained the policy of cultural genocide which was put inplace by his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo.  This policy of deception intended to mask the criminal nature of May 20 celebrations. This is one reason why May 20 eludes a definition. The ceremony was named the “Peaceful Revolution” by its architects France and its Cameroun vassal Ahmadou Ahidjo.  With the appointment of Paul Biya as President of La Republique du Cameroun, this appellation was abandoned and replaced with the generic name of “national day celebration” without stating which national event it related to.  Thereafter, the appellation anniversary of “reunification” was adopted. This has lately been abandoned from when Paul Biya chose to celebrate the anniversary of the purported reunification on February 20, 2014. What then is May 20 celebration if it is not a day for the celebration of the cultural genocide of Southern Cameroonians?  The resolutions of the Common Law Lawyers detailed this unprecedented assault on the common law falls which fall within the realm of the consistent pattern of systemic violations intended to render the conditions of life unbearable for the people.  The policy if unchecked will further a policy of programmed extermination in whole or in part of a people recognized in international law as such due to their English speaking Southern Cameroons cultural identity. 

 
The lawyers have detailed the egregious violations and suggested solutions which can form a framework for a comprehensive dialogue ordered by the African Commission on Humans and Peoples Rights which the Government of Cameroun, accepted, asked for an extension of time to prepare for, but has so far done nothing further to honour its own engagement.  By this escalation and the impunity with which the Government of Cameroun is prosecuting its policy of cultural genocide, the Government of Cameroon is taunting the resolve of the people of the Southern Cameroons and that of the International Community to confront these acts of impunity and criminality with every legitimate means possible. The Common Law Lawyers who are the guarantors of this heritage, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms on the territory have raised this timely alarm to alert the Government of Cameroon and the International Community that there are clear limits to unrestrained policy of impunity and international criminality.   Although addressed to the Government of Cameroon, the resolutions of the lawyers are clearly intended for the International Community whose duty is to promptly intervene to prevent the humanity calamity that this policy is intended to cause.  Placed within the context of the policy denounced in the lawyers’ resolutions, the celebration of the so-called national day on 20 May can best be described as a celebration of cultural genocide. 
 
·        
 Chief Charles A. Taku is currently lead counsel at the
 International Criminal Court
 (ICC) at The Hague.

 

 

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

22.May.2015

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I wish to congratulate your bold article “Bishop Bushu is heading a Sinful church” that sought to throw light on the urgent situation of the spiritual crisis of the Diocese of Buea that rampages the clerical fold and scatters the sheep. I also wish to add a lay voice to Fr Maurice Ebai’s response, since we now have a public forum to discuss these pertinent matters. On my visit home in Buea 2011-2013 spiritual chaos was clear to me in the number of Catholics who get their teachings from TB Joshua’s Emmanuel TV, procure his picture and holy water and suggest it to their neighbors, as well as sing the songs of his musical ministry during the Catholic Mass, not being able to discern the conflicting theologies in the words of the songs. Chaos was also clear in the increase of the number of offertory runs, and contribution cards for building projects, in the midst of economic hardship and unemployment of parishioners. Your critique, as much as no Catholic would want to hear it in public, is well-founded. Catholics are hungry for God, hungry for God’s word and hungry for the teachings of the Catholic Church to resolve 21^st century problems in Cameroon and this is clearly the malnourished child of the Buea Diocese

On my part, I can testify to being rejected to join the theological teaching team in the diocese of Buea, neither at JOPASIT, UIDB nor the parishes, for being a Catholic lay woman theologian. “So you studied theology to come and compete with us priests, go back to where you came from, we don’t need you,” was one of the kindest remarks I got from an influential Diocesan priest. Meanwhile Université de St Jerome in Douala welcomed me with open arms and I gave lectures there. Hence Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai’s response alluding to “passive and indifferent laity” in the case of Buea diocese is out of play here. Several invested Christians have intervened through offering prayers and masses, studying at JOPASIT, engaging at the parish level, and reporting cases needing attention to clerical authority but have met deaf ears at best and retaliation at worst.
First, some preliminary considerations. The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church! The death of Fr Denis Ndang has been the catalyst for your article and lets us discuss the economic, health, educational and well-being of the priests of the diocese of Buea. How much is the stipend for a priest? 10000frs per month? 15000frs per month? Who can live on that for basic personal needs considering that they still must pay the kilometers used on the parish car they drive? Most priests are left at the level of a first degree in philosophy and theology largely insufficient to address the crisis of today’s Christians; let alone to interpret and implement the developments demanded by the Vatican II council. Further probing must also be made into clerical formation in Bambui Seminary, do they read Jean Marc Ela, Eboussi Boulaga, Engelbert Mveng, Meinrad Hebga, John Mbiti and other Cameroonian Catholic theologians whose theological work of liberation, floruishing and reconstruction from an African mindset and the Cameroonian reality is recognized internationally? How many of our priests are trained in Systematic theology, the branch of study in charge of methods for using Scripture and the Catholic Tradition to address present day issues, or Spiritual direction that enhances the Christian’s productive capacity? The focus is on management, journalism, canon law, philosophy and others, which are not directly geared to pastoral enhancement. This puts us at the proverbial “a blind person being sent to lead another blind person.” The plight of catechists is even more deplorable. What about the religious sisters and brothers, how educated are they in Catholic tradition and scripture implementation? What about healthcare insurance, retirement insurance, holidays? This deplorable situation is responsible for ministerial burnouts that lead priests either to join or form cliques to survive or end the frustration in sexual and extortion scandals or worse neglect leads to untimely deaths. The Vatican II decree on the ministry and life of priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis demands these of the bishop for every priest: equitable remuneration, healthcare insurance, continuous study, holidays, and extra to assist the poor. As regards higher formation for fraternity among priests and efficiency in ministry it says:

“Moreover, let bishops, either individually or united in groups, see to it that all their priests at established intervals, especially a few years after their ordination,(59) may be able to frequent courses in which they will be given the opportunity to acquire a fuller knowledge of pastoral methods and theological science, both in order that they may strengthen their spiritual life and mutually communicate their apostolic experiences with their brothers.(60)

It is high time the minimum be set at a Master of Divinity or Master of Pastoral Theology for all priests and religious sisters and brothers as well as first degree for catechists. Grace perfects the nature that is trained through study and exposure. It is high time their human needs be assessed and their rights provided them, so that they may be equipped to build up the people of God, temporally and spiritually.

Second, the education of the laity. The graduates of JOPASIT can testify over the years both to the replacement of highly experienced priests and laity (religious sisters) who teach them theology with lesser educated teachers who teach them oftentimes outdated catechism. The first equips them to handle the tools of faith for economic and socio-political transformation while the latter teaches them to repeat pre-Vatican II and even colonial faith expressions of the Catholic church that the church has moved forward from having grown in wisdom and knowledge. The word “competition” instead of “collaboration” is the clerical buzz word on hearing lay Catholic formation in theology. Vatican II is the first council to address the laity and give directives based off the demands that the sacrament of confirmation places on us to transform our economic, political and social situations for a just and better future. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem, declares that learning theology – Scripture and Church Tradition – is not the sole preserve of the clergy but of every baptized and confirmed Catholic Christian. As ministers of the sacrament of matrimony, spouses are to guide their home – the domestic church- and bring up children, in public testimony in the world as well as in private prayer in the gathering of the church on Sunday. Youth are to learn of God to develop their abilities and change the country through ethical leadership and wealth creation. This calls for us, the laity, to invest in our own theological education, through catholic sites online, short courses and doing both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in divinity, theology, spiritual direction and pastoral care. Such graduates have become permanent deacons, hospital and prison chaplains, non-profit organizers, theology teachers, catechetical formators, authors of books blending spirituality and wealth creation, retreat directors, revivalists, educators, parish organizers, musicians and lay preachers shaping policy both of the state and of the church.

To conclude, I believe the priests of Buea diocese themselves, of which the bishop is their head, must be true to their clerical office and choose to be accountable, make amends and restructure, lest these issues move from newspaper articles to court cases and to the many sanctions allocated for priests in the book of Canon Law. For there is nothing hidden that will not be exposed. We Christians of Buea Diocese, must also pursue knowledge of our rich Catholic tradition, for as Scripture says, “for lack of knowledge the people are destroyed” (Hosea 4:6) remembering that neither bishop nor priest will answer for how you lived your public engagement, marital vows and Christian mission on judgment day. The cow’s milk has dried up! Beating it will not make milk flow; only better care in terms of nutrition and grooming. As today May 15 we begin the novena for Pentecost, we have space to present our assessments to the Father, with Mary in this her holy month, for a renewed Pentecost by the Holy Spirit through Jesus who promises that whatever we ask of the Father he will give. That way the death of Fr Denis Ndang will serve the transformation he worked so hard to bring.

Sincerely
Etchi Besem Oben (Doctoral Student in Catholic Systematic Theology, Duquesne University, PA, USA).

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.May.2015

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I wish to congratulate your bold article “Bishop Bushu is heading a Sinful church” that sought to throw light on the urgent situation of the spiritual crisis of the Diocese of Buea that rampages the clerical fold and scatters the sheep. I also wish to add a lay voice to Fr Maurice Ebai’s response, since we now have a public forum to discuss these pertinent matters. On my visit home in Buea 2011-2013 spiritual chaos was clear to me in the number of Catholics who get their teachings from TB Joshua’s Emmanuel TV, procure his picture and holy water and suggest it to their neighbors, as well as sing the songs of his musical ministry during the Catholic Mass, not being able to discern the conflicting theologies in the words of the songs. Chaos was also clear in the increase of the number of offertory runs, and contribution cards for building projects, in the midst of economic hardship and unemployment of parishioners. Your critique, as much as no Catholic would want to hear it in public, is well-founded. Catholics are hungry for God, hungry for God’s word and hungry for the teachings of the Catholic Church to resolve 21^st century problems in Cameroon and this is clearly the malnourished child of the Buea Diocese

On my part, I can testify to being rejected to join the theological teaching team in the diocese of Buea, neither at JOPASIT, UIDB nor the parishes, for being a Catholic lay woman theologian. “So you studied theology to come and compete with us priests, go back to where you came from, we don’t need you,” was one of the kindest remarks I got from an influential Diocesan priest. Meanwhile Université de St Jerome in Douala welcomed me with open arms and I gave lectures there. Hence Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai’s response alluding to “passive and indifferent laity” in the case of Buea diocese is out of play here. Several invested Christians have intervened through offering prayers and masses, studying at JOPASIT, engaging at the parish level, and reporting cases needing attention to clerical authority but have met deaf ears at best and retaliation at worst.
First, some preliminary considerations. The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church! The death of Fr Denis Ndang has been the catalyst for your article and lets us discuss the economic, health, educational and well-being of the priests of the diocese of Buea. How much is the stipend for a priest? 10000frs per month? 15000frs per month? Who can live on that for basic personal needs considering that they still must pay the kilometers used on the parish car they drive? Most priests are left at the level of a first degree in philosophy and theology largely insufficient to address the crisis of today’s Christians; let alone to interpret and implement the developments demanded by the Vatican II council. Further probing must also be made into clerical formation in Bambui Seminary, do they read Jean Marc Ela, Eboussi Boulaga, Engelbert Mveng, Meinrad Hebga, John Mbiti and other Cameroonian Catholic theologians whose theological work of liberation, floruishing and reconstruction from an African mindset and the Cameroonian reality is recognized internationally? How many of our priests are trained in Systematic theology, the branch of study in charge of methods for using Scripture and the Catholic Tradition to address present day issues, or Spiritual direction that enhances the Christian’s productive capacity? The focus is on management, journalism, canon law, philosophy and others, which are not directly geared to pastoral enhancement. This puts us at the proverbial “a blind person being sent to lead another blind person.” The plight of catechists is even more deplorable. What about the religious sisters and brothers, how educated are they in Catholic tradition and scripture implementation? What about healthcare insurance, retirement insurance, holidays? This deplorable situation is responsible for ministerial burnouts that lead priests either to join or form cliques to survive or end the frustration in sexual and extortion scandals or worse neglect leads to untimely deaths. The Vatican II decree on the ministry and life of priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis demands these of the bishop for every priest: equitable remuneration, healthcare insurance, continuous study, holidays, and extra to assist the poor. As regards higher formation for fraternity among priests and efficiency in ministry it says:

“Moreover, let bishops, either individually or united in groups, see to it that all their priests at established intervals, especially a few years after their ordination,(59) may be able to frequent courses in which they will be given the opportunity to acquire a fuller knowledge of pastoral methods and theological science, both in order that they may strengthen their spiritual life and mutually communicate their apostolic experiences with their brothers.(60)

It is high time the minimum be set at a Master of Divinity or Master of Pastoral Theology for all priests and religious sisters and brothers as well as first degree for catechists. Grace perfects the nature that is trained through study and exposure. It is high time their human needs be assessed and their rights provided them, so that they may be equipped to build up the people of God, temporally and spiritually.

Second, the education of the laity. The graduates of JOPASIT can testify over the years both to the replacement of highly experienced priests and laity (religious sisters) who teach them theology with lesser educated teachers who teach them oftentimes outdated catechism. The first equips them to handle the tools of faith for economic and socio-political transformation while the latter teaches them to repeat pre-Vatican II and even colonial faith expressions of the Catholic church that the church has moved forward from having grown in wisdom and knowledge. The word “competition” instead of “collaboration” is the clerical buzz word on hearing lay Catholic formation in theology. Vatican II is the first council to address the laity and give directives based off the demands that the sacrament of confirmation places on us to transform our economic, political and social situations for a just and better future. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam Actuositatem, declares that learning theology – Scripture and Church Tradition – is not the sole preserve of the clergy but of every baptized and confirmed Catholic Christian. As ministers of the sacrament of matrimony, spouses are to guide their home – the domestic church- and bring up children, in public testimony in the world as well as in private prayer in the gathering of the church on Sunday. Youth are to learn of God to develop their abilities and change the country through ethical leadership and wealth creation. This calls for us, the laity, to invest in our own theological education, through catholic sites online, short courses and doing both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in divinity, theology, spiritual direction and pastoral care. Such graduates have become permanent deacons, hospital and prison chaplains, non-profit organizers, theology teachers, catechetical formators, authors of books blending spirituality and wealth creation, retreat directors, revivalists, educators, parish organizers, musicians and lay preachers shaping policy both of the state and of the church.

To conclude, I believe the priests of Buea diocese themselves, of which the bishop is their head, must be true to their clerical office and choose to be accountable, make amends and restructure, lest these issues move from newspaper articles to court cases and to the many sanctions allocated for priests in the book of Canon Law. For there is nothing hidden that will not be exposed. We Christians of Buea Diocese, must also pursue knowledge of our rich Catholic tradition, for as Scripture says, “for lack of knowledge the people are destroyed” (Hosea 4:6) remembering that neither bishop nor priest will answer for how you lived your public engagement, marital vows and Christian mission on judgment day. The cow’s milk has dried up! Beating it will not make milk flow; only better care in terms of nutrition and grooming. As today May 15 we begin the novena for Pentecost, we have space to present our assessments to the Father, with Mary in this her holy month, for a renewed Pentecost by the Holy Spirit through Jesus who promises that whatever we ask of the Father he will give. That way the death of Fr Denis Ndang will serve the transformation he worked so hard to bring.

Sincerely
Etchi Besem Oben (Doctoral Student in Catholic Systematic Theology, Duquesne University, PA, USA).

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

19.May.2015

Hits: 1751

Write comment (0 Comments)