Xenophobic comments against non-SW indigenes: Shameful, unacceptable!.

The forum, which many had described as a laudable initiative, organised by the South West Regional Assembly, to seek peace and development of the Region, however, derailed when it became a breeding ground for hate speech and xenophobic comments. 

The Head of State, President Paul Biya, has always preached national unity, social cohesion and living together. He has often stated categorically that all Cameroonians should feel at home anywhere in the country. 

However, there are some South Westerners who have often pinned the problems faced by their Region on non-indigenes resident in the Region.

Prof Enow Orock George, onetime Secretary General of the South West Elite Association, SWELA, took many aback when he said at last weekend’s forum that the South West Region is being “taken over” by people from other parts of Cameroon. He went ahead to say, amidst prolonged thunderous applauds from the over 600 delegates to the forum: “South Westerners are becoming an endangered species in their Region”.

He added that: “People we do not like are taking over our land and the daily management of towns and villages in the South West Region”.

The retired medic also decried what he said is the little attention given to indigenes of South West Region, when it comes to admission into the Faculty of Health and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Buea, UB. 

Against all expectations, it was no one else but a lawmaker, Senator Mbella Moki Charles, who fueled the “People we don’t like” xenophobic narrative that almost derailed the agenda of the forum! 

In typical Village Champion-style, Senator Mbella Moki, took even his own ‘admirers’ by surprise, when he mounted the podium and said in a commanding and angry tone: “In my village, there is no household without at least one person coming from among those people we don’t like…”. 

Apparently, Senator Mbella Moki got exactly the cheap popularity he was dying for, as delegates gave him a standing ovation, for making such a xenophobic comment. 

“If that home does not have a houseboy, it has a tenant or has given a room for rents and that room accommodates at least ten people, while the landlord or owner of that house has just two or one family member,” Mbella Moki continued to the pleasure of his peers at the forum.

“The demographic imbalance in the South West Region is taking us to nowhere. My sisters, let’s give birth to more children,” the lawmaker stated.

“You may take it like a joke. All of us who have been able to attend this meeting were able to do so because we have jobs. We have money to pay the transport to come here. With all of that money you have, how many children do you have?...the demographic imbalance in the South West Region is taking us nowhere,” he continued.  

When he took the floor, former Minister Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, said: “We are here today because the South West Region, as per our constitution and our laws, is one of the ten Regions of the state of Cameroon. Our Region, South West, happens to be just one. It is good that we know that if we can talk today and feel so free, it is because there is a political option called decentralisation”. 

Ngolle Ngolle went ahead to urge South Westerners to take charge of their Region.

“When power is transferred to you, it means that you take charge. You should be in charge,” he stated. 

“Now that we are in charge, should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of children we have got? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of schools? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of doctors or medical students in the South West Region? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of those who produce yams or other agricultural products? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of those who transport us from Moliwe to Tiko or Kumba? Can you be in charge when you are deficient?,” he questioned.

“Other people are interested in SW’s riches”

Another South West Region elite said: “South Westerners are interested in the riches of the South West Region. That is true, but we should know that the other people are also interested in these riches. If we are not organised, the other people, who are better organised, will take over these riches. As South Westerners, we should be conscious of the fact that other people are interested in what we have”.  

He when ahead to raise the issue of who a South Westerner is, insinuating that some children born in the South West Region, but of non-South West Region parents, have the attitude of claiming to be South Westerners. 

There was a loud shout of “No,” from participants at the forum. 

For her part, women rights activist, Sarah Derval, questioned how many South Westerners are working at the National Oil Refining Company, SONARA, which is located in the South West Region. 

Deploring the fact that South West Region indigenes are not given key positions in SONARA, she claimed recruitments at SOANRA favour mostly Francophones.

“To be precised, how many Bakwerians are in SONARA? When you look at the various General Managers, each of them come with their set of people. Why can’t we have a South Westerner as General Manager of SONARA?”, she questioned. 

“…South Westerners are hurt wherever they are”, she said, going further to blame traditional rulers for selling huge expanses of land to “people of the other side”. 

Xenophobic utterances condemned   

In the light of the foregoing, analysts are unanimous that the xenophobic comments by Prof Enow Orock George, Senator Mbella Moki and others during the Buea peace and development forum, coming on the eve of National Day, is totally against national unity, social cohesion and living together preached by the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

The xenophobic utterances seemed not to have gone down well with the emissary of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, to the South West Peace and Development Forum, Balungeli Ebune Confiance, who cautioned South Westerners against xenophobic tendencies towards ‘outsiders’.

Ebune, who is Director of Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office, had seized the floor to decry the xenophobic comments at the forum. 

He rather urged South Westerners to take the Region’s destiny into their hands. He stated that now is the time for the people of the Region to rise to the occasion and shape the course of the peace and development of their ancestral land, instead of putting responsibility for the Region’s peace and security concerns at the doorsteps of non-indigenes.

Analysts have been at odds as to why an ‘elected’ Senator in the person of Mbella Moki Charles, “could go so low as to perpetrate such xenophobia”. The same are saying he should be called to order, or even made to retract the xenophobic statements he made, which could lead to civil strife and disruption of public order.  

Xenophobic statements in SW gatherings not new

It should be noted that last weekend’s xenophobic outing against non-South West Region indigenes was not the first. 

The ‘come no go’ syndrome, which was birthed by former South West Governor, the late Oben Peter Ashu, is deeply rooted in the psyche of many South Westerners, who see so-called settlers as the cause of their socioeconomic woes. 

In the late 1990s when the Social Democratic Front, SDF, was sweeping parliamentary seats in the South West Region and winning councils, some South Westerners, insinuating that the SDF was a North West Region party, launched verbal attacks on North Westerners resident in the Region. 

Surprisingly, it was spearheaded by the late Governor Oben Peter Ashu, who at one point even said if it meant poisoning North Westerners, South Westerners should do so.

Following Oben Ashu’s utterances, SDF Members of Parliament, led by Hon Mbah Ndam, now of blessed memory, had threatened to stage a protest in the South West Regional capital, Buea. 

But the late Oben Ashu, who frequently and publicly referred, derogatorily to North Westerners resident in the South West Region as “Settlers, Graffis,” warned the SDF lawmakers that police bullets do not recognise parliamentary immunity, insinuating that he had put security forces on standby to shot and kill the SDF parliamentarians, if they had set foot in Buea. 

Recall that on February 2, 2017, during a meeting of South West Region elite, which held in Buea and was presided by the former Prime Minister, Head of Government, Peter Mafany Musonge, there were anti-North West Region undertones in some statements made by participants.

The meeting held on the heels of the Anglophone crisis that had erupted in 2016 with grievances from Anglophone teachers and Common Law Lawyers.

Speakers took turns to openly accuse settlers (North Westerners) in the Region of championing the campaign for a separate Anglophone state.

“No to settlers who have taken advantage of our hospitality to create chaos and disorder in our Region,” speakers warned.

Peter Mafany Musonge, who presided the meeting, both as organiser and political elite of the Region, in his closing remarks, did not condemn the xenophobic utterances against settlers in the South West Region!

Political analysts wasted no time in concluding that his silence meant he had endorsed the xenophobic comments made by his kith and kin at the gathering.

That is apparently why Cameroonians and the world at large, were taken aback, when the same Musonge, who had seemingly endorsed xenophobia, just months after the South West Region elite meeting in Buea, was appointed by President Biya, as Chairman of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, NCPBM. It seeks to promote bilingualism and living together.        

The Buea meeting was seen by many North Westerners as one organised to vilify them in the tussle aimed at arm-twisting Yaounde to accord South Westerners certain rights and juicy positions, which they felt they had been deprived of.

Recall that in an interview over Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV, in September 2017, Chief Dr Atem Ebako, had claimed that South Westerners were being influenced by the North Westerners resident in the Region to carry out civil disobedience actions against Yaounde.

According to him, most of the arson and armed attacks carried out in the South West Region are perpetrated by North Westerners.

“I can categorically state here that the people of the South West Region are a very peace-loving people. People from other Regions invade our Region and carry out burnings here. They even intimidate our people not to send their children back to school. South Westerners must come as one man and say No to all foreign invaders of our land,” Atem Ebako had insinuated.

He also once said the people of the North West Region are very radical, and should be avoided by those of the South West Region.

Atem Ebako is also on record as having granted an interview years back in Kumba, insinuating that Ambazonia fighters in his Talangaye village are all from the North West Region.

In 1998 when a North Westerner, Acham Peter Cho, was appointed Governor of the South West Region, the same Atem Ebako, who was then President of the South West Chiefs’ Conference, in an interview with the now defunct The Herald newspaper, had said Acham Peter (a Graffi), was unfit to govern the South West Region!

Atem Ebako stood his grounds and refused to apologise, despite the tons of criticisms that followed his comments about Governor Acham Peter Cho.

How leaked letter from SW elite bashed North Westerners

It the meantime, we should also go down memory lane to September 2021, when a leaked letter from South West Region elite bashed North Westerners. The letter is said to have initially been planned to be presented as a memo from the living forces of the South West Region, to President Biya, through PM Dion Ngute, who was in Buea to evaluate the implementation of the Major National Dialogue recommendations.

It had been reported that tempers flared, and opinion was divided, when the idea of the said memo was voiced to some concerned South West Region elite.

Sources had hinted that the idea of the said memo was being fronted by, especially some Yaounde-based Fako elite, and a prominent member of the South West House of Chiefs.

It was suspected that it was after the said memo received catcalls from some South West Region elite, that it was leaked on social media as an anonymous letter.

The leaked letter was titled: “An Open Letter To The People of North West Region.” It was simply signed: “On behalf of South Westerners.” 

In the letter, North Westerners were told never to dream they would ever live happily together with South Westerners in a separate state. 

“We can authoritatively say that all atrocities in the South West Region, have been masterminded by guys from the North West Region. They may have had some pocket support from a few derailed youths in the South West Region. Count the number of times ghost towns have been called but the South West Region has remained focused to school and business. Today, you guys (North Westerners) are at home on the instructions of Samule Sako Ikome and Chris Anu while our people in the South West Region are going to school and going about their business activities,” the letter read in part.

“Our elder brother, H.E Peter Mafany Musonge, told you North Westerners, in 2017, that your Region is responsible for the carnage in the South West Region and you gave him names. Today, the reality is on our feet. Your brothers are all over the hinterlands of the South West Region, owning and working in farms, so they can push your agenda further, but I tell you, we would conquer the devil soon. The fight for self-rule is your choice, not ours. We are already independent with cocoa, oil, petrol, fertile land and above all, clean hearts,” a portion of the anonymous letter read.

However, South West Region elite, had disowned the said letter, stating it never came from them, neither did it represent their opinion about North Westerners living in their Region. 

SW elite look away as Moja Moja declares ‘war’ against North Westerners

Chief Ewome Eko John, popularly known as Moja Moja, a traditional ruler of Bwassa, a village in Buea Subdivision in Fako Division of the South West Region, who is also a soldier with the Cameroon army, is on record to have declared war and made derogatory remarks about North Westerners, especially those resident in the South West Region. 

In December 2020, Moja Moja gave an ultimatum to North Westerners in Fako to quit Bakweri land. Moja Moja is on record to have harassed Cameroonians simply because they hail from the North West Region.

In a three-minute, 57 seconds video that made rounds on social media, Moja Moja had said: “…as long as you are Graffi and from the North West Region, pack your things and leave this community. It’s a law from me”.

In the video, the traditional ruler added that “…Graffi people come here and kill chiefs, Bakweri elite and other elite of the South West Region. But they are not killing people in their Region of origin. They have to leave our land…”.

He then warned landlords in Bwassa and Likoko villages in Fako hosting people from the North West Region to get rid of tenants from the Region with immediate effect. 

“Any landlord caught keeping a Graffi man will face a heavy penalty,” Chief Moja Moja had threatened.

He alleged that separatist fighters in the South West Region are mainly people from the North West Region who want the separation of Cameroon.

Before then, another video had showed the same Moja Moja beating a man he claimed was a separatist fighter from the North West Region resident in Buea. He had also before then called on the people of the South West Region to collectively chase away people from the North West Region. To him, North Westerners are evil.

Moja Moja at one point even went on air, saying there were buses at Mile 17 bus station waiting to transport North Westerners resident in the South West Region back to the North West Region, for free. 

Surprisingly, analysts hold, no South West Region elite, including even those who publicly preach national unity and living together by day, has publicly condemned Moja Moja’s actions.

The development, observers say, has caused many to believe that South West Region elite may be in a way complacent with Moja Moja’s xenophobic actions and declarations. 

Moja Moja, many say, may just be a little bird dancing on the footpath whereas the real drummers are in a nearby bush. 

Many analysts believe the tons of hate messages by some South West elite against the North Westerners are crafted by the high and mighty in Yaounde and Buea and executed by errand boys like Frankline Njume, Moja Moja and Co.

Nnoko Mbele burns NW traditional regalia in public

Down memory lane, onetime Government Delegate to the then Kumba Urban Council, Caven Nnoko Mbelle, had put on a North West Region traditional regalia when he went canvassing for votes from majority North Westerners in Kumba.

That was when he was campaigning for the juicy position of mayorship to the Kumba Urban Council. He had been told that since North Westerners made up a huge fraction of the Kumba population, they were not going to vote for him because of his hatred for the North Westerners. 

Nnoko Mbelle was then forced to, during his campaign rallies, to put on the North West traditional regalia to appeal to North Westerners. But when he lost the election, he publicly burnt the North West traditional dress as demonstration of his hatred for Graffis in Kumba.

‘Living together’ & the constitution

It makes meaning to recall that Paragraphs 4 and 13 of the preamble of the constitution insist that Cameroonians are free to live anywhere in the country and are not to be harassed.

“… Every person shall have the right to settle in any place and to move about freely, subject to the statutory provisions concerning public law and order, security and tranquility…no person shall be harassed on grounds of his origin, religious, philosophical or political opinions or beliefs, subject to respect for public policy”.

Analysts are therefore of the opinion that the xenophobia preached by some South Westerners is in total violation of the supreme law of the country, the constitution.   

Shouldn’t perpetrators of xenophobia be punished?

It should be noted that lingoes of xenophobia and segregation have denigrated some groups of people and remain a serious threat to national unity, living together and social integration. 

Government’s efforts to promote national unity and integration since re-unification, have faced challenges because of xenophobia and hate speech, among other things. The xenophobic statements have affected the peaceful co-existence of a multitude of ethnic groups.  

Thus far, no conscious efforts have been made to publicly punish perpetrators. 

It should also be recalled that in Rwanda, it was partly due to the failure to control emotionally charged and derogatory statements that resulted in the human genocide of 1994.

Right-thinking Cameroonians are thus positing that perpetrators of xenophobia should be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others. 

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The forum, which many had described as a laudable initiative, organised by the South West Regional Assembly, to seek peace and development of the Region, however, derailed when it became a breeding ground for hate speech and xenophobic comments. 

The Head of State, President Paul Biya, has always preached national unity, social cohesion and living together. He has often stated categorically that all Cameroonians should feel at home anywhere in the country. 

However, there are some South Westerners who have often pinned the problems faced by their Region on non-indigenes resident in the Region.

Prof Enow Orock George, onetime Secretary General of the South West Elite Association, SWELA, took many aback when he said at last weekend’s forum that the South West Region is being “taken over” by people from other parts of Cameroon. He went ahead to say, amidst prolonged thunderous applauds from the over 600 delegates to the forum: “South Westerners are becoming an endangered species in their Region”.

He added that: “People we do not like are taking over our land and the daily management of towns and villages in the South West Region”.

The retired medic also decried what he said is the little attention given to indigenes of South West Region, when it comes to admission into the Faculty of Health and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Buea, UB. 

Against all expectations, it was no one else but a lawmaker, Senator Mbella Moki Charles, who fueled the “People we don’t like” xenophobic narrative that almost derailed the agenda of the forum! 

In typical Village Champion-style, Senator Mbella Moki, took even his own ‘admirers’ by surprise, when he mounted the podium and said in a commanding and angry tone: “In my village, there is no household without at least one person coming from among those people we don’t like…”. 

Apparently, Senator Mbella Moki got exactly the cheap popularity he was dying for, as delegates gave him a standing ovation, for making such a xenophobic comment. 

“If that home does not have a houseboy, it has a tenant or has given a room for rents and that room accommodates at least ten people, while the landlord or owner of that house has just two or one family member,” Mbella Moki continued to the pleasure of his peers at the forum.

“The demographic imbalance in the South West Region is taking us to nowhere. My sisters, let’s give birth to more children,” the lawmaker stated.

“You may take it like a joke. All of us who have been able to attend this meeting were able to do so because we have jobs. We have money to pay the transport to come here. With all of that money you have, how many children do you have?...the demographic imbalance in the South West Region is taking us nowhere,” he continued.  

When he took the floor, former Minister Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, said: “We are here today because the South West Region, as per our constitution and our laws, is one of the ten Regions of the state of Cameroon. Our Region, South West, happens to be just one. It is good that we know that if we can talk today and feel so free, it is because there is a political option called decentralisation”. 

Ngolle Ngolle went ahead to urge South Westerners to take charge of their Region.

“When power is transferred to you, it means that you take charge. You should be in charge,” he stated. 

“Now that we are in charge, should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of children we have got? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of schools? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of doctors or medical students in the South West Region? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of those who produce yams or other agricultural products? Should we allow ourselves to be deficient in the number of those who transport us from Moliwe to Tiko or Kumba? Can you be in charge when you are deficient?,” he questioned.

“Other people are interested in SW’s riches”

Another South West Region elite said: “South Westerners are interested in the riches of the South West Region. That is true, but we should know that the other people are also interested in these riches. If we are not organised, the other people, who are better organised, will take over these riches. As South Westerners, we should be conscious of the fact that other people are interested in what we have”.  

He when ahead to raise the issue of who a South Westerner is, insinuating that some children born in the South West Region, but of non-South West Region parents, have the attitude of claiming to be South Westerners. 

There was a loud shout of “No,” from participants at the forum. 

For her part, women rights activist, Sarah Derval, questioned how many South Westerners are working at the National Oil Refining Company, SONARA, which is located in the South West Region. 

Deploring the fact that South West Region indigenes are not given key positions in SONARA, she claimed recruitments at SOANRA favour mostly Francophones.

“To be precised, how many Bakwerians are in SONARA? When you look at the various General Managers, each of them come with their set of people. Why can’t we have a South Westerner as General Manager of SONARA?”, she questioned. 

“…South Westerners are hurt wherever they are”, she said, going further to blame traditional rulers for selling huge expanses of land to “people of the other side”. 

Xenophobic utterances condemned   

In the light of the foregoing, analysts are unanimous that the xenophobic comments by Prof Enow Orock George, Senator Mbella Moki and others during the Buea peace and development forum, coming on the eve of National Day, is totally against national unity, social cohesion and living together preached by the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

The xenophobic utterances seemed not to have gone down well with the emissary of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, to the South West Peace and Development Forum, Balungeli Ebune Confiance, who cautioned South Westerners against xenophobic tendencies towards ‘outsiders’.

Ebune, who is Director of Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office, had seized the floor to decry the xenophobic comments at the forum. 

He rather urged South Westerners to take the Region’s destiny into their hands. He stated that now is the time for the people of the Region to rise to the occasion and shape the course of the peace and development of their ancestral land, instead of putting responsibility for the Region’s peace and security concerns at the doorsteps of non-indigenes.

Analysts have been at odds as to why an ‘elected’ Senator in the person of Mbella Moki Charles, “could go so low as to perpetrate such xenophobia”. The same are saying he should be called to order, or even made to retract the xenophobic statements he made, which could lead to civil strife and disruption of public order.  

Xenophobic statements in SW gatherings not new

It should be noted that last weekend’s xenophobic outing against non-South West Region indigenes was not the first. 

The ‘come no go’ syndrome, which was birthed by former South West Governor, the late Oben Peter Ashu, is deeply rooted in the psyche of many South Westerners, who see so-called settlers as the cause of their socioeconomic woes. 

In the late 1990s when the Social Democratic Front, SDF, was sweeping parliamentary seats in the South West Region and winning councils, some South Westerners, insinuating that the SDF was a North West Region party, launched verbal attacks on North Westerners resident in the Region. 

Surprisingly, it was spearheaded by the late Governor Oben Peter Ashu, who at one point even said if it meant poisoning North Westerners, South Westerners should do so.

Following Oben Ashu’s utterances, SDF Members of Parliament, led by Hon Mbah Ndam, now of blessed memory, had threatened to stage a protest in the South West Regional capital, Buea. 

But the late Oben Ashu, who frequently and publicly referred, derogatorily to North Westerners resident in the South West Region as “Settlers, Graffis,” warned the SDF lawmakers that police bullets do not recognise parliamentary immunity, insinuating that he had put security forces on standby to shot and kill the SDF parliamentarians, if they had set foot in Buea. 

Recall that on February 2, 2017, during a meeting of South West Region elite, which held in Buea and was presided by the former Prime Minister, Head of Government, Peter Mafany Musonge, there were anti-North West Region undertones in some statements made by participants.

The meeting held on the heels of the Anglophone crisis that had erupted in 2016 with grievances from Anglophone teachers and Common Law Lawyers.

Speakers took turns to openly accuse settlers (North Westerners) in the Region of championing the campaign for a separate Anglophone state.

“No to settlers who have taken advantage of our hospitality to create chaos and disorder in our Region,” speakers warned.

Peter Mafany Musonge, who presided the meeting, both as organiser and political elite of the Region, in his closing remarks, did not condemn the xenophobic utterances against settlers in the South West Region!

Political analysts wasted no time in concluding that his silence meant he had endorsed the xenophobic comments made by his kith and kin at the gathering.

That is apparently why Cameroonians and the world at large, were taken aback, when the same Musonge, who had seemingly endorsed xenophobia, just months after the South West Region elite meeting in Buea, was appointed by President Biya, as Chairman of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, NCPBM. It seeks to promote bilingualism and living together.        

The Buea meeting was seen by many North Westerners as one organised to vilify them in the tussle aimed at arm-twisting Yaounde to accord South Westerners certain rights and juicy positions, which they felt they had been deprived of.

Recall that in an interview over Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV, in September 2017, Chief Dr Atem Ebako, had claimed that South Westerners were being influenced by the North Westerners resident in the Region to carry out civil disobedience actions against Yaounde.

According to him, most of the arson and armed attacks carried out in the South West Region are perpetrated by North Westerners.

“I can categorically state here that the people of the South West Region are a very peace-loving people. People from other Regions invade our Region and carry out burnings here. They even intimidate our people not to send their children back to school. South Westerners must come as one man and say No to all foreign invaders of our land,” Atem Ebako had insinuated.

He also once said the people of the North West Region are very radical, and should be avoided by those of the South West Region.

Atem Ebako is also on record as having granted an interview years back in Kumba, insinuating that Ambazonia fighters in his Talangaye village are all from the North West Region.

In 1998 when a North Westerner, Acham Peter Cho, was appointed Governor of the South West Region, the same Atem Ebako, who was then President of the South West Chiefs’ Conference, in an interview with the now defunct The Herald newspaper, had said Acham Peter (a Graffi), was unfit to govern the South West Region!

Atem Ebako stood his grounds and refused to apologise, despite the tons of criticisms that followed his comments about Governor Acham Peter Cho.

How leaked letter from SW elite bashed North Westerners

It the meantime, we should also go down memory lane to September 2021, when a leaked letter from South West Region elite bashed North Westerners. The letter is said to have initially been planned to be presented as a memo from the living forces of the South West Region, to President Biya, through PM Dion Ngute, who was in Buea to evaluate the implementation of the Major National Dialogue recommendations.

It had been reported that tempers flared, and opinion was divided, when the idea of the said memo was voiced to some concerned South West Region elite.

Sources had hinted that the idea of the said memo was being fronted by, especially some Yaounde-based Fako elite, and a prominent member of the South West House of Chiefs.

It was suspected that it was after the said memo received catcalls from some South West Region elite, that it was leaked on social media as an anonymous letter.

The leaked letter was titled: “An Open Letter To The People of North West Region.” It was simply signed: “On behalf of South Westerners.” 

In the letter, North Westerners were told never to dream they would ever live happily together with South Westerners in a separate state. 

“We can authoritatively say that all atrocities in the South West Region, have been masterminded by guys from the North West Region. They may have had some pocket support from a few derailed youths in the South West Region. Count the number of times ghost towns have been called but the South West Region has remained focused to school and business. Today, you guys (North Westerners) are at home on the instructions of Samule Sako Ikome and Chris Anu while our people in the South West Region are going to school and going about their business activities,” the letter read in part.

“Our elder brother, H.E Peter Mafany Musonge, told you North Westerners, in 2017, that your Region is responsible for the carnage in the South West Region and you gave him names. Today, the reality is on our feet. Your brothers are all over the hinterlands of the South West Region, owning and working in farms, so they can push your agenda further, but I tell you, we would conquer the devil soon. The fight for self-rule is your choice, not ours. We are already independent with cocoa, oil, petrol, fertile land and above all, clean hearts,” a portion of the anonymous letter read.

However, South West Region elite, had disowned the said letter, stating it never came from them, neither did it represent their opinion about North Westerners living in their Region. 

SW elite look away as Moja Moja declares ‘war’ against North Westerners

Chief Ewome Eko John, popularly known as Moja Moja, a traditional ruler of Bwassa, a village in Buea Subdivision in Fako Division of the South West Region, who is also a soldier with the Cameroon army, is on record to have declared war and made derogatory remarks about North Westerners, especially those resident in the South West Region. 

In December 2020, Moja Moja gave an ultimatum to North Westerners in Fako to quit Bakweri land. Moja Moja is on record to have harassed Cameroonians simply because they hail from the North West Region.

In a three-minute, 57 seconds video that made rounds on social media, Moja Moja had said: “…as long as you are Graffi and from the North West Region, pack your things and leave this community. It’s a law from me”.

In the video, the traditional ruler added that “…Graffi people come here and kill chiefs, Bakweri elite and other elite of the South West Region. But they are not killing people in their Region of origin. They have to leave our land…”.

He then warned landlords in Bwassa and Likoko villages in Fako hosting people from the North West Region to get rid of tenants from the Region with immediate effect. 

“Any landlord caught keeping a Graffi man will face a heavy penalty,” Chief Moja Moja had threatened.

He alleged that separatist fighters in the South West Region are mainly people from the North West Region who want the separation of Cameroon.

Before then, another video had showed the same Moja Moja beating a man he claimed was a separatist fighter from the North West Region resident in Buea. He had also before then called on the people of the South West Region to collectively chase away people from the North West Region. To him, North Westerners are evil.

Moja Moja at one point even went on air, saying there were buses at Mile 17 bus station waiting to transport North Westerners resident in the South West Region back to the North West Region, for free. 

Surprisingly, analysts hold, no South West Region elite, including even those who publicly preach national unity and living together by day, has publicly condemned Moja Moja’s actions.

The development, observers say, has caused many to believe that South West Region elite may be in a way complacent with Moja Moja’s xenophobic actions and declarations. 

Moja Moja, many say, may just be a little bird dancing on the footpath whereas the real drummers are in a nearby bush. 

Many analysts believe the tons of hate messages by some South West elite against the North Westerners are crafted by the high and mighty in Yaounde and Buea and executed by errand boys like Frankline Njume, Moja Moja and Co.

Nnoko Mbele burns NW traditional regalia in public

Down memory lane, onetime Government Delegate to the then Kumba Urban Council, Caven Nnoko Mbelle, had put on a North West Region traditional regalia when he went canvassing for votes from majority North Westerners in Kumba.

That was when he was campaigning for the juicy position of mayorship to the Kumba Urban Council. He had been told that since North Westerners made up a huge fraction of the Kumba population, they were not going to vote for him because of his hatred for the North Westerners. 

Nnoko Mbelle was then forced to, during his campaign rallies, to put on the North West traditional regalia to appeal to North Westerners. But when he lost the election, he publicly burnt the North West traditional dress as demonstration of his hatred for Graffis in Kumba.

‘Living together’ & the constitution

It makes meaning to recall that Paragraphs 4 and 13 of the preamble of the constitution insist that Cameroonians are free to live anywhere in the country and are not to be harassed.

“… Every person shall have the right to settle in any place and to move about freely, subject to the statutory provisions concerning public law and order, security and tranquility…no person shall be harassed on grounds of his origin, religious, philosophical or political opinions or beliefs, subject to respect for public policy”.

Analysts are therefore of the opinion that the xenophobia preached by some South Westerners is in total violation of the supreme law of the country, the constitution.   

Shouldn’t perpetrators of xenophobia be punished?

It should be noted that lingoes of xenophobia and segregation have denigrated some groups of people and remain a serious threat to national unity, living together and social integration. 

Government’s efforts to promote national unity and integration since re-unification, have faced challenges because of xenophobia and hate speech, among other things. The xenophobic statements have affected the peaceful co-existence of a multitude of ethnic groups.  

Thus far, no conscious efforts have been made to publicly punish perpetrators. 

It should also be recalled that in Rwanda, it was partly due to the failure to control emotionally charged and derogatory statements that resulted in the human genocide of 1994.

Right-thinking Cameroonians are thus positing that perpetrators of xenophobia should be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others.