The current momentum of the Southern Cameroons struggle comes as a divine gift to those who have been involved in this struggle for decades and that would include me. I am extremely happy to be alive to see this moment. Many of the compatriots with whom we fought alongside are not here to share this moment of a very determined and focused collective uprising of Southern Cameroons force of resistance. What a gift that should be embraced with great joy. We fight because of the believe that a systemic political crime was committed and is still being committed against us and our system of being and governance that we believe and know is far superior to that which has been imposed upon us. Our fight is not against a people but against a system. If we miss sight of that then we become the very symbol of what we fight against. This is the moment for us to project the difference between the two systems in the manner in which we carry ourselves even in moments of crisis.

It is obvious that at this moment in this struggle many of us are at the emotional and sentimental stage and most of our emotions and sentiments are being thrown around, which is fine because those emotions and sentiments are ingredients for building the required momentum. As we move along there must be the required balance to demonstrate the good in what is in us and our system. I have been very happy receiving calls from people who had in the past rebuked me for even talking about southern Cameroons telling me they have become even more radical than I am. This is what the passing of time does to a struggle where a minority of people kept the flames burning waiting for this moment.

What the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun are subjected to currently, we too were subjected to, are still subjected to and may be subjected to even with an independent Southern Cameroons. That of bad governance and a class of evil and unpatriotic political elites but the southern Cameroons struggle is more than that of bad governance. It is about abuse of trust and a systematic program to assimilate and destroy the very existence of a distinct people and nation.

For those my southern Cameroons brothers and sisters who want to see this struggle as against the common citizens of La Republique du Cameroun or to transform this struggle as opportunity to project hate towards the francophone citizens, I say stop and rethink. We have no problems with the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun. They are our brothers and sisters. We have a problem with the governments of France and la Republique du Cameroun.

Many of the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun and even some of our citizens of Southern Cameroons have been misinformed and are being misled of our history and what we are fighting for. The true spirit of the Southern Cameroons system we are fighting for would require that we show patience and understanding towards them and take the time to educate them and expose them to the correct information. With that understanding many of them may sympathize with us and even become our allies.

Before the current momentum some of us have been engaging the Francophones and we should continue to do that. In 2014 I met with Dr Simon Munzu and Dr Carlson Anyangwe at Dr Simon Munzu’s residence in Victoria. We talked amongst other things the efforts of engaging and informing the Francophones. They told me to continue my efforts of engaging and educating them. I have been doing just that and continue to do just that. We have seen some southern Cameroonians appear on francophone news channels to inform and educate. This is the right thing to do. During AAC 1 and the GCE struggle many of the francophone newspapers translated our documents and published them for the francophone audience.

It really bothers me why some southern Cameroonians should make us take the unnecessary risk of projecting the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun as our enemies or foes in this struggle. That is exactly what the government would want us to do. That is the same divide and rule policy that they have used to assimilate southern Cameroons. Realizing that they are losing grounds in the most effective tool they have used thus far, that of creating political and ethnic divisions within the southwest and northwest, in desperation they will turn to ordinary francophone citizens to set us up against each other. Is it not strategically wise for us to work at isolating the government of la Republique du Cameroun from its own citizens through making an effort to earn their understanding and sensitivity to our plight?

I get insults and attacks even ridicules from some of my fellow Southern Cameroonians when I use my own time and resources towards trying to engage and educate the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun. This should not be. This is not in the spirit of the Southern Cameroons that I have lived for and I am prepared to die for. I do understand the excitements and emotions in this juncture of the struggle but we should be careful how we try to silent efforts that could be helpful to us and our struggle.

Among the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun there are good and bad people. That is not unique to La Republique du Cameroun. Even within the citizens of Southern Cameroons there are good and bad people, some of us even more devilish to our collective well-being and this struggle than some citizens of La Republique du Cameroun can be. We must realize and accept this very basic truth with the clear understanding that this struggle is not about people but against a political system. We are fighting with the knowledge that we cannot place our destiny in the hands and thoughts of mortal men, but armed with the knowledge that man cannot be trusted, we are fighting for a system that controls and puts into check even our own excesses and projects that which provides protects and maintains a culture of social justice and wellbeing that is equally available and accessible to all our citizens irrespective of their status and standing in society. By extension a system that protects the rights and extends justice to even those we may perceive as enemies.

We should be very careful because if we adopt a position of hate towards the citizens of La Republique du Cameroun we will also be hating ourselves. Many of our children and citizens, me included, were born citizens of both southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun through intermarriages. My mother a Douala woman is a very good woman who has raised many Southern Cameroons children, including some who are not her biological children. During the 70’s when many southern Cameroonians were moving into Douala my mother’s home in Douala was like a center of Southern Cameroons. Most people who came to Douala and may not have a place to go, were directed to my mother’s house . She gave them a place to stay and treated them as her own children. Some stayed for long and some stayed short term. To this day many of those southern Cameroonians treat my mother like their own mother, taking care of her and visiting her from time to time. My parents worked in different areas of the northwest province and while in Nkambe my Douala mother adopted a Nkambe child whom they raised as their first child before they even started having children of their own. I grew up with a very lovely and protective senior brother who naturally was from Nkambe. When I was chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Movement CAM  my mother allowed us to host some of our meetings in her house and she has always been supportive of my engagements in the Southern Cameroons struggle.

I am thus calling on all of us to be tolerant and strategic in this struggle,  focusing on the system and not the people. We should show warmth towards the citizens of la Republique du Cameroun and educate them on why we as Southern Cameroonians must resist the political system that is being imposed on us by their political elites.

The ignorance and lack of information of our struggle is not only among citizens of La Republique du Cameroun. There are many of our southern Cameroons citizens, young and old, who do not have the right information of our history and what we are fighting for. Just one case in point. I shared a poem I wrote honoring our departed national political resistance icons including Albert Mukong. A southern Cameroonian questioned why I was honoring Albert Mukong, whom she said was a traitor who ended up being mob burnt to death in Bamenda. I did not believe what I was reading but I understood. So I must repeat that patience and educating among our own citizens and others will serve this struggle well.

Wishing all of you a happy new year and do not allow the stupidity of an evil unpatriotic man like Paul Biya, as was evident through his end of year speech, ruin your hopes and resolve for the new year and the struggle to free southern Cameroons.

By Christmas Ebini