TRIBALISM IN CAMEROON

Cameroon: A Cancer-Of-Tribalism-Threatened Nation

Cameroon is often described as an “Island of peace” in a troubled Central African Sub-region, but her peace and stability are seriously threatened by the cancer of tribalism that has eaten deep into every fabric of the society.  The obsessive feeling of loyalty to one’s own tribe, party or group to the exclusion of others continues to fuel disdain, scorn, mutual suspicion and distrust among Cameroonians and is fast destroying the fragile strings that hold the nation together.

In Cameroon the cancer of tribalism is disseminated by generalised negative stereotypes about different tribes and ethnic groups handed down through generations with children warned not to marry outside their ethnic group or from a particular tribe.

Furthermore, the social media is widely used to propagate tribal animosities and ensure that a legacy of hate and suspicion is passed down to generations. The situation is even aggravated by some overzealous elites who conduct campaigns of division, intrigue and provocation against other tribes. Tribalism has been raised to the prominence of a national culture that pervades every discourse, controls the way people think and defines what they oppose or support.

Instead of casting aspersions against other tribes, Cameroonians should rather begin to fan the flames of national unity and love for we are children of One God and we belong to one family.

The mania for tribalism over collective national interests has made Cameroonians to see every government action from a tribal prism. For example, gubernatorial or ministerial appointments ignite sentiments of frustration because particular tribes are either forgotten or appointed to ministerial posts without portfolio. Moreover, when tribes people get trapped in the “Operation Sparrow Hawk” for economic and financial crimes, tribal jingoists try to give a political or tribal coloration to a purely criminal offense.

In the face of unremitting tribalism, Cameroonians are looking up to the prophetic Church to unite all God’s people irrespective of their political leanings, religious devotions, linguistic expressions and tribal or ethnic groupings.

Unfortunately, the cancer of tribalism is replete within the church and among Christians who eat and drink from the same Eucharistic table of love and communion.  This reveals how shallow Christianity has penetrated the hearts, minds and cultures of Cameroonians who still think and act along tribal and ethnic lines after over one hundred years of evangelisation.

However, the Church’s role as an impartial umpire in the face of tribal rifts is vital in sparing Cameroon from disintegrating into tribal cataclysm like in Rwanda in 1994. When African Bishops were gathered around Pope John Paul II in Rome to discuss the means of effective evangelisation in Africa, the Hutus and Tutsis were mercilessly killing each other in Rwanda. Over 850,000 people were massacred in that tiny over populated African country. Rwanda was a country that was massively Christian; more than sixty percent of the population was Catholic who ate and drank from the same Eucharistic table.

In spite of the crowds of communicants, Christians in Rwanda killed each other in huge numbers. This was a great blow to the Church in Africa and particularly the Rwandan Church that was almost annihilated.  When he heard the news, a  Nigerian Bishop, Albert Obiefuna, delivered a memorable speech in which he lamented that “--- in Africa, the blood of family, clan and tribe is thicker than the water of Baptism”.

Cameroonians should therefore be on the alert for the cancer of tribalism enhances mediocrity, favors corruption, threatens national cohesion, scares investors and retards development.

By Fr. Eugene Song

THANKS FOR READING.XOXO STEPHY.