In 2023 large a segment of the Ambazonian community was subjected to various schemes on how to find a peaceful solution to the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle.
By definition “the” solution to a liberation struggle can only be liberation. And yet many of the afore-mentioned schemes dwelled on the nebulous idea of a negotiated settlement with the opaque notion of “inclusivity” which implied Ambazonians should include the whole spectrum from the ARF+ actively risking their lives to expel La République du Cameroun, to “federalists”. While it was ultimately self-defeating to attempt to build a mass of squabbling parties hardly able to agree among themselves on what to negotiate for, that was not the weakest point of most of those schemes. Some of them sought to be more “inclusive” by including “unionists” in order to prove how much more “reasonable” than La République du Cameroun Ambazonians are! Yes, they tried, in earnest, to sell the idea that unionists, who one would not imagine tolerating a label of “Ambazonian”, should be part of conferences to form Ambazonian “positions” to take to the ” international community ” to take to La République du Cameroun to compel her to “to grant” a referendum to allow “all” Ambazonians to decide. Not only has the international community kept their counsel even in the face of shootings of toddlers on their way to school, for one and various other atrocities, it is also clear that La République du Cameroun has no legal status nor inclination to proceed as the schemers proposed. Why would they give up the simpler and more straightforward opportunity to pacify a relatively small protest, burning diplomatic bridges subsequently and then “grant” more than they would have had to earlier and at lower cost? Granted, it is theoretically possible when a state of “mutually harmful stalemate” is reached but that is, to say the least, remote; and, in fact only undermined by a naïve coalition with the fail-assured feature of trying to get La République’s allies to “help” draw up a “possible” negotiation strategy on behalf of Ambazonia.
Those schemes have accrued what logic dictated they “could” – no progress towards any solution. La République du Cameroun spent the year trying to prove “normalcy”, another of those typically La République du Cameroun words, had returned. “Normalcy” is the unjust, unfair, nepotistic, corrupt system in which Ambazonians were rooted to the base of a proxy colonial hegemony which hardly benefitted any of the “subjects” of La République du Cameroun, but gave them the illusion of being better off than “Les Bamendas”.
They thought if they could convince the nebulous international community that they had a corrupt stable system they could avoid criticism. As absurd as the strategy was it was more logical than the idea of an inclusive Ambazonian coalition for negotiation. After all some experts pointed out that referenda are normally requested by “state parties”, in our case, that meant La République du Cameroun would tremble at the consensus of our coalition and ask the international community to run a referendum for us.
Cynics would suggest the conference fiver season was a time wasting scheme to try to dampen the momentum of the liberation struggle.
It did not work …
How should/could the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle be advanced from here?
Given that La République du Cameroun is not looking like negotiating anytime soon, preferring to rely on out-waiting Ambazonia it is time to move on, and moving on is relatively straightforward in its meaning. Ambazonians need to start actively exercising their independence by running their own affairs.
One domain where this should be propagated is education. Ambazonian Community Institutions need to expand. It was already always the case that schools in Ambazonia were paid for by the community even when “created” by La République du Cameroun’s empirical edict.
There are thousands of Community schools in Ambazonia where the running and management is Ambazonian. They need to go the extra final step and implement the Ambazonian Curriculum and Ambazonian School calendar. Those two steps would notify the international community more than any perfectly crafted negotiating position that any coalition could device if the conferences were to take place. Those acts would also break the “waiting” state that Ambazonian citizens have been in during the Liberation Struggle by assuring all Ambazonian parents of their children’s normal and continued development – the well known ambition of all Ambazonian parents.
The third strand in the education battle would be certification and all Ambazonian Entities vying for independence should don their thinking hearts and device a way to by-pass any La République du Cameroun involvement in assessment and certification. Even before the Liberation Struggle La République du Cameroun’s involvement had diluted and trashed our children’s certificates to the point where even after taking post-sixteen exams in English they still needed to take language assessments before they could be admitted to higher education abroad. That problem would therefore be solved with the knowledge that Ambazonian assessments have the integrity that La République du Cameroun systems singularly lack – quite apart from the desire for independence.
In summary Ambazonia’s future is in Ambazonian hands to do.
The Most High God continues to be our Watchman and will inspire
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