Franck Essi

—

NB: Text dedicated to those who agree, even if only for a minute, to pause in their daily rush to reflect on what is happening to us individually and collectively in this ‘continent’ of a country.

—

TO BEGIN WITH, LET’S GRASP THE ESSENCE OF OUR POWERLESSNESS…

If there were one expression that could sum up the powerlessness felt by many Cameroonians, it would be: ‘What are we going to do?’

This phrase has become the spell with which we end a debate, neutralise anger, and anaesthetise awareness. It is the magic formula that transforms our indignation into sighs, our frustration into fatalism, our lucidity into resignation.

Its power lies in what it implies:

we can do nothing,

we will change nothing,

there is nothing to be done.

This expression has become the key to our renunciations, the password for our petty cowardice, the sweet music of our inability to face our problems. As soon as it is uttered, it sends us back to a comfortable resignation: accepting the crumbs that the ‘big guys’ drop.

‘What are we going to do about it?’ has become the sound signal for renunciation, both individual and collective.

—

THE BEST EXPRESSION OF OUR DEHUMANISATION

This phrase has a terrifying power: it dehumanizes us.

Why? Because it cuts us off from our most precious faculty, the one that distinguishes us from animals: transcendence.

To transcend is to go beyond. It is to refuse to accept that reality is immutable. It is believing that an unjust world can be transformed, and that a mediocre life can be turned around.

Human beings are only human because they can, must and know how to:

• Push boundaries,
• Confront fate,
• Invent new ways and means,
• Reorganize chaos,
• Imagine a more liveable future.

But ‘How are we going to do that?’ robs us of this ability.

It cuts off our momentum.

It dissolves our dignity.

It reduces us to the status of vegetative beings.

—

AND YET, LIVING IS SOMETHING ELSE…

To live, to truly live, is to evolve, to learn, to stumble, to get back up, to cry, to laugh, to dream and to start again. It is to refuse stagnation, to improve what needs to be improved, to reinvent what can be reinvented.

It is, for oneself and for others, to act to ward off chaos and deepen harmony.

Philosophy? Perhaps.

But essential philosophy: because without this striving for the better, we become bodies that breathe, but minds that sleep.

—

THE SYMPTOM OF COLLECTIVE POSSESSION…

Because yes, let’s be clear.

We are possessed.

Possessed by a cunning, insinuating, silent spirit that persuades us that we are too small to fight against systemic injustices. This spirit steals our energy of indignation, our impulse to revolt, our audacity to act.

And, little by little, unwilling victims become willing victims.

Worse still:

Resigned victims sometimes become accomplices, discouraging those who want to stand up.

—

INDICATOR OF AN INSIDIOUS BUT EFFECTIVE COLONISATION

We have been colonised by an invisible empire:

the Metropole of Renunciation and Cowardice.

Like all colonization, it has alienated us, eroded our identity and stifled our sense of dignity. It has gradually turned us into beings incapable of rising up to stop the unacceptable.

Every daily renunciation — an injustice witnessed, an indignation silenced, a complicit silence — destroys the very idea of an intelligent, generous and supportive society.

We are becoming the gravediggers of our own values:

honour, courage, humanity, solidarity, dignity.

By destroying these values, we are trampling on our own future.

The “war of all against all” is not a prophecy.

It is the logical consequence of our accumulated renunciations.

—

AND YET!

We are not condemned to live like digestive tracts whose horizons are limited to the needs of the stomach.

We are not sub-men or sub-women.

We can, we must, shine.

As Nkrumah said:

« The burden of every people is to be like the best in the world. « 

Emerging from the great night is not a luxury.

It is a moral, historical and spiritual obligation.

There is no more room for excuses.

No more room for evasion.

No more room for self-destruction.

Let us face up to it.

Let us say NO to what demeans us.

Let us say YES to what elevates us.

Let us raise our thoughts above the rumbling of our intestines.

Our brains and hearts cannot be vassals to our stomachs.

—

IN THE NAME OF WHAT IS SACRED TO US: LET US REFUSE TO ASK, ‘HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO ?’

Let us replace it with:

‘What if we did this…’

‘Let’s do that…’

‘Let’s look at what we’ve accomplished, together!’

Because nothing is more powerful than a people who rise up.

LET’S STAND UP!

#LightUpOurBrains

#WeHaveTheChoice

#WeHaveThePower

#WhatIBelieve

#FreeCameroon