Pope Benedict’s visit to Cameroon criticized

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to begin his first official visit to Africa, on 7^th March 2009, in Yaounde – Cameroon. The Holy Father is expected to continue his visit to the continent since he became pope in April 2005, to Angola, from March 20^th where he would solemnly celebrate the 500th anniversary of the evangelisation of that country.

The pope, who is visiting Cameroon on the invitation of President Paul Biya, is expected to meet with Cameroonian Bishops, leaders of the Muslim community, and vulnerable persons in the country.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Eliseo Ariotti, once said the pope’s visit to Cameroon "is a gift to Cameroon because the Catholic Church has demonstrated that they are very dynamic in the country. It will also be a moment when the Holy Father will be holding the Episcopal Conference of Africa to begin the struggle for justice, peace and reconciliation in the continent,"
Like the Nuncio, other men of God of the Catholic faith say Cameroonians should take the visit as a special favour from the successor of St. Peter on earth. “We look forward to that maiden visit with great excitement, joy and continuous prayers," intimated a priest.
But Lambert Mbom, a Southern Cameroon Activist has criticized the Pope’s visit describing it as a great yet undeserved honor to the country. Who are we, Holy Father and what is our lineage for you to afford us such grace?, questioned the activist who is living in exile in Washington DC. Amongst other reasons advanced by the activist on why Cameroon was unfit for the papal visit is the fact that the country is plagued by bad governance and human rights abuse promoted by a leader he portrayed as one of the greatest dictators of modern History.

Full text of the letter below.

An Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on behalf of the Aggrieved People of Southern Cameroons on the occasion of his maiden visit to La Republique du Cameroun March 17^th – March 20^th 2009

Your Holiness,

It is a great yet undeserved honor that your premier visit to Africa as Supreme Pontiff is to Cameroon - the third papal visit to Cameroon, with the first two by your predecessor John Paul II. Your visit catapults Cameroon to the enviable ranks of African countries most visited by a Pope along side Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. Like David in the Old Testament we are wont to exclaiming: Who are we, Holy Father and what is our lineage for you to afford us such grace? (cf. 2 Samuel 7:18) Or more properly, like Elizabeth at the visitation: who are we to be honored with a visit by the Supreme Pontiff. (cf. Lk. 2:42) We acknowledge that this is a moment of grace, an invaluable opportunity especially for the six million people of the North West and South West Provinces historically known as the people of the British Southern Cameroons about whom this appeal is being made.

Your visit to this ‘vale of tears’ comes at a very crucial and decisive hour in the political history of this entity. Cameroon harbors one of the greatest dictators of modern history having been in power for over a quarter of a century (exclusive of the years he served as Prime Minister). He has iron-fistedly enthroned himself with a life term presidential mandate, instituted tribalism as modus operandi and afforded the nation golden medals for endemic bribery and corruption - its modus vivendi. His adroit notoriety for recruiting a sophisticated band of thieves who after marauding the national treasury declared the nation in economic crises and unashamedly celebrated Cameroon’s eligibility for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) – more funds for embezzlement and capital flight, is a classic epic in kleptocracy. As a Catholic or so he claims to be at least in public while in private he is said to militate in the occult Rosicrucian order, he has afforded us all Catholics a very bad press. He has besmirched Catholics in an annoying variety of ways. Your visit to Cameroon invariably gives him not only political clout – a rare political capital for him to use to spotlight his regime as peaceful, but also the opportunity for him and his band of thieves to swindle – further impoverishing the country. Despondency is written everywhere in Cameroon but even more so with the minority peoples of Southern Cameroons for whom your visit has momentous political overtures.

Your predecessor John Paul II in his post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia in Africa (EA) -which by the way was by no accident launched in Cameroon in 1995 especially because it reflected the reality of the following quote: For many synod Fathers contemporary Africa can be compared to the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho: he fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him and departed, leaving him half dead (cf. Lk. 10:30 – 37) Africa is a continent where countless human beings, men and women, children and young people are lying as it were on the edge of the road, sick, injured, disabled, marginalized and abandoned” (EA 41) If what is true of the whole is also true of the parts, then the foregoing sobering description fits the bill of the reality of the people of Southern Cameroons. We the people of Southern Cameroons are rightly epitomized in the man beaten and abandoned by thieves. A cursory glance at our history and current plight ostensibly ascertains this reality.

Coaxed to the hoax of a United Nations’ plebiscite of February 1961, in which Southern Cameroons – a trust territory of the UN administered by the British – voted to “achieve independence by joining’ La Republique du Cameroun(which gained its independence on January 1^st 1960) in a federal union of two states both equal in status – Southern Cameroons is today an annexed territory of La Republique du Cameroon. Taking advantage of the affirmative vote to join La Republique du Cameroun, the latter egregiously masterminded the actualization of this vote in contravention of United Nations’ General Assembly resolution 1608 (XV) of 21^st April 1961 which demanded a union treaty stipulating the terms of the union that was to be effected. There is therefore no legal instrument modulating the union and hence one would not be wrong to surmise that the union was illegal ab initio. Arbitrariness has been the guiding principle and this whole process is a classical recipe for bungled decolonization. Abandoned by the United Nations at such a crucial stage and exacerbated by the sudden and complete withdrawal of the British, the spurious federation of two equal states was born.

On the heels of this illegality, la Republique surreptitiously multiplied other acts of illegality by imposing her constitution on Southern Cameroons as the Federal Constitution in September 1961; then in abrogation of the same Constitution, she dissolved the Federation through a fraudulent referendum in 1972 which was in fact a political ruse to accomplish the hidden agenda of complete annexation. Having come full circle in 1984, Biya and his cronies declared Cameroon as La Republique du Cameroun, a clear indication that the union no longer existed. Holy Father, this by all standards, is not your regular minority problem. This is fraught with historical and legal overtones.

Even if one were to grant the foregoing as mere historical accidents, the malice of La Republique is confirmed in the cruel treatment of the Southern Cameroons people which at best has been ruthless subjugation. Southern Cameroonians have only played second fiddle. Politically, we have consistently been disenfranchised and marginalized, robbed of our land, statehood and independence; economically bereft of our once buoyant economy as state bandits have descended with voracious and insatiable appetites and systematically raped and recklessly plundered our resources and left us paupers. Even though Southern Cameroons accounts for over 50% of the economic prowess of Cameroon, today she lies in ruins like the milking calf slaughtered for the master’s table after milking it dry. Socially, there is an alarming deprivation of basic amenities. Wanton abuse of rights has been our lot. In short, La Republique’s totalitarianism has stripped the Southern Cameroonian of inalienable rights and denigrated him to an impersonal cog in the revolving state wheel.

In the wake of this catalogue of illegalities but even more so the outrageous third class citizen treatment, Southern Cameroonians called for a return to the drawing board. Barbarism of stupendous proportions has been La Republique’s preferred response. Many of our compatriots have met untimely death while many have suffered wanton abuse both physical and emotional. Illegal arrests, unlawful detentions under inhumane conditions and savagery torture have been the characteristic repressive deterrents of La Republique. This intransigence and arrogance of La Republique has forced Southern Cameroonians to move from a demand of a return to federation, illegal albeit, to zero option, that is, restoration of our independence and statehood. This is non-negotiable. Attempts at bringing reason to bear have failed and but for the internal squabbles of the different liberation movements which have torpedoed the cause, the reality in Cameroon would have been different. The Southern Cameroons problem is a “simmering pot of magma” akin to a dormant volcano which gets lethal by the day and soon the eruption which, I bet you, Holy Father, will turn out to be the bloodiest in recent history.

In the face of this reality, one must acknowledge in your words Holy Father, that “the topical relevance of the parable of the Good Samaritan is evident. When we transpose it into the dimensions of the Southern Cameroons struggle, we see how the people of Southern Cameroons lying robbed and plundered by La Republique and abandoned by the United Nations and the British, matter to us: then we see how they are our neighbors, that our lifestyle, the history in which we are involved has plundered them and continues to do so. (cf. Jesus of Nazareth, p.198) And as your venerable predecessor so rightly exhorted: They (Southern Cameroonians) are in dire need of Good Samaritans who will come to their aid. (EA 41) Your visit to Cameroon presents you with this opportunity. On the lips of children and of babes, and of men and women, the antiphonal chant of the messianic refrain: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord will resound.

Your visit to Cameroon is apostolic and hence essentially spiritual. This is immediately preceded by your annual Lenten retreat which will run from March 1^st – March 7^th 2009. Permit me suggest that during this retreat you pray in a very special way for the people of Southern Cameroons. In your message for Lent 2009 where you underscored the importance of the Lenten discipline of fasting you quote the sagacious words of St. Peter Chrysologus who writes thus: Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself’ (Sermo 43: PL 52,320,322) Listen then to the petition of Southern Cameroonians suffering under the hegemonic claws of La Republique. Holy Father, storm the gates of heaven during this retreat but especially while in Cameroon for and on behalf of the people of Southern Cameroons and their liberation struggle.
Your Holiness, with the whole world focusing on Cameroon because of your presence there, what would it be like to call on the people of Southern Cameroons to heed to your Lenten challenge and fast for their cause? Exhort them to reread in the light of their present plight, the experience of Ezra who in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land called upon the assembled people to fast “so that they might humble themselves before God (cf. 8:27) Or be like the Prophet Jonah sent to the Ninevites and call upon the people of Southern Cameroons to repent. Amplify the hushed and crushed voices of Southern Cameroonians through a direct invitation to fast and certainly this will poke and prick the consciences especially of the International community.

How I wish it were as easy as it sounds. At face value, it would sound preposterous to add your muscle to this struggle. In the first instance you would be accused of fanning the flames of division which goes against the grain especially in this age of globalization. Holy Father, you know better. Unity for the sake of unity that engenders a Hegelian “slave-master” paradigm is clearly an aberration. In your message for World peace day 2009 you said inter alia: Globalization eliminates certain barriers, but is still able to build new ones; it brings peoples together, but spatial and temporal proximity does not of itself create the conditions of true communion and authentic peace. Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world’s poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights. This is so true of the current Southern Cameroons dispensation. Too often we know the truth and shy away from it for the sake of political correctness or fear of embarrassing one’s host. May we never lose sight of the fact that the Cross was both a sign of contradiction to the Jews and a scandal to the Gentiles. It would be nice to err on the side of the truth and in this case on the side of the innocent victims of Southern Cameroons.

Permit me remind you of one of the greatest political victories of Pope John Paul II - the collapse of communism especially in his home country Poland. His first home-coming trip of 1979 after his meteoric ascension to the papacy has been characterized as the “fulcrum of the revolution” that led to the demise of communism. This he achieved not through arms but rather through a revolution of conscience by telling his own countrymen “You are not who you say you are…” This set the ball rolling, crystallizing into the movement that later presided over the funeral of communism. This movement has been described as “a forest planed by aroused consciences”

Dear Holy Father, during your four days’ sojourn in Cameroon, it would be fitting to remind Cameroonians: You are not who you say you are. You are living a lie. Bring them to the school of conscience and conscientize them to wake up and rediscover truly who they are. I am confident that you can take this challenge given that last year in your homily during the third anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death you prayed that from heaven he (John Paul II) will continue to intercede for each one of us and in a special way for you, whom providence has called to harvest his invaluable spiritual heritage. There is no denying it that this victory over communism is a central part of this heritage. John Paul II did it for his people. Holy Father, do it for the people of Southern Cameroons. After all, we are proud to claim a political German ancestry whose perpetuity is visible in the structures dotting our land till this date. We therefore share more in common than you would imagine.

Let it be known that the United Nations which is at the “fons et origo” of this problem has turned a deaf ear to the persistent pleas of redress by the people of Southern Cameroons. Even our British colonial masters have washed their hands off like Pilate and abandoned us to the whims and caprices of the annexationist regime. After all these international organizations have become clubs where the might gather to strangle the weak, where dictators assemble to pat each other on the back and share the booty. The world sits aloof watching and hoping that the Southern Cameroons’ issue would resolve itself for as they say “time heals” or it is hoped it will simply disappear or worse still that the dearth of a strong leader around whom the people of Southern Cameroons can rally and match on to victory will last their life time. Clearly we the people of Southern Cameroons are political orphans on exile. The world passes us by, watching and waiting for gunshots, for bloodshed so that talks “ad nauseam” can begin and then “blue helmets” are sent in after the fact to maintain peace. Now is the time. Your Holiness, do not pass us by like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Use your good offices for and on our behalf of the people of Southern Cameroons.

Recently during your visit to the United Nations, you stressed the importance of preemptive diplomacy and called on the United Nations to eschew delay tactics for fear of interventionism. In that magnificent address, you noted: On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What is needed is a deeper search for ways of preempting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation. You can avert a future disaster. The Southern Cameroons’ motto: The force of argument and not the argument of force is a clear expression of the philosophy of peace under girding the struggle. The United Nations has closed its eyes to avenues of dialogue we have created. With the Permanent Observer status at the UN, the Vatican could take up the Southern Cameroons problem. The Vatican has the leverage to do so if she so desires. Navigating the UN system is its forte and with all the diplomatic artillery she has garnered, there can be a peaceful resolution of this problem. Make hay while the sun shines.

Holy Father, in your aforementioned message for the celebration of the world day of peace 2009, you draw an inner intrinsic link between poverty and peace. You affirm that we know other non-material forms of poverty exist which are not the direct and automatic consequence of material deprivation. We the people of Southern Cameroons have been pauperized and made to fight for crumbs falling off the annexationist’s table and you can imagine how sparingly these fall off. Hence we are really starving. Yet our poverty is not just physical. It is even worse than this and so poignantly defined by Mother Teresa of happy memories thus: Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” We are unmistakably unwanted by La Republique, uncared for by the UN and forgotten by our German and British colonial masters. Like Jeremiah we are wont to crying: Is there no balm in Gilead? Or like Peter to Christ: to whom shall we go? You have the good offices to avail of and avert a potential phenomenal genocide. You definitely have the wherewithal. Denial only further delays the explosion. The schizophrenic historical revisionism fomented by the spin doctors spewing out the gibberish that Cameroon is one and indivisible will invariably boomerang. This window dressing, whitewashing and brainwashing can only last that long. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

The larger context of your visit is to release the Instrumentum Laboris of the forthcoming Synod of African Bishops scheduled to hold in October 2009. You have chosen as theme for this synod: "The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace 'You are the Salt of the Earth... You are the Light of the World'" (Mt 5:13, 14). The Lineamenta that defined the tenor of deliberations which have produced the above mentioned Instrumentum laboris dedicated its third chapter to the Church, Sacrament of Reconciliation of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace in Africa. If charity begins at home, it is just fitting that one of the first issues for the august assembly in Cameroon to consider is that of the Southern Cameroons. Peace in Cameroon hangs on a thread. And in the words of the lineamenta (no.12), Peace is often confused with a kind of unanimity or tranquility imposed by force and keeping power in the hands of a single group to the detriment of the people. In such situations, citizens are unable to take part in public life and popular opinion cannot make a difference. As a result, people tend to withdraw and become disinterested. Until legally constituted States are created in Africa, ones governed by truly democratic Africans, there is a great risk that the fore-mentioned situation will endure.
If there is any source of potential grave threat to the “apparent” peace in Cameroon, it is unquestionably the Southern Cameroons’ problem. May it never be forgotten that there comes a time in the life of a people when pushed to the wall, the only necessary thing to do is to fight back. Current efforts to ensure a peaceful resolution of the Southern Cameroons puzzle do not seem to be yielding any fruits. Instead it looks like the more efforts are made, the greater the mockery and repression and the more the delay. And as the saying goes, “justice delayed is justice denied.” If justice is correctly defined as giving each his due, then by any stretch, the Southern Cameroons problem is a miscarriage in justice – miscarriage “midwifed” by the UN and the British and masterminded by La Republique.

There could therefore be no better place to flesh out the recommendation of the Lineamenta than in addressing the Southern Cameroons problem especially on Cameroonian soil. Again in outlining some aspects requiring particular attention in this project of Justice and Peace, the Lineamenta hits the mark when it makes the clarion call for the recognition of minorities. In its recommendation, the document very beautifully expresses the fact that: when relations have broken off between groups in a nation, dialogue and reconciliation are the obligatory paths to peace. Only a sincere dialogue, open to the legitimate claims of all parties involved, can create an environment of real justice, where everyone is able to work for the true good of their homeland and people. Reconciliation based on justice, and respect for the legitimate aspirations of all segments of society, must be the rule… (no. 79) This speaks directly to the Southern Cameroons problem and suggests the way out. The Roman Catholic Church whose chief shepherd you are can make this happen in Cameroon “hinc et nunc.” Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord and blessed are those who receive he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Holy Father, failure to broach the Southern Cameroons problem during your historic visit to Cameroon, would be a monumental oversight. In its vision and thematic structure the forthcoming synod captures the urgent needs of the continent. The Holy Spirit’s promptings bring you to Cameroon and present to you the Southern Cameroons riddle to unlock. Avoiding the question of the relevancy of the Catholic Church to the Southern Cameroons issue would ipso facto cast a shadow over the forthcoming synod relegating its conclusions to the shelves, for gathering of the proverbial dust. Holy Father, do not let the church succumb to the temptation of “cerebrality” but in fact get real. You would be turning the non-violent resolution of conflicts into a utopian ideal, if you do not set the pace while in Yaounde. In fact, the Southern Cameroons problem is a litmus test to the church’s commitment to engage the conflict ridden continent of Africa. It will stand out as a point in the examination of conscience when ten years from today we evaluate the fruits of the forthcoming synod.

Lockwood’s prefatory remarks in his review of Phayer’s book: The Catholic Church and Holocaust contains in nuce the path I suggest should guide you as you choose to engage or not the Southern Cameroons’ problem: Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), as Secretary of State to Pius XI and as pope, faced Nazi Germany with a remarkable consistency. The Nazis considered him an implacable foe,¹ and he was hailed both during and after World War II as the strongest voice – often the only voice – speaking out in Europe against the Nazi terror.² The Church under his leadership is credited with saving more Jewish lives in the face of the Holocaust than any other agency, government or entity at the time.³ Pius’ combination of diplomatic pressure, careful but sustained criticism while maintaining an essential Vatican neutrality in war-torn Europe, as well as direct action through his nuncios and the local Church where possible, saved what some have estimated as 860,000 Jewish lives.⁴ If that estimate is accurate by only half, it remains a historic effort for a Church fighting without weapons against the most horrific campaign of genocide the world had yet seen. (Emphases mine) In the wake of this trail blazed already by your predecessor, permit me humbly suggest that you be the voice of Southern Cameroonians during your visit especially during your private audience with Paul Biya and in the speeches and homilies you will deliver in La Republique du Cameroun.
May St Patrick, on whose feast you shall touchdown in Cameroon on March 17^th 2009, “inspire you by his heroic life” and intercede for you for a safe trip to and from Cameroon. And may St. Joseph, husband of Mary, patron of the Universal Church whose feast, Cameroonians shall be privileged to celebrate with you on Thursday March 19^th 2009, help you to be like him “that just man” promoting justice and peace especially in Cameroon with the Southern Cameroons problem looming large, “that wise and loyal servant, providence has placed at the head of God’s family. Through the maternal intercession of Our Lady, Queen of Africa and Patroness of Cameroon may your historic visit to Cameroon bring true and lasting peace to the people of Cameroon. May she comforter of the afflicted, bring comfort through you to the people of Southern Cameroons. May she, mirror of justice, afford justice for the people of Southern Cameroons

Your humble servant, Lambert Mbom