written by Mwalimu George Ngwane
The Cameroon Condition brings together three seminal essays by George Ngwane, one of the most renowned, committed and daring Anglophone Cameroon writers.
‘The Mungo Bridge,’ is a stinging indictment of the tenuous relations between La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons – a marriage gone sour right from the honeymoon. It raises hard questions on the failed union, and is uncompromisingly courageous in the solutions it proposes. This popular essay was first published at a time when it was risky to be open and critical, especially on what has come to be known as The Anglophone Problem. ‘The Anglophone File’ discusses the narrow and barren politics of belonging that have exacerbated divisions and controversies among Anglophone elites, turning them into political fodder for the Francophone dominated state. The essay suggests ways out of the divisions and intrigue that have kept Anglophones permanently at daggers drawn against each other, and facilitated their exploitation, humiliation and marginalization. The third essay, ‘Fragments of Unity,’ concerns the South West Region, whose leaders Ngwane criticizes of political opportunism and of a chronic lack of vision and fortitude with regard to the socio-economic development of the region. It calls for a leadership free of the docility, mediocrity and praise-singerliness.
These are powerful essays that have attracted praise and criticism alike. They are essays to leave few indifferent. Their continued relevance to current debates makes of them a most read.
| ISBN | 9789956727285 |
| Pages | 188 |
| Dimensions | 203 x 127 mm |
| Published | 2012 |
| Publisher | Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon |
| Format | Paperback |
3 comments
“In The Mungo Bridge Ngwane penetrates the cloak of official secrecy: breaking down this anti-people system lies in its being asphyxiated; in liquidating the old mystification once and for all. … True, Ngwane has shown in The Mungo Bridge that we all may be accomplices to this fragmentation of the national psyche but we were not responsible for it. Those who were responsible for this Pyrrhic triumph in “brotherhood” were those who sold us like Eyumojock men-sized yams at a bazaar.”
Bate Besong, Cameroon Life magazine, March 1991
“The North West/ South West divide is considered a very serious issue by all Anglophones of goodwill. In The Anglophone File George Ngwane speaks out frankly and publicly on the issue without fear or shame; we admire his intellectual honesty to publish well researched facts.”
Churchill Ewumbue Monono, Weekly Post newspaper, 1993
“Present day nations worldwide and particularly so in Africa are indeed conglomerations of nation states or tribal units seeking unity in diversity. I believe that such unity may be more easily discovered in a less centralized administration, which permits each unit to take care of its specific problems yet ensuring that the whole holds together. The whole can only hold together in a fair and just system by which the nation provides a save homeland for its citizens. To me this is the crux of Fragments of Unity.”
Albert Mukong, Author of Prisoner Without A Crime