All your children
The human potential is not fully used in Cameroon. Solutions to the challenges our country faces, health challenges, economics challenges, agriculture challenges, culture challenges, education challenges, energy challenges, sport challenges – those solutions lie inside the hearts, the brains, the minds, the spirits, the consultation, the arms and the good will of the sons and daughters of The National Triangle. Those solutions also lie in our opening to Africa and a true inter-african cooperation. We must invest in our genius, open wide the doors for talents and genius. Talent, genius, inventiveness or creativity always must be welcome and encouraged since their finality is to serve the whole community.
The African folks can proudly claim a continuous tradition of invention and genius in their history. School programmes and the entire educative system must put that fact to the light. The youth must be taught that knowledge for them to go on with the work started up by our elders and find inspiration for the solutions we are looking for. I learned those words of wisdom not long ago from an African man from the american diaspora: « what you do for yourself depends on what you think of yourself. What you think of yourself depends on what you know of yourself. What you know of yourself depends on what you have been told of yourself ». The genius of the sons and daughters of Cameroon has sometimes performed wonders outside The National Triangle from centuries back up to modern times.
The arab slavery that lasted from the 7th century up tp the 19th century, then european slavery that devastated Africa from the 15th century to the 19th century have caused millions of Africans to be taken away from the motherland. Thus it happens that Ibrahim Hannibal the great mind who in the 18th century contributed to the technical and military development of the Russia of the tsars; Alexandr Pouchkine his descendant who a century after became the father of russia's modern literature; in the United States today, Spike Lee who succeeded in expressing with style and soul the african american community's social and racial issues in cinema… all the above mentioned have origins in Cameroon. Rashidi Runoko, one of today's most renown experts of the early african presence in asia has confessed to me with a smiling face his strong conviction of having his roots in Cameroon. He shook hands with me with the satisfaction of having met a fellow citizen. In showbiz, the best selling album of all time contains elements of a popular cameroonian rhythm. The man who was often called « the topest african on the Web » when he was one of the big men in the world biggest software constructor is a son of The National Triangle. Another son of Cameroon showed the world it was possible at the age of 40 or so to illuminate a football world cup.
The genius I am referring to here is the one we already find in those latex balls from the south-west province; the one found in those propellers made of mango leaves children play with in the wind; the one found in those bamboo cars in the south province; the one found in those wooden scooters in our villages; the one found in those spinning tops made out of a bottle cap and a thread. I remember that cameroonian scientist who had presented revolutionary works on earth time with effects on our conception of calendar and human civilizations. I also remember a car assembled by a visionary mechanic. The list can so be extended…
The potential, the talent from my point of view can in no way be questioned in Cameroon, au contraire. The real equation is to mobilize that potential in the right direction. Cameroon is rich in terms of its human population. Almost all the human groups we find in Africa are represented somehow in that specific space we call Cameroon. Cameroon is a miniature of Africa, a miror of Africa, a little Africa. This factor alone can in my own point of view explain the cameroonian specificity as well as it can place our country in the position of a locomotive inside the continent. That specificity for me is a major asset Cameroon in this 21st century has the responsibilty first to understand, then to use both for the good of our country and our continent. Our destiny is I do believe closely tied to the rest of Africa.
The African folks can proudly claim a continuous tradition of invention and genius in their history. School programmes and the entire educative system must put that fact to the light. The youth must be taught that knowledge for them to go on with the work started up by our elders and find inspiration for the solutions we are looking for. I learned those words of wisdom not long ago from an African man from the american diaspora: « what you do for yourself depends on what you think of yourself. What you think of yourself depends on what you know of yourself. What you know of yourself depends on what you have been told of yourself ». The genius of the sons and daughters of Cameroon has sometimes performed wonders outside The National Triangle from centuries back up to modern times.
The arab slavery that lasted from the 7th century up tp the 19th century, then european slavery that devastated Africa from the 15th century to the 19th century have caused millions of Africans to be taken away from the motherland. Thus it happens that Ibrahim Hannibal the great mind who in the 18th century contributed to the technical and military development of the Russia of the tsars; Alexandr Pouchkine his descendant who a century after became the father of russia's modern literature; in the United States today, Spike Lee who succeeded in expressing with style and soul the african american community's social and racial issues in cinema… all the above mentioned have origins in Cameroon. Rashidi Runoko, one of today's most renown experts of the early african presence in asia has confessed to me with a smiling face his strong conviction of having his roots in Cameroon. He shook hands with me with the satisfaction of having met a fellow citizen. In showbiz, the best selling album of all time contains elements of a popular cameroonian rhythm. The man who was often called « the topest african on the Web » when he was one of the big men in the world biggest software constructor is a son of The National Triangle. Another son of Cameroon showed the world it was possible at the age of 40 or so to illuminate a football world cup.
The genius I am referring to here is the one we already find in those latex balls from the south-west province; the one found in those propellers made of mango leaves children play with in the wind; the one found in those bamboo cars in the south province; the one found in those wooden scooters in our villages; the one found in those spinning tops made out of a bottle cap and a thread. I remember that cameroonian scientist who had presented revolutionary works on earth time with effects on our conception of calendar and human civilizations. I also remember a car assembled by a visionary mechanic. The list can so be extended…
The potential, the talent from my point of view can in no way be questioned in Cameroon, au contraire. The real equation is to mobilize that potential in the right direction. Cameroon is rich in terms of its human population. Almost all the human groups we find in Africa are represented somehow in that specific space we call Cameroon. Cameroon is a miniature of Africa, a miror of Africa, a little Africa. This factor alone can in my own point of view explain the cameroonian specificity as well as it can place our country in the position of a locomotive inside the continent. That specificity for me is a major asset Cameroon in this 21st century has the responsibilty first to understand, then to use both for the good of our country and our continent. Our destiny is I do believe closely tied to the rest of Africa.