CAMEROUN :: Cameroonian Diaspora and Popular Sovereignty

As with all the toxic energy, the regime of Yaoundé takes to discredit diasporic political assemblies, it becomes self-evident that, even the managerial class of ideologues in Yaoundé, understand with bad faith that, in political science study, there are formal and informal forms of representation where ordinary people are transformed from subject into citizens.

Informal forms of assembly, as demonstrated by scholars, such as Benedict Anderson, Jacques Ranciere and Jason Frank (2021) can form a legitimate collective through forms of imagined community. Within these imagined communities, they have the legal and legitimate power to de-authorize and de-legitimize oppressive regimes, such as Yaoundé, with a ceremonial figurehead reduced to ethnofascist pomp and circumstances as empty displays of power.

Therefore, this form of popular sovereignty is motivated by popular imagination and lived experiences and fueled by legitimate grievances in a new empowered collective that cannot be suppressed by the act of the prince.

Furthermore, popular assemblies led by professional and sophisticated independent political operators who understand their rights and demand justice and, therefore, must be heard by a deaf regime that has never learned to listen to its citizens.

And yet, some want to reduce the Cameroonian diasporic dissent to an ethno-tribal affiliation. And community…. That no!!!

The Cameroonian active diaspora is indeed as diverse in its composition, its modes of action, as its demands … against the dictatorship of Paul Biya (88 years old, 40 years of absolute power)

However, it would suffice for them, especially when they claim to be wise observers or even sociologists, to introduce themselves (without necessarily joining or demonstrating) to a gathering of the Anti-Sardinards Brigade (BAS) abroad. The first objective observation that will be imposed on them is that never since the struggle for independence led by the Union of the Populations of Cameroon (UPC) of the late Ruben Um Nyobe, has a struggle organization so embraced the different ethnic, cultural, identity and sociological contours of the Cameroonian nation … like the Anti-Sardinards Brigade (BAS).

Make all the trials you want against the diaspora, but not that of being a small group of ethno-tribal and regional obedience.

I had already seen this when they launched their first campaign to boycott Sardinian artists in a dance hall located in Seine Saint Denis in 2018; then very recently in Geneva during one of the mobilizations organized against Paul Biya’s stay at the intercontinental hotel …

Strongly STOP this maneuver of tribal diversion orchestrated against this liberation movement made up of various Cameroonian nationals abroad, including those from the English-speaking regions openly in civil war against the central power of Yaounde since 2016!!!

The Committee For The Release of Political Prisoners (CL2P)

http://www.cl2p.org