Cameroon’s real ethnic divide: the privileged versus the rest – Jean Claude Mbede
Jean Claude Mbede, a Cameroonian journalist living in Italy, shares a personal story that lays bare the reality of tribalism in Cameroon.
Here is his account:
Stories of tribalism – Cameroon #1
I recently had an exchange with a so-called friend from the Grand North region. She is a graduate of ESSTIC and IRIC, two prestigious Cameroonian institutions that are well known for providing access to the system. Her father is a high-ranking customs officer – an extremely privileged sector. She is not the most brilliant person in the country, yet she managed to pass both competitive exams that many PhD holders fail each year. In my own family, since independence, no one has ever had the privilege of entering either of these schools.
In the middle of a conversation, she dropped the usual refrain: “The country is tough, except for the Betis who control everything and only help each other succeed.” The cynicism peaked when she added that if I have been living in exile for 20 years, it is because of my “pride.” According to her, all I had to do was “ask forgiveness” from my Beti brothers to be “fine” in Cameroon.
“Forgiveness for what crime? What fault?” I asked her.
When our Beti brother Martinez Zogo begged his tormentors (funded by elites from all backgrounds), did they show any mercy? In the team that cowardly murdered him, was there a single ethnicity? No. Crime and the feeding trough have no tribe.
Reminding her that she has benefited from this system far more than the majority of young Betis or people from other regions changed nothing. In one sentence, she trivialized 20 years of exile, suffering, loneliness and struggle with an insulting lightness.
My reaction was radical: I blocked her. I have zero tolerance for tribalists, especially the most privileged ones.
Get this into your heads:
In Cameroon, there are really only two ethnic groups:
- Those who have the keys to the system: who place their children in IRIC, ESSTIC, ENAM or EMIA through elite connections.
- The rest of us: children of resourceful mothers, women who work the fields, who had to sell unchilled water on the streets to survive.
The real divide is not regional; it is social. Do not let yourselves be distracted by those who benefit from the system while crying about marginalization.
I got rid of her because the tribalism of the privileged is the most dangerous of all.
Jean Claude Mbede Fouda
