A Call for Solidarity: Letter To Ambazonians from the wives of detained leaders

19/12/2018

Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

On behalf of all the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives of this revolution, accept greetings from the spouses of your abducted and detained leaders. We appreciate you for the daily struggles you go through to sustain your various families, the people of Southern Cameroons and this revolution. Our condolences to all the families who have loss love ones in this struggle. Last year was a year of extraordinary transformation. The people of Southern Cameroons around the world stepped forward to determine their own destinies on October 1, 2017 with the symbolic restoration proclamation of our independence. Fifty Seven (57) years of untold suffering, subjugation, marginalization, arbitrary arrests and detentions, killings and disrespect has driven our people to the precipice, but through the resilience of our lawyers and teachers, our people were given renewed hope for a better future.

We want to salute the collective contributions of all the leaders of this Southern Cameroons reawakening who ignited this revival in 2016: the leaders of the Consortium, Barrister Agbor Balla, Deacon Tassang Wilfred, Dr. Fontem Neba, Barrister Eyambe Elias, Barrister Shufai Blaise and Barrister Bobga Harmony. We salute Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert of MORISC and Mr. Milan Atam of SCACUF who rekindled the consciousness of the diaspora. We salute the leaders of the SCNC, AGC, Ambazonia and SCYL, Dr. Nfor Ngalla Nfor, Dr. Ayaba Cho Lucas, Fon Gorji Dinka and Dr. Ebenezer Akwanga respectively, who have been in the trenches of this struggle for decades. We want to salute the leaders of the Interim Government headed by Sisiku Julius Ayuktabe and now Dr Ikome Sako for globalizing the Southern Cameroons consciousness. To the Southern Cameroons Women and our Takumbengs, our hearts go to you as mothers of this revolution. To all our news outlets, from SCBC, Cameroon Concord News Group, Bareta News, National Telegraph and to all our social media activists, we salute you. The strides made last year gave our people a false impression that a revolution of this magnitude was like a walk in the park and Buea was next door. Unfortunately, no revolution has ever been a walk in the park and this one will not be an exception. We must prepare our minds that we might be in this tussle for a while, but we must know that for the struggle to succeed we should remain steadfast and learn to lean on each other.

2018 has brutally reminded us of the nemesis of every revolution: the enemy’s determination to decapitate the leadership of the revolution by inserting their agents within the revolution to implement counter revolutionary measures. Their strategy is to destabilize the revolution and sow seeds of discord amongst us. Their aim is to divide and conquer. This has come to life with the plotted abduction of the leadership of the Interim Government and the infiltration of agents amongst our ranks both in the Diaspora and on ground zero. This has resulted in unnecessary confusion, conflict, distrust, animosity and discouragement. Our present predicament is like the pain of childbirth; no matter the extent of the labor pains, no matter the urge to give up pushing, no matter the insults or provocation from the nurses, you never give up because your goal is to hear the first cry of your child. We shall hear that cry and our joy will return if only we work together for our common goal.

We know that many feel frustrated by the seeming lack of progress, but we should also agree that there is no shortcut to end a dispute that has endured for almost 6 decades. Yes, it has been over a year of needless squabbling, but now, we stand at the crossroads of history with the chance to collaboratively and collectively move decisively in the direction of actualizing our independence, especially with the level of international awareness that we have created. To do so we must return to the wisdom of our forebearers, who despite their political differences placed the patriotic interest of the state above individual interest. That was what made them in the 1950s to collectively leave the Enugu House of Assembly and practice a nascent democracy. The truth is that each of our revolutionary movements have legitimate aspirations and this is what makes the resolution of our differences so hard. Despite these differences in ideology, we can work together for our common goal – the fight for the independence of our people. This deadlock will only be broken when each group learns to stand in each other’s shoes.

Our leaders must act like facilitators for peace, not instigators of confusion, disinformation, disorganization and hate. Our hope and dying desire as mothers and spouses is to see the quick resolution of this dispute and end the killings, pain and suffering of our people of Southern Cameroons. We the women are aware of the present quandary within the struggle and we intend to begin the confidence-building process that will lead to ultimate reconciliation and resolution of our internal differences.

We may not have all agreed with the processes that led to the creation of the Interim Government, but we can all agree that the regime in Yaoundé was threatened by the formation of the Interim Government in exile. This prompted them to sponsor the abduction of some of our leaders and their subsequent incarceration in the dungeons of the Republic of Cameroun. Their abduction and incarceration further exposed some of the complexities in a struggle such as ours: needless infighting, alienation of committed activists, sabotage, grandstanding and unnecessary distraction in our various social media platforms.

Some among us have taken pleasure in attacking Dr. Agbor Balla, Dr. Cho Ayaba, Dr. Ebenezer Akwanga, Boh Herbert, Milan Atam, Chris Anu and AP Dr. Samuel Sako and have labelled them as scammers, blacklegs, saboteurs, embezzlers and corrupt. It appears we have forgotten the 57 years of subjugation and the carnage that has been meted upon our people by the regime in Yaounde. It appears we have forgotten about our detained compatriots and leaders in the dungeons of Cameroun. It appears we have forgotten the roasting of Mami Appia in her home and the burning down of about 124 of our villages. It appears we have forgotten that about 400,000 of our people are IDPs and almost 120,000 are in refugee camps in Nigeria, languishing in poverty.

In view of the foregoing, we want to appeal to all the women of Ambazonia to join us in the search for peace. Some of our women have been sticking their necks out, advocating for the helpless people of Southern Cameroons. We are appealing to you as mothers, spouses, daughters, sisters and aunties of this revolution: if you have ever felt the pain of childbirth; if you have ever felt the pain of losing a child; if you have ever felt the desperation of praying to God for a child; if you have ever felt the embarrassment of having your period without any hygienic pads and if you have ever felt helpless being raped or listened to the story of an innocent child who has been raped, then imagine what some of our mothers, sisters, daughters and aunties are going through at home and some in the forests, exposed to all the dangers therein. Imagine what our people are going through in squalid living conditions in refugee camps in Nigeria. Imagine the torrid smell of decomposing bodies in our villages and towns of North West and South West Provinces. The live of every child born of a woman matters.

We want to appeal to us all to collectively say “Time Out” to the unnecessary personal attacks on our frontline leaders and ourselves and focus on our common goal. No matter anyone’s shortcomings and no matter how flawed any leader’s processes are, they pale in comparison to what the military is doing to our people. They pale in comparison to the killings, the rapes, the burning down of villages and the abusive exploitation of our natural resources by the regime in Yaoundé. Our appeal is that we should redirect our anger and frustration with laser focus on the adversary and not on any disagreements among ourselves. We wish to caution our leaders to collectively reign on their surrogates to stop the peddling of smear and hate within the struggle. Any leader who cannot publicly call for an end to this reprehensible behavior on social media platforms is therefore not fit to lead. The desire of our people is to see the end of infighting and rivalries. Our appeal is for you to join us to continue the process of reconciling our differences as we close this painful year and enter a very decisive 2019.

January 5, 2019 will be one year since some of the leaders of this revolution were abducted and incarcerated. Their abduction has taken a significant toll on this revolution. We are therefore appealing and calling for a 1,000,000-woman match on Washington DC on January 5, 2019, to commemorate this day and to call for the unconditional release of our abducted leaders and all other Southern Cameroonians.

We wish to shine attention on the plight of our people and leaders and communion with the other leaders for the revival of this struggle for the sake of our people.

We must lean on each other and learn to appreciate the roles each group and the Interim Government are playing. They are interdependent on one another and we can only win collectively through unity and collaboration. We will be reaching out to the Interim Government and all the frontline groups of this revolution for proper notification and planning.

“Save The Date” #Southerncameroonslivesmatter

Accept season’s greetings. From the wives of our detained leaders: