In a personal account, Cameroonian journalist Jean Claude Mbede living in Italy recounts the reality of tribalism in Cameroon.

Here is his piece:

Stories of Tribalism – Cameroon #1

I have decided to begin telling true stories about tribalism, a phenomenon that sometimes hides where least expected, dressed in the clothes of intellectualism and privilege. Let me share a story that illustrates the great deception of our society.

Recently, I was speaking with a “friend” from the Grand North. A graduate of ESSTIC and IRIC, two prestigious schools whose access keys everyone in Cameroon knows, she is the daughter of a customs official, an ultra-privileged sector. She is not the brightest in the country, yet she passed both competitive exams that PhD holders fail every year. In my own family, since independence, no one has ever had the privilege of entering one of these institutions.

Yet, in the middle of a conversation, she gave me the usual refrain: “The country is hard, except for the Betis who control everything and only succeed among themselves.” 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, I only needed to “ask forgiveness” from my Beti brothers to be “fine” in Cameroon.

“Apologize for what crime? What fault?” I asked.

When our Beti brother Martinez Zogo begged his torturers (funded by elites from all sides), did they show mercy? Was there a single ethnic group in the team that cowardly murdered him? No. Crime and the feeding trough have no tribe.

Reminding her that she benefited from this system far more than the majority of young Betis or those from other regions changed nothing. In one sentence, she trivialized 20 years of exile, suffering, loneliness, and struggles with insulting lightness.

My reaction was radical: I blocked her. I have zero tolerance for tribalists, especially the most privileged.

Get this straight:

In Cameroon, there are really only two ethnic groups:

1. Those who have the keys to the system: who place their children at IRIC, ESSTIC, ENAM or EMIA through elite connections.
2. The rest of us: children of resourceful mothers, field workers, who had to sell unchilled water on the street to survive.

The real divide is not regional, it is social. Do not let yourself be distracted anymore by those who benefit from the system while crying marginalization.

I got rid of her, because the tribalism of the privileged is the most dangerous of all.

Jean Claude Mbede Fouda