In a recent opinion piece, Cameroonian journalist Jean Claude Mbede, based in Italy, shares a personal story that sheds light on the reality of tribalism in Cameroon.
Here is his account:
Tribalism Stories – Cameroon #1
I have decided to start sharing true stories about tribalism, which sometimes hides in unexpected places, cloaked in intellectualism and privilege. Let me tell you a story that reveals the great hypocrisy of our society.
Recently, I was chatting with a “friend” from the far north region. She is a graduate of ESSTIC and IRIC, two prestigious schools whose access keys are well known in Cameroon. Her father is a customs official, a highly privileged sector. She is not the brightest person in the country, yet she passed 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 one of these institutions.
However, during our conversation, she came out with the usual refrain: “The country is difficult, 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 needed to do was “ask forgiveness” from my Beti brothers to be “well” in Cameroon.
“Ask forgiveness for what crime? What fault?” I asked her.
When our Beti brother Martinez Zogo begged his torturers (funded by elites from all sides), did they show pity? In the team that cowardly killed him, was there only one ethnicity? No. Crime and greed have no tribe.
Reminding her that she benefited from this system far more than most young Betis or others from different 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 ones.
Get this into your heads:
In Cameroon, there are really only two ethnicities:
- Those who hold the keys to the system: They 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 yourself be distracted by those who benefit from the system while lamenting marginalization.
I got rid of her because the tribalism of the privileged is the most dangerous kind.
Jean Claude Mbede Fouda
