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32 YEARS AFTER THE STRIKE AT UNIYAO
On 22nd November 2015, students of the University of Yaoundé II Soa went on strike because of a change in the bus stop where they usually pick buses to go to campus to a place further off thereby causing them to spend more.
On 22nd November 1983 or 32 years ago, due to built-up anger from Anglophone marginalization and maltreatment, some 4000 Anglophone students out of a student population of about 13000 of the then University of Yaoundé (Ngoa Ekelle) went on a strike that lasted for two weeks.
Among the many complaints were:
1. The attempt to replace the G.C.E. with something called ''Group Certificate'' similar to Francophone certificate exams. Mr. Rene Ze Nguele, the then Minister of Education (with Dr Dorothy Njeuma as vice) who initiated the changes said with the GCE, students choose subjects at will like choosing meals in a restaurant or à la carte.
2. Teaching Anglophone students in some academic departments entirely in French. (As a First Year (repeater) student of the Physics/Chemistry Department, I had not yet attended one lecture in English)
3. Continuation of the francophone syllabus after the BACC without also taking into consideration the coursework after GCE 'A' Levels thereby making it difficult for Anglophone students to cope.
4. The replacement of an Anglophone lecturer because Francophone students complained that he was teaching entirely in English and they could not understand.
5. Setting of exam questions in some departments entirely in French and asking the candidate to answer in either French or English.
6. Considering Anglophones as second class citizens.
7. General ill-treatment and mockery of Anglophones and their values.
On the issue of ill-treatment, I had received my own baptism of fire when on registration day in September 1982; the Francophone clerks receiving application files as we queued up outside took mine, looked at them then throw them on the ground and called the next person on the line. He had murmured something like asking for the originals of my documents which I couldn't understand why since all applicants were presenting only attestations from the Ministry of Education (signed by Mr. Richard Willayi I think) and I had tried to explain that I am a young boy who had never repeated a class and just left High School and here presenting my attestations freshly from the MINEDUC.
It was thanks to the advice and encouragement of a 3rd year female Mbum who was standing by who told me (in Limbum) to calmly pick up my files and try again by explaining myself in English since I couldn't speak anything better than ''Mbouda French'' lest I would have taken the return journey… (My U grade at GCE 'O' Level French started taking its toll on me).
Days after I had registered and was touring the campus, I saw the same thing happening to another Anglophone student. This time his files were thrown down by a young man almost his age who asked him to pick them up knowing very well the offended will do just that…
Background to the strike
1. Many Anglophone students left the provinces very ignorant of what they will face in Yaoundé University. In some departments of the sciences, it was no trifling matter for ill-prepared Anglophone youths attending lectures in French, copying notes in French or English and answering examination questions in English or French for predominantly Francophone lecturers to mark and grade.
2. Prior to this strike (and perhaps even today) some people used to say Anglophones do not master Mathematics that is why they failed in the sciences at UNIYAO especially in Maths/Computer and Physics/Chemistry departments. This even made some Anglophones to believe this fallacy and went ahead to buy Francophone Mathematics textbooks of Terminale class (U6) to study in order to catch up with lectures. Some of us laughed at them because we could not belive such a fallacy and today we have been vindicated.
3. On the first day of our Chemistry Practicals, I saw the lecturer (Dr JONGWANE Dipoko) lifting up some objects that we Anglophones knew very well and calling their names in French. These were: beaker, test tube, pipette, clamp, Bunsen burner, etc. I asked an Anglophone repeater who was sitting next to me what the lecturer was trying to do and he told me he is introducing us to Chemistry Practicals. I immediately asked him again why so? His answer which amused me was that it is because Francophones do not do 'practicals' in secondary or high school. And that was/is the truth! I then vowed that if it is the case, I will beat all of them hands down. It never came to pass.
4. In the first class exam that we wrote in February 1983 called partiels, some of us saw that all the questions were in French but with a remark that you could answer in French or English and we wasted more than 30 minutes trying to understand the instructions and the questions proper.
5. Some Anglophone students of the Department of Physics/Chemistry used to copy notes in a language that was neither English nor French; no doubt why many failed the exams. (In a Physics class, I saw a High School mate of mine writing something like Arabic before I drew his attention to the fact that the lesson is centered on Ohm's Law. Thank God for him he passed CUSS exam later and is today a Medical Doctor).
6. Some of our brothers and sisters from the NW and SW Provinces who were Francophones faced no problems and sailed through easily e.g. some Yamba of Donga Mantung division who grew up in the West or Adamawa provinces and were educated as Francophones faced no problems and were sympathetic to our plight but helpless. (I did not meet a Mbum in this category then.)
Reasons for the strike
While I had never known the real planners of the strike, I had known that sooner or later it will take place. Some of us who could be termed the ''Thomas Paine Group'' had been asking some Common-Sense questions that caused Anglophone students to start reflecting on the treatment being meted on them. This brainstorming was usually done as we left the restaurant and were resting at the bench under the mango trees.
i. Why should francophone students be favoured over Anglophone students?
ii. How can Anglophone parents pay taxes to run an institution like this and their children are tormented here like foreigners?
iii. If the francophones think the GCE is no match for their BEPC and BACC, why don't they use a litmus test by sending the GCE O Level, A Level , BEPC and BACC of one year to Canada to be translated; then exchange and give to 100 best students of each system to write and we see the results?
iv. Why is that Anglophone students cannot succeed at the lone Polytechnic Yaoundé but go to foreign universities and rise to the rank of professors of engineering disciplines?
v. Doesn't the Education authorities know that Francophone system of examinations stresses long essays e.g. you can be asked one short question to comment on it for four (04) hours while Anglo-Saxon examinations are based on speed and accuracy- the longest examination being GCE A Level science practical examinations which took four (04) hours?
vi. Where is our Maths GCE 'A' Level Syllabus D where formulas are derived from First Principles followed by examples and then questions as the Syllabus C commonly used by Franchophones was being rammed down our throats? (We met a system where a Maths lecture was more or less a History class and we were lost and we spent almost one term only on Inequalities and Series).
vii. If Francophone lecturers teach us in French because they don't know English, how can they mark our scripts written in English since we are told to answer in French or English?
viii. If all these Francophone students leave High School without a solid background in English and enter a university where they are taught entirely in English will they be able to cope?
ix. Are Anglophones a conquered people?
D-Day: 22nd November 1983
The students gathered peaceably in front of the Chancellery at about 9am with placards. After waiting for a long time chanting songs, Dr Joseph Owona, the Chancellor came out feeling very relaxed and wanted to speak in French but students shouted ''speak in English'' and he spoke something that one could barely understand and all I got was ''…we will examyn your problems…''and then re-entered his office.
The combat-ready police that were standing by asked the students to disperse but word came that we should not budge but sit on the ground. I was on the front row facing the police when the 'Officier de police' gave an order for his boys to attack with rubber truncheons. That is how I got my first wounds on Day One of the strike. The rest of the day was hide-and-seek with the police on campus as students ran towards the CUSS or CRADAT Roads.
The next day students assembled again at the Chancellery but decided to match downtown to demand the head of Ze Nguele at the Ministry of Education. As we sat on the tarmac blocking transport, the police charged again and as I stayed put and refuse to budge, they fell on me and as my back leveled on the ground, my head missed the tyres of their truck by hair's breath. As their truncheons fell all over my body, even with my back on the ground, I did not fail to send up my own punches to their chest while kicking and biting leg or arm.
The next day we assembled behind the Ministry of Education near the Ministry of Mines and Power. This is where speeches were made by the students.
One 3rd year student rose up to speak and started by: ''Anglophones are Cameroonians par excellence….'' In my ignorance, I was annoyed that he is using the French language again that we are decrying. When I was told that it is English, I later checked in a dictionary and it has stuck in my vocabulary since then. (of the very best kind or highest quality).
Some of the placards read:
-''we want an Anglo-Saxon University in Buea ''
-''is this the Cameroon we negotiated in Foumban?''
Having been to some of the best schools in this country, I had never known much about what transpired in Foumban in July 1961 after the Plebiscite of 11th February.
The Presidency had sent Mr. Nsahlai Christopher (R.I.P.) Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency to attend to the striking students. Students were asked to raise their hands and speak up their minds. Many did. I was boiling with rage.
A memorandum from the students was later handed to Nsahlai to forward to President Paul Biya. The latter who had just acceded to power barely a year ago did not want to 'spoil his name' by taking a faux pas concerning this strike and decided to stay mute throughout meanwhile students were daily looking forward to his intervention to solve the crisis.
The following days, the activities were almost the same: assembly, speeches, placards, encounter with police, etc. For the fact of always being at the front row near the police, I was beaten for ten consecutive days until I had to stay off from Day Eleven to the end and so missed out when the government decided to send Hon S.T. Muna, Speaker of the National Assembly with a message to the students. I was too sick to participate and had remained at home nursing my wounds and so failed to get his message directly. However, his message brought the strike to an end but I was not happy that the university remained in one piece because all I had wanted was to see its total closure or scission.
Aftermath of the strike
1. The scission was to come ten years later in 1993 with the creation of the Universities of Buea, Dschang, Douala, Ngaoundere and Yaoundé II. This has since given room for Anglophone students to attend a purely Anglo-Saxon university in Buea if they don't want to face the same situation.
2. Examination questions were translated from French into English at the Department of Physics/Chemistry and we wrote the 'Partiels' exams of February 1984 by seeing questions in a language that was close to English.
3. The idea of Group Certificate to replace the GCE exam was dropped completely
4. Minister Ze Nguele was fired soon after the strike
5. We believed that Anglo-Saxon education rules the world how come it does not work here. After this strike, people have come to understand that the difficulties faced by Anglophone science students at the time were due to syllabus differences between the two subsystems and not any weakness on their part. Years later, the Francophones themselves have seen the truth and are sending all their children to Anglophone schools especially to do the sciences.
6. A spirit of solidarity and consciousness was created in Anglophone students and later their parents and it eventually led to the demand for and the creation of the GCE Board, forceful adoption of the one-shift system of work of the Anglophones, organization of the All Anglophone Conference in Buea, etc.
7. Anglophone science lecturers were systematically recruited at UNIYAO and some bravely taught in English and the situation improved gradually until today such problems may not exist again.
Suggestions and conclusion
I suggest that Wimbum parents should do the opposite of what Francophones are doing today. Francophone parents are sending their children to follow Anglo-Saxon education and become pure Anglophones. Wimbum parents should send their children to follow Francophone education and become pure Francophones.
Both of the children above will surely end up being bilingual and be competitive on the job market both in Cameroon and abroad.
Anglo-Saxon education rules the world. Francophone education rules Cameroon.
This advice, weird as it may seem should be given good thought unless we are sure of one thing. Unless we are sure that one day the present NW and SW regions or former Southern Cameroons will peacefully break away and become and independent nation.
I doff my hat to Anglophone students who calmly took all the ignominies at UNIYAO at the time especially those of the infamous Department of Physics/Chemistry like our own son and brother Dr NDIKONTAR Maurice. A few years ahead of us, he passed through this department (PC) like a hot knife passing through butter with flying colours and is today Head of Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Bamenda.
On the other the other hand (in 1988) another Anglophone student who dropped out from the same department wrote a competitive examination/aptitude test necessitating speed and accuracy conducted by a French recruiting agency in Douala ( AFCA) to recruit one (01) person as Commercial Manager/Assistant Director for a French pharmaceutical company. He beat all the 59 Francophones out of the 60 candidates and came out first! This happened even though the exam was in French and he failed to write two (02) papers out of the eleven (11) and was scored in 0/20 in them. This proves Reason (v) above given for the strike.
The requirement for the exam was BACC+2 but more than two thirds of the candidates were degree holders. He only lost the post to a Togolese lady who came second due to his poor communication skills in the French language during the five oral exams that followed for the first 12 in order of merit. However, months later he was called up in the same company for an inferior post. And this was a Mbum boy…
///THE END/// See photos on days of the strike attached.
Tanwarong John
Mutengene, 22nd November 2015.
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