Letter to the Editor:
Re: Cultural Showcase or Cultural Surrender? A Challenge to Ambazonian Conscience
Dear Editor,
The recent Cameroonian cultural showcase in San Antonio, Texas, organized under the World Affairs Council banner and graced by Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, presents a troubling contradiction for those of us from the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) who have not forgotten the blood price paid for our identity.
On the surface, celebrating Cameroon’s cultural diversity may seem harmless, even noble. But beneath the bright colors and traditional dances lies a darker truth: the same regime that brands itself as “Africa in miniature” is committing genocide in Ambazonia, erasing the very culture it claims to promote. How then can any Ambazonian in good conscience lend legitimacy to a genocidal regime by showcasing culture under its tricolor flag?
Dr. Fomunyoh, a respected figure with a long tenure at the National Democratic Institute, should know better. He is deeply versed in the principles of constitutional democracy and federalism. Yet his continued engagement with the idea of “Cameroon” as one nation—and worse, his participation in apolitical cultural appeasement—amounts to a tragic misreading of the moment, or worse, a surrender to the very power structures that have denied justice to our people.
Has the taste of power eluded him for so long that he now courts relevance in a system architected to suppress dissent and erase our identity? Or has he forgotten that the same CPDM system—fronted by documents like the Glossary on Decentralisation and Biya’s Communal Liberalism—has done everything in its power to delay, distract, and destroy any semblance of genuine federalism?
Let’s be clear: these documents are not blueprints for reform. They are veils for continued Bulu-Beti hegemony, dressed up in administrative jargon and paraded as “solutions.” They centralize power while dangling tokenistic appointments and decentralised crumbs to silence dissent. Any educated man, let alone one with Fomunyoh’s democratic pedigree, should be able to see through this ruse.
So here is the open challenge: can Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh write an honest Op-Ed defending his continued faith in the idea of Cameroon, with all its structural violence, its unrepentant genocide, and its sham decentralisation schemes? Can he explain to Ambazonians—whose villages have been burnt, whose women raped, whose children executed—why they should “celebrate culture” instead of demanding liberation?
And to those still blindly following La République du Cameroun, what will you tell history when the dust settles? That you danced while your homeland burned? That you smiled for photo ops while your mothers mourned?
We are not deceived. No cultural showcase can sanitize the bloodstained hands of a genocidal regime. No amount of intellectualism can whitewash complicity. The time has come to choose—not between cultures, but between truth and betrayal, between freedom and slavery.
Let Dr. Fomunyoh, and all those who still believe in La République, respond—not with eloquence, but with honesty.
Sincerely,
Tande Shu Neba, IL, USA
A Concerned Ambazonian Patriot
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