22 December 2011
By Patrick Sianne
I met and had my very first converstaion with this very affable Francophone gentleman, rare in this bicultural Cameroon society, it was not even one month upon my sudden return from China last year, October, 2011.
We met at a send-off party for the then out-going country direct of the German Friedrich-Herbert foundation based in Bastos, Yaounde.
During that maiden encounter, I remember he hurried to present the grudge he was carrying in his belly against the minority Anglophone community in Cameroon. And the gripe was that even though he had written a both detailing their woes and has taken the courage to precribe solutions to the Anglophone Minority Problem in the country even against the heavily mounted resistance of the ruling Beti clan, his clan, the main Anglophone elite have been shunning him and his book to the extent that just one copy of the booklet has been bought thus far and he was not given a chance and even debarred from attending an All Anglophone conference in Buea, to make himself heard on this burning and controversial Cameroon problem.
We joked on the contradiction here entailed: that victims of a plight to refuse to give an ear to a benefactor who is convinced he is coming to help lighten their burden.
To cut this long introduction short we took an appointment and Enoh appreared with many copies of his pamphlet that I helped to retail with relative ease to the Anglophes I know and for which he was so greatful that he even offered me a bonus and discount for doing such a great job at distribution.
It was large because he then understook my inroads with books and literary matters from then onwards and because he saw how determined and advanced I was with the book I was then still on the writing-draft phase on my trip and travail in the Far East (China: My Regrets, My Fears--- A Rising Mirage for Black Africa), it was for these reasons and others that this very soft-spoken man of mid-fifties or nearly sixty decided to make of me the Vice-President of the organizing committee of a three-day national conference of Cameroon writers of both the English and French Expresses that the Biya government did everything in its capacity to sabotage late last year; even though Enow still managed to stage something that did not represent the full motions we all had bargained for.
The Yaounde regime, fearful of this its very son of the Centre-South, South indeed, just did not want to see this guy take the limelight on anything this spectacular, even though strictly cultural; even though Enoh had tried to use the habiyual ruse of placing the even "Under the Patronage of His Excellency Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon" and even though he had insisted that this was to be as part of the on-going official activities marking the 50th anniversary of the republic.
As I gathered during that moment when I was closing working with him gearing up for the Literary Show that wasn't finally, Enoh has for long then before been blackmailed by the Yaounde regime, especially when he is said to have made an audio recording announcing the toppling of the Biya regime for which he was arrested and tormented for plotting a coup d'etat.
And then again sometime during this dying year while the political feud was going on in the Cote d'Ivoire between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouatara, he was picked up again at the Douala airport, passport seized and he was detained again for a few days for unannounced reasons. What filtered through during that particular arrest is that as supporter of Laurent Gbagbo, and as a true anti-Imperialist and true PanAfricanist he was about to fly to the Cote d'Ivoire to voice his stance when the Biya cabal opted to nip his effort at the bud stage by picking him up at point of departure.
Since then, I tried without efforts again to reach him personally for a one-to-one. We had just a few meagre phone conversations and even the few times he made firm commitments to come see me at my residence around the Yaounde Prefecture proved to be furtile. I afterwards gave up on looking for him, for my instincts gave me a hunch as to why he may be trying to avoid meeting me: As we was so ardent and public in his support for Laurent Gbagbo, so too did he come to learn through our common sources and middlemen and women that I too was a fire rod in the opposing camp selling the stakes for Alassane Ouatara. This looked like the Cameroonian version of the love-hate opposition that is reported in the Ivorian drama fixing Soro Gillaume (Pro-Ouatara) and Blaise Blegoude (Pro-Gbagbo).
Perhaps for this last reason in particular, Enoh and Sianne stayed apart for this long. Even the presidential elections of October 9, where I was suurprised to learn via the press that he is one of the initial 51 or so applicants did not happen to bring us together, even though phone conversation alone. This, even though both of us are ardent believer that Biya Must Go. I was personally surprised that he put forward his candidature and never consulted with me before, during or even after the whole process of the reckless Decision 2011, the fake Cameroon Presidential Election that Biya roganized to win and won the way very few are satisfied with.
Of course therefore that Enoh was one of the disgruntled Cameroonians that that bogus pull. But such frustrations are not the things in my opinion that should lead him to do the things whatever they be that this wicked regime is using to give this noble birth of the South some much trouble of late.
One of our common friend, whose name I prefer withholding for she is a prominent national political player told me just this afternoon that they government forces have brought Enoh from the hole they were holding him in the distant East Region to Yaounde where he is expected to be judged in a military tribunal. Confirming reports via this face book mails also affirm that Enoh was spotted this afternoon being taking into and out of the Yaounde Military tribunal.
As a personal acquaintance and a sweet character to deal with I am still at a loss about what he may have done so bad this time around for his torment to be getting bigger than usual from the hand of this government that hates him and knows Enoh also hates the government back with equal or even hogher vehemence.
Tomorrow or soon after, we may get to the belly of the true story that may still what to see as just an attempt of this wicked regime to get even with this other critical artist like it did with Lapiro de Mbanga, using the pretext or cover of the 2008 nation food riot to lock him up in a tight hole at the Douala New Bell prison for several years, for crimes that the Mbanga-based musician said to me during a recent interview in his home with his wife present and looking at me straight in the eye: "Patrick Sianne, je n'ai rien fait de ce genre donc ce régime m'accuse. Le dossier est bien preparé, bien avancé, et on attend le bon moment pour te le mettre sur le dos. C'est fabriqué de toutes pièces!"
I smell a rat here, as same as with the Lapiro file.
