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Tuesday, July 20, 2010


Biya visits De Gaulle in France, whom shall Sarkozy visit in Cameroon?
Check: http://www.blogger.com/www.prc.cm/index_en.php?link=le_mag/lecture_mag_en&id=411&lang=en&pos=1
fr.allafrica.com/stories/201007161015.html
http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201007161015.html
On the occasion of the Bastille Day celebration last July 14, 2010, the President of the Republic of Cameroon took time off to visit the Charles de Gaulle Foundation in France to give honours to the man whose speech at the Brazzaville conference marked, as the President puts it “General De Gaulle did not only rally forces for the liberation of France but also promised the independence of French African colonies at the 1944 Brazzaville conference which was the starting point of African emancipation”. There he saw the Brazzaville speech engraved on the wall and other famous documents signed by the late general while on exile in London. He even went into the section which carried other official files related to the French liberation and the independent French Republic.

Speaking at the foundation, the Cameroonian president said the General belongs to a common global history.

Mr Biya actually laid a bouquet of green, red and yellow flowers with a yellow star on the red, at the effigy of the late hero of French liberation, “whose work has brought respect to mankind”. As to whether De Gaulle actually helped in African liberation that would be another debate. He even congratulated the French for the honour they have given his name after his deeds.

The Head of State, Paul Biya praised the historic French General for saving his nation during the Second World War from the Nazis:

"The African that I am will without hesitation highlight the major role played by General de Gaulle in the process of attaining independence by peoples under French trusteeship".

The Charles De Gaulle foundation was created in 1971 and was declared public property by a presidential decree in 1992. It seeks to promote historical research and works of the venerated French statesman.

However while Biya sat on the seat of the late general paying due or undue ‘respect’ to the French hero in witnessing “une moment emotional” in the premises of the magnificent building which once was De Gaulle’s office for years, surrounded by the humble furniture which constituted his office as head of the army and which now houses the Fondation Charles De Gaulle raised in his honour and managed by surviving ex-collaborators, the visit which he granted in the name of the nation of Cameroon, we are left in wonder.

Since when did the president of the Republic of Cameroon start believing in the work and immortality of national heroes?

The nation in whose name he visited the foreign hero of national liberation has a pioneer President buried in the sands of a stranger’s back yard. The children of this country learn the history of their nation just like they do with Chaucer’s nebulous tales about Canterbury, none of them has ever seen beyond the blurred images in the pamphlets the faces of J.N Foncha, Endeley, N.N. Mbille, Um Nyobe Joel Mayi-Matip, Bishop Albert Ndongmo, Andre Marie Mbida, Douala Manga Bell, Ahmadou Ahidjo, etc.

Let’s take a moment and ask; if in the next celebration of the National day as it has been set aside for the independence of the Southern Cameroons, Sarkozy visits and wishes to return the visit of his national hero the our own equivalent of De Gaulle, where would Biya take him to?

I guess the tomb of Ntumazah will do.
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