In Pursuit of Peace

Regardless of the success, shortcomings and ground breaking success in the world of science, one of the greatest minds to ever live had an epiphany about the world he lived in then and the future he was going to leave behind when he emphasized Spinoza’s words “Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, of law, of order —in short, of government.” When we break it down, modern day government is mainly democratic. An institution (or at least we claim it to be) whose foundation is created by the same people it is going to be administering. The Greece in 508 BC realized that for them to rid themselves of infighting, it was necessary for the people they administered to have a say in the tenets and laws that shaped their collective destinies. Therefore the birth of a new form of governance, one that although not infallible, had the highest probability of avoiding the infighting of the era. This democratic principle of governance has taken several forms over the millennia, in the form of more accountability, better representation, more power to the people, and the introduction of several economic governing systems along the way.

On the surface though, democracy is simple, regardless of where you are and how you feel about what is happening around you. “There’s no other form of democracy, there’s just democracy” - masses of people have never agreed historically upon a particular issue unanimously without compromising one way or the other through wars and or extracurricular killings. It has been our nature as humans to have our way, or no other way in our individual lives. Until democracy became a philosophical solution, we’ve lived like savages for thousands of generations. Most often, there is speculation that without democracy coming into the picture, we’d have been long extinct because of our own basic instincts as mammals. That said though, wars have never been stopped by democracies alone, neither has peace been established by philosophical ideologies in and off themselves; rather, “people” have had to make compromises, begrudgingly had concessions exacted upon them, and sometimes humiliatingly let others win debates and or arguments without resorting to physical violence. However though, democracy has been a major factor that has shaped the ability for people on different sides of the isle to take these difficult positions of weakness in order to foster peace and spare lives that would’ve been lost because of ego and pride.

Cameroon has been peaceful for a long time since their Declaration of Independence not because of policies and or political stability, because we see a semblance of a system that works for others being purported to be implemented even though on a minute level. Now the scales have fallen from the eyes of the people everywhere and unfortunately what we are living now is a hell that non of us bargained for. We are back to the time of forceful rule and whitewashing of events for the benefit of a few willing to crucify the future of an entire generation in order to have a stronghold on rulership without any consequences for their actions because of their psycho-pathetic aspirations of grandeur. Democracy, thrives on the power of people, but relies on systems that are extremely transparent for its successful implementation. It is a fragile ideology that has to rely on the good will and integrity of its own indigenes to make it a reality; without which, it’ll be a fantasy that will only be able to ruin lives, favor a few and sow seeds of discord amongst brothers because of the greediness of a few usurping peace and installing war maybe not often physical but mental as well. Democracies often take away the, “them versus us “idea in every society because there is an understanding that the system has the ability to dish out harsh punishments for those who go against its tenets or who don’t serve the people who got them into positions of “service”; either through failure to win another election or in the case of those who break the law to hold onto power, judicial systems ready to draw them back to earth, disgrace and humiliate them regardless of their previous positions. In our context though, we have allowed through no fault of ours, people in power to gouge the system and make it basically impossible for any repercussions to affect them. This is leading to war, killing of those who attempt to expose them (journalists) and the constant misappropriation of funds and corruption at the highest level feeding off of the poor and misinforming them about their ability to make things change.

Democracy in Cameroon has failed woefully, that is why we are seeing wars being fought in the anglophone regions, we are beginning to see the killing of journalists, we are also seeing a rise in corruption without repercussion and most importantly, the blatant disregard for public opinion in these matters as there is a tempting of fate by those who seek to hold onto power. And like Einstein stated, there’ll be no peace until the systems work as intended. Therefore we need to individually begin to educate ourselves with regards to how our systems are supposed to work, what is wrong, how we got here and the reality of how we get out of here. It is in understanding these concepts that the epiphany and reality of the war we are currently living will dawn on us and the steps we need to take will become a reality we will have to face regardless of the consequences.

So here is our conundrum, we either step up and act, or shut up and die in the face of this eternal war waged against us by those we see as our leaders. It is high time we use our innate power to make a noise that will rattle those who are there to serve us - we can do this by being active in getting our voters cards, by engaging in and participating in debates, questioning the decisions and consequences of previous decisions by our government, challenging the system in place to right itself through calling and writing to our representatives and senators repeatedly without mincing words; making it evident that we won’t go quietly into the night and continue to live the current nightmare we find ourselves in, but that through the stress and realities of our desperate existence, we will thrive and standout as the generation that brought democracy to the country and by extension not only alleviated wars, but birth unity and peace in a troubled and divided nation. Then and only then will our pursuit of peace become a reality that we may live in or leave behind for our children.

• © Copyright ABNC January 2023