Brother or Broader: Marginalisation in Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s The Oracle of Tears

Abstract

This article seeks to analyse Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s depiction of the Anglophone problem in Cameroon in his poetry collection, The Oracle of Tears. Mbuh’s poems indicate that this problem is caused by the duplicity of the Francophone leadership in the country. This leadership, from 1961 till date, has not treated the Anglophone as a brother but has instead devised strategies to broaden its power through the erosion of Anglophone identity and the corrosion of Anglophones’ political weight in the state. This state of affairs has nurtured a sentiment of marginalisation in many Anglophone Cameroonians. Marginalisation in this paper is understood as a series of political actions undertaken by Cameroon’s Francophone leadership to stifle effective self-governance in Anglophone regions and reduce the latter’s identity to a varnish for decreed national unity. Though both Francophone and Anglophone identities are admittedly colonial, this article argues that it is biased to use this argument only when the preservation of Anglophone identity in the nation is evoked. Since Francophones gladly use their colonial bequests (French language, educational and judiciary systems), the same freedom ought to be conceded to Anglophones without any attempts at annexation. Hence, this paper underscores the responsibility of Francophone leadership in causing a generalised sentiment of frustration in Anglophones. It also emphasizes the need for Anglophones (like all dominated people) not to miss the target of their struggle. Postcolonialism is used in this paper to discuss the central issue of marginalization with which Anglophone Cameroon poetry grapples for decades. This theory helps analyse the fragmentation of formerly colonised nations like Cameroon – fragmentations which still make perceptible the shadow of French and British colonisation over the country. The study arrives at the conclusion that Mbuh’s poetry is a reminder addressed to Anglophone consciousness about the need, not to fight themselves, but reason with the divisive sexagenarian Francophone Establishment.