Exclusive Interview With Valerie Osouf, Part II

Cameroon, Exclusive Interview With Valerie Osouf

(Part II) Previously on FD, the answers of Gaelle Le Roy were published last wednesday, July 23, 2008.

Today, Valerie Osouf, also author and film-maker of the documentary "Cameroon, Autopsy Of An Independance", answers on this taboo story during the colonial age...

A lot of relevance and involvement in her answers...

12/ What is your personal opinion about the mandate of France with Cameroon like elsewhere, at the colonial era?

Valerie O: My personal opinion, like you said doesn’t matter. What matters is the deafening silence of the international community at the time on the Togolese and Cameroonian mandates it conferred to France and England after the First World War what did the control missions really do? Who really listened to Nyobe in New York? Who acknowledged the petitions signed by thousands of Cameroonians?
The question of the international organisations is sadly still very relevant. For a
Mugabe, how many tyrants are safe?

13/ Cameroon is commonly recognized, as well on place as everywhere else like having been a “French COLONY”. However, as we clearly see it in your film, the texts stipulate that Cameroon is rather a French Trust Territory, on mandate of the SDN at that time. What do you think of this handling of language? In your opinion, who is the person in charge?

Valerie O: That word game is sadly revealing of the power then in place. Who’s responsible? Governments that don’t respect the laws of the international organisations they created.

14/ According to an article published in Le Monde online, published on June 26, 2008, there is a real dissatisfaction in Africa, and even with the new generation.
What’s your opinion about this report?

Link: http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2008/04/26/limage-tres-degradee-de-la-france-enafrique_1038797_3212.html

Valerie O: As long as we don’t cross check our versions of our common history, denial will keep entertain anger. This matter must be taken up to our authorities, both for the foreign and internal politics. I think for example about the huge part of the French population originally from former colonies and about the November 2005 riots. However, it seems to me that president Sarkozy’s speech in Dakar goes in the opposite sense.
I read that article: apparently, France wants to restore its spoiled image on the African continent, but there even really sincerity and self questioning along with it?
I totally understand a young African student francophone or not that would rather go study in the U.S, England, Canada or Japan.

15/ Concerning the leaders of UPC (Union of the Peoples of Cameroon), especially Um Nyobe, would you speak about heroism or lack of realism, otherwise, do you think that to give its life for freedom is ultimately of use?

Valerie O: The situation and the colonial oppression in Um Nyobe’s Cameroon were too much for him not to fight. That is what I can say. Moreover, Um was a dedicated legalist, a true humanitarian and a pacifist. He didn’t run away because he was a man of great courage and integrity.

16/ In this instance, do you see similarities with other historical cases, in Africa or elsewhere in the world?

Valerie O: Other famous cases where at any given time victorious. So yes I can think of similar cases, but unlike Um Nyobe, people are aware of them. Gandhi, for instance after he returned from South Africa.

17/ What do you think about the general silence on the Bamileke’s tribe genocide with use of weapons of massive destruction, like the napalm, the poisoning of Felix Moumié, the profanation of his grave 20 years later, the verdict not guilty of the agent William Bechtel which has asserted this murder, the death of more than 300 000 people after the so called independence, the conspiracy in all impunity for the assassination of Um Nyobé, Ernest Ouandjié, and others, that it’s on the level of the French, Cameroonians or international authorities (African Union, ONU, etc.)?

Valerie O: I hope our movie answers that question.

18/ Like the proverb says,

Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's.

UPC, Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, was an example of national unit, because its leaders came from ethnos groups through the territory (Bamoun, Bassa'a, Bamiléké, etc). It’s a beautiful symbol in the current context of interethnic wars in several areas of Africa. According to you, was their work recognized, and honoured enough both at the national and international level?

Valerie O: Absolutely not. I hope Nyobe will soon have his place at the pantheon of liberators, along with Lumumba, Kenyatta, Nkrumah, Nyerere, although those ones all had their victories, obtained real actual international support and eventually became heads of states. It’s a big difference.

Also, you use the word "ethnical", but let’s not forget that many so called "ethnical" conflicts in Africa are, as elsewhere economical, social and political. Is the conflict in the Delta of Niger about ethnicity or oil?

19/ In wich direction do you think that Franco-Cameroonian relationships have evolved and will evolve?

Valerie O: State to State? It all depends on the heads in position, especially on the Cameroonian side. No one can say that France hasn’t been constant in its African policy whether the governors were Gaullists or socialists. I just hope that with the economic competition and the appearance of new countries in the game (China, U.S., Malaysia, but soon also India or Brazil) will allow Cameroonians to take better advantage of their resources.

20/ It is known that to carry out such a documentary comprises undoubtedly thorny risks. Dear Gaëlle, Dear Valerie, did you have problems (intimidations, threats, etc) after the release of your documentary which is a real autopsy?

Valerie O: None, of any kind.

21/ The Assassination of Felix Moumié, directed by Frank Garbely, is a documentary which reports the facts of this conspiracy. Did you look at it? What do you think about it?

Valerie O: We’re on the same side. It’s a principle for me to support any work trying to disclose information on this forgotten war. Only by stopping the denial will Everyone will at last be able to look the other in the eyes.

22/ In view of the content of the film, it appears that you still have many other facts to reveal. We can thus sense a follow-up. Do you project to tell us more? Could you please give us a taste of the contents and the principal points that you will cover?

Valerie O: I know that a group of 9 young searchers, both French and Cameroonian are working on a movie (and a book) on the subject, and I’m glad to know that. We already met twice and I give them the information a have, so that they can go even further than we did. Before us, Franck Garbely did a movie on the assassination of Moumié. There’s no doubt in my mind that other producers are working on UPC, whether it’s documentary or fiction.

23/

One cannot make a tornado in the water glass, because some negros were massacred… It is nevertheless something which pushes to reflect on the direction of what we call the civilizing mission, the love of the democracy, freedom, Human Rights, etc. There are the rights of which human beings in fact?

- Moukoko Priso, professor of university -

Up to which point the action of France in Cameroon push-such by wondering about the direction of these values?

Valerie O: How deeply does the French action in Cameroon makes us think about the meaning of these values? The answer to that question lies in Moukoko Priso’s question. It makes us wonder on the depth of what the Age of Enlightenment brought us in terms of universality.

FD: Thanks a lot for your precisous time and as Cameroonians, thanks for this revelations.

Valerie Osouf: Thank you very much for the interest that you express to our film.

Read 'Part 1' here »

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