Last month I visited the United States briefly. After having spent almost seven years of my childhood there and returning home to Cameroon indefinitely, this trip was my first in fifteen years. Messages from friends spanned from “watch out for the police” to “buy me shoes” to ” we hope you’re coming back”. One particular writer […]
Returning Home Part Two: The Struggle is Real, Everywhere
I’ve been home exactly a month now. Along with the joyous reunions come the far from joyous realities. I’ve spent as much time correcting my fellow Cameroonians misconceptions of life abroad as I have spent correcting my own expectations of home. Between the time I prepared to come home and my arrival I received three […]
Returning Home I: Redefining Patriotism
I’m going home!!! Just in case you missed the excitement, let me repeat myself: I’M GOING HOME! *Insert wide smile here* Then here, insert a wobbly unsure smile. Why? Because as much as my whole being longs for home, my head is smart and hosts no delusions. I know the reasons I had to leave […]
How not to be the Dreadful Bushfaller/Returnee
Given the comment someone inboxed me I may have written too much on bushfallers already. Bear with me. These are my musings and for the moment at least I’m around that group a lot. Don’t worry I’ll be home soon J That said, though I had already put up the blog post for this month, […]
Self-Trafficking, Modern Slavery or the Wrong sort of Bushfalling
Two years ago around this same month, I had a conversation with a friend. We had only recently met. She had just returned to Cameroon after having been on a cultural exchange program coordinated by the US Embassy in Cameroon. Of six Cameroonians sent to the USA on that exchange program, my friend was the […]
Travelogue Part 2: Of Wanna-be-Bushfallers and Bushfalling
This might sound like a rant, but if you are a follower of this blog you should be used to it by now. Some months ago the G.C.E results were released and successful candidates from all around the country traveled to Buea (though not immediately necessary) to apply for admission into the University of Buea. […]
Coming Home
There is a long standing joke that about Cameroonians who leave the country dusting literally dusting their hands off it and till when they die, and of course as per demands they all want their corpses brought “home”. And the punch line of course goes: Is Cameroon a cemetery? This joke holds some truth, […]