Social Problems - Espace Monique Kwachou

Nude Pics, Sex Tapes and the Things We’re Not Saying

June 22, 2017 2 Comments

Nude pics? Sex tapes? Revenge porn is trending in Cameroonian social media spaces. For us, it’s a fairly new phenomenon. In a country where sex talk is still something to be done in the dark or behind closed doors, the ease with which sexually explicit content is being shared among young and old alike is breaking carefully built pretenses of our morality vis a vis western society. More than once, I have read comments like “these young people are following white people in doing such things, this is not Cameroonian”. As is often the case, whatever is deemed immoral is not traditionally ours, but exported. Ironical given how most of the morals we adhere to are elements of foreign culture and religion literally forced on us during colonialism. But never mind that, I am in no way attempting to normalize the trend of nude pics, sex tapes, and revenge porn. It is ‘abnormal’, it is unprecedented in our context and it is definitely not OK. However as conversations around this problematic trend go, I believe we’re failing to discuss what really needs to be discussed. Our society is a patriarchal and conveniently conservative one, most of us are addressing this is an issue with already sexist perspectives. That in itself is a problem as you cannot solve a sexual and sexist problem with more sexism. Let me explain: sexism in everyday words refers to discrimination against and/or biased treatment of men or women based on cultural stereotypes of their sex. The ‘leaking of nude pics, sex tapes often done with the intention of embarrassing/ or harassing women (in other words, revenge porn) involved is an act of sexism because as per cultural stereotypes, women are supposed to be “docile, modest and virtuous” and being ‘exposed’ in such sexually explicit content paints such a female as a ‘Jezebel’ and not a ‘good woman’. Now perhaps you can understand why using statements such as “girls should know their body is the temple of God and not take nudes but respect their bodies” to address this act of sexism is not helpful. In criticizing and cautioning only the females, you confirm and encourage the sexist stereotypes on which the act of revenge porn hinges. Last weekend, I was asked to speak on behalf of our department at an event themed: “Empowering Girls to Say No to Nudes” as I expected (and dreaded) the majority of speakers addressed the issue from sexist perspectives, we are socialized this way and I truly can’t blame them much, we have to unlearn sexism which comes normally to us as a result of enculturation. Still, I expect that when you decide to ‘sensitize’ the public on something, you do your research on the topic to ensure that if you don’t make things better, at least you don’t contribute to making them worse. I expect that those who decide to take on this new social blight should do so knowledgeably offering proactive ways to address it. To begin with, let’s address the problem from its roots. How better to do that than with a problem tree analysis. Let me turn geeky here for a bit, look at the diagram below: Figure 1: Problem tree analysis of Revenge Porn See, if we were to analyze this problem from the root, we would acknowledge that the reason revenge porn is possible in the first place is that we’ve allowed sexism to be a norm. In a sexist society, women compete with one another for over men, they have been socialized to aspire after a “virtuous lady” ideal irrespective of that virtue requiring them to prove their worth constantly or repress their sexuality; just note how many customs we have to reign in women- everything from FGM to breast ironing to labia elongation to early marriage. In a sexist society, women are condemned disproportionately to men, so though both guy and girl may be in the sex tape, we’ll call out the girl and let the guy go free. Similarly, though we know the nude pics are being sent to guys upon THEIR request we condemn the sender rather than bidder. People need to address the market, goods exist because the market exists. Another contributing factor is the taboo like a veil over all talks of sex and sexuality. How many of have frank conversations about sex with young people? How many of today’s parents can have open conversations with their kids? So where then does a young girl turn to when she receives a request for nudes from someone she likes and believes loves her just as much? The lack of comprehensive sex education leaves a vacuum where anything goes. Our legal system is an equally large factor in the mess leading to this problem. The majority of us are either ignorant of the law; Revenge Porn can be addressed using the Penal Code which prescribes sanctions for public decency in Section 264 and equally using section 349 which penalizes anyone taking advantage of the needs, weaknesses, and passions of a person under the age of 21). If we are not ignorant, we lack confidence in the system and thus do not pursue the matter, or ignore the risk we bear of being reigned in as accessories of the crime when we share revenge porn. Finally, even where we are aware of the law, and take the step of confidence to use it, it fails us. We all know of #Epie being let go after paying a measly 100.000frs despite the fact that he could be held on multiple counts, rape, taking advantage of a minor and publication of material subject to public indecency. Obviously, the police involved did not know the laws themselves or did not care enough to enforce the laws as they are called to. Considering these various causes, I reiterate my initial point: we are not discussing what needs to be discussed to adequately handle the problem of revenge porn. If we truly want to do

Takeaways from ‘The Struggle’

May 23, 2017 2 Comments

I recently wrote a piece for This is Africa on the lessons my experience of living under the Internet ban left me with. You can read the piece here The internet ban was just a fraction of this protest, however. This ‘struggle’ which has gone on for over seven months experience has marked me in more ways than I can express. I am sure it has marked others just as much if not more. As I noted takeaways from the internet ban I considered other lessons this experience in its entirety should have taught us collectively as Cameroonians. This experience; the loss, the violence, the rifts, the ignorance, and crookedness it has exposed should be at the very least a learning experience. It should above all else challenge us to address things we let slide before, contributing factors to our current predicament we often overlooked. Consider our Police…. For one, I hope Cameroonians now see the need to focus on the way we recruit our police and jailers. I hope we now find ourselves discontented at the common notion that if you are slow at school, unable to make it to university it is best to bribe your way into the police force for that government matricule. We regular send our least accomplished, our most unstable, school bullies and least learned people to be trained to enforce the laws of our society; how does that make sense? How then can we complain about police brutality? What do we expect given the crop we send there? The majority of those signing up for a life of ‘law enforcement are barely in it for love of law, our police are there for the regular pay, the potential abuse of power, the government matricule… so how then do we expect that these people be relied on to serve us in time on emergency? As though that isn’t enough, have we considered how they are trained? Stories of shaved heads, gruesome physical and verbal abuse during police and gendarme training regularly trickle out; we hear them and shrug. We mutter “hmmm” clap our hands or say ‘ashia’ in case we’re chanced to hear those who experienced it tell the story firsthand. But have we considered how the inhumane training process is for gendarmes, BIR, police, and wardens affect their performance? I have witnessed ENAP- Prison wardens newly admitted welcomed like criminals of war at their training institute. Following such ‘training’ how do we then expect them to act humanely to actual prisoners? Hopefully, this experience has highlighted that we need to train better police to be able to believe in law enforcement. As of now, I doubt a Cameroonian child would opt to go to the police for security reasons. Civic ignorance is a breast lump… Civic ignorance is one of our greatest threats. For democracy to work you need informed people. A government for the people, by the people, is only as great as the people themselves are. After months of seeing fellow citizens “just discover” historical ‘secrets’ they should know for fact, I pray we have established that we as a nation need to do better in terms of civic education. It is unthinkable that so many of the younger generation know so little of our own history and what little some know is further tainted and distorted to fit certain stereotypes passed on by parents and regional groups. If Cameroon as a whole cannot teach its combined history to its entire population, how then do we expect to ever be on the same footing, building a future together? It should be unheard of that a Cameroonian knows the second in command of American and French political parties but is uncertain of who is next in line to succeed their own president. A great deal of misinformation during this crisis succeeded primarily because people of both educational systems are so lacking in knowledge of common historical events, lacking in knowledge of political processes, our laws, and rights. People have readily spread rumors of the United Nations doing what that international body has little authority to do, and with every Facebook and WhatsApp share it has become someone’s version of the truth. We literally have grown folks citing Facebook posts as sources like some ignorant undergrads cite Wikipedia. You may be thinking: of course, it is a conspiracy by the government to keep us ignorant blah blah blah. But nope, that doesn’t cut it. We need to take an adequate share of responsibility for our ignorance. This level of ignorance isn’t a result one party’s doing. It’s like a breast lump left unchecked. We all have a hand in this one. You sanctioned ignorance when you gave your child pocket money to go spend on the on 11th February last year without them knowing why they were marching in the first place. We all want to claim injustice this year and denounce these events, what were we doing last year? I was on the field last year to question people on the purpose behind 11th February celebrations, the responses were terrible! See videos here. We allowed this ignorance to build to this point where is has- like spittle spat above our heads- come down to foul our faces. Our collective ignorance has been highlighted in neon green during this protest and if we can as a nation take away one thing from this experience, I hope that is the need to address civic ignorance. We often brush away our lack of interest in knowledge of our country with statements like “why you wan know sef, the whole country is trash”. I can’t sigh enough at this. We need to know so we can properly criticize the ‘trash’. We need to know so we can address the trashy parts or don’t we want it fixed? If we fail to address our ignorance today as a people, we should be ready to have it used against us in the near future. Finally, the time is

Imagining My President’s New Year Message- A Christmas Wish

December 17, 2016 No Comments

I have been unable to do any real writing for weeks now. Between losing several friends and experiencing a peaceful strike turn into a brutal scary revolution, 2016 is leaving me drained. As I assess the year in these last days, I can only compare it to Sour Cream and Vinegar flavored Pringles. It has fed me but left a bad taste in my mouth. My musings this month have ranged from existential questions (Is this life so fleeting, so unpredictable? What’s my Life Purpose again and what’s in it for me?) to political debates (How to best explain to outsiders and the fellow Cameroonians who don’t understand what the Anglophone problem is, Is this revolution on the right course etc.). Several pieces could be written from the thoughts this month has brought. But as I said, I am drained and I just want to think happy, hopeful thoughts. Every year, on the 31stof December Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon for 34 years now, makes a New Year’s speech. In fact the first ‘Musings’ post of 2016 was a review of his speech heralding in this year (read that post HERE). As this year closes and we await another speech. I’ve decided to be hopeful and muse on what I wish my president would say in that speech. I wish he would, as he did last year, look for words to describe the year our nation has experienced. I imagine the suitable words for this year would be ‘fed-up’. It seems his praise of our resilience at the beginning of the year marked our reaching the limits of tolerance. I wish he would express regrets at driving a truly resilient people to this breaking point. In this ideal speech, I imagine my president acknowledging how those he put in power, and the foreigners who he has all but sold us to, contributed to poor maintenance of the Yaounde-Douala road and eventually the loss of lives in the Eseka train crash. I imagine my president apologizing for the laissez-faire nature of his leadership and cabinet which led to legitimate complaints of Common Law Lawyers being ignored and the strikes and protest which followed. I expect him to condemn the violence, arbitrary hoisting of flags and looting done by protesters, but I wish he would avoid branding protesters “terrorists” and acknowledge that had his administration adequately addressed early complaints and the initially peaceful sit-in strike, nipping this in the bud, things would never have gotten this bad. In this ideal speech my president would for once address the nation in English attempting to prove that we are indeed bilingual and equal. Whilst speaking the language of the minority he would equally condemn the spirit of secession and express understanding of its origins. While I expect him to criticize those spreading hate between the Francophones and Anglophones, I pray and wish he is gutsy (or just tired enough) to acknowledge the problem rather than shy from it. I expect him to know that this is not an issue of who gets what ministerial post, nor an issue of what regions are more developed (quite frankly the South region from which the president hails is just as much- if not more- undeveloped). I pray that as president he is informed and conscious enough to know that this goes way beyond Francophones taking opportunities in Anglophone regions though these are the reasons you’ll hear brandied about. I imagine that in his often long-winded speech he takes the time to acknowledge that while people of all regions have problems, the Anglophone problem is unique because it has institutionalized one group as superior to the other. It has made bilingualism an option for one group, while for the other bilingualism is necessary for survival irrespective of which part of the Mungo they reside. After all you could get arrested in Limbe, never knowing your crime because the person arresting you does so while speaking French. I pray my president acknowledges that over the years since 1972’s “unification” there has been a systematic disregard for the minority (English speaking) thus creating a bias in favor of the majority (French speaking). I would be okay with him sharing the blame for this; he could blame his predecessor – Ahidjo- and the setup which was the 1972 referendum, he could blame the bevy of present day Anglophone politicians who remain mute on the problem for fear of losing their positions, he could even blame the citizens who pretend like he’s the perfect president when they meet him, and the numerous traditional rulers of Anglophone regions who have made him “Fon of Fons” and continuously convince him they love his reign with their ‘motions of support’. He need not take all the blame, there’s enough to go around. Heck I wrote an Open Letter to Cameroonians calling them out on this same thing almost three years ago. I shall be lenient as to just how much blame ought to be shelled out to him, but I expect my president to ‘man up” for once. I pray he truly dearly loves his country somewhere deep down beneath those double-breasted suits. That he loves the country enough to condemn the violence his armed forces used on students and other protesters. That he censures ‘forces of law and order’ who have done the opposite of their duty to protect and serve just as much as he does violent protesters who use a peaceful strike to cause chaos. I pray he recognizes that when the people fear the police rather than call on them for help, there is a problem. A grave problem. Make Cameroon Hopeful Again! Finally, I would be most ecstatic if my president would crown his speech with acknowledging that his aged self cannot see us into that ‘land of Canaan’ the government has painted Vision 2035 to be, and declare like Angola’s presidentthat he, Paul Biya, will not be running for future elections. Such a declaration would give Cameroonians

What We Should Be Investigating…

July 25, 2014 2 Comments

As of the 12thof June, the World Cup kept football fans internationally enthralled. To say some people take their football as seriously as an HIV test (maybe more so) is understating things. Case in point: Cameroonians. The majority of Cameroonians kept the timetable for the World Cup in their back pockets or imprinted in their minds as though it were the timetable of let’s say… their GCE examinations. After what has been termed a disgusting performance (by Finke, the coach himself) which included not only whopping defeat but brawling between team mates and poor sportsmanship against opponents, the Cameroonian players returned to meet very angry supporters. Reports confirm that Stephen Mbia and Benjamin Moukandjo were attacked in Yaounde (http://www.cameroon-info.net/stories/0,61915,@,cameroon-angry-population-attack-stephan-mbia-moukandjo-at-avenue-kennedy-in-yao.html). It is sad to hear that professional players got attacked by people who can best be described as idle over a game of chance, but the most disturbing reaction to the debacle to date has been the president’s decree via state media giving his prime minister one month to submit a report on the Indomitable Lions’ ”inglorious campaign.” A statement on Cameroon radio said: “The President of the Republic, President Biya, instructs the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, to open investigations on the causes of the unfortunate participation of the Indomitable Lions at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He should provide results within a month and make proposals for a deep and urgent reconstruction of Cameroon football.” (http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28035926) Yes, this is very disturbing. Why? I don’t know about you, but I think we have a WHOLE lot more to be angry about than the performance of Eto’o and co. I think we have a lot more people worth mob beatings than Stephen Mbia. And I think we have a great deal more worth investigating than the poor performance at the world cup. Let’s just list some of these shall we? How about an investigation into 1- The truth in Marafat’s letters? Have we forgotten Marafat so quickly? It wasn’t long ago when he acted as a whistleblower upon arrest. Has anyone done an investigation into the allegations he put forth? (http://chronicleinfoline.blogspot.com/2012/06/marafas-1st-2nd-3rd-4th-and-5th-letters.html) 2- Just how many prisoners are in Kodengui and for what crimes? Earlier this year the Cameroon Tribune mentioned there would be an expansion of the the infamous Kodengui Prison facilities. The Post on the other hand has been claiming there are prisoners who have been held there without bail for years to never see the light of day or trial for that matter. Could someone please do an investigation of just how many prisoners we have in that top penitentiary and for what crimes? 3- Where all the embezzled money goes to and was it ever returned? To who? In similar light a damn good investigation to start promptly would be that to find out how much each minister which was locked up for embezzlement in the last 5 years or so stole, where the money is, if and how it has/can be returned. Quite frankly I’ve stopped being impressed by ministerial crackdowns. Catching a thief isn’t enough when the goods stolen are never accounted for or returned. How do those in jail pay for the money stolen? And if the money is locked up in some Swiss account what efforts have been made to return it? 4- How Boko Haram insurgents enter the country and what can be done to stop them? Yes! Yes! Investigate this and please don’t go and disgrace us in France next time saying “The terrorist attack in the night when the security officials are sleeping” (http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/22/cameroons-president-blames-boko-haram-for-attacking-while-soldiers-are-asleep/) Are they supposed to be sleeping? 5- Investigations into why accidents occur on particular roads? Despite their being better tarred/constructed than others? You would think given the number of accidents that happened in 2013 only along the Tiko Yaounde route our esteemed president would have made an extraordinary decree right? But nope, such things are reserved for football #smh These are just five instances, but you get the drift right? To make a public decree announcing investigations into something as trivial as football makes one wonder if the evaluation of national teams’ performance is more important than looking into operations at the Douala Customs and finding out why the hell it’s so expensive for a Cameroonians to ship things into their own country? Or how best to address the long standing problem of brain drain? Or why we need 53 ministries which clearly overlap each other. I mean there’s a Ministry for Labor, Ministry for Public Works, and Ministry for Employment… Errr? Then there is the Ministry for Wildlife, the Ministry for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, and then the Ministry for Agriculture… correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Animal husbandry and fishing a form or Agriculture? A department under one ministry would have sufficed no? The list goes on and makes us question the sanity of those we have in government.