Tribalism 101: Initiating Genocide

Since March 2008, a young enterprising Cameroonian, Innocent Chia has been blogging about life and the injustices faced by former West Cameroonians in the very sparse Anglophone Cameroonian blogosphere. Through sheer persistence, hard work and excellent writing skills, his blog has become a major repository of record of the life of Cameroonians back home and in the diaspora.

Recently, he published a very a propos article on the real and problematic issue of what to do when aging parents fall ill when visiting the United states, and what options families have when a loved one dies abroad, to bury the corpse here in the USA, or repatriate the body to Cameroon?

Assuming he is no expert on those issues, he approached some tried and tested businessmen who were welcoming enough to explain how the insurance business works, and what options are open to anyone who desires to get insurance. Brief profiles if the businessmen and their contact information was provided.


And then the shocker, the very first comment to the article was a scathing rebuke, from another anglophone Cameroonian, accusing Mr Innocent Chia of being tribalistic! The comment portrayed the respected blogger as one who may have a long standing problem of tribalism that followed him when he traveled out of Cameroon. This, is simply unacceptable.

It is normal for the writer to use sources he is familiar with, and can vouch for when researching for the article. Anyone who holds a different opinion just has to set up their own blog and voice their views, and the readers will be the judge. Low level bigotry as displayed by the gentleman who made that first comment on the article "$15.00 transports your corpse from the USA to Cameroon" if left unchecked, end up causing major headaches like we saw in the Rwanda and Burundi genocide. We have to stop the finger pointing.

Mr Innocent Chia has been doing a great service for Anglophone Cameroon, and deserves better, than to have a cheap unwarranted judgment passed on him by someone who is essentially anonymous. Keep up the good work Mr Chia!