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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 4
Publication Date: April 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.104.14559. Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua
Nkamanyang’s The Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial
Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s
The Lock on My Lips
Nforbin Gerald Niba
Dept. Of English and Foreign Languages
University of Douala-Cameroon
ABSTRACT
Gender and Ethnicity are two key types of group distinctions with which group- based power is associated and, in a multi-cultural Postcolonial context like
Cameroon, gender and ethnicity intersect to shape our identities, opportunities and
the challenges we face in life. Lola Pepertua Nkamanyang’s The Lock on My Lips falls
within the corpus of literature on group-based power and discrimination, leading
to a hardening of identities around claims to belong and an opposite process of
excluding outsiders. Drawing from minority theories, gender and postcolonial
theories, this study investigates the intersection of gender, ethnicity and power in
the play. The paper argues that the ethnic tension replicates the
Anglophone/francophone divide in a bi-cultural Cameroon. Seen thus, Lola follows
in the footsteps of minority writers like Victor Epie Ngome to weave her drama
around a marital conflict between two people from different ethnic backgrounds
whose union is characterized by marginalization, assimilation and dictatorship.
However, Lola treats this sensitive subject in a rather kaleidoscopic, suggestive and
pacifist way, recognizing like her radical predecessor that the reunified nation
(Cameroon) has been rendered fragile and diseased by the marginalization of
women and the Anglophone minority, Lola rather opts for healing. A unionist, Lola
believes that nation-building can be effective, if it is founded on mutual respect and
equal opportunities for the sexes and for the two ethnic/linguistic groups of
Cameroon. The significance of the marriage metaphor in her play lies in her
espousal of gender equality, cultural syncretism and peaceful co-existence of
husband and wife, and of Anglophones/Francophones.
Keywords: Lola P. Nkamanyang, Gender, Ethnicity, Belonging, Postcolonial
INTRODUCTION
Gender and Ethnicity are two key types of group distinctions with which group-based power is
often associated and, in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon, gender and ethnicity intersect to shape
our identities and the opportunities and challenges we face in life. Acknowledging and
addressing this reality is key to creating inclusive societies in most postcolonial African states.
Unfortunately, although most postcolonial African states are multicultural in the sense that they
are highly diversified in terms of ethnicity, religion, and language, post-independent leadership
continues to disavow the existence of ethnic marginalization in their states. The challenge in
the immediate post-independence era was undoubtedly the need to forge diverse ethnic groups
into a nation-state regardless of cultural or linguistic boundaries. In their efforts towards nation
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building, the newly created states disavowed the existence of ethnic minorities or other
marginalized groups in their respective states as divisive while unity was postulated in a way
that assumed an ideal or mythic nation- state amidst multi-ethnic divisions.1 The challenge
today to multicultural states like Cameroon is that of acknowledging, accommodating and even
celebrating the richness of their ethnic, cultural or linguistic diversities and protecting them
and other marginalized groups (e,g. women) from all forms of political, economic and social
exclusion, and finally, respecting their rights as articulated in international law.
Lola’s The Lock on My Lips2 falls within the corpus of literature on group-based power and
discrimination, which seeks to influence the attitudes of its audience toward gender and ethnic
minorities. For a long time now, the state of Cameroon (in which The Lock is set) has prided
itself on constructing a peaceful and harmonious nation, a nation whose privileged project has
been that of promoting an equal interest in the different cultures of its bi-cultural communities;
a nation conceived and expressed in the slogan ‘one and indivisible’, a phrase that bellies a
major cultural conflict between the country’s two major ethnic/linguistic groups Since
reunification in 1961 and the creation of the Unitary state in 1972, discontent at ethno-cultural
marginalization has been manifested by some members of the Anglophone community who
claim that, the experience of cohabiting with the French-speaking majority in a unitary state
has deepened rather than healed the cultural/linguistic differences. While some dissatisfied
Anglophones have opted to stay on and fight for a reformation of the system, others simply feel
that the existing order is so oppressive that it makes nation-building an illusion (Smith, 1986)
and needs to be overthrown (i.e., through a return to the Federated states or through outright
secession by Anglophones). This marginalization of Anglophones has come to be known in the
Cameroon cultural memory as ‘the Anglophone problem’ and has been statistically documented
by critics who think that the political union of English and French Cameroons is a diseased
marriage. This is evident from the following passage from Jua and Konings (2004, Pp. 613-14).
An even more decisive factor for the development of the Anglophone problem, however was
the nation-state project after reunification. For the Anglophone population, nation-building has
been driven by the firm determination of the francophone political elite to dominate the
Anglophone minority in the post-colonial state and to erase the cultural and institutional
foundations of Anglophone identity (Eyoh, 1998). Several studies have shown that
Anglophones have regularly been relegated to inferior positions in the national decision- making process and have been constantly underrepresented in ministerial as well as senior and
middle-level positions in administration, the military and parastatals (Takougang& Kreiger,
1998). A few recent examples seem to substantiate Anglophone allegations of systematic
discrimination in the recruitment of government posts. In February 2003, it was announced
that there were only 57 Anglophone youths among the more than five thousand new recruits
joining the police academies. The next month records show that there were only 12
Anglophones among the 172 new recruits in the customs Department. And, even more
1 Speaking before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Ghanian Ambassador, in response
to the question as to whether there was domination of one people by another in his country answered: ‘Well, I
must say the obvious answer in the case of Ghana is no. There is no domination of one people, one ethnic group
against the other. That is quite obvious’, ‘Ghana, Examination of State Report, 14th Session, December 1993. In
the same vein, Gabon reported to the UN Human Rights Committee that ‘there is no problem of minorities in
Gabon [because] the population is fully integrated socially’, CCPR/C/128/Add.1, 14 June 1999, para. 50. 2 Hence forth cited simply as The Lock with only page references provided in the body text.
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
significantly, these Anglophones were only given junior staff positions while all the senior staff
positions went to Francophones. There is also general agreement that Anglophones have been
exposed to a carefully considered policy aimed at eroding their language and institutions even
though francophone political leaders had assured their Anglophone counterparts during the
constitutional talks on reunification that the inherent colonial differences in language and
institutions were to be respected in the bilingual Union.... Gradually this created Anglophone
consciousness: the feeling of being recolonized and marginalized in all spheres of public life and
thus of being second-class citizens in their own country.
Wolf (2001, p. 233) summarizes the consequences of this discrimination thus,
It is the imbalance in every part of Cameroon life, intertwined with the feeling of being losers
in the historical process that have created considerable discontent among the Anglophones, As
underdogs... Anglophones rally around English as a common reference point. English is a form
of protest against the de facto dominance of French.
Besides the discriminative practices emerging from the postcolonial structure of Cameroon are
also those generally practiced against the female gender. Samba (2005, p. 18) published a
statistical illustration of the patriarchal administrative system of Cameroon:
From... independence [1960] to date, no woman has held the post of Prime Minister or the
Speaker of the House of Assembly. The statistics of August 2000 Ministerial Cabinet present a
disproportionate allocation of ministerial posts between men and women. Of the six Ministers
of State, none was a woman, of the twenty-three Ministers, just two were women, and among
the six Minister Delegates only one was a woman.
As this marginalization of minorities (Anglophones and women) grew in the political sphere, in
the cultural arena, minority discontent expressed itself in feminist and Anglophone protest
literatures.3 The political, socio-cultural and sexist discrimination and exclusion of women and
Anglophones from the decision-making bodies of the postcolonial Cameroon administrations
recorded above parallels the exclusion of women and the ‘Come no go’ minority from the power
structures of Lola’s imaginary Kibaaka in which The Lock is set. Like the postcolonial Cameroon
administration, the traditional institutions of Kibaaka deny women and the minority ‘come no
go’ population the right to conceive of themselves as political actors. The ‘come no go’ are
simply perceived as strangers and the women simply as mothers or cultivators rather than land
owners.
Drawing from minority theories, gender and postcolonial theories, this study argues that Lola
is an Anglophone feminist dramatist who, in The Lock explores the complex problems of gender
and ethnic discrimination in a multicultural African/Cameroon context. However, unlike some
radical Anglophone writers who proffer secession from the political marriage/union that
makes up Cameroon, and unlike some radical feminists who advocate the imposition of western
3 Anglophone writers (Bate Besong and Victor Epie Ngome, John Nkengasong,) have published plays and novels
that question the legitimacy of the unitary state or demand a reassessment of the relationship between the two
communities which is perceived by Anglophones as lop-sided. The growing disillusionment within the English- speaking community has also pushed some Anglophones to lay claims to self-determination and autonomy.
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models of feminism in Africa as a viable solution to patriarchy, Lola takes a pacifist position.
Lola is an Anglophone unionist who believes that the process of nation-building can be effective,
if it is founded on mutual respect and the provision of equal opportunities; if it is based on a
judicial, harmonious and peaceful coexistence of the sexes and of the two major
ethnic/linguistic groups of Cameroon. In this regard, the political significance of the marriage
metaphor that Lola employs lies in her espousal of gender equality, cultural syncretism and
peaceful co-existence of husband and wife on the one hand and of Anglophones and
Francophones on the other. The Lock thus argues for the commonality of male-female;
Anglophone-francophone destinies and for harmony in couples as forming the basis of stability,
welfare, peace and development in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon.
CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS: GENDER AND ETHNICITY
A minority consists of any ethnic, linguistic or religious group within a state that is not in a
dominant position; that possess a sense of belonging to that group; and that is discriminated
against or marginalized on grounds of ethnicity, language or religion. It is a people who, because
of their physical (racial), and cultural characteristics are singled out for differential and unequal
treatment and who thus regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.
Considering that they make up a majority of the population, it would seem contradictory to
refer to women as a minority group. Some would prefer we apply the term only where the
people discriminated against are not in the majority. But the term, ‘minority’ goes beyond
numbers. 4 It is not only used in situations where the people discriminated against are
numerically inferior to the dominant group. Women remain numerically in the majority yet
they are marginalized worldwide and thus share a lot in common with ethnic minority groups.
In a similar vein, some critics and even some Anglophones will object to the consideration of
the Anglophone Cameroon population as an ethnic group. Of Course, once the term,
‘Anglophone’ is used, one quickly thinks of English language competence as a first criterion, but
in the context of Cameroon, the situation is different because the status of English in Cameroon
is unique. In Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, countries that like the Anglophone Cameroon zones were
colonized by Britain, and where English is the official language, the term Anglophone rarely
comes into play among their citizens. In like manner, during the mandate or trustee period,
when the English-speaking zones of Cameroon were under British rule, the term, Anglophone
was not evident among the people who all spoke English. The term has taken a new dimension
in Cameroon because it exists alongside an opposite linguistic and cultural term, francophone
and being an Anglophone in a francophone-dominated Cameroon has become a unique
experience in Anglophone Africa. According to Tambo Leke (1993, p.36), an Anglophone is ‘A
person whose first official language, in the context of the Cameroon constitution is English.
Although Anglophones by this definition, may hail from any part of the country, their base is
mainly in the South West and North West Provinces’ (Ashuntantang, 2009, p. 18), while
Alobwede ‘Epie goes further than this to stress that the term, Anglophone’ belies the presence
of about ninety-six other ethnic languages in the Anglophone regions. Alobwede ‘Epie (1993, p.
4 The criterion of numerical minority is not entirely satisfactory where there is no clear numerical minority or
majority. Beside, an ethnic group can constitute a numerical majority and be in a non-dominant position and
thus be entitled to minority standards in order to ensure their rights to non-discrimination and to protection
of their identity which form the foundations of minority rights.
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
57) explains that ‘Anglophones should see themselves as a people of varied ethnic languages
and cultures but whose individual identities have been made to merge and function in a union
of thought moulded by the English Language’. In addition to Alobwede’s view, this study
conceives of the term, ‘Anglophone’ in line with the definition provided by Simo Bobda:
The term, Anglophone, as is understood in Cameroon, has mostly an ethnic connotation. It
refers to a member of an ethnic group in the North West and South West Provinces which were
formally part of British Cameroons [...] the term, Anglophone has very little to do with
knowledge of the English Language, indeed, an Anglophone in the Cameroon sense does not
need to know a word of English (qtd in: Ashuntantang, 2009, p. 18)
What emerges from the above is that, Anglophone Cameroonians connotes an (ethnic) identity
that goes beyond language to embrace the socio-cultural. The legal and educational system in
Anglophone Cameroon is different from that of the Francophone region. Anglophones pride
themselves as being different, even in other cultural domains like food, social behaviour and
dress. Thus, a francophone who knows English is not considered an Anglophone because,
although s/he may know the language, s/he does not carry the cultural baggage. We can thus
say, as we do with other ethnic groups that, the value of English as an official language for the
Anglophone Cameroonian carries other socio-cultural responsibilities which are tied to their
collective identity, the only weapon of unity they have that makes them different from the
majority Francophones. In contrast, and as evident in the majority/minority dynamic,
Francophones do not like Anglophones rally around the French language as an identity symbol.
From the above, Anglophone Cameroonians as well as woman can be considered minority
groups, and some of the most significant features of a minority group would apply to both
groups: members of a/an (ethnic) minority are disadvantaged as a result of discrimination
against them by others. Discrimination exists when rights and opportunities open to one set of
people are denied to another group. Members of the minority have some sense of group
solidarity; of belonging together. The experience of being the subject of prejudice and
discrimination usually heightens feelings of common loyalty and sometimes of resistance.
Prejudice operates mainly through the use of stereotypes (and sometimes through hate
speeches [Xenophobia]). In view of the stereotyping that goes with them, ethnicity and gender
are said to be culturally constructed concepts. Both ethnic minority groups and women find
themselves attributed qualities that are far from obvious. In this regard, ethnicity is also a
‘gendered’ term for it exhibits patterns of difference by means of the superior self and the
inferior ‘other’. 5 Like gender, ethnicity refers to cultural practices that distinguish a given
community from another. In both the case of women and ethnic minorities, the tendency of the
dominant sections of society is to attribute qualities as natural givens and to conduct
5 The term, ‘gendered’ is sometimes used as a verb to give expression to action, or ‘the doing of’ gender. As Davies
(1996) notes, the shift to using gender as a verb (‘to gender’, ‘gendered’, ‘gendering’, ‘engender’) is a reflection
of the changed understandings of gender as an active ongoing process, rather than something that is ready- made and fixed. In other words, something is gendered when it is actively engaged in social processes that
produce and reproduce distinctions along the lines of those between women and men. ‘Gendered’ ‘signifies
outcomes that are socially constructed and that give males advantages over females or creates superior and
inferior statuses for people. The term is thus also used here to describe the production of stereotypes about
ethnic groups that are shaped by these assumptions.
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
defines or constructs the woman by what she (allegedly) lacks that men (allegedly) have (Tyson, 1999,
p. 90) in the same way the colonizers in colonial discourse defined/constructed (specifically in terms
of power, knowledge, voice, moral qualities, and other culturally ascribed attributes) the natives
(indigenous populations of the areas invaded) by what they ([the colonized]perceivably) lack that the
colonizers have. The relationship of political hegemony, economic and cultural dependence that
characterized the attitude of the colonizer towards the colonized in the colonial era is also
similar to the relationship between the postcolonial man (husband) and woman (wife). In other
words, the imperial power of the colonizer over the colonized is analogous to the imperial
power of the postcolonial African man over the woman. To say that the Postcolonial man or
husband possesses imperial powers thus suggests that, through cultural discourse (language)
and patriarchal ideology (traditional conceptions of the woman, her role and the cultural
stereotypes associated with her) the woman is socially and culturally programmed to play only
specific roles. As Shey Ghamogha puts it in Lola’s The Lock, ‘Roles are assigned to women. Roles
are not assumed by women’ (64). If colonization implies the expansion and absorption of
another territory by a stronger one, then it can only be parallel in patriarchal ideology by
marriage which in most postcolonial African societies can be seen as a process by which the
man expands and absorbs the wife’s identity and her property as Shey Ghamogha tries to do in
The Lock. Shey’s question to his wife— ‘Who owns who in this house?’(62)—illustrates the
expansionism inherent in patriarchy.
The view that gendered constructions of men and women (which is deeply entrenched in
patriarchal ideology) parallels the colonialist constructions of the colonized in colonial
discourse and that the colonial expansionist policy of absorbing foreign lands also parallel the
Postcolonial man’s firm control of his wife’s life and property implies that postcolonial theory
is gender sensitive and can be used to analyze gender sensitive texts like The Lock.
Discriminatory practices against women can be analysed in terms of the gap in postcolonial
theory that exist between the ‘centre’ and the ‘periphery’. The power play can be used to
investigate the relationships between men and women and between ethnic groups.
Spivak also needs to be mentioned, considering that her gender difference category constitute a relevant
contribution in the field of postcolonial studies. In her seminal article, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ Spivak
argues that the subaltern cannot speak. This has been interpreted to mean that the subaltern has no
voice or cannot voice her resistance, a view that is captured on the cover page of Lola’s play-text in the
graphic metaphor of a woman with a pad lock clipped across her lips. Spivak employs the term,
‘subaltern’ to refer to the voicelessness of the oppressed or marginalized communities that are often
described in postcolonial studies as ‘silent’ because they are represented or spoken for. Such
marginalized comuties include women and minority ethnic groups, which as Spivak tells us are silenced
or rendered voiceless, spoken for, and represented.
Postcolonial studies depends essentially on the ‘historical fact’ of European colonialism and its
effects and as most postcolonial critics hold, African literature has a close, even organic link
with the society that generates it. For Chinweizu et al. (1980, p. 242), the ‘immortality of a work
depends on writing for a community for whose situation the work is resonant with meaning, a
community which finds itself expressed in the work.’ The issues of gender, ethnicity, citizenship
and ‘the politics of belonging’ that Lola’s play deals with find inspira tion in the history of
Cameroon’s colonization and in other events in contemporary Cameroon history and politics.
Mrs Ghamogha’s fight for a voice in decision making; for her right to property ownership (land)
and thus for her identity as a Kibaakan is indeed a fight for all Postcolonial African women.
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
kaleidoscopic and highly suggestive way, presenting the reunified nation as a union which
though has been rendered fragile and diseased by the marginalization of a minority, can be
healed and rendered wholesome again.
However, the ‘Anglophone problem’ is not the only interpretation that can be given to the ethnic
conflict that propels the plot of the play. Echoes can be heard in The Lock of major historical
events in Cameroon, especially in the tumultuous years of democratization described by
Tarhnteh as ‘the roaring and ranging 90s’(50). The phrase recalls the horrors and miseries that
people in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon suffered in the post- 1992 election
period when the regions were characterized by public demonstration against what was
considered to be the stolen victory of the English-speaking opposition party (The Social
Democratic Front) candidate. It is interesting to note how in the face of stiff opposition,
government manipulated ethnic sentiments among the two English-speaking regions in order
to puncture the opposition and destroy its stronghold in these Regions. This ethnic sentiment
is displayed in the conflict between Ability and Wirkitum in Lola’s play.
The ethnic tension in the play-text replicates a political phenomenon─ ‘the politics of belonging’
─ that emerged in the 1990s to annul gains made in the heydays of multi-party democracy. With
the emergence of multipartism, opposition parties presented a strong and unified challenge to
the ruling establishment in Cameroon in the 1990s. ‘The politics of belonging’ was
government’s response to this challenge, one that offered the ruling party a strategy of initiating
and manipulating ethnic divisions among Cameroonians for political gains. Both in areas
considered to be opposition strongholds and areas that were non-opposition strongholds, any
strong challenge to the ruling party was considered as coming from a predominantly settler
population and was thus confronted with a ‘politics of belonging’ or an appeal to a ‘homeland.’
Insisting that the politics of belonging (or appeal to rural homeland) in Cameroon and
elsewhere in postcolonial Africa was a response to the rise of multi-party democracy in Africa,
Geschiere and Gugler (1998, p. 309) for instance, argue that, ‘in many parts of the continent,
democratisation seems to encourage the emergence of a particular form of politics, centred on
regional elite associations, as some sort of alternative to multipartism.’ The idea that ‘settlers’
or ‘strangers’ might influence parliamentary representation or even take up a majority of seats
in an upcoming election often prompted an obsession with questions of origins and thus
questions of citizenship. This is the basis of Shey Ghamogha’s disgruntleness with Hon
Wirkitum in Lola’s play. Shey Ghamogha has never forgiven Hon. Wirkitum, who though
considered a stranger won the parliamentary elections for his constituency, thus depriving Ghamogha
(supposedly a ‘son of the soil’) of the opportunity to become parliamentarian. As Shey puts it, ‘I
sold all the goats and pigs I was rearing to raise money for my campaign project. Before I knew
it, a come no go walked into my plantation and harvested all my supporters’ (2)
Since the government of Cameroon associated settlers with opposition political parties, it was
happy to support home associations (unions of urbanites who claimed affinity through sharing
a common rural home) precisely because they helped to marginalize ‘strangers. These
associations were seen as a vehicle that could be used to by- pass multi-party politics among
rural electorates or to undo the gains made by opposition parties. Since most of the leaders of
the associations were civil servants, it was easy for the ruling party to bring pressure to bear
on them to go ‘home’ on campaigns to mobilize votes. Francis Nyamnjoh and Michael Rowlands
(1998, p. 320–1) go even further to claim that some of these ‘ethnicized elite associations’ were
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Like The Lock which is about unsealing women’s sealed lips, Women and Development was a
taboo-breaking program and constituted the first time in Cameroon that women appeared on
television acknowledging various forms of abuse (like sexual harassment and rape). Lola’s
MANJARA is indeed, a gathering of this kind in which women’s personal and collective problems
hitherto considered taboos are given center stage in public space. Such an exercise gave women
the confidence to break the silence with which misogynistic cultural practices have sealed their
lips and thus to speak out in the face of injustice. Silence is one way by which women have
perpetrated their own oppression, especially in Africa. A good wife or a good woman is not
supposed to express or reveal her (sexual) ordeals, be they experienced in or out of marriage.
This probably explains why when a woman, (married or unmarried) experiences rape, she
keeps the ordeal secret for fear of either destroying her husband’s inclination toward her or
jeopardizing her chances of getting married. This ‘culture of silence’ has made voicelessness
(symbolized in the play by the lock on the woman’s lips) a topical issue in feminist discourse.
Like Anne Nsang’s TV program, ‘Women and Development’, MANJARA in The Lock is basically
intended to educate women on the need to break the vicious circle of silence as a step towards
liberation. MANJARA works toward unsealing women’s lips. Despite her husband’s and her
fellow women’s attempts to silence her in the face of rape, Mrs Ghamogha makes the crime
public and this helps to bring the culprit to book.
Mrs Ghamogha: He held my neck down. I am twice invaded.
Siveria Nyuydze: It should not be mentioned anywhere. /Nobody should hear about it/ Not even
your Husband (The women nod).
Mrs Ghamogha: What? Are these MANJARA voices? Has MANJARA been working to unseal or to
seal lips? Are we still afraid to speak after the lock on our lips has been broken? Shall we
still foster our own suppression by keeping our suppression secret? My kind, you speak
not with your voices....You say just what our sex believes (118-19).
Informed that his wife has been raped, Shey Ghamogha also recommends silence:
Mrs Ghamogha: He also lumped himself into me and forced his way in.
Shey Ghamogha: Where? How? Ngiri! Did he succeed? (she nods. He shakes his head and
continues). Kilamakwa has got to pay for this. Meanwhile, the elders should never hear
about it. It shouldn’t be mentioned anywhere.
Mrs Ghamogha: Why does everybody think such a crime against women must be kept hidden?
Shey Ghamogha: Shut up woman! Certain crimes are best endured than exposed (121)
In line with the Beijing conference or Anne Nsang’s ‘Women and Development’, one of
MANJARA’s goals is to educate women on the need to publicize their plight and seek redress,
from TRCV these days?....How can we fight women...without provoking legal instruments that protect their
rights?’ (26-7).
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
and to break taboos like the interdiction on land ownership that seems to have paralyzed
women economically. It is Mrs Ghamogha’s ability to speak out and to seek legal redress that
turns the land law around and restores the identity and dignity of the Kibaaka women.
The Beijing conference provides a political context against which The Lock can/should be read.
It constituted a plea for greater recognition of women’s rights.
Plot Overview
The Lock seeks to mobilize and educate women on the nature and causes of their oppression
and underdevelopment while promoting the values of equality, freedom and above all, self- reliance and self-worth in women. The central conflict revolves around gender and ethnic
discriminations, particularly, a denial of the civic right of land ownership to women and the
‘come no go’. The result if that, in The Lock, Citizenship is gendered in two ways: men have a
fuller and/or different range of rights and obligation from women — the right to property
ownership (symbolized in the play by Land); the right to justice (denied the woman [Mrs.
Ghamogha] by the traditional courts), and the right to freedom of speech and thought,
(symbolically denied the woman by the lock on her lips). These issues trigger the
‘consciousness raising’ activities of the MANJARA women’s group and their quest for liberation.
But the play also shows gendered citizenship operating to include/exclude people on the basis
of ethnicity or their ethnic/linguistic origins. The plotline of the play is simple.
In the face of immeasurable marginalization of women and the minority ‘come no go’ ethnic
group of the Fondom of Kibaaka, Mrs Ghamogha, a stranger/migrant to kibaaka and wife to
Shey Ghamogha (who doubles as Shufai i.e., head of family lineage) and traditional Prime
Minister of Kibaaka) has created MANJARA, a non-governmental organization (NGO) whose
main goal is the creation of public space for women and the minority ‘Come no go’. A husband- wife conflict comes to a head when, in fragrant violation of the traditional or customary law
that forbids women and ‘come no go’ from possessing land in Kibaaka, the heroine secretly
purchases a piece of land in her name in a bid to provide her MANJARA Associations with a
conducive environment for their enunciated capacity building projects.
The heroine’s arrogation of land ownership right threatens her husband’s ego and authority in
various ways. Land in Kibaaka is a gender marker because ‘land is definable through power and
authority, [and] constitutes the material with which masculinities are constructed, and this
becomes a space where women are excluded’ (Lola, Preface). Land ownership is a prerogative
reserved for male ‘autochthons’ and Mrs Ghamogha’s purchase of land constitutes a grave
transgression of the gender/power relations enshrined in the tradition, but this transgression
is significant for another reason. Mrs Ghamogha’s action reverses gender roles and emasculates
her husband. A man worthy of the name is expected to own a piece of land of his own and not
owning one is synonymous to being a woman. On the other hand, a woman should not own land
if not, she becomes a man, and as Shey Ghamogha says of his wife’s transgression, ‘she’s is
becoming a man’ (2) because she has been ‘venturing into male dominion’ (64) by owning land.
Mrs Ghamogha’s action thus poses serious challenges to Shey’s role as head of his household
and thus raises questions about his manhood. In fact, in pairing a traditional prime minister in
marriage with a learned woman like Mrs Ghamogha, Lola foreshadows the central conflict of
tradition versus modernity: ‘The beetle that destroys the raffia tree lives[or is made to live]
inside the raffia tree’ (10). As wife to the traditional prime minister, and custodian of the
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customs of the people Shey’s wife is expected to be a model of the tradition and not a desecrator
of it. In her arrogation of land ownership right then, Shey Ghamogha envisages his own
ruination, the loss of his position, his manhood, title and authority; in short, the destruction of
his reputation as a man and leader. He clearly believes that whatever has happened should
never have happened because he is a ‘respectable’ pillar of the tradition and the wives of
respectable men just do not disrespect and violate the tradition. His wife’s crime is something
that should be nib in the bud, swept under the rug and obliterated before it becomes public
knowledge. The one thing Shey cares most about is his honour as a man, his authority as
traditional prime minister; his title and red feather; all of which seem threatens by one reckless
act from a stubborn wife. In order to save himself the shame of his wife’s crime, Shey keep the
act secret with the hope that he can repair it from within the private space of his home by
pressuring and if possible, intimidating his wife into ceding ownership of the land to him.
However, Mrs Ghamogha cannot be cowed or brow beaten into surrendering her land. She
knows that Shey could one day take other wives and her land, if owned by Shey, would become
family property. She thus stubbornly refuses to yield to any of her husband’s strategies:
scolding, intimidation, violence and ‘pillow diplomacy’ (69). Mrs Ghamogha too thinks she can
use the power of dialogue to make Shey understand why the oppressive world of patriarchal
tradition must come to terms with the reality confronting women and minority groups. But
Shey too stands his grounds, vowing that his wife must respect the timeless tradition of kibaaka.
In the face of the deadlock, Mrs Ghamogha doubles down on her crime by taking the problem
into public space. Failing to convince Shey through dialogue, and realizing that her husband will
never concede to her or even make any concession to women and the minority ‘Come no go’,
Mrs Ghamogha turns to her fellow women and to the ethnic minority for support. She organizes
a Women’s march on the palace to demand their rights as citizens. With this manifestation, what
seemed a domestic dispute suddenly becomes a public/national issue.
The play opens on the morning of this planned march on the Kibaaka Palace. Shey Ghamogha
wakes up in the morning to an empty bed only to be informed by his children that his wife was
spotted leaving the compound at the early hours of the morning (‘at cock crow’) with only a
wrapper tied above her breasts.10 Shey’s explains to his children the problems he has lately
been having with their mother. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by a group of elders
who storm in to inform Shey that his wife has violated the tradition by purchasing land and has
doubled down on the transgression by leading an ongoing women’s sit-down strike at the gates
of the palace, the seat of patriarchal power.
The elders are visibly threatened by this floating of patriarchal authority, but more so by the
women’s protest, which appears to them more as an attempt to overthrow the patriarchal
order. As expected, the Kikaaka traditional gov’t of men quickly seeks ways to puncture the
women’s insurgence. They strategize, first, at Shey Ghamogha’s compound and later, at the
10 A wrapper is a loose unsown cotton fabric tied by woman and usually worn with a blouse on top. A woman is
generally considered naked when, like Mrs Ghamogha and her fellow women, she goes out with only a wrapper
tied above her breasts. The risk is that, it might fall off and put her to shame. When it rains, this fabric also sticks
to the woman's body, showing all of the woman’s contours. For a married woman such a situation is abominable
as no one apart from her husband is supposed to see that much of her body.
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Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
Manjong hall. In these crisis meetings, the men contemplate a variety of measures: imposing a
New man tax on all ‘come no goes’, erasing their homes; replacing Mrs Ghamogha at the helm
of MANJARA’, starving women of their sexual needs (‘hunger of the loins’) etc,, before finally
deciding on dragging Mrs Ghamogha to the traditional Council/court where she is judged and
found guilty of ‘insulting’ Kibaaka ways of life; ‘of acting contrary to traditional laws regarding
land ownership’; and ‘of creating Associations that destroy homes and break up families’ (156)
The ‘contested’ land is also handed over to her husband, Shey Ghamogha; the women’s
Association, MANJARA is banned and Mrs Ghamogha herself is heavily fined.
Throughout the play, Mrs Ghamogha challenges the sexist institutions of Kibaaka as unjust:
‘Fathers of our land, why was tradition made by men and for the interest of men’? (67); ‘How
credible is Mwerong when all its members are men’. ‘Can Mwerong represent the wishes of
everybody when all its members are men ...Isn’t it obvious that it is the voice of Mwerong that
continues to say a woman cannot buy land?’ (66) ‘Mwerong cannot empower the man to decide
ways women...should be perceived and treated’. The traditional court verdict afford an
occasion for kibaaka men to once more reinforce the philosophical foundation of their
patriarchal hegemonic discourse on gender. But Mrs Ghamogha is not deterred by the
judgement. Rather, she seeks legal redress from the court of First instance. Meanwhile, the men
make their last desperate moves to intimidate the heroine into giving up her land. These
measures include, domestic violence from her husband, organized robbery on her home in
which her land documents are stolen and an attempt to bribe her lawyer. When all fail, Ability
gets a delinquent Vigilante group member, Kilamakwa to rape the heroine.
The hand of the law eventually descends on the Chauvinist bulwarks of traditional/patriarchal
values as Shey Ghamogha and his cohorts are handed a jail term. The women and the ‘come no
gos’ are declared full citizens with rights to property ownership and their piece of land is
returned to them. Finally, the people of Kibaaka are exulted by the presiding judge to love the
‘come no gos’ because ‘marriage is a family issue’ (210), adding that, through intermarriages
they now have children who speak different languages; their linguistic differences should unite
rather than separate them. The play ends with Mrs Ghamogha running after lawyer Hallen to
help release her husband from jail.
Discussion
Patriarchal Ideology and Gender Othering in The Lock:
The setting of the Lock, Kibaaka is a patriarchal postcolonial African society in the sense that it
is male-centered, male-oriented and male-controlled. It is a society that represents the world
from an exclusively male point of view and in accordance with stereotypical notions of men,
women and the relationship between them. Dale Spencer explains that, in patriarchy, men have
intentionally ‘Formulated a semantic rule which posits them central and positive as the norm,
and they have classified the world from that standpoint, constructing a symbolic system which
represents patriarchal order’, while in The Second Sex (1988, p. 16) Simone de Beauvoir
succinctly describes the process by which patriarchal societies conduct the othering of women.
To De Beauvoir, patriarchy is characterized by the cultural identification of women as simply
the negative object, or ‘Other’, to man who is regarded as the dominating ‘Subject’, the ‘centre’
and thus presumed to represent humanity: ‘Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not
in herself but as relative to him ... she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being . . . He is
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
Ability: The thing you wield between your thighs is a disciplinarian. Marry another woman.
That is the only way to humble a stubborn wife (99)
The image of the penis as disciplinarian is an allegory that volatizes men’s sexual prowess
especially in subduing stubborn women. The belief is that, the penis is an insignia of authority
that marks men’s superiority over women. These phallocentric metaphors associate the penis
with power and authority. By implication, woman’s lack of the male sexual organ is what
deprives them of power and authority. These images thus, promote the traditional patriarchal
ideology of male superiority while associating women with submission and voicelessness.
Myths as Depositories of Gender
One sexist myth stands out in The Lock. This myth, told by an authoritative voice, Shey
Ghamogha is a patriarchal reworking of the endemic myth that constructs the [first] woman
[Eve] as the archetypal source of evil. Evoked to legitimize the denial of land rights to women,
the myth lays the responsibility for colonization and its destructive effects on a woman:
Shey Ghamogha: Woman, I just want you to know further reasons why strangers and women
cannot own land in kibaaka. My father told me the story. Your origin is the real problem.
Your great, great, grant-father-Fon Ngoumoun came from Mikari. He had three children- Sohngon, the princess, was the first child but was a woman and naturally disqualified for
the throne. According to the customs of Mikari the first male child from her womb was
to be heir apparent to the throne. Because her privileged position in the family means
that the king must come from her womb, conflict started and flourished. One of the
daughters of Sohngon travelled to the other side ofg the river in the Land of the Rising
sun and married a wise man. The Wise man who married her came to Kibaaka,
discovered forest and gave a hat, a pair of short khaki trousers, a bottle of wine, a mirror
and a packet of bonbon to Njinyam Tchindzey in exchange for virgin lands and forests.
After signing papers conferring ownership of Habassi and Hunting Regions to the white
skin man, other intruders flew in from the Land of the Rising Sun like bees tracing honey.
The disappearance of our forests and especially Hunting Region affected everybody.
Hunters lost their jobs, An alarm was raised. Mwerong immediately went to the market
at mid-day, summoned everybody and gave the message that henceforth, women and
strangers will not own land in Kibaaka. It was believed that the people whose presence
almost led to the extinction of our language and woods were led to Kibaaka by a woman
(79-80).
This myth encodes the notion of women as agents of moral corruption. Reworking from a
patriarchal perspective the biblical myth in which Eve, the first woman is blamed for Adam’s
woes, the myth legitimizes the stereotypic view that women have always been ‘evil beings’ who
subvert men's ‘ideal’ plans.: ‘It was believed that the people whose presence almost led to the
extinction of our language and woods were led to Kibaaka by a woman’ (79-80). However, it is
not only women that are gendered in The Lock. Lola recognizes that like women, men too are
gendered beings and thus shows gendered citizenship also operating to include/exclude men
on the basis of ethnicity and/or nationality
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Representing Ethnic Otherness: Linguistic Xenophobia
The twin themes of gender and ethnicity revolve around the central character, Mrs Ghamogha,
who is both a woman and a migrant (through marriage) in Kibaaka. Unfortunately, Mrs
Gahmogha’s sex makes it impossible for her to take her fight for the rights of women and the
ethnic minority ‘come no go’ into the authoritative male decision-making cults of Kibaaka that
forbids the presence of women. As a dramatic strategy to overcome this barrier, Lola creates a
male surrogate character, Wirikitum who gives voice to Mrs Ghamogha’s views within the male
cults.11 Mrs Ghamogha who is represented here, should be seen as Spivak’s subaltern who is silenced,
spoken for and represented. Wirkitum thus suffers a lot of hostility from the majority ethnic group
because of his views, which are pro-women and the ethnic minority. The name Wirkitum itself means
‘stranger’ in Lamsoh and throughout the play, he and his’ come no go’ ethnic minority are overtly
referred to as ‘stranger’ and like the women, excluded from power and decision-making. But
how did the ‘come no go’ community come to be part of Kibaaka?
There are clues in the play text that suggests that, like Cameroon which is a product of a political
union between the southern (English) Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroon (French
Cameroons), the people of Rifem and Kibaaka came together through some form of political
arrangement. References are constantly made to a ‘marriage’ between these two communities.
In a bi- cultural context like Kibaaka,, people from the different ethnic groups usually come in
contact with each other, especially in the urban arears for academic, economic, social, civil
service or just national integration purposes, and it is often common to hear people identifying
other ethnic groups in derogatory terms that connote exclusion or ‘otherness’,
In Kibaaka like in Cameroon, the use of derogatory language often quickly degenerates into
xenophobia. Xenophobia is a hostility against non-natives in a given society. Derived from the
Greek words xénos ('the guest' or ‘the stranger’) and phóbos, (‘fear’), Xenophobia means ‘fear
of the stranger’ and implies a hostility towards, or an unnecessary hatred of strangers. As a
female character from the minority ethnic group named, Woman’ tells Mrs Ghamogha in The
Lock, ‘I am afraid of my husband. He hates come no gos and MANJARA’ (112-13). Xenophobia is
generally expressed in hate speeches and acts that carry ethnic, religious, cultural or racial
prejudices. It is an attitude or behavior that rejects, excludes and often vilifies people based on
the perception that they are outsiders or strangers to the community or nation and Mvem
Ability is a central figure in Lola’s exploration of this phenomenon.
Xenophobic characters often seek justification for hostility in their own claims to belong. In
other words, xenophobia is often a product of ‘the politics of belonging’. Belonging refers to
the appeal to, or anxiety associated with the notion of a primary ‘home’ which in Cameroon’s
national politics validates the increasing obsession with the notion of‘ ‘autochthon’ – a ‘son [or
daughter] of the native soil’ (55)–capable of acting (and voting) in the perceived interest of their
place of origin. The sentiment associated with ‘home’ not only focuses attention on who is an
‘autochthon’– a ‘son or daughter of the soil’─ but also focuses attention on who is not an
autochthon but a ‘stranger and an outsider’ (33, 35, 37. 50,103), a ‘sojourner’ (56) or a ‘come
no go’ and how to, or how not to treat them. In other words, the hardening of identities around
11 Hon Wirkitum echoes Mrs Ghamogha throughout the text, for instance, in his support for the women’s
movement; his call for dialogue with the women, and in his view of the political union with Kibaaka in terms of
marriage. Since Mrs Ghamogha cannot air her views to the men in the male cults, Wirikitum impresses us as a
surrogate character of hers.
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Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
ridicule whenever there is a crisis in Kibaaka? Are we not enjoying the absence of war in
this land?
Ability: Honourable Wirkitum. Why do you choose to read your identity in the expression come
no go? And why must you snarl and growl each time we talk about strangers and
outsiders? Honourable.... Tell me. Where did I go wrong in suggesting that sons of the
soil should cleanse the land of half-bloods (a gale of laughter...)
Hon. S Wirkitum: When did your people begin to realize that your land is not for half-bloods?
Was it before or after marrying and making children with them?.... Ebility, I belong!
Ability: Where? How? Was your father, Moutapon Mfemshiveh from Kibaaka? (36-7)
When against Ability’s xenophobic language of exclusion above, Hon. Wirikitum asserts ‘I don’t
think you have more rights in this marriage than I do’ (127), he is undoubtingly making a
political claim ‘to belong’ on behalf of the ‘come no go’ (or the Anglophone) population who
since reunification have claimed their rights in the union. In a nutshell, Wirkitum is like many
Anglophone Cameroonians resisting the marginalization and assimilation that have
characterized the marriage/union since reunification. At the least opportunity, Mvem makes
fun of Wirkitum’s origin, titles and race. His images are often well chosen to make his case for
ethnic ‘otherness’ effective. These humiliations eventually force Wirkitum to resign.
Ability: Which elder will deny that you are clad and decked in borrowed feathers? Tell me, which
elder does not know that although a crocodile lives in the water, it is not a fish? Mr. Half- blood, which elder does not know that a snake can shed off its skin but will still remain
a snake even in thoroughly embellished garments? Tell me! Who amongst these right
thinking silent elders will deny that although the butterfly can shed off its cocoon,
scramble into new garments, soar and hover in the air like a bird, its true origin is still
(moves his stretched hands sideways and forwards in a wave-like manner) the creeping
caterpillar? (pauses, frowns and scrutinizes faces apparently unaffected by the uproar
of laughter that spills over from the elders and continues). Who amongst these elders
does not know that on the other side of the river, strangers negotiate their stay even on
sheets of papers?
Tarhnteh: Ability! It’s enough!
Ability: I am not advocating for the extinction of combinations and hybrid forms! God forbid!
How can I? Fellow elders, we can’t fold our arms and watch endangered species of
hybrids wither away when their very existence is an illustrations of God’s sense of
variety in his creation. (Laughter continues as he turns to address Shey Wirikitum). Mr.
rented feathers and all other pollinated products, the point I am making is that all the
doors are not closed. So the problem of birth rights can still be negotiated. Mr. hired
feathers obtaining a Resident Permit to live in Kibaaka is negotiated settlement (the roar
of laughter resumes). Dear hired feathers roaming Kibaaka land, to show the extend of
our generosity in the midst of rage, all titled hybrids shall be exempted from the New
Man tax on one condition (holds his finger straight and pointing up), that on the last
country Sunday of every year, all titled hybrids shall renew their titles in an open
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ceremony before the entire clan (a roar of laughter streams in the air as he continues).
Any titles renewed contrary to the above specifications shall not be recognized
(Laughter continues while Shey Wirkitum leans forward, takes off his red feathered cap,
and begins to take off his beats from his neck)
Shufai Nsaw: Honourable Shey Wirkitum! Don’t do it! Please don’t!
Hon S Wirkitum: (Weeping) Hasn’t he stripped me enough? Is there any difference between my
head and a naked head? Erhrr? Hasn’t he referred to me all through in your presence as
Mr. Wirkitum instead of Honourable Shey Wirkitum? Shufai Nsaw, haven’t I had enough?
What difference does it make now? No! when an engagement is broken, one returns the
ring (stretches his hands to give his cap and beads to Tarhnteh, but Tarhnteh conducts
his hands behind his back)
Shufai NSaw: Without the beads and red feather, you are naked.
Hon S Wirkitum: A naked existence is better than the absence of peace. The choice is mine.
Shufai Nsaw: Not every choice is the right decision
Hon S Wirkitum: A wrong decision is better than a wrong engagement.
Shufai Nsaw: No man turns his back to his people.
Hon S Wirkitum: We joined you for the wrong reasons. I’m leaving you for the right reasons. I’d
rather be nowhere than be in the wrong marriage.
Shufai Nsaw: The gods of the land may put a curse on you.
Hon S Wirkitum: I was not born to live forever.
Ability: His absence consoles me (152-53)
In the face of this humiliation from a people he considers partners in a political union,
Honorable Wirkitum’s resigns from the administrative cult of Kibaaka. His resignation
replicates in symbolic terms the resignation of the Anglophone elderly statesman, John Ngu
Foncha (who led Anglophones into a federation with French Cameroon) on 9th June 1990 from
his position as Vice president of the ruling Party. In his resignation letter, John Ngu Foncha like
Wirkitum above cited humiliation and broken ‘engagements’ as reasons for his resignation.
First, he claims that he ‘found it impossible to use ...[his] exalted position to help in any way
shape or influence the policies of the party and nation’ and so he has ‘become an irrelevant
nuisance that had to be ignored and ridiculed...[and] used now only as window dressing and
not listened to.’(155) This too seems to have been Wirkitum’s lot in the Kibaaka administration
where he simply seems to serve as window dressing for national integration. No member of
government had paid attention to his consistent calls for ‘dialogue’ with the women and the
come no gos. Like Wirkitum, the principal reason for resignation advanced by John Ngu Foncha
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Niba, N. G. (2023). Gender, Ethnicity and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Africa/Cameroon: A Reading of Lola Perpetua Nkamanyang’s The
Lock on My Lips. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(4). 337-369.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.104.14559
(1990, p. 155) in his resignation letter is the humiliation of his people and the ‘broken
engagement or the non-respect of the agreed-on basis of reunification. As Foncha puts it,
the Anglophone Cameroonians whom I brought into the union have been ridiculed and referred
to as ‘Les Biafrais; Les enemies dan la maison, les traitre’14 etc. and the constitutional provision
which protected this Anglophone minority have been suppressed, their voices drowned while
the rule of the gun has replaced the dialogue which Anglophones cherished very much.
Towards a Peaceful Coexistence.
Wirkitum’s resignation from the ruling cult of Kibaaka does not represent the resolution to the
Gender and ethnic conflicts. In spite of his surrogate role, Hon. Wirkitum cannot act out the
resolution of the play. Only the heroine, Mrs Ghamogha is mandated to provide such a
resolution. Having failed in all efforts at dialogue with the male cult, and having realized that
the traditional court which should ensure justice for all is only a tool of patriarchy, Mrs
Ghamogha takes her case to the Western court which restores her land, but jails her husband.
Mrs Ghamogha’s genuine commitment to her marriage, and her conviction that marriage is
partnership are borne out in her reaction to the court verdict that jails her husband:
Mrs Ghamogha: (Crying and crouching) Barrister Johnson. It is our land that I wanted. I came
here to say that something is wrong. I didn’t come here to imprison my marriage. If you keep
my husband behind the bars; you keep my marriage behind the bars. I will pay the fine for my
husband. Help me process the bail please. Do something to secure his bail and freedom. I will
pay the bail. I will pay the charges. I want to keep my marriage. I have children. Release my
marriage, please. I beg you. Release my marriage (Curtains).
The court’s decision to uphold her right to land ownership was all she desired. It is a decision
that is symbolic of the woman’s recovery of selfhood, but Mrs Ghamogha’s insistence on having
her husband released from jail symbolizes the attainment by the couple of harmony based on
newly-gained mutual respect and recognition of their own complementarity. The reader
assumes that the released Shey Ghamogha will be of good conduct and will adopt a more
inclusive approach toward women and the ‘come no gos’.. In her determination to have her
husband released, Mrs Ghamogha argues for the commonality of male-female destiny as the
basis of stability, peace and development in society. Her insistence on keeping her marriage and
the court’s verdict also has serious implications for the ethnic conflict.
Given that the marriage between Shey Ghamogha and Mrs Ghamogha symbolizes the political
marriage of the two opposed ethnic groups that make up Kibaaka, the court’s verdict and Mrs
Ghamogha’s insistence to keep her marriage are significant as a resolution to the ethnic conflict
for, such a resolution visualizes the attainment of a new social-political- order based on unity
in diversity and partnership. Earlier in the play, Shey Ghamogha had declared that “Land is
power. If you give land to a woman [or to a ‘come no go’], you authorize her to share in the
power” (6). The court’s decision to restore Mrs Ghamogha’s land and by implication, her right
to property ownership does just that: authorizes her and her ‘come no go’ community to share
in the power. Land is a symbol of identity; of integration or of belonging. The Judgement
symbolizes victory for the heroine’s struggles to redress the gender and ethnic imbalance
14 Biafrais implies someone from Nigeria; Enemies dan la maison (Enemies in the house); traitres: traitors.
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within a (political) marriage/union. The verdict establishes a strong identity for the minority
‘come no go’ (or Anglophones) as an equal partner in the power equation in Kibaaka/Cameroon.
It rejects the usurpation of power and the despotic hegemony of any one ethnic group, while
advocating mutual respect, reconciliation and a process of working together for the
consolidation of unity between the two major linguistic/cultural communities that make up
Kibaaka/Cameroon. This compromise position is encoded both in Mrs Ghamogha’s
determination to release her husband from jail; to remain united in marriage in spite of
differences, and in the Judge’s counsel to the people of Kibaaka. The presiding judge calls for
peaceful coexistence and ‘unity in diversity’ from the people of Kibaaka. ‘....People of Kibaaka,
learn to love the Come no gos. Marriage is a family issue. You now have children who speak
different languages. Our differences should unite us more than they separate us. This is the
court’s ruling.’ (210). Like Anglophones and Francophones, the unity of the ‘come no go’ and
Kibaaka people had been plagued by a linguistic and cultural bias. The different languages
spoken by the children of Kibaaka are probably French and English. And what is implied in the
judge’s counsel is ‘unity in diversity’; a common slogan in Cameroon politics.
The overriding metaphor of an inter-tribal marriage on which the dramatic conflict is based
becomes a significant conduit for Lola’s quest for a viable relation between the sexes and
between the ethnic groups that constitute kibaaka/Cameroon. The final court judgement and
counsel simultaneously espouse gender equality and cultural syncretism in a unitary state. The
message that comes out of the court verdict is that of women/ethnic minority empowerment.
Lola conceives of marriage as a union of the two major linguistic groups that make up the nation
of Cameroon, such a union she seems to argue, should be constructed on mutual respect and
the provision of equal opportunities for all. In such a nation all will express their patriotism and
partake equally in building a viable nation devoid of gender marginalization or of the neo- colonial marginalization that some Anglophones claim is characteristic of the predominantly
francophone nation. The overriding significance of the marriage metaphor thus lies in its
espousal of gender equality, cultural syncretism and peaceful co-existence.
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