Dissent: The Highest Stage of Patriotism

Wuteh Vakunta

Description

Dissent: The Highest Stage of Patriotism is a treatise on dissent as the acme of love for one's fatherland. Arguing against the grain, the author avoids smug patriotism; that which manages to make everything about the homeland flawless and beautiful. It is the author's conviction that the greatness of a nation resides not in citizens' blind sycophancy, but rather in their willingness to call into question dereliction of duty by political leadership. The goal of this book is to educate global citizens on the quintessence of political vigilance.

Sujets

• Political Science
• African
• World

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 10 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956553624
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Dissent: The Highest Stage of Patriotism
Peter Wuteh Vakunta
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net
Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com

ISBN-10: 9956-552-46-1 ISBN-13: 978-9956-552-46-7
© Peter Wuteh Vakunta 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher
About the Author
Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta is a Cameroonian-American who holds a Ph.D. in French Literature and Francophone Studies. He is a seasoned educator with over twenty-five years of teaching at K-16 level in Africa and the United States. At present, Dr. Vakunta is Professor of French Language and Operational Cultures at the United States’ Department of Defense Language Institute (DLIFLC) in California.
Professor Vakunta is author of several books in English French, Hausa, Cameroonian Pidgin English and Camfranglais. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Hausa, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Njiemeukohkeuh, and Camfranglais. During his leisure time, Dr. Vakunta loves to play soccer, the Xylophone and dance makossa.
Dedication
This book is a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Ambazonian Revolution in Cameroon.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Dissent as the Highest Stage of Patriotism
Chapter 2: Task of the Cameroonian Intellectual
Chapter 3: Autopsy of Royal Bushfallers
Chapter 4: On Gender and Patriarchy in Africa-
Chapter 5: The Trouble with Africa
Chapter 6: Folly of Incumbents
Chapter 7: A Nation at Risk
Chapter 8: From Dust to Snow
Chapter 9: Manufacturing the Illusion of Freedom
Chapter 10: ‘Aporia: Manichaean Stigmatization of Africa-
Chapter 11: Arrogance of Power
Chapter 12: Tyranny of the Majority
Chapter 13: Unraveling the Leadership Conundrum
Chapter 14: On Linguicide in Cameroon
Chapter 15: Pulse of the Post-colony
Chapter 16: Epilogue: Poems of Martyrdom
Works Cited:
Glossary:
“I cherish my country more than any you…But it is also true that the patriotic feeling which animates me is not exactly the same as the one whose shouts have upset my quiet existence… I have not learned to love my country with my eyes closed, my head bowed, and my mouth shut. I think that one can be useful to one’s country only if one sees it clearly; I believe that the age of blind love has passed, and that nowadays one owes one’s country the truth. I confess that I do not feel that smug patriotism, that lazy patriotism, which manages to make everything beautiful, which falls asleep on its illusions, and with which unfortunately many of our good souls are afflicted today.”
Peter Chaadayev, “Apology of a Madman,” 1837
Foreword
The term ‘dissent’ may be used with equal validity in portraying the ideas, writings and the activities of individuals who refuse to jump unto the bandwagon of praise-singers of all stripes. Three fundamental assumptions underlie this book. Firstly, an understanding of the past is relevant to any nation’s search for self-identity. Secondly, in acquiring this understanding, minority viewpoints are as important as the ideas of members of the dominant social classes whose ideas resulted in the formulation of national policies. Thirdly, to criticize one’s country is to do it a service and pay it a compliment. Simply put, dissent means opposition to the status quo (Giffin and Smith, 1971). There is no gainsaying the fact that dissent raises questions of patriotism and loyalty to one’s people and nation. Be it as it may, as J.W. Fulbright (1966) points out, to criticize one’s country is to do it a service. It is a service because it may spur the country to do better than it is doing; it is a compliment because it evidences a belief that the country can do better than it is doing. In a similar vein, Edward Said (1994) notes that whereas we are right to bewail the disappearance of a consensus on what constitutes objectivity, we are not, by the same token, completely adrift in self-indulgent subjectivity. Given the limitations of the human brain, no one can speak up on all the issues that plague a given society at a given time. However, it is our conviction that each one of us has a special patriotic mandate to address the constituted powers of one’s own society, which are accountable to its citizenry, especially when powers vested in elected representatives are exercised in a manifestly disproportionate and immoral fashion, or in a deliberate program of discrimination, marginalization, repression and collective cruelty.
The raison d’être of speaking truth to power, therefore, is mainly to project a better state of affairs— one that espouses a set of sane moral values, namely peace, love, reconciliation, abatement, patriotism and accountability. The purpose of dissent, therefore, is not to show how right one is but rather to endeavor to induce a change in the moral climate in a society where aggression passes for the norm, the unjust punishment of members of a society is aided and abetted, and the usurpation of fundamental human rights is glossed over with impunity. To back away or simply to toe the line in the face of such injustices is to be unpatriotic to say the least. Said lends his voice to this assertion when he notes that “Nothing is… more reprehensible than those habits of mind in the intellectual that induce avoidance, that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position which you know to be the one right one, but which you decide not to take”(p.100).
The reason some intellectuals sink that low is because they do not want to appear too political. Some are afraid of being controversial. Others are galvanized by thirst for gratification—their hope is to be on a board or prestigious committee, and to remain in the good books of the powers-that-be; someday they hope to get an honorary degree, a big prize, perhaps even a ministerial position. As far as we are concerned, for a genuine intellectual, these habits of minds are corrupting par excellence because they are lethal to the intellectual’s raison d’être. To borrow words from Said again, “If anything can denature, neutralize and finally kill a passionate intellectual life it is the internalization of such habits.”(101) Personally, I have encountered such intellectuals in one of the toughest of all contemporary post-colonial imbroglios—Cameroon, where the Anglophone Question has hobbled, blinkered, muzzled many intellectuals (Anglophone and Francophone alike) who know the truth and are in a position to serve it. In our opinion, despite the abuse and vilification that any outspoken supporter of the Ambazonian Revolution earns for him or herself, the truth deserves to be spoken, represented by an unafraid and compassionate intellectual. Yes, the voice of the intellectual is lonely, but it has resonance only because it associates itself freely with the reality of a movement, the aspirations of a people and the common pursuit of a shared ideal.
In sum, dissent is no Panglossian idealism. It is carefully weighing the alternatives, picking the right one, and then intelligently representing it where it can do the most good and occasion the right change. To attain this objective, the intellectual need not climb a mountain or mount a pulpit in a bid to declaim from the heights. The sensible thing to do is represent human justice in such a way as to influence persuasively. To abandon the defense of truth or to tolerate any tampering with any of its foundations is in effect to betray one’s intellectual calling. Lending his voice to our stance throughout this book is Saif (1994) who contends: “One of the shabbiest of all intellectual gambits is to pontificate about abuses in someone else’s society and to excuse exactly the same practices in one’s own.”(92) In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith. Like medication, the test of its efficacy lies not in its taste but in its effects. Ultimately, what matters is not how it makes people feel at the moment, but how it inspires them to act together for the betterment of the status quo. The genuine intellectual ought to be too confident to conform; too strong to be silent in the face of injustice and too decent to be cowed into submission. Dissent, in short, is more than a right. It is an act of patriotism, a higher form of patriotism than the familiar rituals of national adulation. Slowly but surely, our leaders are succumbing to the arrogance of power. In so doing, our nations have failed to live up to their capacities and promises. The measure of these failures is the measure of the patriot’s duty of dissent. The essays that constitute the kernel of this book lend credence to these assertions.
Chapter 1
Dissent as the Highest Stage of Patriotism
Quite a few people who pontificate on the dissonance between dissent and patriotism remain oblivious to the fact that these terms are actually complementary. It is a delusionary route to walk when people obstinately cling to the idea that any intellectual or scholar who takes his or her country to task is ipso facto placing him or herself in the camp of renegades. One of the most celebrated intellectuals of our time, Edward Said, argues in his seminal book titled Representations of the Intellectual (1994) that “One of the shabbiest of all intellectual gambits is to pontificate about abuses in someone else’s society and to excuse exactly the same practices in one’s own” (p.92). Cameroonian scholar Bernard Nsokika Fonlon in his seminal work, Genuine Intellectuals: Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities (2009) subscribes to Said’s worldview. Arguing along the same lines, celebrated