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| Interview Valentine (28)
07-06-2013 DM650016 / Voice 008.3ga DM650016 Started with a discussion about his ‘anonymized name’. He decided it would be good to have a North West name and chose Neba Christopher as his name for my work. But his name is Valentine. Start of the interview at 1:23 Could you tell me your name, your age and where you are from? I’m Neba Christopher. I’m 28. I’m from North West. Where in North West are you from? Probably I’m from eh… Emengi Subdivision. I’m situated at Momo division in the North West region. You were born in a family. Your parents. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, I was born in a family of eight and we, I lost one of my sister. That was before I was born. Yeah, one of my elder sisters. So we are seven of us. My mother was separated from my father. So a single parent. So it was a single parent that brought us up. My mother. So I never got to be so much close to my father. I really missed a parental care from my father. Like if I may say. Since I was brought up by my mother and she was the one I took care of us, me and my brothers and my sisters, the rest of us. I’m the last. I’m the youngest. We are. I have three sisters and three other brothers. Four boys and three other girls. And a fourth girl, but she passed away. What happened to her? I never got to know her. That was before I was born. I think she is my eldest sister. That was about the fourth born of my mother. So I did not get to meet her if I’m the last. They told me about it that’s why I get to know. But I never met her, never saw her picture. Never even knew how she was? Your mother never kept anything of her? No, I don’t… it was long. I never get to. And actually I did not really grew up in our house. I grew up with different people. With whom did you grow up? First I grew up with a principal in my area where I was schooling. I grew up with him when I was around primary school. Let’s say in the late 1990’s up until my secondary school, when he went and transferred, but I did not go with him. I was refused that he should not take me along. He was transferred to Buea in the South West region. So I was left behind. He didn’t want you to come? He wanted me to go, but my mother refused. My mother said she will not want me to go out. At least, she has really missed me out of the time we were together up to the time where I was staying with him, with the principal. So I was, I was left behind. Voice 008.3ga Continued on voice recorder of phone due to battery. Sorry for that. The end of that one was about. I just want to recap for myself. When you were telling me about your mother didn’t want you to go to Buea, because she had spent already so little time with you, so she wanted you back. And you stayed with your cousin after that. Maybe you can tell me a little bit about how you came to Bamenda. When I left <…> where my parents were, where I wrote the ordinary level in the college. When I wrote my college exams, I left, I came to the North West. That’s when I came to the North West. Then my older brother, the first, my mother’s first child, yeah, he is a headmaster. So I came and met him. I was. I rented a place. We rented a place and I was schooling. I still continued schooling in a Presbyterian school. So from then I left and came to Bamenda. That was when I went to the village. I went and met him. I had my college certificate and I came to Bamenda, where I got my high school certificate. My advanced level. So since I came in town, I just been struggling how to schooling, you know, so since then I had my advanced level. I have been here in town. I haven’t gone to anywhere. I usually go to visit my parents. My mother. Come back. So since then, I have been here in town struggling to see if I could better of my life from the kind of jobs that I do. Yeah. So the kind of jobs you do, they enable you to continue your dream to travel abroad? How do you struggle? You have told me that you want to travel abroad to work and to study. To study theatre arts and music and to come back to start your own company to enable young talent to give a floor for their talent. And I asked you a little bit how do you struggle. Tell me a little bit about that struggle to reach that dream. For now, actually, you know I just have to look for a more lucrative job that can earn me a bit. At least a reasonable amount of money. Amounts of money that I can raise to so that, even if I had to, need the assistance of my family, at least I must have raised something reasonable. So that they can assist me in my flight ticket and the other requirements that I can have. So, the jobs that I have been looking for, it was unfortunate that and it’s very bad to hear that, we don’t really have those kind of lucrative jobs here in Bamenda. Especially whether you have a certificate or not, it’s very difficult, unless you must have gone maybe go have your masters and you go, you have luck and you work in a bank or you work were you can earn about a 100000 francs. So the jobs I usually had. I had a job that I was not paid. So I had to change. What kind of job was that? I was working in a bakery. I was working as a sales agent and a cassier. So I was working in a bakery. I was paid about 40000 francs a month. I could save. It is possible to save. It depends on how you do your management, you understand. But since I left, I have been struggling to see if I could work. I left their, I got another job as a manager of a night club. Yeah. I believe that was a good position and a good job that you can have a good salary. It was unfortunate that the place that I got the job, I did not receive payment after two months working there. I had to leave the place. Yeah, I left the place because I was not paid, so it was needless of me staying there and working at a deficit. I can not keep on marking. It was not my father’s business. Then I left there, I got struggling if I could work with Les Brasseries, a brewing industry. Since then I have been struggling until I finally get the job with Brasseries. I got the job just this January. So I have not been so old there. Immediate I got the job, we had to go on a vacation. They had to stop work nationally, that Brasseries workers should go on break and there was a situation they had to.. Was it like a strike? No it was not a strike. They just trying to do some rearrangements and readjustment in positions and some of the employers, like the managers want to do some readjustment in their positions. And I came back and since been there with Brasseries of Cameroun. Hoping that I could do some saving. So that before travelling out. I believe now that I have already, I done a first step by making a passport. The job at Les Brasseries is enabling you to save some money? Yeah, I believe that in Brasseries apart from any other expense, I believe that I can save at least 50000 francs a month. So if you see that I can work there for about one, two years, I will raise a lot of money. Which can enable me to travel out. Because if you can save 50000 francs a month and in six months, that should be around 500000 there. At least it’s lucrative somehow. It’s better than other ones. Do you like the job? Yes I like the job, because it is my kind. It deals with music and entertainment and beers. I believe I like it, because that’s my dream. I have always dreamt of being a megastar. I have always dreamt of being a musician. I have always dreamt of being an actor. I have always seen myself in… Why is that? Why do you want to become a megastar? Seriously, I believe that I lot of passion for it. Becoming a megastar is not really the point. The point is, I just love seeing myself on stage. I love singing. I just love to see myself. I have so much passion for music, that’s it. So much passion for acting. That’s me. When it comes to music and acting, I’m there. Here in Bamenda we’ve been struggling to have, organize clubs. Even like when I was in high school here in Bamenda, Longa Comprehensive college, I had a music club. I had children, students, fellow students and I was the president. Yeah, I used to organize shows. I bring them together and we see how we could develop talents, singing, you know dancing, drawing. Do stuff like that. I can tell you. If I can tell you. I really had populations. People were coming and we usually go on music competitions. So it was good. That was when I left the high school. Some of the students I learnt, I tried. Since then I have always dreamt of something like that. And because of that, since the nature of our country, our government does not really promote or does not really give much ehm income, does not put incomes into media, entertainment and movie industries. So, it’s very poor. And the music too is.. The music, the marketing, the music industry in Cameroon is not growing because there is no government support. There are many young talented youths here in Cameroon, in music, dancing, cultural activities, everything, they are very talented, in acting, everything. It’s just that we don’t have the criteria. We don’t have that ability to expose. Yeah, to expose to western marketing and international. So that’s why we see, you see, we are kind of backwards in such things. And our system of operating, we have, Cameroon is a bilingual. In the sense that we have two dialects. The French speaking Cameroonians and English speaking Cameroonians. But, it is often that, eh, it is just that the Cameroonians, the French Cameroonians are dominating, they are the majority. So they are dominating the minority, the Anglophones. So, most of the things that, most of the opportunities that comes, it is usually the Francophones, that usually get all of the ideas. And since we have that barrier in language, so you see that there’s a discrimination. The Francophones they don’t get what we say in English. And some of the Anglophones get what... It’s not everybody that speaks French and it’s not everybody that speaks English. So you see there’s a problem. That is one of the most hindrances. Yeah, in the music industry and the movie industry. Not only that. As a whole, we don’t have such opportunities like other countries. If you look like Nigeria. The whole of Nigeria. Nigeria is kind of two times bigger, three times even in population. It’s bigger than Cameroon. Since it is English speaking country. Even though they have their tribal discrimination, but I can tell you that Nigeria has more opportunities in social gatherings in other countries more than us. Because, just that fact that we are divided in language, French and English speaking. How does the division in language give you less opportunities in the world? The French are the mino.. majority. So they dominate us, the Anglophones. We have a lot of problems in that, because most of the opportunities, even at times to even get jobs is very difficult. So you see that most of the top jobs it is mostly the Francophones that owns is. Also the top jobs in Bamenda? Most, even, presently, yeah, I can just tell you that most of the top jobs in Bamenda also, they are the French people that are sitting on it. If you go there, if you can not speak French, then it’s left to you. They don’t care whether you speak French or not. When you go there they attend to you in French. They don’t care. So if you are unable to speak French, you lost the job. And apart from that, the French people have their ways of living. What is the difference? Well, they are kind of… they are proud. In the way that, they look at the Anglophones very inferior, you understand. That is it. You see that there is a lot of, even when they come here, they look at the Anglophones very intimidating. Why do you feel that? It is not the way I feel. It is what is clear. Everybody knows it. How is it clear? What does it become clear from? The treatment. When you go, you feel. It might affect you, because you are not a Cameroonian, you are white, so they will like to give you that treatment. That the French treatment. I’m talking, there is lot of, like for example, even in jobs, tribalism yeah is a problem. Like there is this musician that is from Tschang. They call him Lapiro Debanga. He say that if you do not behave Mfundu, it’s a name from the Central Region. If they don’t realize that you are a French person, they don’t give you jobs. They treat you.. you see that it can not really go. That is one of the most hindrance that we have. Even if it is a blessing that we have two languages in Cameroon. I think it is a problem. Is it a language problem or is it bigger? Well it is something really bigger. Because apart from the language it is left to the President to put laws, to enact laws that can benefit all the Cameroonians. If you are a president of the country and you believe that you can enact a law that will benefit all the people. Because even the president himself can not speak English very well. He knows about two or three sentences in English, that is all. He can not really express himself in English. But you call yourself a president of a bilingual country. If you look at Canada, I believe I can tell you that Canada, which is a bilingual country also, their president can speak French very well and can speak English very well. That is to show that he has all the citizens at heart, you understand. So, the laws that he enacted, it is not the language really. The problem is the government? What is the effect of all this on Anglophone Cameroon? Well, the effect on the Anglophone side in Cameroon is that our standards of living is not as comparable of that of the Francophones. We don’t really feel the treatment, we don’t feel the preferential treatment like the Francophones. If you look at establishment. If you look at regional development. Regional development is inbalanced. If you look at the roads in Bamenda and you look at the roads in Yaoundé. You see that they are two different situations. If you look at the road in French areas, it’s not as, you can not compare it to the regions, to that. It is just of recent that international bodies came in and give assistance in some of these things. In building up infrastructural development in some of these areas in Cameroon. If you look, there was a time that some certain industry that wanted to open in Bamenda. The president preferred to open either in Douala or Yaoundé, restricting development here. At first, government revenue was not circulating in Bamenda. Even at the moment it is not really circulating. If you look at the new measure government offices in Bamenda, most of the businesses, most of the offices that are here is business enterprises. Individuals. You cannot really see a government structure here. You can not really see a good government structure. You want to see, you see but the private business structure. So that is just to tell you that the government does not do much in the Anglophone section. So that is about what it does to the environment. What does it do to the Anglophone people themselves? What does it do to you as an Anglophone. How does it affect you? Well, to me it affects me, because I believe that with a certain level of education, even though I know I have not really acquired much. But I believe with the ones that I have acquired I can boost of having a good job. If you look, there is a lot of unemployment. Most of the students they go to the university, go and graduate. That was even one of the most things that made me not to even to struggle to go to the university, because if you look at the Anglophone section most of the jobs that is more suitable and preferable that the government always grant to them is concours. Concours in teaching. Concours in military. That is the true best work that you can see most Anglophones do. I believe here in Bamenda you will get to see and you will get to know. Like now after, this is just the season that they are writing high school examination, national examination. Understand. You see that after this you will see students who will be going to classes to write INS and concours for teaching training college. And later on you will see how concours in either gendarmes in military, will be coming out. You can not have anything more than that. Seriously, you can not see engineering students. You can not see. And then another one is in nursing. Those are the three jobs that you see. A child who to the university, go and study anthropology, go and study literature. Since it’s frustration, you can not do the inset to go and do teaching. You force not to go and study medicine, to go and do nursing. Just because you have to earn a living. You see how the situation is very crucial. And that is why you see, it is affecting most of the people. Because if you don’t have that anxiety, I believe that there are works, there are professions, that are just like calls. A teaching work is a call. Understand. So if you don’t have that call, you do it because you want to survive. You cannot really give the children what they really need. A doctor work or a nurse work is a call, because you have to be patient with the patient. You have to be patient and you have to sacrifice. So you see that when students come out of school, they don’t know what to do, they don’t have job, you go and have your first degree in literature and you can’t find, there is no work. You see how frustrating it becomes. There are no openings where you can… For example, if the government could promote arts. Where you go and study literature and come and have a better job. You enter into acting, you have a good salary. You see that, the situation would very.. it would reduce the stress. When you go like that, when you study from the university. Most of the bike riders you see here, most of them are first degree holders. Many of them. It’s because of frustration. There is no work. You can not sit with your certificate at home and expect that that certificate will give you food. It’s impossible. You just have to look for something else and do. Seriously, that’s why you see most of them they have to take into bike riding. They ride bike to earn a living, to see how they can better their life. I look at the way the Cameroonians are living, are going out. Those that are out, can not even come to invest. If you come to invest, there is a lot of high tax. If you look at the small business man will struggle to establish a business, only the tax they will ask for that business. The carpenter, the money that you get at the end of the month is not up to the money that you have to pay to the government for tax. You see the tax rate is too high. That’s why you see, business places are much. If you look at the bars. The bars is too much. But the taxes are high. Yes, even the import duty taxes are high. For example you can not import such cars. You import some kind of cars, only custom duty will make you to come and sell a car very high. That’s why you see some people cannot afford a car. Only when you import it, you can buy car at a cheaper rate and then you come and only the import duties will cause you to increase the price of the car. That is where we have a problem of tax. Tax payment in Cameroon is too much. And there is unemployment, which is killing most of the young Cameroonians. Meanwhile, if you look at the people in Yaoundé, they have more than three positions. One person is taking salary for about five positions that he has. One person is a minister of this, at the same time he is a director of this, at the same time he’s a principal of this school, and a delegate of this. So you see. But meanwhile there are people who are unemployed, but one person is getting about five jobs. Because of tribalism. Francophones are getting jobs more easy than Anglophones? Yes, they are getting jobs more easy. If you look at presently here in Bamenda, you see most of the people, most of the Francophones are coming into Bamenda to study English. Because they want to overtake the Anglophones in every situations. They want to overtake the Anglophones in every aspect. If a position comes in French, an opportunity from Europe or America or any other European country comes in French, they are the ones to gain, if it comes English, they will be the ones to gain. That is why they are mostly coming. It’s just that some of us, the Anglophones, we are stupid in such a way that we can not also have the ability, they don’t want to put the interest in studying French. That is why you see, if any opportunity comes from any European, American country, it means that it is a French person… they have the advantages. That is why they are learning, they are sending their children into Bamenda, into the Anglophone section, to come and study English. So that they also have the opportunity, when it comes to French, so that they will be more bilingual. In French they can express themselves, in English they can express themselves. And they will have everything. So the Anglophones will just be like a servant to the Francophones. You’ve seen na. How do the Anglophones respond to this? Well, the Anglophones they don’t really. If I may see, they only like to grumble and stay, they don’t put into action. Because I believe that if you can go on, they can go out for a strike. I believe that the government, even the foreign countries, can give in assistance, they can give into situations. When you grumble and stay, like I was telling you, they like to drink. When they drink like that, they forget their sorrows. And that is why you see the government always promote beer, promote the rate at which Cameroonians drink. He does not increase the prices of beer, because he wants the Cameroonians to drink and forget their sorrow. And that is what is causing Cameroonians not to, when they eat, they don’t care, they only care about tomorrow. They only care about the present. It’s not everybody that cares about tomorrow. There are people that they just only care about themselves. They just only care about what they are going to eat, the concern for the day. So that is it. So they are forgetting about their sorrows with alcohol. Are there any other ways? It’s just that they’re not united. If Cameroonians were united, especially the Anglophones. The Anglophones particularly are not united. I believe that there could have been a change. Why are they not united? I don’t know. There is so much tribalism. Also among the Anglophones? There’s a lot of discrimination. Different villages. For example, North West in particular supposed to have one language as a Northwestener. But I can tell you, the North West has about fifty something languages. If they were having just one language, at least language alone brings into unity. And it brings into one decision. But since there is Bafut, Mankon, Nkwen, this Bamenda there are two different villages: Mankon and Bamenda. Presently we are in Mankon. Then there’s Nkwen, there’s Bambili, there’s Ndop, Ndop speak their own language. If there was that unity, I believe that that language alone could have been a very big help to unite them. But since we still have discrimination. If the Anglophones are united, they can make this country still change at least for their best. Since they don’t have any… everybody is contented with what he or she has. They are not really contented, but what are they going to.. they don’t have anything to do. Since the government are using strategy to surpress them. Like there was a time, just that they gave up, there was a time that they had a strike here in Bamenda. Bamende used to have strikes. It’s just that when they had strikes, people lost their lives. They just gave up. They gave up. Because there was a time there was a strike here in Bamenda, the people here really strike against the government. The government had to send military to kill them, kill some of them. It has just made them not to strike again. The just accepted the fate, that if this is what God wants for them. It is not that they are really contented. Nobody is really happy with the situation of the country. You go to buy, it’s expensive. But if you don’t buy, what are you going to do. You have to starve. The government does not care. If it is a country where the government really have the masses at heart, I believe things would not be the way it is. But since the government is not, that is why the situation here is critical. You just briefly mentioned God, saying that people just rest.. When it comes to. Let’s first go back to you, are you a Christian? Yes, I attend the Presbyterian church. My parents are Presbyterians, so I was grown up in the Presbyterian doctrine. And you go to church often? Yeah I go to church often. How many times? Well, most of the Sundays. Because due to my schedule I mostly go, but for Sunday service. Because the other evenings you are working? And what does your faith do for you? Well first of all, my faith helps me a lot, because I believe that when you go to church and you hear a sermon, it might be stressful or you might have sinned in one or two ways. You go and get the word of God or some prayers. It helps you. It reduces the stress. It kills some kind of evil spirit that is growing in you. It really helps. It makes you to be strong. By the way, the Bible also gives us, makes us to have hope. In every aspect no matter what. Because it also teaches us that no matter how many times you fall, you can still get up and succeed in life. At least those quote like that, consoles us and gives us the courage to forge ahead. For you is church an important aspect of your life? Very important. It’s very important in the sense that it, like I said, with the Word of God in you, I believe that you can surpass many things, you can withstand a lot of temptations, you can withstand a lot of troubles, it can help you with prayers especially. Because it fills you in and then it gives you the spirit, it gives you the motivation to forge ahead. Yeah, so I believe that the church helps me, because it makes you to socialize in a godly way. And that’s that. You meet people. At times you make sure you meet another person that you express yourself and then the person might then help you. That is your brother in Christ now, or your sister in Christ. That brotherly, or that Godly relation between you and a brother or between you and a sister, make sure to share ideas. Even not help, it make sure to share ideas. Maybe you sit next to somebody, whom you don’t know that you can help that person or that person can help you. Help you in which sense? For example, if you are sick. There was a brother who lost his house, he lost his things, when his house got burnt. The church helped him. They put an offering for him. People gave him some gifts. I believe that that was a very big help from the church. It makes you to stand on your feet again. That was a very big step taken by the church. At times you might be sick and you don’t have any money. You go to the pastor. Since you are a member of the church they can contribute money and treat you. That is another way that the church helps. So the church is a religious gathering that brings people to be close spiritually and to know the word of God and to implement the word of God in their daily life. So you see that it is very important. So what do you think of these new churches that are now everywhere in Bamenda? I understand about the Pentecostal churches. I know of it and you know even though we have all victims in it, like attending to them at times… From the beginning the churches that was implemented, that was there right from the start. We had the catholic church. Even which I studied also in history. We had the catholic church, where Maarten Luther left and implemented the Presbyterian church. So after the Presbyterian church, there was the Baptist church. These were the most important churches, right from the beginning. So but due to civilization, industrialization... I must say most of these churches have come in the sense of industrialization. What do you mean with that Well I’m saying so because… I’m seeing like it’s a means of raising money for themselves, because if you look at… I’ve attended most of these churches and you attend a Pentecostal church, and someone will tell you that you should not go to a Presbyterian, Catholic or Baptist church. That they are not a good church. Which reason do they give you? They say that they don’t give you a good doctrine. And that is already a very bad omen for them because the Bible says Thou shalt not judge, but already they are judging. They make you to understand that there is no God in the Presbyterian church or in the Catholic church. That’s what they make you to understand. And so, I don’t see that like anything. I believe that God is everywhere and moves and he is in the heart of every man, no matter where you are. So I used to ask myself, so they usually condemns the Presbyterian and catholic church, that everyone in those churches die and go to hellfire. Because I know that there are righteous people in the Presbyterian and the catholic church. There are many righteous people. I don’t know why they condemn like that. I believe that when you have your faith, it’s not the action, it’s not the way you boast around, it’s not what you do. I believe that the faith that you have in you, it’s only you and God that knows. So whatever they do, it does not affect me in any way, because I can never change my church to go to a Pentecostal church, because there is God there. They mostly preach aobut success success success, they never really tell you about the things that affects you in life. They always say that in this time you shall succeed in life. God created you not to be poor. God created you to be reach, so you are rich in Jesus name. So most people now have that notion in their head, since this church is coming up they always talk about, they look at the society, they know the problems the society is facing. The society is facing unmarried couples, which they are looking for marriage, unemployment, good job, success and a comfortable lifestyle. So they use that as a witness to capture the people. They preach mostly on that. And it comes again with signs and wonders. We don’t know. Even Jesus Christ said that many prophets will come in his name, so I believe that this is the time, this is the era of what Jesus Christ was saying about, three thousand years ago. Why did you go to the Pentecostal churches? I was invited. There are times that he invites you, invites you, invites you, you say no, let me just go. There are some of them that are really good, but not all. Who invited you? A friend. A friend. At times some of the pastors invite us. Where do you meet these pastors? On the street. At times you might meet on occasions or in a situation, we might meet in a situation. Or they just happen to… at times they walk with flyers and stuff like that. So you say that there are good ones and not so good ones, what do you mean with that? Yes, some of the ones that I have attended, I believe that you can really feel… Which churches are that? I’ve attended. You see like, most of the Pentecostal churches, I have attended Apostolic, I’ve gone to Full Gospel, I’ve gone to Deeper Life. I remember the first time I went to Deeper Life. Kai! My grandmother nearly slaughtered me. Seriously, my grandmother said what am I going to do in that church. What is wrong with me. Stuff like that. There was even a time that a pastor in that Deeper Life, when I visit my parents, because I also lost my grandmother in 2003. That was a very long time ago when she was alive, when I was still young, I was about 13, 14 years old. So she said ‘what are you going to do in that…’ My grandmother had, my grandmother was a person that really doctrine us, she really fought for us to live a Christian life. Every Sunday she made sure that we go to church. At first now, I don’t see there was a day that I absent church, now there are some days I don’t go to church, but at first.. I grew up with that life of Christian background. My grandmother in particular was very instrumental to us. She really assisted us. How did she do that? She assisted us with good home training. She taught us a lot of things, to be good to strangers. My grandmother and my mother they are very good seriously, because they are very open to everybody. They like to help. That’s why I believe that I got that spirit. They made us to be open to strangers and to give to those who don’t have. I remember the first time I stole from, seriously, I wanted to go to school and I had nothing. I stole 100 francs from my mother’s purse. And I went to school and when I ate it, when I came back that day, I was seriously beaten with firewood. So since that day I stopped stealing, I resign, I said I will never… that was, 100 francs is nothing, but just that interrogation, that answer it was not easy. That is to show that stealing is a bad thing, but when it comes to help, it’s better for us to sleep on the floor and a stranger sleeps on a bed. From my mother. So I wonder, why did you decide when you were 12 or 13 to go to Deeper Life? I was invited. Our neighbour, she really insisted that I should go to their church. She was the one that even took me. We went together. Ha! We went to church and they never saw me in church. And when they came back and asked me… I said I went to Deeper. O God! What happened? My grandmother nearly hit me. I ran. She was very angry. That she never wanted to see me in that church again. That what’s wrong with our church. There is no God in our church, that I go to another church? That that is not how things are supposed to look like and supposed to be. She does not ever want to see me again in that church. You know what she had against the church? It was nothing personal, she just wanted us to have a doctrine of the Presbyterian church. Even though she does not really, you know, they say what an old man sit down and see, a young man cannot climb in the tallest tree and see, so. They have that impression, they have been on this earth before us. They have experienced a lot of things in life. So at least I believe that whatever the thing they’re saying is… I must say I’m very happy the way my grandmother and my mother trained me up, brought us up. Because all of us we are very cool and kind. Very open and yeah, that’s it. They really appreciate seriously, because it’s not easy. You know to have a good lifestyle, to live in this society is very important than somebody who does not have a home training, who lacks home training. It’s very good. Seriously, I’m feeling the impact. When you’re happy, you don’t have any problem. But when you’re stressful, you snob at people and you look at people somehow. It’s not the best way. Me in particular, I’m very open, very socializing when it comes to social life style. I’m very open to everyone. I make a lot of friends. Yeah. And you trace that back to your Presbyterian upbringing? Yeah. You know we used to have, we used to belong to a group. In the Presbyterian church there is a group that you start from small. It teaches moral upbringing in Sunday School. You come from Sunday School, you graduated to YP, as you’re growing up you go from YP to CYA. Those are social groups in church. Those are social groups. When you graduate from CYF, when you’ve become a man, so you can divert to CMF or to CWF if you’re a woman. CMF is Christian Men Fellowship, then CWF is Christian Women Fellowship, then the CYF is Christian Youth Fellowship, YP is Young Presbyterians. Then Sunday School is Sunday School. I grew up to CYF. Are you still a member? I’m not a member again, because I don’t have the time again. They usually have weekly meetings where you practice songs, you go to rallies, you go into competition with other churches. But you know about the Presbyterian church here right? Stuff like that, they go, sing, dancing, drama. It was very good, you know, there is life in church, Presbyterian church in particular, so I don’t know why these Pentecostals come in and start criticizing churches. When they make like that, many people, I have even witnessed from my own cousin, he diverted from Presbyterian church to the Apostolic church. Many people have diverted. They change their faith because of what the Pentecostal say that there is no God, and that you stop. They’re preaching. There’s a lot of word in convincing somebody. So that’s it. So many people diverted from the Presbyterian, from the Catholic, to the Pentecostal. Why do you think so many people get converted? People convert because of what the Pentecostal preach. Of what they preach. They preach about, like what I told you, about marriage, about success. So many people like to hear that. People cannot wait. They don’t wait for God’s time. You see, even when they go there, there is no change. Because you keep hearing one and the same thing, you have to give your tithe, you pay your tithe. You have to pay your tithe, so that God can bless you. You come and give one tenth of what God gave you. God will bless you. It’s just as if it’s only in that church that God is going to bless you. God cannot bless you. I cannot say you a lie. They say the Lord works in mysterious way. I’m very good in such things, because I believe that God has really blessed me with my own wisdom I have and my own little research that I have done. Even the devil, God answers their prayers. Because if a thief sits down and pray, I’m praying that when I’m going out to steal, I will come out successfully. When he prays wholeheartedly, God will answer that prayer. God is a mysterious creator. He works in a mysterious way. God create with signs and wonders. It’s all left for the individuals. It depends on how you approach God. If you approach God sincerely, God will answer you, he will grant your wish. God grant wishes to everybody. That is what I know. And I believe that’s what, because if you, I used read the bible at times. I used to come across many things. If you look at the life of, there is this situation where you pray, you’re not concentrating on your prayer. God can never answer you, you understand? But if you pray and concentrate. Especially quiet moments. The best time to pray is when you, if you are in this sitting room right now, you see the way places are quiet and you’re just sitting alone and you’re concentrating. You concentrate in such a way that you feel like you have forgotten yourself. You pray and you open your heart to God. God answers you very well. God will hear your prayers. Everything is commitment, if you commit yourself to God he will answer you. I have not seen any way that God will not answer your prayers. So you don’t have to go the Pentecostal church? You must not go to the Pentecostal before God answer your prayers. So you want to tell me that those who are in the Presbyterian, or the Catholics or the Baptists, God does not answer their prayers. Why? My parents were there, and they lived a Christian life. So why should I not? They are not bad. I believe that they has a very good religious background, so that’s why I have to be there also. If they invite me, when they have events, and they invite me, I go. Why do you still go? I go because, I just feel like. They disturb a lot. Going there does not mean that you’ve changed your faith. You have a certain idea of Pentecostal churches and I was wondering why do you still go there? There are some churches that I, they are not really that bad, that they don’t judge. If you look at prophet T.B. Joshua. If you go there he heals you and tell you, don’t change your faith, but all what you have to do is to be clean and be faithful to God. That is it. You must not change. Why should you change your faith? You must not become a member. When you go there, he heals you, he asks you which faith, he will tell you go back to your church and live a righteous life. You must not go there. This Pentecostal church, you pray with them, they will always look for a way to keep you. At times you go to a church and they give you a form to fill. You fill it and they ask if you like to come and remain. I say, no I will not remain. You see, those are the kind of things that make you to, they make you to change your faith. At times you might feel very intimidated to answer no. You just answer yes. You can still decide not to go. Some people might feel very.. to say no. This is a house of God, I don’t want to hurt these people, so let me say yes. As you put that yes like that, then they will call you to ask what is wrong, why are you not coming. There is this friend of my cousin. I can show you my phone here, how many messages he has been sending for me to attend his services every Sunday evening. He send a message to me every Sunday evening to attend services. But it’s not all the times that I go. At times he says there is thanksgiving This is one. And he is sending it from his personal phone. What is he saying? ‘You are invited to attend our thanksgiving service tomorrow at 4 pm. Ready for another prophetic encounter. God will crown your month with happiness. John Mark.’ Which church is he from? He just opened his church. So he’s still looking for members? Actually he says it’s not a church, it’s an outreach. Second text. God says it’s our season of great and mighty things. Do not miss out the anoint… oh, even the spelling is very bad, anointing for greatness service tomorrow at 4 pm. This is another one. He sent you many he. Sickness and diseases are oppressions of the devil. Isaiah 33:24. Join me tomorrow at 7.30 am. In the morning, it’s healing from heaven. How do you know him? You believe God has a better plan for you? I believe that anything that is happening in my life, it’s God that is directing me towards my destiny. Because there are some certain things that I’m trying to force, it’s not going. When I try to do, when I try to force on it, I see that I instead fail. So I just say, let God take his way in my life. You have anything to add to the interview? Well, I don’t think that there’s something much to say, but I just believe that I, I hope, that what I said is ok and… seriously, I just hope that it is fine. It can help. No, it helps, because it’s good to know opinions of people and to hear stories of people. It will help me to get to know Cameroonians better. Well, Cameroonians are good people, seriously, if it is that. I know that especially, in their home, they’re homely. They are very welcoming. Yeah, they are very welcoming. It’s just some kind of criteria, some kind of things that every individual got his own character. That is maybe your upbringing from your house, maybe because I can not tell you a lie. There are people they miss their parental guidance. And a lot of people here in Cameroon, in Bamenda in particular, they struggle for themselves. There are people who work and sponsor themselves in school here. It’s not easy. They will say, if you can see like here in North West. You can see a woman or a man, he’s selling his cup of groundnuts besides the road. But if you tell that that woman to send his child, or that man struggles to send his child into university. The North West people have a lot of passion for their education, their children. Everybody is struggling to send his or her child to school. It’s just that when you struggle like that, you come and meet your old mother in the house. There is no job. You see that is frustrating. And it causes some parents not to even bring their children to school. Come and walk. They learn their children to trade. If you go to garages you see young children learning a trade, learning mechanics. A child of about 12 years is learning in trade or mechanic. Go to the carpenters’ department, you see a child learning how to do furnitures. You see, that is frustrating. If you look at the child abuse in Cameroon, in Bamenda. You’ve seen young children walking with kilo’s, with scales. Taking people’s weight for payment. Hawking around. Very young children, that you don’t know how their fate lies. They can even pass a wrong and a vehicle hit them. So you see, life is not easy. Cameroonians are struggling. The North West people are struggling for a better future. We are all praying that maybe God will come and descend and give us a good president. Because everybody is feared out with, you know at times when you talk about the president… . Why they are fed up. We need a new president with new ideas. We believe that God will give us a president that is going to make this country to. Because, I cannot tell you a lie, Cameroon is blessed with resources. Cameroon is a country that has good natural resources. Cameroon has not less, more than 10% crude oil. Cameroon has. Cameroon has resources they have not yet started exploiting it. Cameroon is Africa in miniature. There is gold, there’s diamond, there is aluminum. There is everything that you can find in any African country, you find it in Cameroon. Cameroon is blessed. There’s just some few individuals that are taking the money and sit on it. People embezzle. One person has account of how many billions. That a whole generation can eat for more than 50 years and it will not get finished. Person is embezzling 80 billion, 50 billion, 120 billion. State money. You’ve understood now. That is it. There’s money. People have jobs, more than one job for themselves, earning how many salaries for themselves? A teacher is teaching, you take your flight and you go out, your salary is still passing, but you’re in Europe. You employ somebody to teach on your behalf. Your salary is passing. You’ve seen all those kind of things, but there are people who are unemployed. There are teachers who are there struggling, having pity… They don’t have any better salary. It’s not easy. Seriously. So, that is it. Yeah, we’re just praying that maybe God, it’s only God that’s going to intervene. That’s why you see many people are taking into prayers now. Handling it into God’s hand. That let God come and decide their fate. That’s it, how the country is. The top jobs are for the people that they’re always on top. While the remaining jobs are for those that are supposed to manage. I told you na. There are only three jobs that you can proud, you want to see somebody I’m a nurse, I want to write a nurse concours, gendarme or military concours and teaching. That’s it. I want to thank you for the interview, Valentine. Thank you for your time. Download 60.96 Kb. Share with your friends:
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