Francis B. Nyamnjoh
A copyedited and copyrighted version of this paper was published in Citizenship Studies Vol.9(3):241-269, 2005
Call me back’ or ‘Kontri fashion go catch you’
‘You bring me wetti from Whiteman Kontri?”
Excerpts:
Whiteman Kontri as Nyongo
Bamenda Grassfielders abroad compare Whiteman Kontri to Nyongo and liken themselves to victims of Nyongo. It is common to call and ask to speak to someone and be told he or she ‘has gone to work Nyongo’, meaning that they have to offer devalued and highly exploited labour at factories, as cleaners, maids, security guards or prostitutes, sweating and toiling round the clock, just to make ends meet. I was first intrigued by this comparison among undocumented Grassfielders in Italy, and as I discussed further with others, I realised the comparison was indeed widespread. But Cameroonians also use Nyongo to capture the excessive demands for remittances and consumer items by people who are not always family or friends, and who do not care much about them as human beings.
This widely shared perception of Whiteman Kontri as Nyongo, was well brought out by Robert, an MA holder albeit unemployed Grassfielder married to a Dane (who was pregnant with their first child) and based in Copenhagen, where he works as a cleaner when he is lucky. In addition to his own predicament, he uses the example of toiling Ghanaian migrants whom Arhinful (2001), in a recent study in Amsterdam has observed, are always thinking of and sending remittances to relatives back home, regardless of their personal circumstance. In many an African country, Ghana for example, remittances far surpass what the state receives in foreign aid:
‘Call me back’ or ‘Kontri fashion go catch you’
Bamenda Grassfielders abroad are under enormous pressure from kin back home to succeed, with kin seeking consumer citizenship through them, as consumer zombies planted abroad like pipelines into the refineries and reservoirs of modern conveniences. As friends or acquaintances of those abroad, they tolerate no excuses, when they email, telephone, beep, SMS or write a letter claiming delayed remittances and consumer goodies, or even when they simply demand assistance with this or that urgent project back home. They are often very impatient and rushed in their approach, with a business-like demeanour that leaves little room for being pleasant or courteous. Most of the interviewees complained that communication from Cameroon was often ‘droit au but’ and at times outrightly disrespectful.
Nyongo Business and Western Union
Cameroonians back home are said to cook up impossible businesses or projects in their heads, with no idea whatsoever where the money is going to come from. Then they go around pestering relatives and friends abroad to provide them with fabulous, mind-boggling sums of money. And since they all believe in keeping up consumer appearances, everybody in Whiteman Kontri is considered rich enough to be approached as a source of resources. The appearance on the scene in the 1990s of instant electronic money transfer facilitators such as Western Union, has made otherwise ordinary folks drunk with expectations of money. Western Union has rapidly become a status symbol for the poor and most of those without bank accounts (the place to be seen receiving money), an aspiration and a dream, as those associated with it either as senders or receivers are highly regarded, admired and envied by others. University girls with multiple connections to ‘boyfriends’ and ‘fiancés’ abroad have tended to measure achievement and status through the corridors of Western Union agencies, and to display the money they collect in such provocative ways that only make their local male counterparts more determined to migrate to Whiteman Kontri as well.
The Cellphone
Cellphones are among the most coveted gifts, and every person interviewed expressed both amazement and frustration with relatives, friends and acquaintances competing to see who could extract the best cellphone from whom in Whiteman Kontri. I was related stories of family members or girlfriends who would claim their cellphones were either missing, stolen or bad, merely as a ploy to be sent new and latest models of popular and elite brands - the smaller the better. Some shared letters with me, containing requests for cellphones, which in certain cases were by people hardly in a position to pay for airtime units. While they may be other reasons for owning a cellphone and for their surging popularity in the Grassfields and among Cameroonians as a whole, one important reason is to be able to track down and hold zombies accountable for the money they earn and the material goods they accumulate in Whiteman Kontri.
….
Tensions over cellphones between husbands and wives in Cameroon are in certain cases worsened by the fact that children, relations and acquaintances abroad have tended to invest more in women than in men back home. Grassfield youth studying or working abroad are more likely to invite their mothers to visit than they are their fathers. For one thing, mothers are more amenable to lightening the burdens of zombiehood by keeping the house, cooking, babysitting and generally employing themselves creatively round the clock in the interest of their sons and daughters slaving away. They are least likely to be impatient or bored, and in some cases where ‘home village’ conjures images of infinite squabbles with husbands, co-wives and others, they are not in a hurry to return. Mothers therefore are more likely than fathers to be zombified in turn by zombified sons and daughters abroad.
White passports to Nyongo
If easy material comfort is possible only with and through Nyongo, more and more Bamenda Grassfielders are doing everything to place their zombies in Whiteman Kontri. This includes forging mercantilist relationships with whites, visible and invisible. Whites who venture into the Bamenda Grassfields and/or cultivate relationships with Grassfielders, soon realise what an astronomical price they have to pay to be recognised and accepted as acquaintances, collaborators, friends, loved ones, husbands or wives by Grassfielders, as they are made to battle with unfathomable craving for and expectations of fulfilment of the wildest consumer fantasies.
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Great article Professor, you taught me at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaounde in 1993. It is always a pleasure to read your articles especially for those of us leaving abroad, as they bring back memories coupled with a thoughtful sociological analysis.
Best regards.
Posted by: Henry Mbom | October 02, 2005 at 10:03 PM
You have come out with a wonderful paper prof. We need profs,like you who are hard working.
Come home then and build those whom you thought and they have the desire to learn but only in cameroon because of inadequate finances
THANKS
YOUR STUDENT EmmanuelNgang
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