What on earth is happening to our own Massa Yo ? The debonaire and easy-going gentleman we have come to know is losing his cool and his semantics. A mere three months at the helm of a task force whose job is no more demanding than building a better mousetrap, our benign Mr. Owona has become pugnacious, spiteful and vindictive.
‘Journalisme de gribouille’ ? What would ‘ill-advised journalism’ be, pray tell me ? The official list of accepted shades of journalism in Cameroon includes ‘journalisme de caniveau ; une certaine presse ; journalisme ndolè ; journalisme de journaleux’, but not yet ‘journalisme de gribouille’. My take on this newly crafted expression is that this a classic example of a typo. What the good Mr. Owona actually meant is ‘journalisme de fripouilles’.
There is one sure thing about the business of name calling : the proverbial chicken will one day come home to roost. You call people names, they will eventually call you names. The good man’s foul mood towards us is baffling. As long and as far back as I can recollect, there is only one thing we have laid on Mr. Owona : love, heaps of love. How come this man hates us ?
The ‘journaleux’ crowd in Cameroon may not be as insightful and investigative-minded as one could desire. But, you better believe it, they have courage and some brains. That’s basically their only tool. The rest has to do with the single one occupation that defines Cameroonians : bricolage.
What do you expect after all in a country where everybody is a plumber, a gardener or a mechanic ? Why then wouldn’t everybody be a journalist or, perish the thought, a Civil Service mandarin ? We will monkey, we have to monkey, our way to information. Nobody cares to talk to us. Nobody will ever call you back to volunteer reliable information. The same high and mighty of the land, who would readily butt-kiss their way to France24 or RFI, loathe and despise us. ‘Bricolage’, I am sorry to say, is no exact science : some valuable info will always fall through the cracks.
Blaming us alone is unfair and certainly heavy-handed. If you do not help us in our reasonable quest for information, then you are part of the problem. While we pray that goodwill prevail on both sides and that the old benevolent Mr. Owona comes back to life during this coming year, we see it fit to remind the irascible men in power of the old Harry Truman’s advice : ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’.
