Cameroon’s real ethnic split: the privileged versus the people, says Jean Claude Mbede

Journalist Jean Claude Mbede, based in Italy, offers a firsthand look at the realities of tribalism in Cameroon.

Here is his account:

Stories of Tribalism – Cameroon #1

I have decided to start sharing true stories about tribalism, a phenomenon that sometimes hides in plain sight, dressed in the robes of intellectualism and privilege. Let me tell you a story that exposes the great hypocrisy of our society.

Recently, I was talking with a “friend” from the Grand North. She holds degrees from ESSTIC and IRIC—two prestigious schools whose admission keys are well known in Cameroon. She is the daughter of a customs officer, a highly privileged sector. She is not the brightest in the country, yet she passed both competitive exams that many PhD holders fail every year. In my own family, no one has had the privilege of entering one of these institutions since independence.

In the middle of our conversation, she gave me the classic line: “The country is tough except for the Betis, who control everything and only succeed among themselves.” The cynicism peaked when she added that my 20 years of exile were due to “pride.” According to her, all I had to do was “ask for forgiveness” from my Beti brothers to live well in Cameroon.

“Forgiveness for what crime? What fault?” I asked her.

When our Beti brother Martinez Zogo begged his torturers—funded by elites from all sides—did they show any mercy? In the team that cowardly murdered him, was there only one ethnic group? No. Crime and corruption have no tribe.

Reminding her that she has benefited from this system far more than most young Betis or people from other regions changed nothing. With a single sentence, she trivialized 20 years of exile, pain, loneliness, and struggle with insulting lightness.

My reaction was radical: I blocked her. I have zero tolerance for tribalists, especially the privileged ones.

Get this into your heads:

In Cameroon, there are really only two ethnic groups:

1. Those who have the keys to the system—who place their children at IRIC, ESSTIC, ENAM, or EMIA through elite connections.
2. The rest of us—children of resourceful mothers, women who farm the land, who had to sell unchilled water on the streets just to survive.

The real divide is not regional; it is social. Do not let yourselves be distracted any longer by those who benefit from the system while mourning marginalization.

I got rid of her because privileged tribalism is the most dangerous kind.

Jean Claude Mbede Fouda