10.4. Towards a change in the mentality for a new
conviviality
It is not unusual in our Cameroonian society to remark that
people are still discriminating between Anglophones and Francophones; that they
are still insisting on ethnological differences: Beti and
Bamileke; and even between religious differences: Muslims and Christians,
Catholics and Presbyterians. Not only do they insist on these differences, but
also do they use these differences to judge and classify people. This is a
situation that needs to be transcended. We need to consider, as stoic
philosophers used to affirm, that we are all citizens of the world and that the
universe is our fatherland. There is a need for a profound change in the
mentality in Africa and more especially in Cameroon where ethnic differences
are usually arguments for discrimination. As stoic philosophers used to affirm,
Man is a microcosm of a macrocosm. The world belongs to Man because Man is one
as the world is one. Differences exist but we do not need to insist on them to
judge people. People should be judged on their values and on their merits.
The examples of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who does
not have French but Hungary origins, Angela Merkel, the political leader in
Germany, Hellen Johnson, the political leader in Liberia and Barack Obama, an
afro-american elected to be the president of the United States of America, are
thought-provoking because they prove that our origins, our sex and our
specificities should not be an impediment to our
I Hubert Mono Ndjana, Beauté et vertu du
savoir, 8leçon inaugurale), Yaounde, I999, p. I39. The lesson is
then understood, that is, the need to escape from the western hegemony. Not in
all spontaneity and in all unconsciousness, but in all awareness: in order to
rebuild the lost identity of Africa and in this way, to bring it, in perfect
equilibrium, in all independence and in all sovereignty, into the civilization
of the third millennium.
intrinsic values. What makes a man is the values that he defends
and that can inspire fellow man positively.
The age of races, the age of families, the age of tribes has
passed. We need to build the earth through humanism and Teilhardian humanism
which places human value, considering man as a phenomenon, is very relevant for
today's world. There is therefore a need for a new form of conviviality, a
conviviality that does not found human relationships on profit but on human
value because man is an absolute value in the midst of economic, political and
other values.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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