Arrested in Cameroon on December 6, 2017 for "contempt of association", then released and expelled to the United States on December 27 of the same year, Patrice Nganang believes that the regime in place in Cameroon will soon change.
The writer tells for the first time the conditions of his release in an interview with Jeune Afrique this Wednesday, January 3, 2018. Indeed, while his trial was to be held on January 19, 2018, he was tried on December 27, 2017 to the general surprise and the floor decided to relax him.
"I did not know anything until 9 pm [Tuesday, December 26], the day before the trial court hearing. Three men came to see me in the cell to inform me that my trial was advanced on December 27, the next day, at 8 o'clock. Two guards came to pick me up in the morning at 7:30 am, the courtroom was completely empty. The prosecutor dropped the charges without any discussion of the reasons for my presence, as if nothing had happened. It must be said that after my arrest there were support committees, petitions ... It was probably tricky to maintain the prosecution, "says Nganang.
According to the writer who also announces a book on the civil war in Cameroon, the publication of his travelogue on Jeune Afrique, in which he criticizes the management of the Anglophone crisis by the government, is the real reason for his arrest . " I am convinced of it. As soon as I arrived at the premises of the judicial police, the officers, whom I had never seen in my life and who had not given me the reasons for my arrest, called me all "Ambazonia". She is here, the real reason for my arrest . "
And to add: " This is not the whole of my" anti-Biya work ", but my stay and my account of what is happening in the English-speaking area. During my detention, the questions consisted only of knowing why I went there, with whom and those I met on the spot . "
The acts of contempt charged against Patrice Nganang were based on a Facebook publication in which the writer threatened to "give a ball exactly in the forehead" of President Paul Biya. He also called the wife of the president "wolowoss" (synonym of "prostitute" in camfranglais, slang Cameroonian). To the question of how he justifies these words today, Nganang answers:
" It was an indignant text, written after a trip to an English-speaking conflict zone, where soldiers are walking around in hoods, a region that lives under curfew, where the internet is cut off. where no information filters. Moreover, it must be made clear: this Facebook post has barely been touched during the audition. It was a text of humor, written in parallel with a narrative text on this trip and the management of the crisis .
Source : Cameroon-Info