For 93 days during February, March and April 2018, the entire North-African country of Cameroon found itself in the dark ages again when the internet was shutdown.
Hans Nglala, a CityVarsity journalism student from Cameroon drew this fact to the attention of his classmates after returning from ‘The Forum on Internet Freedom’, which was a meeting held in Ghana’s capital, Accra, in September. The meeting interrogated questions of safety for those who use the internet in Africa and the reduction of government censorship, which still impacts the freedom of expression of so many people in Africa, even today.
The three-month internet blackout had long lasting effects on the people of Cameroon as well as their ‘tech hub’ in Buea, known as ‘Silicon Mountain’. Other countries, especially the rest of the continent should be aware of the occurrence and exactly what this means for this African country
Ngala was one of 250 participants at the meeting in Accra. He believes it’s important for people to know what is going on in Cameroon as it’s an abuse on human rights. “The international community needs to be able to speak out on the behalf of the people who are suffering injustice at the hands of the ruthless dictator,” he said.
Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, has held the presidency since 1982 – 36 years and counting. Alleged election tampering has surrounded a few election processes, the most recent one in early October. He is one of the world’s longest serving elected leaders after the parliament revised the constitution to remove presidential term limitations in 2008. Biya is responsible for the nationwide shut down as he claims that social media was being used to spread false information and inciting members of the public to go against the government.
The shutting down of the internet is not the scariest thing to happen in the Cameroon. Many journalists are being threatened with jail time or even the death penalty for covering sensitive, political issues. The government doesn’t wish to be portrayed in a negative light, or any light at all, and will push boundaries to keep their image squeaky clean. An article posted on AllAfrica by Rosy Sadou, spoke about the fears Cameroonian journalists have: “the crackdown on the press largely reporting on the governments alleged laxity against the problems has left journalists too scared to cover such sensitive issues.”
The internet bandwidth in the Cameroon was reduced between 1-8 October 2018 and some telephone networks were even cut off. Ngala said he gets hold of people back home by using a network that was not cut off called NexXtel. The internet and telephone lines are running for now, which allows Cameroonians to return to social media. Upon which, they are one of the most vocal populations when it comes to demanding change from their leaders, according to Quartz Africa. Ngala explained that Cameroonians are living in constant fear of what they say, who can hear them and how little the rest of the world knows of their daily struggle.
By Jessica van den Heever
City Scribes 