Cameroon: The Will for Change, Interview with Kah Walla (Audio) · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This page is part of our special coverage Cameroon Elections 2011.
Since the beginning of February it was rumoured on the internet that Cameroon would launch it's own Egypt-inspired protests on February 23, 2011. Once the Egyptian president fell, the call for demonstrations spread even more rapidly.
Among those who relayed and responded to the call, was Ms. Kah Walla, a candidate in the upcoming presidential election in Cameroon in October 2011. She is the founder of Cameroon Ô Bosso (Cameroon Let's Go), a civil society organisation that supports free and fair elections in the country.
Cameroon's President Paul Biya, has been in power for 28 years and is running for re-election later this year. His Special Intervention Brigade crushed the protest with force.
Kah Walla was among the protesters in the capital city Douala who were beaten on February 23.
Around 300 protesters showed up initially, but most fled when police began arresting people before they even got started. In the end they were less than 50 people.
At the end of this video of a protester's beating uploaded to YouTube by le cameroun libre, she can be seen facing a water cannon with her arms raised high.
The sequence of events that led to this confrontation is shown in this video uploaded by Cameroon Ô Bosso on YouTube. Protesters wore red shirts, and formed human chains at a busy intersection blocking traffic.
An email Kah Walla wrote about the events of the day was posted by Mougoué Mathias, a Cameroonian living in Milan, on a Facebook group called THE LARGEST CAMEROONIAN GROUP ON FACEBOOK!!
She writes:
Finally a big boss in civilian clothes shows up. He wants to “teach me a lesson” as he said. He asks that I be put on the median in the middle of the street. Then he turned the entire water cannon truck on for my personal benefit. Note my two fists up in a victory symbol under the water cannon. That’s the lesson I learnt. The power is within us. No amount of violence and hysteria can remove it.
The icing on the cake is that as we choked and burned from the chemicals on the water, they then asked us to climb onto their truck. As we climbed up, with our backs turned, they hit us with their clubs. The only feeling I had was sadness that those whom you and I’s taxes pay to protect us show such extreme cowardice and meanness. After climbing onto the truck they let us catch our breaths then set us free. What was the point of climbing onto the truck? Just so they could beat our backs? Sad.
Military was deployed in different parts of Douala. Photos appeared on Mboa Blog [fr] a Cameroonian web portal.
Kah Walla
Interview with Kah Walla
In the following interview, Kah Walla shares her thoughts on the political and social situation in Cameroon, and the possibility for an “Egypt Like” revolution. She says the protests that began on February 23 are the beginning of a political process which is headed in the right direction:
Although she thinks that Cameroonians have entered a new “process” the female politician doesn't think that the time for an “Egypt Like” revolution has come. Her movement mainly wanted to show through this action that people should and can demonstrate in spite of “huge repressive force”:
Africanews website also reports that other political figures were arrested, like Member of Parliament Jean Michel Nintcheu, Deputy of Douala.
Kah Walla further explains that she and her organisation are not calling for Paul Biya, President of Cameroon since 1982, to step down; but that they wish to foster a “systemic change” in the country:
According to the presidential candidate, in spite of the violence endured, in spite of arrests, many Cameroonians are more determined than ever to put an end to this system:
This page is part of our special coverage Cameroon Elections 2011.