Revisiting Post-Independence Leadership in Alobwed’ Epie’s The Death Certificate

Most colonized African countries and Cameroon in particular took over the partial management of their political, economic and social affairs after independence from colonial rule. However, the persistent and continuous exploitation, oppression and suppression, added with the system of “divide and rule” witnessed during colonial rule destroyed the communal spirit of the traditional African society and substituted it with individualism. Thus a continuation of the legacy of dominance and inequality is witnessed way after the departure of the colonial masters. In Cameroon specifically, the transfer of leadership seemed to create another form of internal colonization as the leaders were simply perverted imitators of colonial values. In the process of amassing wealth and satisfying their selfish egos, state resources are drained, the rate of unemployment keeps increasing, paving the way to general unease amongst the unprivileged class. At the backdrop of Confucian principles of good governance, this paper examines the ways in which power is abused and misused by those of the ruling ethnic clan in fictional Ewawa, and how this results in a state of insufficient development and national inertia. It also looks into the possibilities of redress and avenues for change.