. Article wriitten by Julius Nyamkimah Fondong (left) who works with United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti
The last two decades has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the number of Cameroonians migrating to various North American, European, and quite recently, Asian countries, in search of greener pastures. The favorite destination remains the United States. The number of Cameroonian immigrants in the US is estimated at anything between 30,000 and 300,000. The exact figure may never be known given the high numbers of undocumented immigrants who have streamed in over the last decade and the half.
This sudden influx of Cameroonians in the US has engendered a new socio-psychological and generational phenomenon which can aptly be called the America Wanda Bush faller Dialectic
But who are the America Wandas and who are the bushfallers? What are their most common or divergent characteristics?
I’ll begin with the America Wandas.
The expression “America Wanda” is borrowed from the performance song of a well known West Cameroon trickster, who before the start of his so-called magical performances would elicit the curiosity of the crowd with the song: Come and see America Wanda/ who no know America Wanda.
Over time the expression was commonly used to refer to the first set of post-reunification young Anglophone Cameroonians to migrate to the US. They were generally high school grads, junior civil servants or intermediate staff of state corporations and/or private sector enterprises who migrated to the US principally to study.
Their intentions, avowed or unavowed, were to return to Cameroon after their studies and assume leadership and technocratic positions within the civil service or in the private sector. Unfortunately by the time the bulk of them were completing their studies in the mid 1980s, Cameroon was experiencing an unprecedented economic down-turn and neither the government nor the private sectors were hiring skilled labor.
The America Wandas were thus faced with the option of either returning to Cameroon to face an uncertain future or electing permanent domicile in the US. Some did return but the bulk stayed back and since most of them were on student visas, gaining permanent residency status was problematic. The bulk of them would later gain permanent residency status and citizenship through green card marriages.
In the 70s and 80s, going to America was considered a feat in itself. And having a close relation there was a social class indicator. For instance any Yaounde University girl who didn’t have the picture of an America Wanda boyfriend or finance hanging on her wall had not yet arrived (I can’t count how many times I was lavishly treated to lunch by some girl begging me to hook her up with my America Wanda brother).
The America Wandas rarely visited home. And when they did, they were quite a sight to behold. It was common to see America Wanda girls strutting up and down the Commercial Avenue in Bamenda, dressed in panty hose tucked into knee high boots and wearing winter jackets under the hot tropical sun! They were easily identifiable by the way they walked: quick but short brisk steps, instead of the leisurely sway of most Cameroonian girls.
The guys of course had their trademark jelly curl hair styles and leather jacket to match! Some of them had this annoying attitude of interrupting a lively conversation to ask if any one knew the scores of the Lakers-Bulls game or the Yankees-Red Sox game, even though they knew too well that none of us had any knowledge of the NBA, not to mention American baseball!
And if all these weren’t enough as distinctive marks, their peculiar American rap manner of talking, with constant use of slang like “wanna”, “gonna” and “yeah men” left no doubt in the minds of their interlocutors as to what part of the world they were coming from.
Now to the bushfallers
I can’t say with any modicum of precision when and thanks to whom the expression “bush faller” became part of our lexicon. But it suffices to say the expression is an extended imagery of a hunter who goes out in search his game, and when he finds it he does all what it takes to kill/capture it, and proudly brings it back to share with his kith and kin. And this is precisely the kind of mindset that characterises Cameroon’s bush fallers.
I consider the bush fallers to be the 3rd generation of Cameroonian immigrants who started leaving the country from 1990 upwards. At that time the most common destination was Europe (specifically Germany), even though quite a good number also made it to the US. Today bush faller communities have sprung up literally in all parts of the world, with China and South Africa being among the fastest growing ones.
Bush fallers are generally jobless university graduates, poorly remunerated civil servants, bankrupt businessmen, politicians who have fallen out of favor, and activists, all forced to leave the country in search of better circumstances. Unlike the America Wandas, education is not always their priority. The priority is making money. To this generation whom I like referring to as the dorky generation anything goes and the end justifies the means.
They are a generation without scruples. They generally acquire legal residency status through the DV lottery or by seeking asylum. They consider themselves smarter and more “upbeat” than the America Wandas and will stop at nothing to pursue their goal, what ever that goal is. Like the true hunters that they are, the bush fallers always endeavor to return home as often as they can, usually in December, to show off their latest catch: a futuristic SUV, a massive building project, an exotic business etc.
And they make sure they spray hard currency around with reckless abandon. Bush fallers are mainly soccer fans and unlike the America Wandas, they take little or no interest at all in American football, base ball or basket ball. They are more at ease discussing the latest exploits of Manchester United, Chelsea FC, and Barcelona FC...etc. They are also incorrigible fans of the Indomitable Lions.
Bushfallers generally don’t bother to speak American. They keep their accent as natural as they can, except may be when professional obligations compel them to alter it.
Bushfalling has also significantly altered the social landscape within the Cameroonian community in the US:
Chicken/fish parlors, achu restaurants, and (illegal?) drinking spots serving Cameroon beers, hitherto unknown, have become permanent features of our socialisation process.
As can be expected, this sort of generational difference, borne of two conceptually divergent socio-psychological mindsets has often engendered tensions and mutual suspicions within the larger Cameroonian Diaspora. You can palpably feel this tension during meetings, on internet discussion group sites like Camnetwork and Bonbani, or during alumni re-unions like BOBA, SOBA, SHESA, BATAAS...etc
These differences notwithstanding, both groups have a lot to learn from each. The bushfallers (the bulk of who are in their 30s) can learn from the sense of endurance, self discipline, self respect, and relative honesty of the America Wandas. While the Wandas - most of who are in their late 40s- may also draw from the enterprising and industrious nature of the fallers. Even though the tensions may not dissipate, the greater good of our community may be attained.
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