And these children, whose parents were humiliated by the former ruling class, were the ones who took over the mantle of leadership after independence. For they understood modern ere governance and also had western education and this change of status, created conflicts in most countries in Africa, wherein the former ruling class, lost their privileges to people they used to despise or rule. Concerning the ancestry of Ahmadou Ahidjo and other leaders of Cameroon or even the current president Paul Biya, whose ancestry is also put in doubt by the usual people, it has to mentioned that, prior to 1960, when borders where confirmed, there existed mass migration of African people from one part of the continent or region to the other. Furthermore, colonially drawn boundries have never posed any problems to African people. That might explain why, the parents of late president Ahidjo or current President Biya, may have either come from current Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania or Niger as claimed by people who are floating such information. Or in the case of Biya, it is claimed that, he is from Equatorial Guinea.
Such claims are basless and unfounded. For the questions that have to be asked to people floating the idea or information on the origins of people governing Cameroon are these: what is the native tongue of Biya and Ahidjo? Was the area that they are currently located in, configured in the same way before colonialism? Did Nigeria or Equatorial Guinea exist before the advent of colonialsm and the borders that they created? Concerning Ahidjo’s education, I don’t think he (Ahidjo) went to school more than most people of his generation and more so, who had the luck to be educated. While there is a strong controversy about the ancestry of late Ahmadou Ahidjo and also the rank that he may have had within his family and tribe, Souleymane Mahamat never had to confront such problems. He was from a well known Muslim aristocratic family and whose father wanted him to be educated in a western style. For his father foresaw the preponderant part that western education will play in modern French-speaking Cameroon. Hence Souleymane and his brothers and sisters were all educated. With all the divine privileges that Souleymane had, he never experienced difficulties when he was growing up.
He grew up with servants and was groomed by his father to be a leader. Souleymane was lucky that his father, although a noble and rich minority, who are proud of their glorious past and thus despises Europeans, he nevertheless made an effort to send his children amongst which was Souleymane, to attend the school of White men, this in order to achieve western education. It was not the case with other rich nobles of the greater north, which preferred sending their children to Koranic schools, where they are thought elementary Arabic. When Souleymane went to school, it turns out that, he was very brilliant and upon graduation from primary and secondary schools, he was trilingual. He spoke fluent French, English and Arabic. Not forgetting that, he also spoke Fulani and Hausa languages. His father sensing that his son was brilliant, he developed reflects that was thought to have left him long ago. He decided that such a brilliant son would not serve the government of Cameroon but God. Senior Soulaymane wanted Junior Souleymane to become an imam. But it was not easy for a child who had had the experience of Souleymane to be attracted to a theocratic service as his father wanted.
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