The Hashish Massacre

When the hot, seething land of Cameroon celebrated its independence from France last New Year's Day, it did so amid some grisly statistics: in the previous six months, terrorists had massacred more than 500 men, women and children. Last week, as the new nation went to the polls to vote on the constitution of able Moslem Premier Ahmadou Ahidjo, 37, another 80 were dead.

The worst of the new massacres took place in a sprawling (pop. 15,000) community called Dschang. While the tiny French African garrison slept, a band of young Bamileke tribesmen came marching down the dirt road singing their own pidgin French words to the tune of John Brown's Body. At the outskirts of town they split up into three gangs, and as they made their way down the streets, they began to swing their razor-sharp pangas with a kind of dazed abandon. They burned down 20 houses whose families had been trapped inside, slashed and hacked at others as if chopping through the underbrush. Of the 80 who were killed, 24 were women and 37 were children.

Only a few of the terrorists were caught --a ragged bunch of teenagers, made wild by hashish, who babbled incoherently about some juju rites in which they had been branded on the chest with five cuts that were supposed to make them invulnerable to bullets. But the song they had sung was well known--"General Moumie Gets Five Million Soldiers." The "general" referred to: Felix-Roland Moumie, 34, who lives in exile in Nkrumah's Ghana.

Ever since his left-wing party, Union of the People of Cameroon, was banned for terrorism in 1955, "General" Moumie has continued to keep superstitious tribesmen stirred up, especially against the country's Moslems. But as disciples, the restive Bamileke have proved more eager than even the "general" ever planned. It is doubtful whether Moumie had anything to do with the massacres, though he was willing to take credit. The young men of the tribe give them a few juju charms and medallions and severed heads, a supply of hashish and Czech small arms, and the massacres begin.

Last week, as soon as the voters approved his constitution, Premier Ahidjo dramatically lifted the ban against Moumie's UPC. But what seemed like a surrender was actually a shrewd move. In the "general's" absence, a strong and respectable opposition has grown up within his party, and Moumie himself seems to be slipping: in the face of his personal command to boycott the referendum, a record 75% of the entire electorate still went to the polls.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.