Benedict Kuah
I was born in the Southern Cameroons in the seventies, the 6th of nine kids. I grew up in a barracks where kids run in packs so at times my childhood was a charm. But because of it, I think I might have shorten the lives of my parents by a good number of years.
I came of age at the University of Buea in the nineties at a very strategic period in the world. It was then that the carefully charted course of my life spun off its axis. The wall that divided East from West had just crumbled and with it the dissolution of the last remnant of Soviet Empire. The people power that had caused these massive changes finally swept onto the shores of Africa. I could not stand back and so I played a leading role as we unsuccessfully tried to pry loose the strings of colonialism with which France still shackled its supposedly independent former colonies.
This activism will lead me to take a harrowing journey across the seas amply captured by my friend, colleague, classmate, fellow activist and companion on the journey, Cho Ayaba in his memoir Not Guilty. My journey will land me on the shores of Germany from where I left to make my home here in Minnesota. I now write and publish, assist in editing the website Abakwatimes.com and also do a weekly show on esteemtv.com called the Ben Kuah Show. I am as passionate in ending the French hegemony and colonialism still persisting in Africa as I was back then though I know how difficult the job is for they have successfully hoodwinked everyone that colonialism is a thing of the past.