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Opinions of Mercredi, 29 Juillet 2015

Auteur: Cameroon Journal

At the grave of Churchill Che, the common - law- husband of Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux

Feature Feature

A few years ago, Paul Biya, the President of the Republic of Cameroon, liquidated a man who cohabited with Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux, the current First lady.

The latter, was indeed an accomplice of the murder in question. This woman that the national and international community, adorns with all virtues is in reality sneaky.

The lack of scruple, she showed and shows in the face of the assassination of the taxi driver who was her partner and with whom she had two children (the twins Frank and Patrick Hertz) unmasks her.

Yet, it is revolting to see that other Cameroonian women support her staunchly. The celebration of the International Women’s Day is one of the events where they display this communion.

In Yaoundé, the capital city, Chantal is the one who chairs the ceremony,but When she doesn’t lead the march, she sits in the grand stand and women of all political colours march past her,with their eyes turned towards her.

How is it ,that a lady who actively participated in the murder of her partner is set up as a role model? By accepting her as their leader, by keeping silent about her crime, Cameroonian women must tolerate that, one also labels them as opportunists.This question is not to be taken lightly.

A musician of our country has composed a song that is in vogue. It is entitled “Le ventre” (The Belly). The author has summarized in one sentence what she believes is the recipe for making men be under the thumb of women: “Le ventre et le bas-ventre, le tour est joué!” (Belly and lower abdomen, and – voilà– it’s done!)

This sentence which is repeated at the end of each verse of the above-mentioned song fills Cameroonian women with enthusiasm, strengthens their wriggling.

Cameroon being an underdeveloped country, its agriculture is dominated by women,thus this women sell food supplies in the market prepare food and do thier housechores.

To celebrate them, the government has an established expression: “Women are the food suppliers of the nation.” The meals that men consume are thus cooked by them.

But the power they have over them is not limited to the belly, as they also satisfy the needs of their lower abdomen. So, they think, it’s in the bag.

In a country, where poverty is common and where every person commanding others by virtue of a hierarchy tends to punish those who do not praise him lavishly, an unfaithful female endangers her boyfriend, her cohabitant or her husband.

An opportunist living with a poor man considers that she is in a waiting room, hoping that a well-to-do will call her. Similarly, the one who puts her charms forward to land a job or to obtain a promotion would not hesitate to get rid of her partner. Cameroonians call this method “Sofa’s advancement”.

Moreover, the regime uses bribery and female secret agents to poison opponents or to obtain confidential information. On the steps of the social ladder, financially weak men and mavericks are therefore exposed to the betrayal of women of easy virtue.

In order to reduce the risks to a minimum, those men should avoid judging women on appearances or consuming dishes made by those with loose morals. To be quite sure of themselves, they should refrain from carnal pleasures and eat only meals they have prepared themselves.

But normally, a man and a woman living together constitute one flesh. That is what the Bible teaches us. Therefore, mutual confidence should be the golden rule in a union.

A woman whose partner or husband has few resources honors him, when she is faithful and respectful to him and supports him in his endeavors. If her man is a revolutionary, she has to encourage him to go on with his struggle and be ready to follow him to hell. A woman must respect her choice. It is only this way she can prove that she really loves her man.

Unfortunately, Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux is not that kind of woman. It was by pure opportunism that she left down her Anglophone common-law husband to bond with Paul Biya. Churchill was indeed a taxi driver. He had been cohabiting with Chantal for a long time. Contrary to what some people think, she was not a prostitute. She was the common-law wife of Churchill. As I mentioned earlier, the couple had two children.

That family of four was resident in Yaoundé. They lived in harmony until the day Chantal was invited to a reception hosted by President Biya in his private castle of Mvomeka’a. He is a native of that village.

The relationship of Chantal and Churchill entered a turbulence zone from the moment she revealed him that the monarch, the Lion Man, desired to marry her.

Paul Biya was a widower. We know that he had killed Jeanne-Irène, his first wife, in the early nineties. A popular uprising had urged the dictator to restore the multi-party system. Nevertheless, Jeanne-Irène, convinced by the incompetence of her husband, suggested him to resign:

“Paul, you know, you massacred thousands of Cameroonians lately. We posses beautiful houses and numerous bank accounts abroad, we have embezzled a lot of money, including the 400 billion that your predecessor kept in the slush fund. Please, resign.”

“It’s always the same old story”, replied the blood-thirsty tyrant to her.
He who had defined the New Deal as a political program characterized by strictness and moralization had intercourse with the sister of Jeanne-Irène and she became pregnant and gave birth to Franck Emmanuel Biya!

After two years of widowhood, Paul Biya decided to put the mess in the harmonious life that Churchill’s family had led until then. The poor taxi driver tried in vain to reason with his common-law wife, denounced her vile treachery, and desperately chased away officials whom Satan was sending to persuade him to give up the resistance.

Churchill continued to insist on his rights. Chantal begged him to run away, to go abroad, without her and without the twins! He retorted that she was his wife and that he will on no account agree to separate from her in favor of the dictator! The latter and Chantal often met without the knowledge of Churchill. Chantal was determined to become the new First lady of Cameroon, thus to abandon her common-law husband, the father of her children.

As Churchill was intransigent, Biya and Chantal decided to eliminate him. The poor man was shot on board his taxi, in a street of Yaoundé. The marksman slipped away. It is undeniable that it was President Biya and Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux who premeditated that crime. Having eliminated the obstacle that Churchill represented, the way was free for their marriage. They got married in 1994. Since then, Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux is called Chantal Pulchérie Biya. The twins whom Churchill had with her are officially presented as Paul’s children!

Moreover, the two murderers of Churchill tried to get rid of documents that could serve as exhibits. Thus a detachment turned up one night at Nsem quarter in Bafut with the mission to find and confiscate any object or written document which can prove that Churchill had lived together with Chantal or that they had had two children.

Fortunately, the soldiers mistook the house! They searched rather the home of the neighbor of William Anyele, the father of the deceased! Of course, they found nothing. They vented their disappointment on the nephew of the owner of the house. At that time, the latter was working in Bamenda, Churchill’s father . The young man whom the soldiers had torn away from sleep at two o’clock in the morning was beaten up, but took care not to reveal his torturers that the compound of Churchill’s family was rather the next one.

"I went to the compound in May 2013 to collect some information I needed. In addition to the information that I was given, I was shown the grave where lies Churchill Che, but also those of his father, his mother and two of his sisters. All these graves are close by the house that the soldiers sent by Paul and Chantal Biya should have searched. Of the four children of Churchill’s parents, only one is still alive. He went abroad for security reasons".

When I finished my investigation in Bafut, some of my informants – who requested that their identity remains confidential – advised me to see also a lawyer called Chrysantus Che, one of the cousins of Churchill.

So, one morning, I went to Mbingfiebieh quarter in Bamenda. I met Chrysantus at home. After having introduced myself, I informed him that I have been to Bafut, and told him the object of my visit. He said he was about to go out, then asked me to come again in a week.

On the day of the appointment, he stood rather at a junction to wait for me, near a bar, at the end of the street which leads to his home. As he saw me past, he called me. We sat on a bench outside. He told me straight away that he won’t make any statement, that the problem for which I’ve come to see him is tricky because it concerns the wife of the President of the Republic, that he is angry with those who told me the place where he resides, that he has got a wife, children, a nice car, that he is not ready to provide information which could do harm to his small family and to him.

His car was parked in front of the bar. A Toyota RAV4. I asked Chrysantus Che if he is the cousin of Churchill Che. He answered yes, but added that the problems of the deceased in Yaoundé does not concern him at all, that he therefore has nothing to say about that. And then he stood up, he wanted to leave. I asked him to sit down again, which he did. He confided to me that whenever he is in a spot where somebody evokes that matter, he hurries to go away.

The only information I could force out of Chrysantus is that Churchill was protecting him when they were both schoolboys, for Churchill was strong. I blamed the man who has become a lawyer for betraying the memory of the one who took him under his wing.

Indeed, the silence of that lawyer had no impact on my investigation, since the information which was provided to me in Bafut was satisfactory. If I have mentioned him, it is just to illustrate the terror in which Cameroonian legal experts live. They are also in the grip of a regime that does not respect individual liberties.

Churchill was a victim of this regime. A regime embodied by a man who thinks that his power is boundless. It is typical that he has a wife by his side who helps him to maintain the people in subjugation.