Lukong Pius Nyuylime
2 July 2009
After basking in relative affluence since creation in 1974, Cameroon Tribune suffered its first shock at the dawn of the 90s.
The wave of negative change ushered in by the economic crisis did not spare CT. The insolvability of the State led to the suspension of subsidies to CT bringing untold consequences. Nine months of salary arrears, suspension of the Weekend Tribune, and layoff of three quarters of the staff of SOPECAM.
How the staff of CT in particular lived and the workers of SOPECAM survived the storm remains a mystery. But what remains fresh in the minds of many is the fact that 45 days passed by in 1992 without the publication of the paper. After sacrificing for nine months, working under very difficult conditions without salaries, workers, most, if not, all of them who had inevitably developed problems with their landlords, were left with no other option than to stop work. All negotiations from members of government ended on the rocks. The gate into the newspaper head office was bolted with two huge padlocks and workers who had constituted themselves into vigilante groups monitored diligently to ensure that traitors did not betray the course.
After several weeks of strike, the administration decided to pay part of the accumulated salaries. Expectations were indeed high when it was announced; everyone would receive a token of CFA 30,000. What people hypothetically thought could happen did not; that is, a unanimous refusal to take the money. People were desperate. Many had barely had what to eat during that period. And so, the queue was long before the payment counter.
From every indication, the staff was determined to take the strike to the end; that is, till the nine months salary arrears were regularised. The biggest opportunity came with the scheduling of the Cameroon Football cup final. The absence of CT from the stands after the final was expected to cause the Head of State react. This did not happen. Instead, the administration assured workers that the situation would be regularised after the match. That is how the paper resumed publication.
But the trauma did not end there. One year after, a monumental decision was taken to lay off almost three quarters of the SOPECAM staff. At that moment, Cameroon Tribune was thinned down to eight pages, then to 16-ten in French and six in English. That exactly, is how the bilingual newspaper emerged.
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