© Rudolf N. Nsang
November 2021
Freedom of the mind is the best thing that can happen to an individual. Unfortunately, when you start seeking autonomy in your community or culture, you are tagged as a ‘bad child”. Of recent, I began to think of the opportunities I may have or create if only I can escape from dogmas, cultures, or subjective beliefs. Maybe I would be somewhere in another man’s land exploring what opportunities there are for a free wanderer or a wondering mind. Most of our cultural beliefs have held us bound for years and never a time do we even think of exploring our own dreams. I like to say, we are slaves of our ambitions. Yes, not the ambitions of our parents or friends. One sure way to achieve your intuitive objectives, if they are good and harmless, is to develop a personality that identifies with you and your perceptions or believes as a unique human being.
We are all human beings. I mean to say, individual spirits living in human flesh. Beyond the biological connection that exists between members of a family_ such as the scientific myths of genetics_, are the spiritual independence on the self and the nonnegotiable dependence on a Supreme Being or Supreme Spirit. For Christians like me, this is God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Children should have the right to believe in their dreams and ambitions. They should have the dignity of humanness and not dependence on other human beings as though they were of a lesser denomination. No one should dictate what dreams they should dream. Some parents even want their children to live their dreams. A child can’t live the dreams of his parents!
Yes, while you prepare to be free at mind, be ready to accept the consequences of your decisions. Be ready to blame yourself for any failures. Do not blame your friends or family members for your valleys. Some people can very funny, especially young Cameroonians and Africans as a whole. The least failure you face, you start making allusions to witchcraft from your great grandparents. It is true that the curses of the past generations can affect us. But, as a Christian for example, you should believe that ancestral chains get broken as you give your life to Christ and become a new creature in Jesus’ name. Stop blaming and start understanding that failure does not mean conquest. Your decision to rise above conformity and compromise is best rated by the number of times you stand back after falling. So, you will fall, but make sure you stand back.
Another thing you need to know is that change is doesn’t often happen overnight. Trust the change process, it is not easy though. So you must be ready to absorb the pain that may precede the glory you’re after. People will insult you, mock you, criticize you, and some will even leave you. In fact, in this process, you will have to let go of many things and people. When I say this, I know what comes to your mind is that you’ll need to delete the contacts of those friends you deem bad. Hahaha! Not necessary. Think about delimiting factors that also pop out from you. Do you have some addictions such as masturbation, lust, drunkenness, drugs, greed, and so on? You’ll need to let them go too. The effects of such addictions remain the same_ fear, guilt, and low self-esteem, just to name a few.
It is a good idea to develop a strong and confident personality that you really don’t care much about the criticisms or even the accolades people throw at you. I so much enjoy a character like Christiano Ronaldo. One thing I love about him is the confidence he has in his football skills. This is a guy who is not afraid to tell some other footballers that he is better than them. It doesn’t just end there. This guy always goes ahead to prove it on the pitch. It is no magic. He already has a perspective of life – hard work pays – and he makes sure he trains harder every other time. If you decide today to believe in individualism, then you must work harder than your former self.
I talked with a great thinker recently, Hugo O. Ondoa, and he said some things I can never forget. "The best lessons to be taught in schools are those on individualism and liberalism”. In his perspective students as early as in secondary school should be acquainted with philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre. They should master key philosophical propositions as existentialism which may give them the understanding that they exist within a society but, as individuals. It may sound crazy especially to postcolonial students who studied under borrowed educational systems. However, people should strive to be cultivated through reading and stepping up of levels. Life is far vaster than you think. Traveling to other countries and experiencing life there will certainly be a plus. Well, I have not had the chance to travel abroad yet, like many other young Cameroonians, but from every indication, it is invaluable.
In Cameroon, for instance, everyone wants to work with the government. The job market has become so government-centered that youths no longer believe in creativity or entrepreneurship. I won’t blame them, though. The problem is that Cameroonian parents and some stakeholders encourage this by trusting or respecting only the few who have government jobs. Because this is becoming the only way to prove that one has made it in life, in the Cameroonian sense, the youths themselves are beginning to join forces with society to chain up their own potentials. So, if you do not make your way through the entrance examination into ENAM, ENS, FMBS, or so, you are a failure. Another anecdote is that those who have been to Europe or America are more respected and considered in Cameroonian society. If you have only been to some African countries or the Asia Pacific, the respect won’t be great enough. Society has become so stereotypical that no one seems to see beyond the shadows. Worse still, no one tends to see beyond their own perspective of life, the reason why they’ll want you to live according to their understanding of this world. These are stereotypes that disrupt personal freedom or freedom of the mind. You need to step out of the box of hearsay beliefs; step up; and be who you like.
In all these, have faith, whatever faith means to you. Once you decide to defy the norms, you are taking on a highly critical path. I will say this path is 50/50. That is, you have a 50% chance to succeed and vice versa. And remember I earlier said that you are responsible for any outcome— negative or positive. Rejecting the usual is deciding to be creative, in other words, you are the founder of a new way of life that only you believe in. So have faith and be positive. Maybe your entire family is made up of shoemakers because shoemaking is the family business, but you are passionate about music like the protagonist, Miguel, in the popular cartoon, "Coco". It will appear to be an impossible project for the rest of your family members because they master shoemaking so well that they’ll be comfortable leading you to become a great shoemaker. So, the projects you want to embark on may seem too big to the people around you. Sometimes, they even appear to be impossible to you, but faith can keep you going. In the Bible (Numbers 13:1 – 33), the story is told of 12 spies who were sent to explore the land of Canaan, a land promised by God to be the new home for the Israelites after their flight from Egypt. After 40 days of espionage, the twelve spies (one from each of the 12 Tribes of Israel) returned to give their reports to Moses (their leader) and the entire people of Israel. Ten of the twelve reported that they saw giants in the land and, in their eyes and that of the giants too, they looked like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb, the other two, rather reminded the people that they could fight and crush the giants. They had faith in the power of God and encouraged the people to move. The bible records that because of the little faith shown in the other ten, God caused that generation of Israelites to wander in the desert for forty years so that only Joshua and Caleb finally entered the Promised Land. If you much achieve big things or crush giant projects, you must have faith in your deity and your potentials. Believe and ask for guidance because you have decided to be freed from what people say.
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