The children sat quietly in the classroom as their teacher flipped the pages of the English textbook. A whisper went from one corner to another. Madame Jeanette looked around with a frown on her face.
“Who whispered?” She asked.
Silence.
She flipped the pages and then finally said, “Today we are going to study who we are. Let’s go to page 39 of our textbooks.”
A ruffle of pages was heard.
It was a beautiful story about a crippled lizard who wandered the desert in search of its identity.
At the end of the lesson, Madame Jeanette looked at the back of the class and saw that Kamgaing was dosing.
“Kamgaing!” She called and the boy got up with a startle. “Were you dozing in my class?”
Kamgaing couldn’t say a word. The rest of the class laughed at him and he almost got lost in his seat.
“I am going to give you all an assignment.” She said to the class, “and I expect it by tomorrow morning.”
“WHO ARE YOU?” She wrote on the chalkboard.
Madame Jeanette said, “that is going to be our assignment! I will come back here to look at each of your stories in my lesson tomorrow morning. Be sure to have written it!”
The bell for going home sounded and all the children rushed out of the classroom; Kamgaing being the first.
He ran straight home. When he got home, he greeted his parents and went to his bedroom and started to write. He spent several hours writing, editing and discarding. His mother tried to call him down to eat but he told her he would be out after he was done with his exercise. Not even when his playmate called did he go out. He finally came out after a while when he was fully satisfied that his work was ready. He smiled before he tucked it away in his school bag.
That night, Kamgaing slept happily because it was the first time in his school life to complete his assignment.
In the morning at school, all the children in Kamgaing’s class presented their work to the teacher. When it was his time, Madame Jeanette called him, “Kamgaing, where’s your assignment?”
Kamgaing stood up, walked to the front and handed his work to the teacher who then told him to read out aloud his piece of work.
Kamgaing cleared his voice and looked at everyone before he began reading.
“I am Cameroon….”
Everyone laughed. The teacher hushed and told Kamgaing to continue reading.
“I am Cameroon. I’m nine years old and I am from the West Region. I have two elder brothers and two younger sisters. My mother is from the East region of Cameroon and she loves animals. She also has a garden where we pick the vegetables to eat on the weekend. My father is a mechanic but he loves to play the drum whenever he can. As a boy, growing up with both my parents has been fun because, during the weekends and holidays, father takes us to the cinema to watch our favourite movies. Sometimes mother would ask our father to take us to the theatre to watch Makossa dance.
One day, I remember going to play with other children in the neighbourhood and one of the big boys said we should play the ‘round and round game’. This is the game I love most and whenever we play it, I always go back home too dirty that mother beats me. While playing, we smile, laugh, and forget that we have to go back home early.
Sometimes when grandmother is around, we sit around her and she tells us stories from the South. How its people love to play the drums and the flutes. She always tells us to be good children and to obey our parents like her daughter; my mother did. She also tells of how she used to go to the cinema and museum with our grandfather.
Oh, how I love her stories!
One thing that I noticed before we moved to the city is that my mother did not eat with my father and neither did we, the children eat before she ate. I have always wanted to ask my mother about it but I fear I may get the strokes of the cane; but one day I know I will know why!
I am Cameroon because I am!”
Kamgaing concluded reading. Everyone was quiet till Madame Jeanette clapped for him and the others followed.
“ Wow…I’m so proud of you!” She exclaimed. “I think I should often give you assignments!”
Read – Wangarĩ’s Love for Trees – A Children’s Story by Njeri Wangarĩ, Kenya
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