Francoise Mbango Etone is Even Awesomer than I Thought!

I mentioned Francoise Mbango Etone in the previous post as my favorite story of these Olympics. After reading this article about her, I like her even more. Since winning gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics she's been more-or-less constantly at odds with the Cameroonian authorities who are eager to exploit her success for their own political purposes. The president of the Cameroon Athletics Federation went as far as to claim that "Francoise Mbango does not respect Cameroon. She has rubbed Cameroon in mud on numerous occasions". Of course nobody has shown less respect for the people of Cameroon or done more to muddy the name of that country than Paul Biya, the president since 1982, and his famously corrupt regime but that's beside the main point, which is that Mbango's Olympic success occurred in spite of the efforts of the Cameroonian authorities, not because of them.

In addition to being a good anecdote about a determined woman persevering over the forces that conspired to hold her back, I like this story because it's a happy version of a more somber, generic story about the obstacles that confront talented people in corrupt environments. This story is easily recognizable to anyone who has spent time in Africa because it happens every day. I know a very successful local artisan who was recently almost put out of business because some local elites resented how much money he was making purely on his own ability. I have a hard working Nigerienne friend with a graduate degree from a US university who struggled to find a job here in Niamey where visiting Le Directeur at a hotel room wasn't part of the interview. These stories are a dime a dozen. The tragedy is not just that talented individuals are prevented at every opportunity from making the most of their abilities, it's also that countries like Cameroon and Niger desperately need the skills and efforts of the same people who are the biggest targets for this kind of exploitation.