Standing up for Cameroon's short people

Short people in Bamenda, north-western Cameroon are joining together to campaign for an end to what they say is discrimination by their taller compatriots.

They say they are treated like second-class citizens.

To spearhead their fight for equality, they have set up the Association of Short People in Cameroon (ASPC), which has been officially registered.

To belong to the association, prospective members have to be no taller than 1.60m (5'2").

This height limitation was increased from the original 1.56m, following protests from those who were taller than the intended limit but still considered themselves to be short people.

Bamenda-based jurist and founding ASPC president, Jonathan Fru, 61, says the reasons for creating the association are simple.

Joining this association has given me some self-esteem

Stephen Ngang, 1.20m (3'9")

"We felt that we should protect our interests. During recruitment, especially into the armed forces, there is always a height limit which disqualifies many short people [a person must be above 1.65m (5'4") to join the armed forces in Cameroon]," he says.

"Carpenters make chairs that are too high for us and so we are not comfortable sitting with others," he says. "We have difficulties reaching high counters in shops and in banks, then to add insult to injury, all billboards are high up in the air and we have to strain to read them".

The associations' president adds that they have begun a vigorous campaign to right these wrongs and have so far met the provincial governor to table their grievances.

As if to prove that good things can come in small packages, the association has the shortest constitution I have ever come across - just two pages long.

They also have an anthem which is just two sentences long -"If you want to join the Short Peoples' Association, you just come, for we are peaceful, you just come".

Stephen Ngang is the shortest registered member of the association and says he is living proof of the problems short people face daily.

Standing only 1.20m (3'9") and now 49 years old, he has no job and is still unmarried.

"Joining this association has given me some self-esteem and I have now asked my elder sister to look for a wife for me," he says timidly.

He is unsure how he will feed his wife and children (if he has any), considering that he is jobless.

Mr Fru says he did not meet his wife, who is taller than him, until he was 30 years old - seen as late in Cameroon.

He blames his late social development squarely on the shoulders of his 1.53m (5') frame and the low self-esteem that this caused.

"I don't want other short people to suffer as I did, which is why I created this association," he says firmly.

Some tall people I met were, however, dismissive of the grouping of short people.

"Being short is not a problem - I wish I was shorter," said John, standing tall at 2m (6'6").

"Do short people know we also have problems?" he asked.

"Being too tall sometimes affects my balance and I need to bend down sometimes to listen to my short wife" he said jokingly.

A secondary school teacher blamed administrative officials for even given legal recognition to the association in the first place.

"It is an abuse and ridicules the laws regulating the creation of associations in Cameroon," he said.

Jaqueline Sirri, 25 and 1.56m (5'1"), is happily married but is still upset that she was disqualified from sitting for the army exams last year because of her height.

She says she is much happier since she joined the ASPC and wants the rights of all short men and women nationwide to be respected.

"We are normal human beings, our height notwithstanding," she says.

The short people deny discriminating against their taller brethren through their height restriction and insist that they do not see tall people as enemies.

They say they just want to be treated with the same respect as the rest of the population.

BBC NEWS