Meet Mr Smith - Africa's latest internet genius

'Yes, this is Mr Smith calling. yes , I said this is Mr Smith calling about the sale of minerals. You can contact our agent to make the payment.......hello', 'We'eh dee airtime dong finish'. This is a day at the office for Mr Smith or should I say one of the thousands of young Cameroonians and Africans enthusiastically involved in internet scams. Mr Smith is an unkempt saggy - jean wearing chap living in Muea. He has two phones, one for the real him and another one for those who known him as Mr Smith.  He does not have a square metre of land to his name but he sells minerals. Since I started this blog and ran out of internet time on my internet key as well as money to buy some, I have been meeting Mr Smith at the cyber. One could mistake him for the owner from the way he struts around when he arrives and fraternizes cozily with the attendant.

            The success of these Mr Smiths has created a major social hasard and headache for officials. Their success however leaves one with many major question? How do they do it? How do they succeed in gaining the trust and hard-earned money of persons sitting thousands of miles away? Remember the internet and computers were not created by us but some of our compatriots have informally succeeded in mastering it so well that they now wield it with mesmerising and criminal efficiency. What then becomes of the mantras of the narrow-minded many who still consider Africans dark and backward? One can take this further? Are those foreigners who fall prey gullible or simple-minded? Or have they just fallen victim to one of the most cherished means of communication today? Should one, although no sympathiser of theft, consider these foreigners guilty of encouraging the trade in protected species and greedy for wanting to buy minerals from individuals -ever heard of blood diamonds? Should their victimisation be seen as a call to greater caution with regards to all the offshoots of the 21st century's vivid imagination and inventions? Many more questions can be asked and countless answers generated?  

           Now that I am a regular at the cyber where Mr Smith works, I hope we become acquainted so that he can trust me enough to someday let me in on some of their professional secrets. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with one Mr Smith.