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Southern CameroonsGeographySouthern Cameroons is the territory bounded to the west and north west byNigeria, east by La Republique du Cameroun and south by the Atlantic Ocean.PeoplePopulationThe population of Southern Cameroons is above five million inhabitants. It must bestated that it is difficult to say with certainty the exact population of SouthernCameroons as the Yaounde annexationist regime has adopted a strategy of erasingthe truth and consistently misrepresenting historical facts about the SouthernCameroons.In addition to abolishing the state and political institutions that existed,finance and economic institutions and infrastructures have also been closed toemphasize the dependent character of Southern Cameroons on La Republique duCameroun.Brief historyThe territory of Southern Cameroon has been subjected to different colonialexperiences - she experienced German domination, British domination, anddomination of La Republique du Cameroun.Southern Cameroons as part of German KamerunBetween 1885 and 1916, Southern Cameroons was part of German Cameroon (Kamerun).German Kamerun ceased to be with the end of the World War I and the Peace Treatyof Versailles that gave birth to the League of Nations.British Southern CameroonsAs a result of the First World War, which pitched the Germans against the Britishand French in Cameroon, the Germans were defeated and ousted from the territory.As result of German defeat, the British and French attempted a jointadministration of the territory, which failed. Consequently, the territory waspartitioned by both powers. Hence, the British took one-fifth and the French tookfour-fifth of the territory. From the nature of the partition, the seed of theSouthern Cameroons problem began, namely, minority problem.In order to conveniently administer their own portion of Cameroon as a mandateterritory of the League of Nations, the British administered it as an integralpart of Nigeria. To better do this, they further split the territory into NorthernCameroons and Southern Cameroons. Since the British did not consider the territoryas viable, they did very little as concerns social and economic development of theterritory. This caused particularly Southern Cameroons to be against Britishmandate in the territory.The British first administered Southern Cameroons as part of Southern Province ofNigeria, whose headquarters was in Lagos and later; under the Eastern Region ofNigeria, when Nigeria was divided into three regions, namely, Northern, Westernand Eastern. Therefore, Southern Cameroons was administered from Enugu, which wasthe headquarters of the Eastern Region. Under the Eastern Region, she sufferedwhat was known as the Ibo domination. The Ibo established their hegemony overSouthern Cameroons and caused them to be further frustrated by foreign domination.However, it was during this period that the first parliamentary elections wereorganised in the territory to choose representatives to the Eastern Regional Houseof Assembly and Federal House in Lagos.Following discrimination they faced as a minority group in the assembly, they
 
walked out in protest and declared Benevolent Neutrality in Nigerian politics.This led to the holding of the first Southern Cameroons Conference in Mamfe in1953.This Conference adopted a petition addressed to the United Kingdom Government thatdemanded for a separate regional status in conformity with Southern Cameroons’status as a UN Trust territory. It was from here that Southern Cameroonsnationalism began. This political action yielded the desired results.When in 1954 Southern Cameroons achieved self-governing status, with Dr EMLEndeley as first Premier, its nationalism took a multi-facet nature. Some of itsleaders thought that this was a progress that was to lead them to regionalautonomy and therefore opted for integration into Nigeria. Some as a result of theexperience they received as a colony under another colony, namely, Nigeria, optedfor independence. Some as a result of nostalgia and influence from French Camerounopted for unification with French Cameroun.Unable to come to a consensus, the UN, which became the supervisory authority ofthe former mandate territories, including British Cameroons imposed two options onthem. The options were: whether they would like to achieve independence byreunifying with French Cameroon which as a result of their independence on January1st, 1960 became La Republique du Cameroun or integrating with Nigeria which wasalready given independence too. Prior to the plebiscite, 1n 1959 SouthernCameroons organised democratic elections for a third time and effected the firstpeaceful and democratic transfer of power in the 20th Century Africa.In this election, the incumbent Premier Dr E.M.L. Endeley and his ruling party,the CPNC were defeated and he became leader of the Opposition in the House ofAssembly.Following the UN organised plebiscite of February 11, 1961, which was organised onthe same day separately for Southern Cameroons and Northern Cameroons, NorthernCameroons voted for integration into Nigeria and was thus integrated, whileSouthern Cameroons voted for unification with French Cameroon and was thusreunified. This began the story of unification of the two Cameroons united in aUN-sponsored federation of two states of EQUAL STATUS known as the FederalRepublic of Cameroon in October 1061.Annexation of Southern Cameroons by La Republique du Cameroun:The Foumban Constitutional Conference of 1961, which federated Southern Cameroonswith La Republique du Cameroun was not in line with what, the UN had envisaged.According to the UN such a conference was to involve the governments of SouthernCameroons, La Republique du Cameroun, United Kingdom as the AdministeringAuthority, and the UN as the Supervisory Authority. Unfortunately, it was heldwithout some of these parties like the UN and Britain. Again, there was no accordsigned by the two parties that discussed in Foumban.However, the Federal Republique of Cameroon that emerged from Foumban Talks, wasmade up of two federated states, namely, the State of West Cameroon, made up ofSouthern Cameroons, and the State of East Cameroon, made of La Republique duCameroun. Thus, the disappearance of Southern Cameroons and La Republique duCameroun, which respectively became sub nations of the federation with eachretaining its inherited territory, colonial political and administrative system,legal, educational, economic and cultural systems.From 1962 to 1972, the former, the former President of La Republique du Cameroun,Ahmadou Ahidjo who became the President of the Federal Republic took steps to
 
annex Southern Cameroons into La Republique du Cameroun. He finally organised onMay 20th, 1972 a referendum, which violated the Talks at Foumban. He abolished theFederal Constitution and imposed Unitary Constitution. Hence the name of thecountry became United Republic of Cameroon. Southern Cameroons lost its autonomousstatus it enjoyed under the federal system and became two of the seven provincesof the Unitary state.When Paul Biya became President of Cameroon, he completed the annexation byreverting the name of the country to Republique du Cameroun, the name by whichFrench Cameroon gained its independence. This led to the emergence of SouthernCameroon Cameroons liberation movements like the Ambazonia of Fon Gorgi Dinka andCameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM) the climax of this was in 1993, when SouthernCameroons liberation movements and Southern Cameroonians as a whole met in Bueaunder the banner of the All Anglophone Conference (AAC I).Its aim was to come out with Southern Cameroons stand and to press for theautonomy of Southern Cameroons in a restored federal system. This firm stand iscontained in the Buea Declaration. Another meeting was held in Bamenda (AAC II)which issued the Bamenda Proclamation. These declarations led to the formation ofthe Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), which is a political organisationfighting for the statehood and sovereign independence of Southern Cameroons,thanks to the intransigence and repressive nature of the Biya regime.Despite the obstacles placed on the road to the statehood of Southern Cameroonslike, arrest, torture, killings, forcing its nationals into exile, blackmail,misinformation, counter-acting their action and you can name more, it has beensucceeding. For instance, it has won the admissibility stage of the case depositedagainst La Republique du Cameroun in the African Commission on Human and PeoplesRights in Banjul won a case against Nigeria, which obliged Nigeria to table andsupport its bid for independence to the international community and recently, ithas been admitted as anew member of the Unrepresented Nations and PeoplesOrganisation (UNPO) in The Hague.The CultureIntroductionPrior to the advent of the white man and colonialism, the territory that todayconstitutes Southern Cameroons was not one geo-political entity that could equallybe designated as a cultural entity. It was inhabited by different ethnic groupswith different cultures, traditions and languages. As they differed in origin andculturally, so did they differ in outlook, aspirations and world view. Nothingheld them together as one people.The different ethnic groups with different indigenous political systems,religions, also differed from one another in their occupational activities andsocio-economic development. Thus there was a vast difference between the peoplesof the coastal region and those of the grassland, which difference is not onlyvisible in art, dance, economic life but also in social organisation and socialrelationships.This means that one can rightly to refer Southern Cameroons as a multi-culturaland multi-lingual political entity carved by the ambitious colonial masterswithout any recourse to the inhabitants. In the carving of their colonial empiresthese empire builders mindful of their economic interests fractionalised someethnic groups and even families. This greatly contributed to the weakening ofcultural ties and the capacity to resist invasion by the empire builders.To build up one large political entity the colonial masters had to impose its
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