Sons and Daughters of the Soil: Land and Boundary Conflicts in North West Cameroon, 1955-2005

Preface

xi Preface Some eighty years ago, the German Kamerun which had been administered by Germany since July 1884 was divided into British and French spheres following the defeat of Germany in the First World War in 1916. The British and the French administered their respective zones, firstly under the League of Nations Mandate from 1922 to 1946 and later as a United Nations Trust Territory between 1946 and 1960. In 1960, Cameroon under the French Administration gained her independence, and on 1 October 1961, the British Southern Cameroons which was part of the Cameroons under British Administration gained her independence through reunification; while the Northern Cameroons opted to join the Federation of Nigeria. The Southern Cameroons, which was later administered as one of the provinces of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, had as of 1938 a total land surface area of 16,581 square miles and a population of 445,735. It was initially divided into four divisions, namely Victoria, Kumba, Mamfe and Bamenda. In 1949, the Bamenda Division was split into three divisions viz Bamenda, Wum, and Nkambe to make six divisions. The British justified that split on grounds that they wanted to ease administration of the region. As early as 1950, boundary feuds were becoming a daily occurrence in the region. Although scholars like, Chilver, 1962; Chilver and Kaberry 1960, 1965, 1967b, 1970 and 1972; Warnier and Nkwi, 1982; Nkwi 1976; Diduk, 1993; Chem-Langee, 2003, have written on several aspects of the Bamenda Grassfields, its history of boundary conflicts between c.1950s and 2005 has remained to the best of the author’s knowledge a terra incognita. In 1998, I defended a master thesis at the Department of History, University of Buea, Cameroon, with focus on the history of boundary conflicts in the Bamenda Grassfields. Nine years later (Gam Nkwi, 2007:6-42), I published an article in the Journal of Applied Social Sciences: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences ,University of Buea, Cameroon, vol.6, Numbers 1and 2. These works received positive feedbacks albeit criticisms in other quarters. After many years of drudgery on books and Sons and Daughters of the Soil xii archives, I discovered that the works which I had initially written were however, limited in their circulation to the public, and also limited in scope and content. It is based on the above, apertures that I have decided to reembark on the topic with the availability of new data to add to the existing material. This present project covers the history up to 2005 because new data has been uncovered, such as files «downloaded» from the Divisional Archives, Tubah, Public Records Office (PRO) Kew Gardens, London and the archives of Bamenda High Court. The present work attempts to fill this lacuna in the historiography of the Bamenda Grassfields and Cameroon historiography in general by focusing on the internal boundary conflict. It specifically traces the causes of the boundary conflict, its course and ramifications on the sub region. It is only in giving an historical dimension that the contemporary boundary conflicts in the sub region could be well understood. In the opening words of the preface to his book, Walter Rodney reminds us that: ‘‘This (His) book derives from a concern with the contemporary African situation. It delves into the past only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being and what the trends are for the future’’ (Rodney, 1981: vii). While complimenting Rodney, the celebrated African political scientist, Ali Mazrui (1969:661-676) said: ‘‘we study history in order to discover how we have come to be where we are.’’ It is these words that have further inspired the writing of this book, that to understand the subject of boundary misunderstandings in the Bamenda Grassfields and Bambili/ Babanki Tungoh, we need to take an historical dimension and appreciate why the boundary misunderstanding has been protracted for so long. Within the contemporary political dispensation the work shows the laxity of the administration to handle a pernicious situation like the boundary conflicts which have been eating deep in the political and social fabric of the region. In writing this book, the major sources have been documents which were garnered in the Public Record Office, Kew, London, the National Archives, Buea, the Provincial Archives Bamenda, and the Bamenda High Court. The District Archives in Tubah sub division were of the utmost importance because they provided [3.142.197.198] Project MUSE (2024-04-20 00...