The Anglophone Cameroon Predicament

Chapter Three - The Impact of Reunification on West Cameroon

53 Chapter Three The Impact of Reunification on West Cameroon “But fear seized all and everyone, as each in his own way tried to make friends with the new lord and tyrant that was taking over from the British Government. At this stage all was lost and we automatically accepted our new status of second class citizens.” Albert Mukong, April 3, 1993. The French Connection: Cameroon, the Neo-Colonial State Par Excellence Before we examine the various facets of reunification as it came to be applied, it is important to analyse Franco-Cameroon relations as they have at times been fundamental in determining internal policies. In Chapter Two, we saw how French colonial policy came to influence the outlook of the Francophone-African states. These elite came to assume leadership roles in the various Francophone African states. The generic term, neo-colonialism, does not adequately convey the intricate, fiscal, political, diplomatic, military, cultural and economic relation that France imposed on her former colonies at the eve of their veneer of independence.1 Since the various French governments have been very unwilling to extend more than token equality to her former colonies, yet the myth of equality persists mainly because the periphery helps to create France’s image of politico-economic and linguo-cultural grandeur (Joseph 1978: 5). Our main concern here is not with the history of French imperialism. However, we need to understand how Cameroon was brought into the nexus of French imperialism courtesy of World War I, when the Germans were thrown out. As a League of Nations Mandate, under the British and the French, it did not prevent either of the administering authorities to implement patterns of colonial administration already developed in their other colonies (Le Vine 1965: 78; Johnson 1970a: 75; Joseph 1978: 7). French rule in Cameroon as elsewhere in Africa was characterised by bureaucratic centralism and absolute, as well as arbitrary powers at all levels of the administration. In spite of the facade of sophistication, French 54 colonialism was in fact as exploitative as and more oppressive than that of other colonialists who did not profess such lofty ideals. These goals however served the purpose of co-opting a collaborating stratum amongst the colonised who saw themselves as French, and assisted France in her “sublime mission” ( Johnson2 1970b: 672; Suret Canale3 1971: 22; Azarya4 1978: 82). Cooptation meant that while ‘Greater France’ was unleashing its firepower on Vietnamese, Algerian, and Cameroonian nationalists, so called African leaders were performing their duties unaffected. They did in fact play a crucial role in the repression as loyal citizens of ‘Greater France’ (Benjamin 1972: 102; Joseph5 1977: 172-173, 258, 274; Joseph 1978: 7; Le Vine 196: 154, 156, 160-161; Johnson 1970a: 254; Johnson 1970b: 672-692). Our main concern here, however, is how this French colonial tradition has come to affect every facet of contemporary politics in Cameroon. Cameroon, since independence, has been governed not with the constitution but through presidential decrees, reminiscent of the days of the French High Commissioner. In today’s Cameroon, the successor to the colonial commandant, the prefets and sous-prefets, together with the gendarmerie, operate within a framework characterised by ‘State of emergency’ laws, hostility to political initiative, local autonomy of any sort and a system of head and party tax in spite of the restoration of ‘multiparty politics’ in 1991. Nowhere is this state of affairs more resented than in West Cameroon, where before reunification, the people had been used to a more liberal system of administration. It is this perplexing situation that informed part of their declaration on April 3, 1993 in Buea that: …Our Francophone partners believe in brutalising, torturing and shooting down dissenters … The hundreds of check points on our roads today seem normal and acceptable to Francophones. They really make this country strange to Anglophones… Before unification we had our individual and civil liberties protected. One could not be arrested and left to languish in prison without a charge. It was unheard of for people’s private premises to be searched without a warrant. The police did not carry guns about. We knew nothing of the official night raids called ‘kalekale ’ …6 What is intriguing here is that with the advent of independence, instead 55 of these obnoxious practices being cast aside, they became more entrenched and intensified within the Cameroonian society. Part of the answer to this phenomenon lies in the nature...