The Reunification Debate in British Southern Cameroons: The Role of French Cameroon Immigrants

Chapter 4. French Cameroon Immigrants and the Reunification Idea

129 Chapter 4 French Cameroon Immigrants and the Reunification Idea A. Origin of the Reunification Idea Many authors have written on the reunification of the Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroon effectively achieved in 1961. The most outstanding of these scholars are; M. Z. Njeuma. B. Chem-Langhëë, Le Vine, Claude Welch, E. Chiabi, D. Gardinier, J. Williard, J. Richards, V.J.Ngoh, V.G.Fanso, N.F.Awasom, J.Takougang and Kofele-Kale. While most of these scholars agree that the Cameroon Reunification Movement originated in the 1940’s they differ on the region of its birth and the initiators. Claude E. Welch, Jr. dates the origin of the idea to “shortly after World War Two” and in the British Southern Cameroons324 . Welch contends that the idea of reunification was included in a Cameroon National Federation (CNF) memorandum presented to the first UN Visiting Mission in 1949. He then concluded that “through contacts with the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) the wish for reunification received prominence in the French Cameroon at the same time”325 . The role played by French Cameroon immigrants within the C.N.F in the birth of the reunification movement is not examined by Welch. Victor T. Le Vine places the origin of the movement at the formation of the UPC in April 1948. According to him, the UPC program called for the reunification of the two Cameroons and they thus sought to make contacts with the inhabitant of the Southern 324 Welch, Dream of unity, p. 159. 325 Ibid, the UPC was formed in April 1948 in French Cameroon and its activities in the Southern Cameroons shall be examined in the next chapter. For a detailed study of this UPC, see. Richard Joseph, Radical Nationalism in Cameroon: Social Origins of the UPC Rebellion, London, Clarendon Press. 1977. 130 Cameroons. Soon after the creation of the UPC, its leaders contacted Mr. Robert Jabea Kum Dibongue, a Duala living in the British Cameroons. With Dibongue at the head, the French Cameroon Welfare Association (later Union) was formed with the dual purpose of mobilizing the Duala in the British Cameroons and spreading the reunification idea. Therefore the French Cameroon Welfare Association and later other British Cameroons political groups (including the Kamerun United National Congress, of which Robert Jabea Kum Dibongue was the first president) maintained active contact with the UPC’s leaders326 . Bongfen Chem-Langhëë and Martin Njeuma hold that even if the UPC advocated reunification, French Cameroon could not have been a serious birth place of the Pan-Kamerun Movement because the Bloc Démocratique Camerounaise which embraced the most important political leaders of the territory in the 1950s opposed it. Later, when the political organizations coalesced to produce four prominent ones, [Union Camerounaise, including mainly the Muslim population of the north, Démocrates Camerounaise, comprising largely the Ewondo in the central area, Paysans Independants, embracing the grasslanders of the West, and Action Nationale du Cameroun, composed mainly of the Edea and Douala peoples of the coastal region] reunification was never given any attention. In fact as late as 1957, the most prominent politicians of French Cameroon, Andre-Marie Mbida for example, were not inclined to reunification. It was not until 1958 that the Ahmadou Ahidjo Government and the deputies of the French Cameroon assembly unanimously declared for reunification327 . In a later study, Le Vine and Roger P. Nye observed that the Cameroon Federal Union (C.F.U.) and outgrowth of the defunct Cameroon Youth League [C.Y.L.) “advocated reunification of the two Cameroon Trust Territories” thus confirming the Southern Cameroons as the place of origin328 . If the C.F.U (1947-1949) advocated reunification as one of its objectives then Le Vine’s earlier 326 Le Vine, Cameroons, p. 147. 327 Chem-Langhëë and Njeuma, “Pan-Kamerun Movement”, p. 30. 328 V.T. Le Vine and Roger. P. Nye, Historical Dictionary of Cameroon, 1974, p. 24. 131 contention that the movement was born in French Cameroon would be less acceptable. Writing seven years later, Le Vine concluded that The Southern Cameroon’s unificationist strand must begin not only with Endeley but more particularly with the person of Jabea K.Dibongue (who) in 1949 organized the French Cameroun welfare association … that same year the UPC… launched fullfledged campaign in the French Cameroun for reunification and the UPC leadership lost no time securing Dibongue’s cooperation329 . Le Vine’s conclusion indicates that...