In its second issue, Palapala magazine, the newly created Pan-African e-journal of culture, strikes gold with a special on Cameroonian literature in English. 
This rich and diverse issue includes a toast to the late poet/playwright Bate Besong by Africa's leading poet, Niyi Osundare; Chinua Achebe's appeal to Anglophone Cameroon writers to find - and tell - the story of their marginal and marginalized condition; playwright Bole Butake's dilemma of either dealing with the hardships Cameroon or going into exile;
Book blurb
Agreement. 
Ten years have gone by since Dr. Emmanuel Mbella Lifafe (EML) Endeley, the first Premier of the British Southern Cameroons, passed away on June 29, 1988. Over the years, much has been said about and against him, particularly by a younger generation of Anglophone Cameroonians who still do not understand his naive romanticizing of the Nigerian option during the 1961 plebiscite, and his lukewarm attitude towards the so-called Third Option (i.e., the school of thought defended by P.M. Kale, that called for the complete independence of Southern Cameroons from both the Nigerian federation and La Republique du Cameroun). 
The United Nations-organised plebiscite on 11 February 1961 was one of the most significant events in the history of the southern and northern parts of the British-administered trust territory in Cameroon. John Percival was sent by the then Colonial Office as part of the team to oversee the process. 
Douala - When the wedding bells rang for French and British Cameroon in 1961, it seemed to be an unlikely match. For almost half a century, the two central African territories had gone separate ways under totally different colonial administrations.
A common (in fact the most prevalent) theme in Bate Besong's writings (fiction and non-fiction) is the fate of Cameroon's English-speaking minority whom he referred to in his famous Beasts of No Nation as 'nightsoilmen" locked up in the antechamber of the bilingual republic; a people whose culture, history and even existence was an afterthought to the French-speaking majority of the bilingual Cameroon Republic.
With tears I remember -
In his rumination about the significance of Cameroon's May 20th celebrations (the country's “national day”), Nfor Ngala Nfor the SCNC Vice Chair, cites "the Tombel Massacre of 1962" as an example of the atrocities committed by "La Republique du Cameroun" on territory of the ex British Southern Cameroons. At first glance, one gets the impression that Nfor is referring to the alleged massacre of citizens of the then English speaking federated state of West Cameroon - most likely by the marauding trigger-happy Gendarmes from the French speaking federated State of East Cameroon. 
In the English -speaking part of Cameroon between independence and reunification,the administration provided education, health, order and the political atmosphere was liberal. The young administration was moving well. Before reunification, the people felt divided in the two separate administrations of Cameroon that had been one under the Germans. For example, we had two stars on our national flag. I wonder why Britain who defeated the Germans in the First World War did not get all of Cameroon. In the 1972 referendum, we were certainly coming back to what we were under the Germans — that is oneness. Cameroonians longed to live more closely with their brothers as justified by the referendum results. That was natural.
Southern Cameroons is a different and distinct nation. With its own international boundaries defined by international treaties, it is not an integral part of La Republique du Cameroun. Southern Cameroonians are Not citizens of La Republique du Cameroun. They are by culture, history and international law citizens of SOUTHERN CAMEROONS. They are not français Camerounais.
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