Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

The Road to (Re)unification in Pictures

In 1960, Primen Minister John Ngu Foncha (in suit on stairway) and Hon. S. T. Muna (carrying traditional bag) wave to wellwishers as they board a plane of the West African Airways Corporation (WAAC) for a journey to London to discuss the future of Southern Cameroons with British Colonial authorities.

Broken Dreams

Dibussi Tande (Buea, February 1993)
 
By the demon's spell they seemed possessed
By their mythical idea they were obsessed.
Theirs was to be the envy of the world
A nation with the best of two worlds.
This hazy concept was seen as "the" solution
And towards it they tolerated no contradiction.

The Post's Focus on Reunification

The Post Newspaper today published a special issue to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the union between the British Southern Cameroons and the French Cameroun. It includes interviews, recollections, commentaries on the state of the union, vox pop. Some of these articles are available online at the newspaper's website.

Click here to read the articles from The Post

The State of the Union 45 Years After: Symbols of Reunification in Decay

The Mungo Bridge

Constructed in 1969, the "reunification bridge" over the River Mungo was meant to give concrete meaning the the unification of British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroons by establishing a physical link between the two territories. On July 1, 2004, the bridge collapsed after a fuel tanker hit the railings and exploded. More than two years later, the historic Mungo bridge is still down and a new bridge is still awaited - a most symbolic representation of the current state of the union between the two territories.

The Reunification Question in Cameroon History: Was the Bride an Enthusiastic or a Reluctant One?

By Nicodemus Fru Awasom (Africa Today Volume 47, Number 2, 2000) 

The 1961 reunification of the British Southern Cameroons and the former French Cameroons was an extraordinary event, as peoples of different colonial backgrounds decided to form a single state. It presented a countercurrent in postcolonial Africa to the prevailing trend of the balkanization of old political unions or blocs.1 The British and French Cameroons had been administered separately by Britain and France since 1916 and reunified against the expectations and maneuvers of the metropolitan powers in 1961.

Bakassi: The Nigerian Withdrawal Begins

A Nigerian soldier lowers the Nigerian flag while two Cameroonian soldiers hoist the country's flag, signifing the transfer of authority of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroonian government in Archibong.

The Tombel Massacre of 1966: When Harry Porter Met The Lord of the Rings

Dibussi Tande

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.

May 20th Commemoration: In Search of the Elusive Common Ground

When East Meets West: Ahidjo, Muna, Biya and Foncha

On May 6th 1972, President Ahmadou Ahidjo informed citizens of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, during an address to the National Assembly, of his intention to dissolve the federation (which consisted of the federated territories of West Cameroon [Ex-British Southern Cameroons] and East Cameroon [ex-French Cameroun]) and replace it with a unitary state.

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Justice Samuel Lifafa Endeley: " Proud of The Image of Cameroon "

By Chief SML Endeley (Retired Chief Justice)

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.

Ngala Nfor: May 20th - "The Soul of the Nation and Ancestors in Mourning"

By Nfor N. Nfor (National Vice Chairman, SCNC)

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.

But on May 20, 1972 President Ahmadou Ahidjo by Presidential decree annexed Southern Cameroons (West Cameroon), abolished the federation, divided Southern Cameroons into two provinces of his country and appointed francophone governors (proconsuls) to rule in Buea and Bamenda.

Culture and Political Statehood: Reflections on Southern Cameroons Nationalism

By Dibussi Tande

Cultural heritage is important to the identity of a society. In times of need, songs, texts and works of art can be a beacon of hope and comfort. Cultural heritage reinforces the cultural and historical self awareness. Power of Culture

In a recent posting on his blog, Cameroonian political analyst George Ngwane analyzes what he perceives as the exclusively political mindset of activists of the former British Southern Cameroons who are seeking to reassert the region’s identity and “political statehood”. According to Ngwane,

Build Confidence Hypnosis Session

A Rose by Any Other Name: “United Republic of Cameroon” vs. “Republic of Cameroon”

Dibussi Tande

Let us assert forcefully and equivocally, that history is very much like itself - like history, that is; the more you try to efface, distort or forget, the more it sticks on as the one permanent, absolute haunting reality. Cameroon Tribune (English Edition), February, 8, 1984, Pg. 7

On February 4, 1984, President Paul Biya issued a decree changing the official name of Cameroon from the "United Republic of Cameroon" to the "Republic of Cameroon" (or, La Republique du Cameroun), which was the name taken up by the French Cameroons when it became independent in 1960. According to proponents of the name change, this was a manifestation that the bilingual Cameroon Republic had gone beyond “mere” national unity to a much "higher stage" of national integration.

The Cameroons Unification Revisited (1): On the Road to the Plebiscite of February 11, 1961

By Dibussi Tande

(Originally posted on the Camnet Internet forum on 11 February 1995)

It's [45] years to the day since the British Southern Cameroons voted, in a United Nations-sponsored plebiscite, to unify with the French Cameroons (then known as La Republique du Cameroun) to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Over the years, there has been a huge amount of literature about the state and outcome of that union. This posting will not dwell on the issue but will instead  focus on some of the reservations expressed primarily in Southern Cameroons before the plebiscite. I leave it to the reader to compare the pre-plebiscite predictions to today’s realities. 

The Cameroons Unification Revisited (2): The Endeley Prophesy

On the eve of the 1961 Plebiscite, EML Endeley’s Cameroon Peoples National Convention (CPNC) released a lengthy pamphlet warning Southern Cameroonians of the dangers that lurked ahead in case they voted for unification with the French Cameroons. The message was described as "eternal evidence of the full note of WARNING that is being sounded in good time to all Cameroon people before they make their historic choice of February 11."

The CPNC considered the document of such critical importance to the region that it appealed to the people of Southern Cameroons to "read it in your quiet moments. If you can't read, get a school boy or some other person to read and explain to you. Then sleep over the arguments raised in the pamphlet and wake up with a new resolution..."

Below are ten key points extracted from the lengthy pamphlet released in February 1961. Let the reader judge if these points have stood the test of time...

The Cameroons Unification Revisited (3): The John Ngu Foncha Declaration (Yaounde, December 1994)

In December 1994, John Ngu Foncha, the “architect" of the unification of Cameroon, spoke at length about the outcome of the unification between the British and French Cameroons. This was just before he walked out of Biya's Constitutional Consultative Commission which had refused to include a discussion of constitutional protections of Anglophone minority rights on its agenda. Here are excerpts of what turned out to be Foncha’s last major public declaration on the Cameroon unification experiment: