There has been little significant progress towards finding a solution for the now termed anglophone crises whose most recent phase erupted towards the end of 2016. The strategy of La Republique has been to misrepresent the facts and use excessive force to instill fear on the people of Southern Cameroon. For many of us, Ambazonia seems to be a new appellation for the territory of the North and South West regions but that is not the case. I have read documents dating as far back as 1991 in which the name Ambazonia was mentioned. Ambazonia actually is the original and authentic expression for West Cameroon. You might not have learned that in your history classes but most of us should have heard about the Ambas Bay. I hope that helps you fill in certain blanks.
Fast Forward.
In October 2016 lawyers went on a strike in an effort to force the government to stop appointing Francophone magistrates who spoke no English and had no training in common law to preside over courts in the Anglophone regions. Teachers soon came out in support of the lawyers. They wanted the government to stop posting Francophone teachers who spoke no English to teach subjects other than French in Anglophone schools. During peaceful demonstrations in the cities of Bamenda and Buea, the lawyers were roughly manhandled by government security forces. The use of force by the government opened up old wounds. It became a fight for the restoration of the federal system of government that was the promise when Southern Cameroons voted to gain its independence by joining La Republique du Camerooun. From there, it advanced into a fight for complete secession from La Republique.
Since the beginning of the crises, the only tangible attempt to address the situation has been the creation of the futile bilingualism commission. All the bilingualism commission has done is expose what seems to be a deliberate plan to abuse and desecrate the English Language. Every other day, we find ourselves laughing in pain at the French to English translations that produce English that one won’t expect from a seven year old native English speaker. I said expose because it is nothing new. In 1992, a government sponsored public health campaign had posters which read: “SWEEP, CLEAN AWAY, TO GATHER DIRTINESS IS GOOD, NOT TO MAKE DIRTY IS BETTER”.
Rewind.
Our forefathers had acknowledged their political blunder during the 1961 Foumban Conference when the details of the union between Southern Cameroon and La Republique were negotiated. Analysts hold that the 11 Febreuary 1961 plebiscite organized by the United Nations was illegal. According to Article 76b of the UN Charter, trusteeship over territory ends once the territory has achieved self-government or independence. Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) achieved self government in 1954 and in 1959, the UN passed a resolution severing the territory from Nigeria. In October 1960, an independent constitution for Southern Cameroons was made public and Southern Cameroons was due to achieve full independence on the 1st of October 1961. The UN therefore had no authority to conduct the 11th February 1961 plebiscite.
Leading up to the plebiscite, there was a UN manifesto titled “The Two Alternatives” stating that the plebiscite was to give the UN a mandate to either merge the Southern Cameroons with Nigeria or unite it with La Republique. The manifesto also stated that in the event that the people of Southern Cameroons opted to join La Republique, the UN will organize a post plebiscite conference to work out a draft constitution which the two parties will table to their respective constituencies for approval. The draft constitution was never tabled before the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly. The Southern Cameroons delegation to the post plebiscite Foumban conference therefore went and were made to negotiate on document they never had not the time to study. It is also important to note the the UN and Britain were absent from the Foumban Conference. The theory is that they realized their mess and chose to stay away.
Albeit illegal, the plebiscite did not offer Southern Cameroons the option to gain full independence by becoming its own country. Britain made the argument that full independence was not an option because Southern Cameroons was not economically viable to stand on its own which was false because there was already evidence at the time that the territory had huge petroleum reserves. Britain was confident that Southern Cameroonians will vote to stay with Nigeria but its plans failed; reason why it decided to “wash its hands” from the matter. That and the UN jumping ship, delivered Ambazonia to France on a silver platter and through its grand puppet, president Ahidjo, France initiated its plans to assimilate or annex Ambazonia under the political banner of integration.
So on the 1st of October 1961, when Southern Cameroons was originally scheduled to gain its independence, it was merged into a federation with Francophone Cameroon. On that day, John Ngu Foncha also become the 5th Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The marginalization and assimilation started almost immediately. In 1962, the pound sterling was squeezed out of West Cameroon and the East Cameroon Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc adopted for the whole country. It wasn’t long before the Anglophones realized they had been fooled and some started attempts to re-examine the 1961 federal constitution with the aim of identifying loopholes that made it possible for East Cameroon to embark on its plans for assimilation. John Ngu Foncha was one of them.
A political struggle for the leadership of West Cameroon developed between Jua and Solomon Tandeng Muna since, constitutionally, Foncha could not be both Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice-President of the Republic. The struggle led to the expulsion of Muna and his supporters from the KNDP after Jua's victory. Muna and his group formed a new political party, the Cameroon United Congress (CUC), which pledged support for the Federal Constitution but advocated the creation of a single political party and a unitary system for the whole country. Its popular slogan was 'one country, one government, one flag, one currency'. This program matched President Ahidjo's policy well and, in 1968, he appointed Muna Prime Minister of West Cameroon in place of Jua.
In 1970, the clause in the Federal Constitution which barred one and the same person from simultaneously occupying the posts of Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice-President of the Republic was overridden and Muna was appointed Vice-President of Cameroon in addition to his position as Prime Minister of West Cameroon. Foncha who had become the Vice-President before that appointment was thus eased out of office, and the way made clear for the introduction of a unitary system in Cameroon. Foncha, A.N Jua and others who were leading the fight to restore the autonomy of Southern Cameroons were later arrested, threatened with death and forced to join Ahidjo’s bandwagon.
On May 20th 1972, Ahidjo organized a referendum which led to the dissolution of the federation and the establishment of the United Republic of Cameroon. Many accounts hold that the referendum was a vote between ‘YES’ and ‘OUI” to the question “Do you approve, with a view to consolidating National Unity and accelerating the economic, social and cultural development of the Nation, the draft Constitution....instituting a Republic, one and indivisible, to be styled the United Republic of Cameroon?”
The draft constitution made English and French the official languages of the nation but stated that, in case of any conflict of interpretation, the French version of the Constitution would be authentic. It also declared that no procedure to amend the Constitution, if it tended to impair the republican character, unity or territorial integrity of the state, or the democratic principle by which the Republic was governed, would be accepted.
Since, under Ahidjo, it was politically unwise and even unsafe to hold and express views different from those of the President on any issue, there was no public debate. There was, at this time, no press which cared to debate the details of the constitution: the habit of self-censorship had grown up next to official censorship. No one publicly opposed the creation of the unitary state. No one tried to examine the proposition that the unitary state would contribute greatly to the future political integration, unity and stability of Cameroon, or that bilingualism and multiculturalism were better served by it or raised the question as to why or whether federalism is inconsistent with national integration and stability. Or indeed to debate any of the principal issues involved in a long constitutional document.
What then is the way forward for Ambazonia?