As indicated before, Cameroon's case is unique...In the case of Quebec and Eritrea, they were incorporated into British Canada and Ethiopia respectively as "trophies of war", hence they could or can politely get out (through a plebiscite or referendum)---Quebec, or fight their way out---Eritrea. Eritrea did just that with the support of the new government of Ethiopia after the overthrow of Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Britain simply brought South Sudan and Sudan together, two entities that had no history before as a single entity; and it had to take decades of war and millions of deaths for the international community led by the United States of America that was against the Islamist regime of Omar Bashir, to allow a referendum that allowed South Sudan to go its separate way. And of course, Zanzibar was a British protectorate (a protectorate which in modern international law, is a dependent territory that has been granted local autonomy and some independence while still retaining the sovereignty of a greater sovereign state. The United Kingdom never granted independence to Zanzibar because it never had sovereignty over Zanzibar. the UK simply ended the Protectorate and made provision for full self-government in Zanzibar as an independent country within the Commonwealth. It was the revolutionary government that came to power in Zanzibar a month after Zanzibar's independence by overthrowing the pro-British monarch that negotiated Zanzibar's union with Tanganyika, thereby forming a new country called Tanzania. So, Zanzibar could have stayed independent if it wanted to. Southern Cameroons never had that option.
The case in Africa you could have even compared to British Southern Cameroons’s was British Somaliland. Somalis, who had never been united before found their homeland even more divided into three Somali colonial territories (French Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, and British Somaliland.) during the partition of Africa, and the rest as a part of Kenya (North-east Kenya) and Ethiopia (Ogaden). Italian Somaliland became a British Trust Territory, like British Cameroons (British Northern Cameroons and British Southern Cameroons) after World War 2, which Britain administered separately from its protectorate British Somaliland. The Legislative Council of British Somaliland passed a resolution in April 1960 requesting independence and union with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland), which was scheduled to gain independence on 1 July that 1960. The leaders of British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland met and agreed to form a unitary state. However, Britain ended its control over British Somaliland five days before the scheduled unification date, so that the territory was briefly independent as the State of Somaliland before uniting on July 01, 1960, with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic (Somalia).
Curiously enough, following the descent of Somalia into a failed state in the aftermath of the civil war that followed the 1977-1978 war against Ethiopia in its bid to unite Ogaden with the rest of Somalia, the exit from power of President Siad Barre, and the breakdown of the central government, a geopolitical entity emerged in May 1991, calling itself the “Republic of Somaliland”, and regarding itself as the successor to former British Somaliland as well as to the State of Somaliland (the short-lived independent state of five days). Yet no country or international organization recognizes it until today. There is no need to delve deeper into the Somalia quagmire. And there are tons of other nominally independent states that are still unrecognized today who sacrificed blood to secede from the dominant state they were a part of---Nagorny Karabakh, Transnistria, Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, and until 2008 Abkhazia and South Ossetia (That Russia and a few countries recognized following the Russo-Georgian war) and Kosovo (recognized by many Western countries), but not by up to half of the world. These entities have control of their territories, standing armies, government, and other trappings, but are not recognized as such, hence are not connected to the internal financial systems, international trade, international legal system, the United Nations, and its affiliated institutions, etc.
In a nutshell, the retarding establishment can only address the grievances of Cameroonians West of the Mungo piecemeal. But a true, fundamental, genuine, and overall resolution of Cameroon’s No 1, minority problem is possible only in a New Cameroon, a New Cameroon that is possible after all the peoples of Cameroon, irrespective of religion, region, ethnicity, or linguistic affiliation join hands and with all seriousness dismantle this French-imposed system that has kept all Cameroonians in a cesspool for close to six decades.
And truth be told, I think the Northwest region is the least conscious of that reality as its politicians confuse the population into continuing the embrace of conflicting forces that divide the ranks of exponents of change there, making them strike blindly most of the time so that the formidable energy that the region generates gets scattered instead of being fully galvanized and channeled to effect cooperation with other forces of change in Cameroon and in building the broader energy that can sweep this monstrous system out of power and realize the New Cameroon. We need to be critical and self-critical, we need to listen to the points of view of others, be open-minded, start calling a spade a spade and turn our backs away even from our family members and tribesmen who are helping to sustain the system in a symbiosis that is leading Cameroon into the abyss. “Long Sense” is not the way forward. It is anachronistic in the cause to found the “New Cameroon” because it smacks of deception and dishonesty that a rational mind finds intolerable.
Janvier Tchouteu is the author of " The Mistakes To Be Avoided in Building The New Cameroon"
Cameroon: France’s Dysfunctional Puppet System in Africa
by Janvier Tchouteu,
No comments:
Post a Comment