I concluded recently that the infantile
malady of the current post-1990s forces that are active in Cameroon’s political arena stems from their disconnect from
the essence of the struggle in the early 1990s, an essence that provides the perfect insight into the
political developments in the land from the 1950s to the 1970s. That disconnect
or incomprehension is the reason why the actions of the Ambazonian factions and the other political
forces in Cameroon are apparently futile, thereby giving more life to the
moribund system and the dysfunctional Biya regime.
The major political force that was the
pacesetter in Cameroon opposition politics in the 1990s was the historic Social
Democratic Front (SDF) of 1990-1997. The party came to life as a result of
minds that dared and sought to change the status quo, minds that started
grappling with ways to confront the
system. They started doing so in little groups called think tanks.
There were many think tanks in Cameroon in
the late 1980s, all scheming to challenge or bring down the monolithic
French-imposed system spear-headed by the kleptocratic Biya regime. The Limbe
think tank had Dr. Samuel Tchwenko, Henry Njala Quan, Anthony Mpafe, former NW Governor
Alexander Motanga, and Mr. Manga (who passed away in June 1990) in it. They
were for a “NEW CAMEROON”. There were also think tanks in Yaoundé (Tazoacha Asonganyi
etc.), Douala (Yondo Black, Ekani Anicet etc), and Bafoussam…
1.
The brainchild of the Bamenda think tank that began the process to create a political party, and in effect the real founder of the SDF was Albert Mukong---he began the process that expanded to include others (the Founding Fathers). He did so as a Kamerunist, a civic-nationalist, otherwise called a union-nationalist. He was for systemic change. As a former UPCist and One Kamerunist (OK) who had stood and campaigned for reunification and independence, he opposed the French-imposed system and the quasi-dictatorship that the Foncha/Muna-led KNDP legitimized, starting with Foumban where they got hoodwinked, to today. In a nutshell, Albert Mukong led the Cameroonian nationalist faction that opposed the Ahidjo/Biya dictatorships, Ahidjo’s stifling of democracy that culminated with the coercive merger of all political parties in Cameroon (including EML Endeley’s) into the Grand Unified National Party (CNU) in 1966, the process that transformed the country from the Federal Republic of Cameroon into the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972, and then into the Republic of Cameroon in 1984. Albert Mukong at the time was for the “NEW CAMEROON”, the civic-nationalist group in the SDF that shared most of the visions of the historic UPC and OK (One Kamerun).
2.
The second group consisted
of those who thought the SDF would be the tool to use to redeem the “Rights” of
the People West of the Mungo and Metazem Rivers. The founding fathers prominent
in this group were Vincent Feko, Nfor Nfor Ngala, and Carlson Anyangwe.
3.
The third group, which
was less ideological, was an assorted mix of former CPDM cadres, businessmen, functionaries,
academicians, legal persons, retirees, and quasi-retirees, etc. This included John
Fru Ndi, Justice Nyo Wakai, Clement Ngwasiri, Siga Asanga, Ben Muna, Lawyer
Senze etc. Most of those in this group did not envisage dismantling the system,
looked forward to securing a greater share of the national cake and were a lot
more pliable. That national cake could be for the NW region, Anglophone
Cameroon, or all of Cameroon, depending on the possibility. Most of the Founding
Fathers were in this group.
So, it was not surprising that Albert
Mukong, the real founder of the SDF, extended a hand to other think tanks that were wanted the French-imposed system in Cameroon to be dismantled so as to found "New Cameroon", those gearing for systemic change. That is why he was arrested along with
Yondo Black and Ekani Anicet in Douala. The ripple effects of their arrest
marked the rebirth of multipartism in Cameroon. It was during his time in detention or jail
that Fru Ndi braved his way to the leadership position in the SDF, whence it
was registered through the guardianship of Ben Muna, and then launched.
Elements of the Limbe think tank, like
elements in other think tanks, would see no reason to create other political
parties after the launch of the SDF on May 26, 1990. By throwing its lot behind
the nascent SDF, the Limbe think tank would fracture. But the
Tchwenko/Malafa/Mpafe/Shalo-led group would successfully indigenize the SDF in the Southwest
province; rally the non-indigenous population in the province behind the SDF
and tame the Northwest/Southwest political acrimony that developed in the 1960s
under the West Cameroon government dominated by members of the KNDP. The
Southwest came to have the second-highest number of members in the National
Executive Committee, with Limbe-based Nordist Mahamat Souleymane becoming the party's 1st
Vice President and Martin Luma also becoming a Vice President. This Tchwenko-led Northwest/Southwest
reconciliation drive formed the base that future Anglophone Movements (AAC, SCNC , and today Ambazonia) sprung from. Some prefer to call it the reconciliation of
the NW/SW opposition political class led by English-speaking Bamilekes (Anglo-Bamis of mostly the Southwest province), otherwise called Bamilekes of "Anglophone extraction" or native-born Bamilekes of the Northwest and Southwest.
Dr. Samuel Tchwenko would also weave the alliance that contributed enormously in convincing some of the political classes and most of the populations in the Littoral and
West provinces (followers of the historic UPC and their descendants) to move to the SDF. That was how the original marginal civic-nationalist
faction in the SDF under Albert Mukong became the largest faction in the party,
making the SDF a national, nationalist political party. the SDF's chairman John Fru
Ndi identified closely with this civic-nationalist faction for half a decade, and effectively won the 1992 presidential election that was usurped by Paul
Biya, winning it as the head of the “UNION FOR CHANGE”, a coalition of
opposition political parties pursuing systemic change in Cameroon.
As Fru Ndi himself commented: “If man go for
get goat wey dem don tie am and he see say dem don tie na cow for e place, he no go take cam?”
In 1993, while still uneasy after stealing the Presidential elections Fru Ndi won against Paul Biya in 1992, the French presidential administration invited Fru Ndi to France with the intention to convince him to take the SDF into a union government with Biya's CPDM after failing to do so with the SDF's Dr. Samuel Tchwenko in December 1992. The bluntness of the French when Charles
Pasqua, France’s Minister of the Interior stated to a 1993 SDF delegation to Paris (which included John Fru Ndi, Justice Nyo Wakai, Dr. Samuel Tchwenko, Charlie Gabriel Mbock) that France would not allow the SDF to power, convinced many in the third group of the
SDF that the only way forward would be to work or collaborate with the system.
It also galvanized many in the second group to channel their energy towards the
Anglophone cause. That was how the SDF started falling apart, with the upright
Kamerunist faction, which had the support of most Cameroonians, finding itself marginalized
by the party’s hierarchy dominated by “Founding Fathers”, to the point where most
of the Kamerunists( union-nationalists) quit the SDF that they had boosted into
a Movement; that was how the SDF started falling apart as the second and third groups degraded the SDF
into a moribund force that came to operate like the other so-called opposition parties
in the country, that was how the transformation of the SDF into a racket by Fru Ndi created a vacuum that Kamto’s MRC sought to fill. Yet, we all know that the MRC is
bereft of those ideals and the substance that Kamerunism is all about, even
though it belatedly accepted the quest for a “NEW CAMEROON”, even though it has
not spelt out that it is for systemic change.
In a nutshell, upon the SDF’s founding, the faction
that was exclusively for the interest of Anglophone Cameroon and Anglophone
Cameroonians (Southern Cameroons)was vocal, but it was not the dominant
faction. However, by France and Cameroon’s political establishment making it known
that the SDF would never be allowed to win political power in the country; by the Biya regime stringing along the third
faction in the SDF through handouts; and by stirring Bamileke phobia in the SDF, to the
point where the powerful Kamerunist faction found itself sidelined in the party
until it became marginal after 2002, this “Southern Cameroons” faction became powerful
enough to challenge the conformist faction in the party---the third faction not
driven by ideology. Hence the birth of
Ambazonia militantism.
Janvier Tchouteu December 7, 2020
Janvier
Tchouteu is the author of Triple
Agent, Double Cross
