CHAPTER ONE
January 01, 1960
The new country was born on a Friday, but it happened to be a day recognized elsewhere in the world as a very popular public holiday. Camerounians, as the inhabitants of the land were now called, were expected to feel like the new independence meant they were finally free from the control, support, influence, aid, or dictates of France. But that was not the case. The majority of the people of the land woke up that morning convinced that they had not won the liberation they had risked their lives for. The new establishment chose to call the country La Republique du Cameroun, meaning “The Republic of Cameroun” in English. And it was the first day of January 1960. This new country constituted three-quarters of the land surface of the German colony that was called Kamerun back in 1911. Whatever the interpretation of that day of independence, there was supposed to be nationwide jubilation. However, the majority of former German Kamerunians and their descendants in the territories that now constituted La Republique du Cameroun, and British Cameroons (British Southern Cameroons and British Northern Cameroons) began the new year with trepidation. The dream of the reunification of their partitioned land had not been realized and two political realities now seemed to be forming right in front of their eyes.
In British Cameroons, especially the southern portion called British Southern Cameroons, the popular pro-unification political party called Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) under the leadership of John Ngu Foncha reigned supreme. But it did so in alliance with One Kamerun (OK), formed in 1957 by Albert Mukong and the veteran British-Cameroonian-born UPCist Ndeh Ntumazah. For the autonomous British Southern Cameroonian government under the moderate prime minister John Ngu of the KNDP, the call for celebrations was a gesture to the new country that he was prepared to deal with its government irrespective of the nature of the way it worked itself to power. However, supporters of OK looked at it as a reiteration of their commitment to the cause to reunite the two lands and free them from the control of the colonial powers, and as a commitment to their UPC allies in their partisan war against the establishment in the new country. In Victoria, Buea, Kumba, Muyuka, Tombel, Bamenda, Kumbo, Santa, Tiko, and Mamfe, the sounds of celebration mingled in the air with voices of opposition.
Meanwhile, in the newly independent country, there was no pageantry. In the north, the people hardly knew what was going on, while confused voices of celebration and rejection made the day in the southern half. In Douala, Nkongsamba, Bafoussam, Eseka, Edea, Kribi, Ebolowa, Bafia, Bafang, Dschang, Mbouda, Foumban, Mbanga, Loum, Manjo, Obala, Monatele and other UPC strongholds where anti-French and anti-Ahidjo feelings ran high, the people carried on with their daily activities as if it was just another day in their lives. Only in the bars and in social gatherings were curious voices heard, exchanging views on what it was all about.
In Accra, the capital of the independent state of Ghana, the UPC leadership in exile met and resolved to continue the partisan war not only against the French Army that had been increasing its presence in the land but also against the first Camerounian president Ahmadou Ahidjo, whom they considered a lackey of the right-wing political leadership in France. Ruben Um Nyobé’s successor, Dr. Félix Moumié insisted that the UPC redoubled its effort in British Cameroons and worked with the pro-reunification parties there to drive home the reunification agenda that now meant reunification with La Republique du Cameroun. The party leadership made finishing touches to the historic document entitled “POSITION DE L’UPC vis-à-vis de l’Indépendence DU KAMERUN”. Disappointed though most of them were, Félix Moumié somehow succeeded in driving home the point that they managed to nudge France into relaxing its hold on French Cameroun, and that other Africans and other colonial peoples stood to benefit from the independence drive. He viewed this future new force of independent African countries as potential allies that they would be able to count on in their fight against the duplicity of France led by General Charles De Gaulle. All, the same, the UPC members left the meeting that day particularly worried about what they dubbed “The Colonial Pact”, a loop-sided socio-economic-political agreement that France signed with Ahmadou Ahidjo late that December 1959, giving the European power exclusive rights over the land. However, no Kamerunian political figure knew the details or the fine print of that document, even Ahmadou Ahidjo himself, even though he signed it.
Like the rest of the UPC strongholds, Banganté also celebrated the granting of independence to French Cameroon in a subdued manner. However, the teenagers and their younger friends and siblings thought it was all about freedom and took the opportunity to dance and play in the streets. Despite the misgivings he was having about the whole development, Joseph Njike did not stop his children from celebrating the day. He even bought them drinks and candies to share with their friends, and he even gave his first three children extra money to spend that day. But as he watched Gavin sing and dance in the street, he could not shake off his pensive mood that had been lingering all day. He worried about British Cameroons. He could not figure out what French President Charles De Gaulle’s military strategy in the land was all about, and he wondered whether France could be having a secret game plan for the new country.
Jean-Pierre Ribery decided to see the reaction of the people on the streets of the capital city of Yaoundé, a place he considered to be of low-energy when it came to political activism vis-à-vis other population centers like Douala, Nkongsamba, Edea, Mbanga, and Bafoussam when it came to the liberation cause espoused by the UPC. He drove across the capital city from North to South, then from East to West, before heading to the French bar where he was supposed to meet with Clement. The American welcomed him like a long-lost brother and then called a waiter over.
“Lunch and something to drink for the two of us.”
“I won’t eat, but a drink will do.”
“Come, on, Jean-Pierre,” Clement urged.
“I had a bite while driving around and I am in no mood to eat now.”
“You told me the food here tastes great.”
Jean-Pierre acceded, but he stood his ground, forcing Clement to relent and eat alone. The friends said very little to each other for more than half an hour. However, Jean-Pierre asked for his third drink while Clement was emptying his first glass of wine.
“What is going on?” Clement asked finally.
“The people did not buy it?”
“Buy what.”
“This independence charade.”
Clement was thoughtful for a moment. “I guess that means nothing stops.”
“Business as usual, as you Americans like to say.”
“Worrisome.”
“Uh-huh! I never told you that Ahidjo’s Union Camerouniase was formed by one of our own.”
“The ruling party, you mean?”
“Uh-huh! The founder of the Union Camerouniase is a colon in the Mungo region, in a place called Njombe.”
“Huh!”
“You see, the right-wing gave the party to Ahidjo to thwart the efforts of the UPC, to get the commitment of the Fulani-dominated population of North Cameroun to their side, and more especially, to give the Fulani or Peul people a substantial stake in our plan of control for Cameroon.”
“And the people don’t buy this control plan, you said.”
“Uh-huh! One of my friends in the administration told me of plans to make the Fulani and Beti peoples our exclusive partners in the political control of French Cameroun. That was a year ago. His sobriety was fairly compromised at the time, but those were not words that could come off the top of a drunk’s head if it were not true, if he had not committed it to memory because of its seriousness. Yes, my friend; we intend to indirectly control this territory by excluding more than seventy percent of the population on the grounds of their ethnicity.”
“Can they do that and get away with it?”
“Uh-huh. That would mean defeating the UPC completely. That would mean crushing the partisans to the last man. It is going to be bloody.”
“What is the overriding purpose?”
“That, I think, I finally found out. They are trying to prevent a repeat of Guinea. They are trying to expunge any base of civic-nationalism that a UPC win would create in Cameroun because they see such a base as a threat to their selfish control of the rest of Francophone Africa. That is their fear, my friend. And when a man operates out of fear instead of reasoning, he fails to see opportunities in a mutually-respectable relationship between the peoples of Cameroun and France. Such a man can do anything. De Gaulle has that fear, which he parades around as confidence.”
Clement took a deep breath. “How does that translate into military actions?”
“It is obvious, my friend,” Jean-Pierre said, took a slug of his drink, put the half-empty glass down on the table with a bang and then heaved a sigh.
“What is obvious?”
“War, war, and more war. My country fooled Ahidjo into signing a pact that allows France to have a base here and increase the size of its forces in this land multiple times. We have trapped this land for eternity, and this is going to be a war France cannot lose.”
“Why?” Clement questioned in a voice that sounded more like an exclamation.
“My friend; I never believed them when I first heard it. You see, many of our people here talk of civilizing the Cameroonian natives, and they are backed by an establishment in Paris that still has Vichy underlining. These people lack the cultured personality that true enlighteners should possess. I think a lot of our civilizing postures are a façade because underneath our drive here in Africa is the uniquely uncouth French nature made famous by some of our well-known personalities. I am talking about our basic instincts that drive us to defy legality and constraints; I am talking about basic instincts that compel us to enjoy a life of adultery and gourmandism for which we are famous.”
“I guess nothing can be done.”
“So far, nothing can be done. Unless the Camerounian veterans of the Second World War get involved in the fighting, unless the exiled leadership of the UPC brings the fight back home. If not —”
“If not, then what.”
“The revised plan of pacification would be implemented. French military forces here would quadruple and the Bassaland would be annihilated. My job, our job, is to expose their game plan. To do so, you need to work with other foreign journalists who do not form a part of the media working with our Western governments. You need to meet with Charles van der Lanoitte.”
“The Belgian who lives in Douala?”
“Yes. You wanted to report on Cameroun. Go down to Douala without delay; but be careful.”
“What about you?”
“I am working on a book, Clement. It would be detailed.”
Clement took a deep breath. He knew he had to go. He was sure René Roccard would be there too.
By orchestrating its game plan that resulted in the birth of a new state called La Republique du Cameroun instead of reuniting French Cameroun and British Cameroons before granting them joint independence as demanded by the majority of the peoples of the territories, France carried out a brilliant coup that ensured its continuous hegemony over the land. However, it was also in direct contravention of the stated goal of the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations Organization. As predicted by many Cameroonian pundits, the countries of the world reacted to this game plan based on the sides they considered themselves a part of in the broiling cold war between the Western alliance led by the United States of America and the Eastern alliance led by the Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) otherwise called The Soviet Union. France, its Western Allies, and their client states, who formed the majority of the countries at the United Nations Organization in 1960, supported the so-called independence of French Cameroun and the other French colonies that France granted nominal independence to that year; the so-called Non-Aligned countries supported the idea of independence because many of them saw it as a step forward, away from colonialism in all its forms; meanwhile, the rest of the world, including the eastern-bloc countries and China, viewed it as a tragic step that could be unturned with time.
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