Cameroon on a Map of the World
The union-nationalists of Cameroon(Cameroon's civic-nationalists) are pragmatic revolutionists, progressive reformers or radical evolutionists. These are men and women who grew up being what they are more as a confection of circumstance than of what was bestowed upon them by birth that gave them a social identity. These people greatly developed or did not suppress their human touch. Unlike most, they do not find it easy to live without the slightest spasm over the pains and suffering of their fellow compatriots. Unlike most, they have put their purposes far above personal considerations and even above their personal interest, an uncommon quality. By dwelling on their sense of humanity, they consider the alleviation of the pains, turmoil and nightmares of their compatriots over the alleviation of their personal well-being. It is because of their all-embracing humanitarianism and deep awareness of the Cameroonian reality that they accepted the fact that the demanding task of alleviation cannot be based on individuals who are so many and complex as separate entities. Cameroon’s union-nationalists are acutely aware of the fact that the task of alleviation should be for the entire Cameroonian people. They know that Cameroonians have been dishonored, oppressed and traumatized en-masses and not separately.
Permit me to call Cameroon’s union-nationalists the advanced Cameroonians. These exceptional groups of patriots, who have been shaped by circumstance and have a clear sense of the meaning of life, have never been allowed to the helm of power in the country’s political life. With legendary origins and a gruesome past, they are the best reflection of Cameroon itself. Cameroon’s union-nationalists are aware of tribal, ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic sentiments; however, they have not allowed these to blind and overwhelm their reasoning for a progressive Cameroon. They are aware of the fact that Cameroon’s chronic malady lies in its anachronistic institutions, complete dominance by France and a detached oligarchic leadership. It is the different sentiments and workings of the French-imposed system that has shaped individual Cameroonians to varying degrees and constrains them in their drive towards authentic change and progress. However, Cameroon’s union-nationalists in their advanced ideals are those exceptional compatriots who have detached themselves from the shortcomings of the system and the blinding sentiments of tribal, ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic and social ties. They stand as the epitome of the renewed Cameroonian.
Since becoming a distinctive entity under the German colonial rule eleven decades ago, Cameroon has occasionally conceived of liberation movements that would have advanced the nation into a better position had these civic-nationalist forces been successful in their cause.
In 1910, Martin Paul Samba (Mebenga Mebono), the first Kamerunian civic-nationalist leader realized that the progress and glory of the land rested more in a future that was devoid of colonial control and permeated by progressive Cameroonian concepts. He began one of the earliest liberation movements in Africa and the first in black Africa. However, time and fate caught him short in his campaign to rally the full support of the peoples of Kamerun. Cornered by the German colonial army near Ebolowa in 1914, he opted for surrender rather than face the massacre of his people. In August 8, 1914, Martin Paul Samba was executed, a day after the execution of his close friend and ally in the name of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell. That was the first trauma to Cameroonian civic-nationalism in the hands of the German colonial army, leading to defeat in the first phase of the Kamerunian struggle and to dormancy for its nationalism for years to come. It was such a deep trauma that even after British and French forces defeated the German army in Kamerun in 1916, no civic-nationalist force emerged to defend the territory from partition by the victorious European powers.
This partition of Kamerun into British Cameroons and French Cameroun, and the ensuing mandatory rule unfolded consequences of a disruption of past economic, political and cultural ties, as well as their resultant usage. Moreover, it is the shortcomings of partition and the disruptions that are haunting Cameroon’s unity today. The imposition of separate English and French administrations in the land as agreed in the mandate formula only created systems that had little in common with pre-colonial experiences and that were out of touch with Cameroonian reality at the time.
Yes, it was due to the regrettable partition that Cameroon’s civic-nationalism was rekindled three decades after, with a union content this time around in its quest to reunite British Cameroons and French Cameroun. It began in French Cameroun in 1948 under the UPC (Union of the populations of Cameroon) and spread over into British Cameroun where OK ((One Kamerun) and the KNDP (Kamerun National Democratic Party) championed it. The goals of both the English and French-speaking union-nationalists in the 1950s were to reunite the two territories and pursue the ultimate Cameroonian dream. The New Cameroon was envisaged to:
· Build a genuine bilingual ethos.
· Bridge the gap in the development of the English and French-speaking sectors.
· Work for the evolution of a New Cameroonian people from the different breeds of thoughts and actions of its francophone and Anglophone children.
· And create a democratic, liberal, free, progressive, united, strong and developed Kamerunian nation.
Leading exponents of this Cameroonian dream were Ruben Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Albert Kingue, Enerst Ouangie, Leonard Bouli, Etienne Libai, Ossende Afana, Nde Ntumazah and John Ngu Foncha. The majority of Cameroonians looked up to those legends of their times in the struggle to realize the Cameroonian dream propounded by Martin Paul Samba.
Imagine what Cameroon would have been today had its liberation fighters and union-nationalists been allowed to their devices to build the post-independence Cameroon. That was never the case. France was determined never to let go of its control of Cameroon, its African pearl. The French imposition of the system that persists in Cameroon today, and the installation of the puppet Ahidjo regime concretized the French plot that preceded the banning of the UPC in 1955.
This ruthless ten-year war to eliminate all aspects of UPC influence in the country, a genocidal campaign that saw the deaths of close to a million Cameroonians in the hands of French and Ahidjo forces resulted in an effective defeat of Cameroon’s union-nationalists in the second phase of the Cameroonian struggle for independence, democracy, enlightenment, progress and development. Ruben Um Nyobe, Felix-Roland Moumie, Ossende Afana, Ernest Ouangie and several others in the UPC leadership were eliminated and the rest were either hounded into exile or cowed into capitulation by the French military and the puppet regime they put in place in Cameroon under Ahmadou Ahidjo. It was the death, exile and capitulation of the heads of the second phase of the Cameroon Struggle and the smug complacency of the Cameroonian people that began Cameroon’s infantile malady, a malady that has replaced hopes from a dream with fear and despair instead.
Imagine what Cameroon would have become had Anglophone and francophone union-nationalists realized its reunification, independence and governance. Had that been the case, the following would have happened:
· The New Cameroon would have been born with an authentic and firm foundation.
· Cameroonians would have realized most of the union dreams (the objectives of reunification and independence).
· And in no way would the pressing legacies of partition still be as glaring as they are today.
· The continuation of the UPC liberation war against the persistent French army in Cameroon and the post-independence Cameroonian army of Francophiles(pseudo-nationalists) would have been avoided.
· Then the deaths of close to a million Cameroonians in the hands of Ahidjo and French troops would not have happened, a nightmarish genocide that still haunts Cameroonians. Those deaths imbued Cameroonians with a sense of skepticism, cynicism, despondency, treachery, dishonesty and self-centeredness; and traumatized them into a state of political lethargy.
Today, most Cameroonians agree that the human obstacles to nation building lie more in the fact that reunification and independence were achieved by good-intentioned Anglophone union-nationalists and a Francophile Ahidjo regime that had little respect and knowledge of Anglophone aspirations and the collective Cameroonian dream (the objectives of reunification and independence). Ahidjo was put in power to defend the interest of those in the French political establishment, his collaborators and his ego. He was prepared to do that at all cost. Yes, it is this legacy of power retention, oppression and division that the Biya regime inherited and is excessively, shamelessly and madly strengthening in order to maintain his hold onto power. Yes, the shameful Ahidjo regime betrayed the dream of reunification and independence and conceived of the virus of distrust, disintegration and dishonesty that the Biya regime has proliferated to suffocate the cherished Cameroonian state. This is a virus that has almost eroded our dynamic spirit and progressive values, leaving us with the looming specter of despondence, which threatens to doom Cameroon.
The reunification spirit and its all-embracing dream were the dominant factors in our political lives before the quasi-independence/reunification of the land. Nevertheless, it was the Anglophone community led by English-speaking union-nationalists who realized reunification. The role of Anglophone union-nationalists is the most patriotic to have been realized and the entire force of Cameroon’s Union-Nationalism holds the people of the former British Southern Cameroons highly for that. Still, the ultimate Cameroonian dream, which is the responsibility of both English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroonians, has not been realized. The responsibility for that setback lies entirely with the French political establishment, Francophile regimes of Ahidjo and Biya, and their Anglophone collaborators. The unfortunate thing is that the Anglophone community has been the most betrayed. However, we must be honest with ourselves by accepting the fact that the entire Cameroonian people have been betrayed by the French-imposed system and that in our different ways, we too contributed to the success of the French-imposed regimes.
Today, it is getting to five years since the resurgence of Cameroon’s union-nationalism. However, the years of lethargy still haunt the Cameroonian people. The questions now are:
· Must we allow the Cameroonian dream to die?
· Must we allow the realistic beliefs of the majority of Cameroonians for almost a century to end up as an illusion because France and its accomplices of unpatriotic and anti-nationalists Cameroonians do not cherish them?
· Must we allow Cameroon to disintegrate and fail the drive for reunification that was given a positive response in the 1961 plebiscite by British Southern Cameroonians, and gallantly fought for by the majority of former French-Camerounians, just because a treacherous minority that constitutes the French-imposed establishment does not care?
· Must we allow despair to overwhelm our century-old dream and us?
· Should we betray our fallen legends and heroes because the price for rejecting the French-imposed system is too high?
No, the union-nationalists of Cameroon would not. They would not betray their ancestors, their dream, their heroes, their history of resistance and themselves.
Cameroonians would not surrender to despondency. They would continue the struggle against the oppressive and exploitative political influences in Cameroon in the guise of the current system. They would continue relentlessly in the struggle to eliminate the destructive aspects of the years of partition and Ahidjo-Biya rules.
Cameroonians would never surrender in the struggle against the anachronistic French-imposed system and the Biya regime. They are determined to continue in the struggle to eradicate the disheartening despair, division, cynicism, dishonesty and self-centeredness that have gripped the once noble Cameroonian soul. That is the will of the union-nationalists.
They are determined to continue hoisting the flag of the Cameroonian struggle to a logical conclusion. That commitment is not a matter of words. It is a difficult, demanding and selfless struggle―a task demanding actions, sacrifices and steadfastness. If we all get out of our lethargy and join the cause, all would soon be won; and we would not regret that we failed to save our nation from disintegration. That can be achieved only after we have discarded our self-centered attitudes and banish the negative legacies of partition and Ahidjo-Biya rules to the dustbin of history.
