The Anglophone camp in Cameroon politics has been in disarray since 1959 and will continue to be so until kingdom come. That has been the discernible trajectory, and those of sharp minds know this to be true. Strange, however, was the audacity of some Anglophone architects of the so called “marginalization thesis” to join the chorus of this choir, even leading a delegation to the United Nations, not long before they passed away. How often does participating humankind see evil in politics when and only when their period of action is past?
By Emmanuel Konde
A lot of verbiage is being spilled forth by journalists and rabble-rousers alike, all men only partially schooled in the history of Cameroon. In fact, it has become something of a fad lately to peddle tantalizing and titillating stories about Anglophone marginalization without careful substantiation of this macabre rumor. Hungry for facts relating to this marginalization thesis, an unsuspecting public has consumed it without second thought. What follows below is a synoptic account of what befell Southern Cameroonians on the eve of unification and thereafter. As you read this piece, please exercise uncharacteristic calm, and coldly ponder these questions: (1) Is the Anglophone marginalization thesis relevant? (2) Can a people marginalize itself/themselves, or must one people overwhelm another for marginalization to take place? (3) Is self-marginalization possible? (4) If so, have Anglophone consciously or unconsciously marginalized themselves?
From Autonomy to the Beginning of the End
By virtue of the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954, Southern Cameroons was detached from the Eastern Region of Nigeria and granted a separate regional status within the Nigerian Federation. Autonomy gave Southern Cameroons its own legislative assembly and empowered it to legislate on matters within the purview of the new government. The overwhelming electoral victory of Dr. Endeley's KNC party in the 1954 elections led to his appointment as Leader of Government Business. The institutions created by the Lyttleton Constitution were consolidated in 1955 and 1956. To that end, the Governor-General of Nigeria dissolved the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly on 29 December 1956 and on 5 march 1957 a new House was elected. The new House consisted of 13 elected members and two Special Members. One of the special members was a woman, Mrs. Dorcas E. Idowu, the first woman parliamentarian in the history of colonial Cameroon.
Dr. Endeley's KNC victory was largely due to his advocacy of separation from Nigeria, a message that struck a consonant cord among Southern Cameroons’ voters.. Once in power, however, the KNC party leader had a change of mind and began preaching a gospel at variance with his previous teaching. Endeley was probably influenced by his Nigerian wife to tilt towards Nigeria, which is plausible in politics as in other human endeavors. Perhaps he had used the separation strategy just to gain power. Whatever the reason for his wavering stance, after his electoral victory Endeley began to call for Southern Cameroons autonomy within the Nigerian Federation. This new political orientation placed Endeley at loggerheads with his erstwhile political allies and split the KNC party. The splinter faction, led by John Ngu Foncha and Augustine Ngom Jua, bolted out of KNC and formed the KNDP in 1955. The KNDP immediately adopted a program diametrically opposite to Endeley's KNC, which called for the secession of Southern Cameroons from Nigeria.
Regionalism and Fragmentation
By the time the January 1959 elections were held, Southern Cameroons could boast of six political parties--KPP (Kamerun's Peoples Party), CCC (Cameroon Commoner's Party), CIC (Cameroon Indigenes Party), OK (One Kamerun), and the KNC and KNDP as dominant. Come election day, the great "Northwest-Southwest Divide" that has persisted to date was clearly delineated by the results. Not only did Endeley's KNC and P.M. Kale's KPP form a coalition, so did Foncha's KNDP and Ndeh Ntumazah's OK. The voting of 1959 was thus configured on regional lines. The KNDP victory was predicated on two counts: (1) its message of secession was more appealing to the general voting population, and; (2) nearly all northwesterners voted for the KNDP.
The ascension of Foncha to the Premiership of Southern Cameroons in 1959 saw the appointment of Mrs. Josepha Mua as Special Interest Member in the House of Assembly. At the time of her appointment, Mrs. Mua was a 26-year-old Grade II teacher at the Catholic School in Wum. Mrs. Mua served in the House from 1959 to November 1961, when the House was dissolved following the Plebiscite result of February 1961 that led to the unification of the two Cameroons.
Regionalism in Southern Cameroons can be gleaned even in the appointment of women to the House of Assembly. Mrs. Idowu served in the KNC-controlled House under the leadership of Endeley; Mrs. Mua served in the KNDP-controlled House under Foncha's leadership. Surely, this was no coincidence, as their choice of these women from their respective regions during their tenures is instructive of the deepening gulf that would later blossom into near-open warfare between the two Anglophone regions in the 1990s.
Anglo-Saxon abandons Anglophone
The election of 1959 destroyed the slightest semblance of Anglophone unity. This absence of unity was further accentuated by the abrupt departure of the British from Southern Cameroons. Badly hurt by the Plebiscite results, the British felt repudiated by the electorate and, therefore, opted to play no part in advising the Foncha government in the same way that the French guided Ahmadou Ahidjo. Britain's abandonment of the Southern Cameroons is understandable in part because it had invested more in developing the human resources of its territory than the French did in their own zone. In politics, two Southern Cameroons women had been parliamentarians long before Mme Julienne Keutcha was elected to the first National Assembly of the Republic of Cameroun in 1960 at age 36. The table below demonstrates that despite the smallness of West Cameroon's population, barely a quarter of that of East Cameroon, it had proportionally more qualified technical personnel.
1965-66 SITUATION OF HIGHER STAFF IN THE MODERN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS OF CAMEROON
| Level of Staff Qualification | East Cameroon | West Cameroon |
| Qualified & highly qualified | 18,036/6,714 | 5,350/2,180 |
| Intermediate | 196/ 748 | - / 735 |
| Technicians | 1,115/ 187 | 1,502/ 242 |
| Senior staff | 565/ 152 | 236/ 174 |
| TOTAL | 19,912/ 7,801 | 7,088/3,331 |
Source: Federal Republic of Cameroon,"Second Five-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development," (July1966-June 1971), p. 482. The figures are for Cameroon staffs only. Expatriate staff is excluded.
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If the figures in the table above are to be deemed accurate, then Southern Cameroons entered union with the independent Republic of Cameroun on a very sound footing. And if that were the case, what happened along the way that has resulted to the now prevalent perception that Anglophones are marginalized in Cameroon? Could this perception be as far removed from reality as fiction is from fact? Perhaps another table depicting the last ten years would reveal a new reality that may either confirm or disconfirm the perception of Anglophone marginalization. In the absence of facts relating to positions occupied by Anglos and Francos in the public and private sectors of Cameroon, the wail of marginalization remains just that—a wail. The difficulty arises in determining who is an Anglo-Southern Cameroonian in the context of an ever-mixing Cameroonian population. Nevertheless, the elections of 1959, including events such as the 1958 Bikom Anlu, drove a wedge of discord between Bamenda and Buea, permanently rupturing whatever trust and confidence that had once existed between the coastal and hinterland Southern Cameroons politicians. British abandonment of the ill-experienced Foncha-led regime was but the last nail in the coffin of an incipient partner to a presumed union of equals, which was in fact unequal.
By the time of the 1962 Foumban Conference, the Southern Cameroons delegation could well have been made up of walking corpses. Foncha, Muna, Jua and Co. did not lead their delegates to the slaughter house. Far from it! Even before the Foumban Conference met, the delegates had, metaphorically, slaughtered themselves. What Ahidjo did was simply to present a fitting and honorable burial, but not before performing the last rites that some have called "the Foumban Conference"--a veritable misnomer.
The Trajectory Since 1959
The Anglophone camp in Cameroon politics has been in disarray since 1959 and will continue to be so until kingdom come. That has been the discernible trajectory, and those of sharp minds know this to be true. Strange, however, was the audacity of some Anglophone architects of the so called “marginalization thesis” to join the chorus of this choir, even leading a delegation to the United Nations, not long before they passed away. How often does participating humankind see evil in politics when and only when their period of action is past?
The living must hold their kind to account while still active. They must not wait until the evening to accomplish morning tasks. As in personal hygiene, so too, in public service. If we cannot eat before brushing our teeth in the morning, why rest tranquil when our neighbors invert the natural order? The loud minority of Anglophones have often basked in the limelight of their legendary past. Legend, yes it is because it exists only in their imagination. Basking in some presumed glories of the past, glories that never were, will not do it. Action, positive action, is the leitmotif of politics and a myriad of other human endeavors. © The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2009. All Rights Reserved
Anglophones will continue to be where they are until they put greed, egoisy and tribalisism and/or regionalism behind them. In other words, we would commence fighting for our children and future generations the day we recognise that our communities come first, self interest detroys us and is being exploited systematically.
We must recognise that since independence, La Republic has been using the divide and rule policy to succeeed, we must put our ambitions behind and pursue a common purpose, we must be prepared to pay the prize.
Anglophones elites must be ashamed of where they have put us,and time has proven that if we are seriously thinking of a future, then our leaders must be bold to do the right thing- community first.
Posted by: Kingsley Ekolle | October 03, 2009 at 11:36 AM