Geraldine Sinyuy’s AGONIES OF THE DISPLACED: A Brief History Of Cameroon On The Early European Explorers,Along The Coast Of Cameroon Before 1884

AGONIES OF THE DISPLACED

by Geraldine Sinyuy

A Brief History Of Cameroon On The Early European Explorers,

Along The Coast Of Cameroon Before 1884

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive the coast of Cameroon, under the leadership of the Portuguese explorer called Fernadopo in 1472. They were the first Europeans to have arrived the Gulf of Guinea in 1471, before sailing to the coast of Cameroon in 1472. In that same year, 1472, Fernandopo visited River Wouri where he saw lots of prawns in the river, and named it “RIO DOS CAMEROES”, meaning the “River of Prawns”.

Meanwhile in that same year, 1472, the Spanish who arrived the Gulf of Guinea also explored River Wouri and named it Cameroes. The Dutch equally visited the territory in 1535 and established a trading post at the mouth of River Wouri. Due to the improvement in trade along the coast, the French, the British and the Germans also explored the coast of Cameroon and created their firms. Examples of such firms were the British firms of John Holt and Amba Bays company. The British named the territory Cameroons as they set up a court of equity in 1856 and the court of justice while the Germans named the territory Kamerun as they created their own trading firms such as Carl Woermann, Jantzen and Thormahlen. The French who on their part explored the coast of Cameroon from Big Batanga, Campo, Malimba and Kribi as they signed treaties with the local Chiefs in order to encourage a legitimate relationship with them in the 1840s, named the territory Cameroun.

HOW THE GERMANS ANNEXED CAMEROON IN 1884

The British reluctant to annex Cameroon because of their decline in trade along the Coast encouraged German traders who were dominating trade along the coast, to mount pressure on their country government for the annexation of Cameroon.

Bismarck, who was the German Chancellor at that time accepted the request made by the traders and sent Dr. Nachtigal in the annexation process in which Nachtigal collaborated with the agents of the German firms in Cameroon through which secret meetings and night meetings were held between German traders and the local rulers as the Germans provided them with gifts and money to bride the local rulers such as King Manga Bell and King Akwa to accept German annexation of Cameroon.

When that was done, the local chiefs prepared a memorandum which was called the Preliminary treaty to the Germans. And after the Germans had read the preliminary, some terms of the preliminary were included in the final treaty which was signed on the 12 of July 1884 as the Germano-Douala treaty with the hosting of the German flag in Cameroon to prove that Cameroon was annexed by the Germans.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN CAMEROON

The First World War broke out in Europe in 1914 due to the assassination of Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary throne and his wife Sofia Cheteh in Bosnia. When the war broke out in Europe, the allied powers, Britain and France, decided to attack Germany in all her Colonies in Africa Cameroon included where the war was fought for a period of 18 months from August 1915 to February 1916 when the allied powers defeated the Germans in Cameroon.

REASONS WHY THE ALLIED POWERS EXTENDED THE WAR TO CAMEROON

The allied powers wanted to avenge the humiliating defeat Germany inflicted on France during the Franco Prussian war of 1870-1871, to seize the territory of Cameroon from the Germans and to control the strategic locations of Cameroon such as the Douala Naval base.

REASONS WHY THE ALLIED POWERS DEFEATED THE GERMANS IN CAMEROON

The allied powers had good leadership. Under General Charles Dobell, the allied powers attacked Germany on all fronts. Besides, the allied powers had a larger number of soldiers as opposed to that of the Germans. They as well had the control of the Douala Naval base which prevented any supply of food and weapons on the side of the Germans.

REASONS WHY THE TERRITORY WAS PARTITIONED INTO TWO
BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND THE FRENCH IN 1919

Both Britain and France had different colonial policies and languages. Both powers wanted to have control over the strategic Naval bases of Douala, Victoria and Kribi. It was also partitioned in order to prevent the return of the Germans to Cameroon, and also to punish Germany for causing the war as well as to increase the French moral by giving her a large portion of Cameroon.

THE TWO TYPES OF COLONIAL RULES ADOPTED IN CAMEROON BY THE FRENCH AND THE BRITISH

After the portioning of Cameroon between France and Britain, hey became they became the new colonial masters of the country. Britain used the Indirect Rule system of governance whereby information was passed on from the British colonial authorities in the territory to the local chiefs or traditional rulers to the indigenes. As such, the British were not in direct contact with the local people, rather, they acted from the background, giving orders to chiefs who then transmitted them to their local subjects. As such, the people in the part of Cameroon which was colonized by Britain had their cultures maintained and very little was affected by the British presence in their land.

On the other hand, France adopted the policy of Assimilation or Direct Rule System in her own portion of Cameroon. This Direct Rule System of governance was intended to make French men in Cameroon (that is say, convert Cameroonians into French men and women). They introduced the French culture, constructed schools, and built roads and churches.

The people in the part of Cameroon that was given to Britain were forced to learn the English Language which earned them the identity of Anglophones while those in the part given to France were forced to learn French and that earned them the identity of Francophones. Albeit all these changes in their communities, Cameroonians still battled to maintain their local languages. It should be noted that Cameroon has more than 240 tribes which are found in three main ethnic groups; Bantus, Semi-Bantus and Sudanese. The number of national languages spoken in the country is more than 240 as indicated by the number of tribes.

WHY BRITAIN ADMINISTERED CAMEROON AS AN INTEGRAL PART WITH NIGERIA
DURING THE MANDATE OF 1922

The British decided to administer Southern Cameroon as an integral part of Nigeria because the territory was too small in size and population. Secondly, they wanted to reduce cost of administration. It was also administered because the British did not have enough colonial officials who could have administered Southern Cameroon.

But later on in the 1950s, British Southern Cameroon boycotted from Nigeria politics because of the crisis in the Executive Regional house of Assembly at Enugu and the Executive house of Assembly in Lagos where they did not have enough representatives and therefore decided to demand for a separate house of assembly to be created in Southern Cameroon by the British. At this point in time, the United Nations Organization (U.N.O) was preparing to grant the independent of Nigeria in 1960 and French Cameroon and thought it wise to organise a plebiscite in Southern Cameroon to determine their future.

THE PLEBISCITE IN SOUTHERN CAMEROON BY THE UN IN 1961

The UN decided to organised plebiscite in Southern Cameroon, when the Mamfe plebiscite conference of 1959 had failed and as such, the UN came up with article 1352 of the UN plebiscite questions as it was read; “Do you wish to gain independence by joining the Federal Republic of Nigeria or French Cameroon?” But the third option which was demanded by the traditional rulers for a complete secession from Nigeria and for Southern Cameroon to gain her independence was rolled out.  It was on this note that, following the outcome of the plebiscite elections, Southern Cameroonians voted overwhelmingly to join their fellow brothers in French Cameroon.

THE FOUMBAN CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE OF JULY 17-21 1961

It was the coming together of two states i.e. West Cameroon and East Cameroon to form a Federal Constitution, and the name of the New state was called the Federal Republic of Cameroon which consisted of a President and a Vice President.

At Foumban, it was agreed that English and French languages were to become the official languages of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, the placing of two stars in the flag to indicate the coming together of two states, as one. Both the English and the French sub-systems of education were to be maintained and in like manner, the two legal systems (French and English) were to be maintained in the Federal Republic.

But on the 20th of May 1972, President Ahidjo through a referendum abolished the Federal State for the creation of a United Republic of Cameroon. And in 1984, President Paul Biya amended the constitution to change the name of the country from a United Republic to the Republic of Cameroon and eventually changed the two stars’ flag into a one-star flag.

THE PRESENT ANGLOPHONE CRISIS

The present Anglophone crisis could be traced back right at the Foumban conference of 1961, which to the Southern Cameroonians, the terms were not respected. For example, the use of the two languages English and French does not have equal values. One language (French) is dominating another (English) in public places, the Southern Cameroon delegation of Foumban did not achieve the loose Federal system of Government as they wanted. Anglophones are not given the opportunities to hold key ministerial positions like the ministry of defense and finance.

To them it was an open marginalization of the Anglophones by the Francophones. The change of name of the state of Cameroon from “The United Republic of Cameroon” to “The Republic of Cameroon” by President Paul Biya in 1984, the exploitation of the resources in Anglophone zones such as timber and petrol in Ndian without developing the Anglophone zones also triggered part of the crisis. All these explain why in 2016, when both the teachers and lawyers stood up to redress the domination of French language in the English sub system of education and the English system of common law which the layers felt was being dethroned by the French system of civil laws coupled with the use of French language in the Anglophone legal system respectively. These amongst other grievances, sparked off the socio-political crisis which started in 2026 in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. Even before then, there have been uprisings here and there long before 2016 and these, such as the crisis which followed the presidential elections in the early 90s have caused untold pain and loss of lives, property, dignity and livelihood.