The Southern Cameroons and minority rights in Cameroon

Abstract

Advocating for Anglophone succession in a predominantly Francophone country, the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) purports to address Anglophone marginalisation. The Cameroonian regime, however, views them as terrorists. What is the likelihood of a peaceful secession or resolution of Anglophone grievances? This article examines the role of the SCNC in the struggle for minority rights in Cameroon, in the context of a failed democratic state.

Keywords:

• Cameroon
• human rights
• Southern Cameroons
• democracy

Notes

1. Article 1, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, entry into force 23 March 1976 in accordance with article 49.

2. Organisation for African Unity, Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, 479 U.N.T.S. 39, entered into force 13 September 1963. (http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/africa/OAU_Charter_1993.html). The successor of the OAU, The African Union (AU) maintains the same principle as the OAU as outlined in Article 4(b) of the AU's Constitutive Act: ‘Respect of borders existing on achievement of independence’ (http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/AboutAu/Constitutive_Act_en.htm#Article4).

3. For example, the division of Ethiopia into Eritrea and Ethiopia and the ongoing border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Cabinda dispute in Angola, the Oromo in Ethiopia, the Ogaden in Ethiopia, Caprivi in Naimbia, the Ogoni in Nigeria, Casamance in Senegal, Zanzibar and Tanzania and the Sahrawis in Western Sahara to name a few.

4. A minority is defined as ‘…a group, numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members – being nationals of the State – possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population and show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or language’ (Study on the Rights of Persons belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, UN Document E/CN.4/Sub.2/384/Add.1-7(1977).

5. Perhaps it is not too extreme to compare President Paul Biya with the late Mobutu Sese Seko, president-for-life of Zaire, who used to be associated with the phrase, ‘L'etat, c'est moi’ (the state is me).

6. The issue of whether the Anglophone or Southern Cameroonian population is a ‘minority’ or whether they constitute ‘a people’ is a politically-charged issue. Although the 1996 constitution promises state protection to the so-called ‘autochthonous’ minorities, the Anglophone minority was denied any state protection. I thank an anonymous referee for this point.

7. The two other main opposition parties are the Democratic Union of Cameroon (Union Democratique due Cameroun) and the National Union for Democracy and Progress (Union Nationale pour la Democratie et le Progres).

8. A phrase coined by Cameroonian artist, Lapiro De Mbanga.

9. At the time of this writing, July 2010.

10. Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organisation that supports the expansion of freedom in the world. As indicated in its mission statement, freedom is possible only in democratic political systems in which the governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedoms of expression, association, and belief, as well as respect for the rights of minorities and women, are guaranteed.

11. The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation with some 130 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

12. The categories are: critical, in danger, stable, and most stable. The scale is from 0–10, with 0 being most stable and 10 being least stable. The total score ranges from 0 to 120 (1–10 for each of the 12 indicators).

13. See Susan Dicklitch (2002). Failed democratic transition in Cameroon: A human rights explanation. Human Rights Quarterly 24, no. 1: 152–76.

14. For a detailed account of patronage politics in Cameroon and the manipulation of South West and North West Anglophone elites, see; Nantang Jua. 2001. Democracy and the construction of allogeny/autochthony in postcolonial Cameroon. African Issues 29, no. 1/2: 37–42, or Piet Konings and Francis B. Nyamnjoh. 1997. The Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The Journal of Modern African Studies 35, no. 2: 207–29.

15. Multiparty elections were first held in 1992 and subsequent elections in 1997, and 2004 with the next presidential election slated for 2011.

16. Mr. Biya was born in 1933.

17. See for example, United States Department of State. 2009. Cameroon: Country reports on human rights practices – 2008 (Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, 25 February 2009. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/118990.htm (Accessed 10 February 2010); Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. 2002. Every morning, just like coffee. Torture in Cameroon (published on 26 June 2002 on the occasion of UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture) (Accessed February 10, 2010); Amnesty International. 2009. Cameroon: Impunity underpins persistent abuse AI Index: AFR 17/001/2009. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR17/001/2009/en. (Accessed 10 February 2010), and FIDH says Torture is ‘commonplace’ in Cameroon, 30 October 2003; Panafrican News Agency (PANA); Cameroun: La torture: une realite ‘banale’, une impunite systematique, Rapport: Mission Internationale d'Enquete, no. 370 (2003).

18. See Piet Konings and Francis B. Nyamnjoh. 1997. The Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The Journal of Modern African Studies 35, no. 2: 208. There is a debate as to when the ‘Anglophone problem’ actually began. Some like Konings and Nyamnjoh see the problem developing in 1961, while others like Nicodemus Awasom focus on the unequal partition of the country between France and Britain with the German defeat in 1916. See Nicodemus Awasom, ‘The development of autonomist tendencies in Anglophone Cameroon, 1916–61’.

19. The plebiscite read, a) Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent federation of Nigeria, or b) do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Republic of Cameroon? Self-government was not an option. (See Tambi Eyongetah Mbuagbaw, Robert Brain and Robin Palmer. 1988. A history of The Cameroon (new edition), Burnt Hill, Harlow: Longman: 120–21.

20. ‘…any proposal for the revision of the present constitution, which impairs the unity and integrity of the Federation shall be inadmissible’.

21. Ibid, p. 214; See, African (Banjul) Charter on human and peoples’ rights. Adopted 27 June 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force 21 October 1986.

22. For example, the government issued a press release after the African Commission's recommendations, suggesting that the African Commission ‘…dismissed all the secessionist claims’ of the SCNC and the SCAPO and denied ‘the allegations of discrimination and violence against the Anglophone Community’. This is simply not true, but perhaps indicative of how the Cameroonian government will deal with the African Commission's recommendations (‘Cameroon: Moment for Dialogue’, Cameroon Tribune (Yaounde), 2 October 2009.

23. ‘Cameroon: Two musicians arrested for citicing [sic] constitutional amendments’, Media Foundation for West Africa, 23 April 2008. Cameroon's court of appeal upheld Lapiro's de Mabanga's three-year sentence for inciting rioting. Lapiro has been sharply critical of President Paul Biya (Agence France Press, ‘Cameroon court upholds singer's three-year sentence’, 25 June 2009.)

24. Most recently, the Biya regime detained 10 members of the SCNC in Mamfe, Cameroon on 27 May 2009, including Chief Ayamba (National Chairman of SCNC), and Mr Nfor Ngala Nfor (Vice- Chairman of the SCNC). (UNPO. 2009. Southern Cameroons: Statement of concern) http://www.unpo.org/content/view/9659/145/. The two leaders were given a five-month jail term by the Cameroonian High Court.

25. The SCNC developed as a result of the All-Anglophone Conference I and the All-Anglophone Conference II.

26. The Southern Cameroons was admitted into the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) in December 2004. http://www.unpo.org/print.php?arg=59&par=2086.

27. The ACHPR ‘believes that self determination may be exercised in any of the following ways: independence, self-government, local government, federalism, confederalism, unitarism or any form of relations that accords with the wishes of the people but fully cognizant of other recognized principles such as sovereignty and territorial integrity (188).

28. These include a faction led by Frederick Alobwede Ebong (chairman and president of the self-declared Federal Republic of the Southern Cameroons); another led by Nfor Ngala Nfor (national vice-chairman) and Ette Otun Ayamba (national chairman); Henry Fossung (leader of a faction opposed to the independence declaration by the Ebong faction; Professor Carlson Anyangwe – President of the Republic of Southern Cameroons in exile – Southern Cameroons Peoples Restoration Movement (SOUCPREM), and Ebenezer Akwanga – Chairperson of the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) (The Post, 14 January 2007).

29. Mr Fidelis Chiabi, chairman of the former Anglophone Youth Council, Cameroon Post, 1–2 February 1994: 7.

30. For example, the Ambazonia Liberation Party promises to ‘Fight and end this bitter episode as a conquered people and restore our sovereignty and independence’, Proposed Manifesto for the First Congress of the Ambazonia Liberation Party [ALIP], http://www.freeambazonia.org/files/manifesto2.1_0.pdf

31. The word Ambazonia comes from the two words ‘Ambas’ (the coastal peoples of Southern Cameroons) and ‘zone’. Fon Gorji Dinka called for the Southern Cameroons to be called the Republic of Ambazonia. The Ambazonia Liberation Party (ALIP) was formed in 2004.

32. Sarkozy urges more democratic freedom in Cameroon, States News Service, 24 July 2009.

33. I thank an anonymous referee for this point.

34. I, again, thank an anonymous referee for this point.