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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Role of the French Cameroonians in the Unification of Cameroon, 1916-1961
Author:Amaazee, Victor Bong
Year:1994
Periodical:Transafrican Journal of History
Volume:23
Pages:195-234
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:British Cameroons
Cameroon
West Africa
Subjects:political parties
federalism
colonialism
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Politics and Government
History, Archaeology
history
imperialism
nationalism
French speaking Africa
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24520277
Abstract:It is often argued that the British Southern Cameroons voted in 1961 to leave Nigeria and unify with the Cameroon Republic to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon in order to escape from Igbo domination. While this is true to a great extent, writers have failed to recognize that French Cameroonians within and without the Southern Cameroons made a major contribution in the campaign to magnify the Igbo scare. This paper examines the role played by French Cameroonians in the unification of Cameroon. It shows that although the French Cameroonians in the British Cameroons were not British protected persons, as the Igbo, they nevertheless enjoyed more sympathy than the Igbo, both inside and outside the Southern Cameroons. Many French Cameroonians had ethnic and kin relations in the Southern Cameroons, while the Igbo were in fact strangers in the area. The paper reviews the activities of various French Cameroonian political organizations - the French Cameroons Welfare Union (FCWU), the Kamerun United National Congress (KUNC), the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC), and One Kamerun - in the 1940s and 1950s which contributed to unification in 1961. Ref., sum.
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