Southern Cameroons Interim Government

The Champion newspaper of Nigeria

The Champion newspaper of Nigeria interview with Stephen Joseph, Moderator of the IG’s Southern Cameroons People Forum. The interview was published in February of 2005.

Question 1:
Who are the Southern Cameroons people? What do they stand for exactly, what do they want from the Cameroonian government?

Stephen Joseph:
The people of Southern Cameroons are the people who the British carved out of the lost German colonial possession of Kamerun in Central Africa after the First World War. They became incorporated into Nigeria as an expansion of that British colony from 1915 to 1919. In 1919 they were placed under the League of Nations Mandate System after Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, insisted that all ex German territories be placed under a mandate system of the League of Nations. Britain returned the territory to the League of Nations but remained the Administering authority and continued to administer the territory from Nigeria as if it were a part of Nigeria.

The continued administration of Southern Cameroons from Nigeria by the British was unfortunate because the territory and its people neither benefited from colonial investments as a British colony nor benefited as a League of Nations Mandate, with rights.

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Southern Cameroons (Constitution) Order in Council, 1960

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This Note is not part of the Order, but is intended to indicate its general purport.)

This Order makes provision for the administration of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons under British Administration after its separation from Nigeria.

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The Banjul Communique

Introduction

This is a case that was filed before the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on January 9, 2003 by representatives of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation (SCAPO), acting on their personal behalf and on the behalf of the Southern Cameroons.  The plaintiffs who filed the case were the following:

1. Dr. Kevin Ngwang Gumne
2. Mr. Augustine Feh Ndangam
3. Dr. Martin Ngeka Luma (Deceased)
4. Chief Ayamba Ette Otun
5. Mr. Nfor Ngala Nfor
6. Mr. Humphrey Mbinglo
7. Mr. Albert Womah Mukong ( Deceased)
8. Isaac M. Sona
9. Dr. Emil Mondoa
10. Dr. Tayoba Ngenge
11. Dr. Stephen Shemlon
12. Dr. Martin Ayim
13. Dr. J Asongu
14. Mrs. Regina Mankefor (Deceased)
15. Ms Melissa Nambangi
16. Mr. Andrew Edimo
17. Mr. Tum Tafon
18. Mr. Dennis Atemkeng

The complainants were represented by Prof. Carlson Anyangwe, as lead Counsel and the law firm of Akinlawon & Ajomo of Lagos, Nigeria. The complaint recites that La République du Cameroun is guilty of violating the rights of hundreds of citizens of the Southern Cameroons and the collective rights of the People of the Southern Cameroons.

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ACHPR: Communication 266/2003

THE AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS COMMUNICATION 266/2003

Submission by the Representatives of the People of the former United Nations Trust Territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration.


Prepared by Professor Carlson Anyangwe, PhD
Attorney General
Southern Cameroons Interim Government-in-Exile

EXCERPTS:
Onset of the armed occupation of the Southern Cameroons 

54. On 25 September 1961 the British Queen issued a proclamation declaring that the British Government “shall as from the first day of October 1961 cease to be responsible for the administration of the Southern Cameroons.” The British Government then began to withdraw its personnel from the territory, culminating in the departure of its troops on September 30th 1961. The territory was left defenseless as it had no military force of its own. Republique du Cameroun moved in its military forces without the concurrence of the Government of the Southern Cameroons. Those forces occupied the territory and have remained in occupation since then, a situation indistinguishable from belligerent occupation.

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A Narrative on Colonization

INTRODUCTION
The story of the Southern Cameroons is one of the most intriguing and unjust in modern history. It is the story of how "independence by joining" became "slavery by joining". It is the story of a territory that was nursed by both the League of Nations Mandate System and the United Nations (UN) Trusteeship System for independence, and which rose to a self-governing status, established solid democratic and state institutions of its own, and then at the moment of its independence, lost everything and became a colony of a totally new colonial master who treated the people of the Southern Cameroons and their property worse than any colonial master before them. This new and destructive bondage came upon the people of the Southern Cameroons through a United Kingdom (UK) initiative. The UK, instead of giving independence directly to the people of the Southern Cameroons as directed by law, arbitrarily decided to attach Southern Cameroons to a neighboring French dependency, La Republique du Cameroun (LRC)/Republic of Cameroun.

Our Mission

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government-in-Exile (IG) is dedicated to the liberation of the people of the Southern Cameroons from the brutal colonial control of France masquerading as La Republique du Cameroun. After more than a century of colonization and the failure of Great Britain and the United Nations (UN) to perform their sacred duty and obligation of guiding the people of the Southern Cameroons to “self-government and/or independence," the IG is resolved to return to Southern Cameroonians their humanity and their God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.