The Remnants of Colonization Series - Crisis in Cameroon

BY: Danielle D. Rodgers

Cameroon is on the brink of a civil war.[1] There is a conflict between the English and French-speaking regions.[2] This conflict is known as the Anglophone Crisis.[3] As of November 2018, hundreds of Cameroonians have died and over 500,000 Cameroonians have been displaced from their homes.[4] Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages.[5] Eight of the ten regions in Cameroon, which contain about 83% of the population, are mostly francophone. [6] The two remaining regions, which contain 17% of the population, are mainly anglophone.[7]

Cameroon is a nation divided, but not by its choice. The borders of Cameroon were largely determined by European colonial powers.[8] In 1916, Britain and France seized Cameroon from Germany and controlled two distinct regions-the Northern and Southern Cameroons.[9] In 1960, the French-speaking region, Northern Cameroons, gained independence from France and became the Republic of Cameroun.[10] In 1961, the British controlled region, Southern Cameroons, was given the option, by the United Nations through a plebiscite, to either join Cameroun or Nigeria.[11] The plebiscite was prompted by “a British report that insisted its former territory [the Southern Cameroons] would not survive economically on its own.”[12] Southern Cameroonians had endured suffering at the hands of the Igbo people, who had previously settled in their territory and did not want to join Nigeria.[13]The English-speaking region opted to unite into a new federation with the Cameroun Republic and a bilingual country was established.[14] The unification was portrayed as “a partnership of equals, a notion reinforced by bilateral negotiations that had started before the vote.”[15] However, after the negotiations at the Foumban Conference in July 1961, the French advisors helped the French-speaking region benefit largely from the deal.[16] The Anglophones were in effect sidelined and did not receive the support promised by the United Nations or Britain.[17]

Since the unification of the United Nations trusteeship territories, the Francophone regions of Cameroon have ruled the country in an authoritarian way.[18] Anglophones have pushed for autonomy with no success, despite the United Nations resolution, passed in April 1961, that defined the states as equal in status and autonomous.[19] In 1972, the original federal structure that the postcolonial unification was founded on became abrogated.[20] In 1984, after annexation into a united republic, the word “united” was cut and the Anglophone regions were forced to assimilate into the Francophone regions.[21] With a Francophone dominated government, the “dignity and statehood of Anglophones” were silently destroyed.[22] Ever since annexation, the two elected presidents of the centrally governed regions have not spoken nor understood English.[23] In fact, the current President, Paul Biya, reads English with difficulty and signs all documents in French.[24] For years, the English-speaking minority complained of being treated like second class citizens in the long-standing Anglophone Crisis.[25] This crisis is a direct result of European colonization.[26] Aside from the language barriers created from the annexed state such as the need for the ability to speak, read, and use French as a working language, Anglophones have long faced social barriers.[27] Anglophones were forced to gain familiarity with the Francophone way of life and Francophone outlook, culture, and how the local governments are operated.[28] Anglophones “have long complained that their language and culture” are marginalized.[29] Anglophones want their judicial, educational, and local government systems to be protected from Francophone marginalization.[30]

On October 11, 2016, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, an organization composed of lawyer and teacher trade unions from the Anglophone regions,[31] initiated a strike to protest the appointment of Francophone judges in the Anglophone regions and to oppose the deployment of Francophone teachers in Anglophone schools.[32] The Anglophone lawyers alleged that the appointed Francophone judges barely spoke passable English and were not familiar with their common law judicial system.[33] Additionally, Anglophone lawyers have long dealt with laws not translated into their native language.[34] On strike, the Anglophone lawyers asked the government to hold an emergency session for the Higher Judicial Council to remove civil law magistrates from the two Anglophone regions and requested that Cameroon return to a two-state federation to ensure the coexistence of both legal systems, among other demands.[35] After the continued deployment of Francophone teachers to Anglophone schools, teachers in the Anglophone regions joined the lawyers in their strike.[36] Teachers in the Anglophone region claimed that the Francophone teachers taught in “broken English and, as a result, many students did not perform well in their final examinations.”[37] Further, Anglophone teachers also asserted that Francophone students excessively outnumber Anglophone students in the Anglophone universities of Buea and Bamenda.[38] Eventually, citizens joined the protests to denounce marginalization and forced assimilation.[39] Anglophone citizens also protest the consolidation of power by French speakers to exclude English speakers from the government as well as the prevention of economic development in Anglophone regions.[40]

The protests became a movement and the government cracked down on this movement by jailing moderate leaders and killing protestors.[41] On October 1, 2017, during a nonviolent protest led by Anglophone citizens, the “government cracked down again with unprecedented force, shooting indiscriminately at crowds, murdering people in their homes, arbitrarily arresting hundreds and subjecting detainees to torture.”[42] After an oppressive response from the government, the movement fell into the hands of citizens who are more extreme and many citizens with more moderate views became radicalized.[43] The citizens turned into armed successionists and now fight for the independence of the Anglophone regions.[44] Young men, often referred to as “Amba boys,” are fighting in the bush with only hunting rifles and spears.[45] Separatists refer to the territory of the two Anglophone regions as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.[46] The citizens of Ambazonia want to be in control of their own government and resources.[47] On October 31, 2017, Ambazonia formed an Interim Government to lead.[48] However, the government responded by sentencing ten Anglophone leaders to life imprisonment during a “military sham trial.”[49] The leaders were held incommunicado for six months until they were allowed to meet with lawyers on the International Committee of the Red Cross.[50]

President Paul Biya’s accounts of the Anglophone Crisis are at odds with multiple accounts.[51] Since the fighting began, many English speakers accused the government of committing human rights abuses against civilians instead of targeting separatists.[52] Specifically, sources allege that the Rapid Intervention Battalion (“BIR”) is burning down villages and killing people indiscriminately.[53] However, the government accuses separatists of attacking security forces and killing civilians.[54] Contrary to the government’s statements, a civilian captured a video showing BIR setting fire to houses in English-Speaking villages.[55] Further, the State Department confirmed that the United States was scaling back security assistance to Cameroon after citing numerous, credible allegations of human rights violations against English speaking Cameroonians.[56]

Cameroon must rise and uproot the remnants of colonization to move forward. The colonizers refused to allow those that had once been colonized, the Southern and Northern Cameroons, the authentic right to self-determination even after the Cameroon regions gained their independence.[57] As a result, the colonizers forced the creation of a “unified” nation that had been divided since its inception despite the promises of equality.[58] Therefore, this post examines whether the Anglophone regions have the right to secede from Cameroon based on international precedent. The advisory opinion In re Secession of Quebec serves as the leading international case for internal secession due to denial of internal political rights.[59] International law recognizes “effective political realities,” such as the emergence of a new state, as facts.[60] There is an “implied duty of states to recognize the legitimacy of succession brought about by the exercise of the well-established international law right of ‘a people’ to self-determination.”[61] Additionally, exceptional circumstances are required to permit secession under the right of a people to self-determination.[62] For example, the right of secession arises in the exceptional situation of the most extreme and oppressive circumstances.[63] A "people" may include only a portion of the population of an existing state.[64] Today, self-determination is largely asserted by ethnic minorities and other groups which seek to control territory, exercise autonomy, and enjoy statehood.[65]

There are three categories in which self-determination claims have been made: decolonization, foreign occupation, denial of internal political rights.[66] The right to self-determination of a people is usually through internal means.[67] For example, internal self-determination occurs when a people seeks the “pursuit of political, economic, social, and cultural development within the framework of the existing state.” The external right to self-determination is only granted in the most extreme and oppressive circumstances such as decolonization from foreign occupation.[68] The United Nations accords the right to self-determination to all peoples but stated that the right shall not authorize or encourage action that would impair totally or in part, the territorial integrity or unity of states.[69]

After examining the framework for the right to self-determination, the Supreme Court of Canada found that Quebec did not reach the threshold to create a right to secede under international law based on the right to self-determination.[70] The court found that the Quebec people were not victims of attacks on its “physical existence or integrity, or of a massive violation of its fundamental rights.”[71] The Quebec people were not, in the opinion of the court, an oppressed people.[72] For the past 40 to 50 years, the Prime Minister of Canada had been a Quebecer.[73] During that time period, Quebecers have held important positions in the federal Cabinet.[74] Additionally, at the time of the opinion,  the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Chief Justice and two other members of the court, the Chief of Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian ambassador of the United States, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations were all Quebecers.[75] As a result, the court determined that the population of Quebec could not plausibly be said to be denied access to the government due to the prominent positions held by Quebecers in the government of Canada.[76]Residents of Quebec were found to enjoy the freedom to make political choices and “pursue economic, social and cultural development” within Quebec and across the world.[77] The population of Quebec was equitably represented in the judicial, legislative, and executive institutions of Canada.[78] Therefore, the court held that Quebec did not have to right to secede through self-determination.[79]

When distinguished from the situation in Quebec, Ambazonia more than likely qualifies for the right to self-determination due to the denial of internal political rights for Anglophones by the government which is a direct result of the remnants of colonization and systemic cultural homogenization.[80] The citizens of Ambazonia are a people, the Anglophones, and the Anglophone people are oppressed.[81] Unlike Quebec, the Anglophone citizens lack representation in the government, do not have access to resources, and face systemic killing and detention by BIR forces.[82] Anglophone citizens do not enjoy the freedom to make political choices or the ability to “pursue economic, social and cultural development” within Cameroon.[83] Anglophone villages are burned down, the government continues to oppressively crackdown on peaceful protests, and separatist leaders are jailed.[84] Additionally, Anglophone lawyers are forced to interpret and use laws that are written in French.[85] The government also continues to dispatch Francophone magistrates who are unfamiliar with English and the common law system to render justice in the Anglophone regions.[86] Furthermore, the population of the Anglophone regions is not equitably represented in the judicial, legislative, and executive institutions of Cameroon.[87] The population of the Anglophone regions cannot plausibly be said to have equal access to the government or resources due to the prominent positions held by mostly Francophones in the government of Cameroon.[88] Further, Anglophone students are systematically denied the right to education due to the deployment of French teachers in the Anglophone regions.[89] For years, Anglophones have systematically been denied their rights[90] and the remnants of colonization continues to destroy the lives of the people of Cameroon today. In order to effectuate the change necessary for a more equitable society, Ambazonia must be granted self-determination in order to enjoy the control of their territory, the ability to exercise autonomy, and the right to enjoy statehood.

#Cameroon #AnglophoneCrisis #Colonialism #Ambazonia #Ambazonians #TheRemnantsofColonizationSeries #InternationalLaw #DanielleDRogers

[1][1] Takudzwa Hillary Chiwanza, The Anglophone Crisis In Cameroon Shows The Deep, Long-lasting Effects Of Colonialism, African Exponent (July 18, 2018), https://www.africanexponent.com/post/9033-the-anglophone-crisis-in-cameroon-is-a-direct-result-of-colonialism.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.; Cameroon Events of 2018, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/cameroon.

[5] Nsom Joseph, Cameroon, Camer (Feb. 06, 2015), http://www.camer.be/39483/11:1/cameroun-cameroon-a-francophone-bilingual-country.html.

[6] What Languages Are Spoken In Cameroon?, World Atlas, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-cameroon.html. Francophone refers to a French-speaking region. See id. Anglophone refers to English speaking regions. Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Democracy Dies in the Darkness, Cameroon, divided by two languages, is on the brink of civil war, Washington Post (Feb. 5, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/cameroon-divided-by-two-languages-is-on-the-brink-of-civil-war/2019/01/29/1ad39eb5-3e8d-44fd-8d0b-067ada6954cf_video.html.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.; Verkijika G. Fanso, History explains why Cameroon is at war with itself over language and culture, Conversation (Oct. 15, 2017), https://theconversation.com/history-explains-why-cameroon-is-at-war-with-itself-over-language-and-culture-85401.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.; Democracy Dies in the Darkness, supra note 8.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Verkijika G. Fanso, History explains why Cameroon is at war with itself over language and culture, Conversation (Oct. 15, 2017), https://theconversation.com/history-explains-why-cameroon-is-at-war-with-itself-over-language-and-culture-85401.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.; Democracy Dies in the Darkness, supra note 8.

[25] Democracy Dies in the Darkness, supra note 8.

[26] Takudzwa Hillary Chiwanza, The Anglophone Crisis In Cameroon Shows The Deep, Long-lasting Effects Of Colonialism, African Exponent (July 18, 2018), https://www.africanexponent.com/post/9033-the-anglophone-crisis-in-cameroon-is-a-direct-result-of-colonialism; Eliza Anyangwe, Cameroon’s heartbreaking struggles are a relic of British colonialism, Guardian (Jan. 12, 2018), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/12/ cameroon-independence-colonialism-britain-nigeria; Mark Caldwell, Cameroon: colonial past and present frictions, DW (Jan. 1, 2017), https://www.dw.com/en/cameroon-colonial-past-and-present-frictions/a-37344849.

[27] Fanso, supra note 13.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Sylvain Andzongo, Trial over Cameroon’s Anglophone protests exposes national divide, Reuters (Feb. 13, 2017), https://web.archive.org/web/20170908155639/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cameroon-protests/trial-over-cameroons-anglophone-protests-exposes-national-divide-idUSKBN15S1UH; Ateki Seta Caxton, The Anglophone Dilemma in Cameroon, reliefweb (July 21, 2017), https://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/anglophone-dilemma-cameroon.

[32] Francois Essomba and Dionne Searcey, A Bilingual Cameroon Teeters After English Speakers Protest Treatment, New York Times (Feb. 9, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/world/africa/a-bilingual-cameroon-teeters-after-english-speakers-protest-treatment.html.

[33] Caxton, supra note 5. The Francophone regions of Cameroon rely on a civil law system. Id.

[34] Id.

[35] Id.

[36] Id.

[37] Id.

[38] Id.

[39] Id.; Democracy Dies in Darkness, supra note 4.

[40] Id.

[41] Id.

[42] Felix, supra note 16.

[43] Democracy Dies in Darkness, supra note 4.

[44] Id.

[45] Id.

[46] Id.

[47] Id.

[48] C. Nna-Emeka Okereke, Analyzing Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis, 10 Int’l Centre for Pol. Violence and Terrorism Res. 3, 8-12 (March 2018).

[49] Felix, supra note 16.

[50] Human Rights Watch, supra note 4.

[51] Democracy Dies in Darkness, supra note 4.

[52] Id.

[53] Id.

[54] Id.

[55] Id.

[56] Id.; Dionne Searcy, U.S. Reduces Military Aid to Cameroon Over Human Rights Abuses, New York Times (Feb. 7, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/world/africa/cameroon-military-abuses-united-states-aid.html.

[57] Fanso, supra note 13.

[58] Id.

[59] Lori Fisler Damrosch & Sean D. Murphy, International Law Cases and Materials (7th ed. 2019).

[60] Id.at 310.

[61] Id.

[62] Id.

[63] Id. 310-11.

[64] Id. at 312.

[65] See id.

[66] Id. 310-14.

[67] Id. at 312

[68] Id.

[69] Id.

[70] Id. at 314

[71] Id.

[72] Id.

[73] Id.

[74] Id.

[75] Id.

[76] Id.

[77] Id.

[78] Id.

[79] Id. at 315.

[80] Sylvain Andzongo, Trial over Cameroon’s Anglophone protests exposes national divide, Reuters (Feb. 13, 2017), https://web.archive.org/web/20170908155639/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cameroon-protests/trial-over-cameroons-anglophone-protests-exposes-national-divide-idUSKBN15S1UH; Ateki Seta Caxton, The Anglophone Dilemma in Cameroon, reliefweb (July 21, 2017), https://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/anglophone-dilemma-cameroon.

[81] Id.

[82] Id.

[83] Damrosch, supra note 44, at 314.

[84] Caxton, supra note 5.

[85] Sylvain Andzongo, Trial over Cameroon’s Anglophone protests exposes national divide, Reuters (Feb. 13, 2017), https://web.archive.org/web/20170908155639/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cameroon-protests/trial-over-cameroons-anglophone-protests-exposes-national-divide-idUSKBN15S1UH; Ateki Seta Caxton, The Anglophone Dilemma in Cameroon, reliefweb (July 21, 2017), https://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/anglophone-dilemma-cameroon.

[86] Id.

[87] Id.

[88] Id.

[89] Caxton, supra note 5.

[90] Democracy Dies in Darkness, supra note 4.