Citizens of Ambazonia (Ex-British Southern Cameroons) known as Africa's last colony, met in an International Conference on the 6th of July in Frankfurt Am Main University. While the Committee charged with preparing the final reports of the Conference goes about their job, Independent Media Centre (IMC) had the chance to have an interview with one of the men who started it all in 1985.
Human rights lawyers call it the most sophisticated slave trade deal under United Nations cover.
It is about the trade of a whole nation of Ambazonia. The People of Ambazonia (Ex-British Southern Cameroons) who are victims of this slave trade deal had an International Conference in Frankfurt Am Main University on the 6th of July 2002. IMC had the opportunity to look at the facts in an interview done with one of the persons who blew the whistle on this devilish deal some 7 years ago after a people have been lamenting of the consequences of this deal for 34years. Human Rights lawyers call it the most sophisticated slave trade deal under United Nations cover.
Since 1961 when Franco-Cameroun troops moved over the borders into Ambazonia (Ex-British Southern Cameroons) the rule has been; constant harassment from the forces of annexation. Mainly during the earlier hours of the mornings the forces of annexation carried-out the famous "kale-kale" which meant soldiers, gendarmes and policemen will block quarters (neighbourhoods) and everybody found in the area are arrested and taken to an open space where the men, women and children were forced to satisfy the sadistic desires of the forces; which included seating on dirty water ponds on the road side, kneeling on sand, rocks and other rough surfaces, putting hands on one’s head and singing songs to amuse the soldiers; songs whose lyrics where insults of oneself. Partners, parents and family, mostly old folks and fat people were forced to run for hours.
Religious folks were humiliated by being forced to sing that there is no God but the soldiers. All household equipment whose owners could not provide purchase receipts were confiscated by the soldiers. People were controlled to make sure they had secured the new Identity Cards of the annexationist regime; absence of which meant large fines and or prolong imprisonment. Refusal to sing or dance for the soldiers when they requested was met with serious beatings that usually left the victims hospitalized for months, some people ended up permanently maimed. In the mist of all that, leading politicians who tried to complain in any form or way paid dearly, like the former Prime Minister, Honourable Augustine Ngom Jua who was assassinated in 1977. Talking against the annexation was reduced to a bedroom discussion, then in 1985 it happened, the chance all have been waiting to get the resistance from the bedroom to the streets came up. Fon Fongum Gorji-Dinka, a renowned lawyer and traditional ruler came out in the open to attack the annexation in a book titled "The New Social Order". He was arrested tortured and jailed and the masses went on the rampage. Ever since that time the situation has not been the same again, day after day the young and old alike multiply their methods of resistance to the annexation. Yet the annexation has persisted mainly because it is supported by the famous ELF -gang who have interest in exploiting petrol at very cheap rate in the coast of Ambazonia.
Here is the interview our IMC reporter had with His Royal Highness Fon Fongum Gorji Dinka who is presently in exile in Britain where he is still practicing as a lawyer:
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IMC Reporter
How does it feel like to be discussing the faith of your country in Frankfurt-Germany when we all remember that it was in Berlin-Germany in 1884; by the Germans, that for the first time your country had anything to do with French Cameroun in the perspective of being under one administration, which is the most known argument that French Cameroun put forth for annexing your country.
Fon Gorji Dinka
I feel happy to be discussing this problem in Germany because Germany is the country that transformed Ambazonia from a confederacy of sovereign ethnocratic states that had no central authority to a part of a state with a central authority which happened to have been in Buea (Capital of Ambazonia). In fairness to the Germans they did nothing to destroy the way we ran our traditional institutions. In fact the German parliament passed a law in Germany in 1910 preventing any usurpation of the sovereignty of the colonies. The very first strong shake-up had been the transatlantic slave trade by the Europeans as a whole when the harmonized interrelationship between the ethnic groups turned into a conflict of survival.
IMC Reporter
The Capital of that first central authority was later moved to Douala in French Cameroon?
Fon Gorji Dinka
No. The capital remained in Buea and was only moved when the Germans lost Kamerun in 1916. In fact during the First World War the British Expeditionary forces sailed along the cross river and over ran the German outpost at the Nsanakang but one German soldier remained and organized our people who counter attacked 3 weeks later and over ran the place. The attack was so massive, so overwhelming that the British troops fled in wild disorder leaving everything including their guns and boats using only bayonet's to cut their way into Nigeria. 300 British Soldiers died from the incidence and the British never attempted to attack any part of Ambazonia. So Ambazonia fell under British hands only after Germany lost the War and France and Britain partitioned Kamerun along the Franco-British demarcation line of 1919.
IMC Reporter
French Cameroon argues they have the right to keep Ambazonia under their administration because it was part of the German colony of Kamerun. What do you say about that?
Fon Gorji Dinka
For Kamerun irredentism to be valid then it must aim at getting the entire German Kamerun as it was which implies getting half of Gabon, half of Central Africa Republic, Half of Congo and Half of Chad; all those made up part of German Kamerun. The International Community recognized that Ambazonia was neither part of Cameroun nor part of Nigeria; even though at the time it was administered as part of German Kamerun and later as part of Nigeria. That is why the United Nations asked the people of Ambazonia in the United Nations Organized plebiscite to choose whether to join Nigeria or Cameroun; that is what the UN plebiscite was all about.
IMC Reporter
And Ambazonia decided to join Cameroon?
Fon Gorji Dinka
Ambazonia decided to join Cameroun under the CONDITIONS and MODALITIES which were spelled-out on the PLEBISCITE MANEFESTO namely:
- After the plebiscite there was to be a post plebiscite International Conference hosted by the United Nations to work-out a Confederation Constitutional text.
- The constitutional text was to be sent to each of the two states to approve or to reject in a referendum like was the case of the Maastricht treaty on European Union.
- If the people voted in favour of that constitutional text, THEN, and ONLY THEN (in capital letters) will the Cameroun-Ambazonia Confederacy come into existence.
IMC Reporter
French Cameroon says you people had a constitutional conference in Foumban in 1961 and also had a referendum too in 1972.
Fon Gorji Dinka
First there has NOT been the international Conference. In such a conference Britain as administering authority of the UN Trust Territory and the UN will be there; and the conference is to be chaired by the UN according to the Plebiscite manifesto. Moreover Foncha the then Prime Minister of Ambazonia and everybody else acknowledge that the Foumban Conference was a discussion which was to be followed-up in preparation for the UN sponsored International Conference but the UN sponsored International Conference never happened.
Reasons: If the Union took place in the way stipulated in the plebiscite manifesto it will have guaranteed sovereignty for Ambazonia and Britain had vowed to make sure Ambazonia does not exercise sovereignty.
IMC Reporter
Your Majesty; of what interest is it to Britain that Ambazonia does not exercise it's sovereignty till this present moment?
Fon Gorji Dinka
I don't know about this present moment but at the time their fear was that an independent Ambazonia will come under the influence of Ghana's Nkwame Nkrumah and the Soviets. And that will put British commercial interest that is the CDC at risk. CDC is an agro - industrial complex consisting of former German Plantations. This was the Britain’s biggest agro-industrial investment in Central Africa. So in other to continue to exploit it, Britain decided to sell Ambazonia like a cattle ranch to President Ahidjo of Cameroun Republic or French Cameroun. In return Britain was allowed to continue exploiting the CDC. Human Rights lawyers call it the most sophisticated slave trade deal under United Nations cover. To enforce the deal the Franco-Cameroun troops moved into Ambazonia in September 1961 and took over from the British troops who then sailed home. This was intended to and succeeded to block implementation of the UN plebiscite results in Ambazonia.
IMC Reporter
What about the claims of French Cameroon on the 1972 referendum?
Fon Gorji Dinka
What claim?
IMC Reporter
They claim that the referendum of 1972 was the referendum talked about in the UN plebiscite manifesto.
Fon Gorji Dinka
1972 was 10 years after we had already been annexed. So, that cannot be the same referendum which was to determine whether the two countries should come together at all. Another thing is La Republic du Cameroun illegally occupied our country, suspended our constitution, and in 1972 abolished our parliament and government. The illegal occupation of our country marked the beginning of lawlessness; in that the constitution have been suspended of both Buea and Yaounde (Ambazonia and Cameroun) the two countries abandoned constitutional rule from then till today. Then, the rule in that country is lawlessness. Our task as Ambazonians is to emancipate our country from this slave trade deal.
IMC Reporter
You said Human Rights lawyers call it the most sophisticated slave trade deal under UN cover. Why UN?
Fon Gorji Dinka
Because the country was under UN trusteeship and Britain was the Administering authority, and it was the administering authorities that stroke this deal.
IMC Reporter
Britain is trying to do same in Gibraltar by trying to transfer the sovereignty of Gibraltar to Spain but Gibraltar used the European Court to stop that from happening . How can Ambazonia do that in its own case?
Fon Gorji Dinka
Those two cases are totally different, Gibraltar has a standing before the European Court of Human Rights but Ambazonia does not have any standing before any International forum. The only forum we have is the UN Commission on Human Rights. For example the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination provides guarantee for the right of every person to a nationality and the right of the Ambazonian people to self determination. These are the bodies that can redress this slave trade deal and we've seized them on this issue.
IMC Reporter
Your Majesty over the years countries have been shaped and reshaped through legal and non-legal methods at times. In some situations though with an illegal background peoples have been able to forge a way forward; is there no way for Ambazonia to forge a way forward in this present circumstance as part of Cameroon?
Fon Gorji Dinka
Being a lawyer I'm allergic to anything that is illegal. If a country is recognized internationally to have boundaries, international law says any other country that occupies another country is guilty of aggression. Cameroon is guilty of an act of continuing aggression by its illegal and forcible occupation of Ambazonia. In fact a Cameroon High Court has held that Cameroun's occupation of Ambazonia is illegal and forcible (HCB/28/92 -High Court of Bamenda). The Court also ordered President Biya of Cameroun to limit the administration of La Republique du Cameroun to the territorial boundaries of La Republique du Cameroun .Which means they must withdraw to the East of the International boundary which is separating Ambazonia from Cameroun.
IMC Reporter
Your Majesty how committed are your people as a whole to seeing this illegality down away with?
Fon Gorji Dinka
Our people are totally committed. Even those who appear to be co-operating with the government of Cameroun are doing so out of fear and not out of love of the illegal occupation of “La Republique du Cameroun”. For example; go and ask Peter Mafani (Prime Minister of Cameroun) or Chief Justice Endeley (who at one time is reported to have said that Ambazonians have no problem with Cameroun); ask them in the depth of their bedroom what they stand for and they'll say they stand for the liberation of Ambazonia. That is why I personally do not support those who antagonize anyone whom out of fear sings praise to Cameroun for the illegal occupation. This is a fact of history; Adolf Eichmann Hitler persecuted and killed thousands of Jews though he himself was a Jew.
IMC Reporter
hat would you say is the achievement of this Conference?
Fon Gorji Dinka
- The Conference have achieved one thing , never again will anybody from Ambazonia describe himself as prawn (Camerounese) without acknowledging that he is suffering from a slave mentality.
- The Ambazonia leadership will be determined by Ambazonians in accordance with the provisions of the Ambazonian Constitution which the British promulgated in 1960 as the Southern Cameroons Constitution, Order in Council. That is the Constitution mentioned in High Court Case (HCB /28/92) which has been adapted to ensure that instead of the Queen of England as head of State, an ethnic Ambazonian plays the role of head of state. And under that Constitution the Head of State has only one job; that is to appoint the Prime Minister of Ambazonia; and that is the man to rule the country.
IMC Reporter
Is this to be after independence has been achieved?
Fon Gorji Dinka
We already have Independence, the problem is Cameroun is occupying our country and preventing us from excising that Independence. What we need is a security umbrella to enable our people hold a Constituent Assembly and propose an Interim Prime Minister to lead us in creating the infrastructure of governance to enable our people elect a parliament which intern designates a Prime Minister to rule our country for us.
IMC Reporter
Thank you. IMC is involved in providing an alternative source of information as opposed to corporate Media. We have IMC's all over the world and hope one day we will have an IMC in your country too!
Fon Gorji Dinka
We'll be very delighted.
