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Author(s): MEREDITH TERRETTA
Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 51, No. 2 (2010), pp. 189-212
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40985070
Accessed: 10-11-2018 00:06 UTC
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Journal of African History, 51 (2010), pp. 189-212. © Cambridge University Press 2010 1 89
doi:io.ioi7/Soo2i8537ioooo253
BY MEREDITH TERRETTA
Ottawa University
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IÇO MEREDITH TERRETTA
Affairs Centre in Accra hosted activists and exiles from Egypt, Kenya,
Uganda, Malawi, the Belgian Congo, Angola, Lesotho, Zambia, and
Cameroon.2 For these African nationalists, Nkrumah's foreign policy con-
stituted the African cornerstone of a Third World solidarity birthed at the
Asian-African Bandung Conference held in 1955.3
Using Cameroon's decolonization as a case study, this article reassesses
the political alternatives imagined by African nationalists on the eve of in-
dependence. Historians of the French empire have recently emphasized
that African political leaders found the possibilities of postcolonial federation
and citizenship in the French Union very appealing as an alternative
to national independence in the era of Africa's decolonization.4 These
approaches seem to present an inter-territorial federation centered on a
common métropole as the sole 'non-national' option for former colonial
territories. Yet African nationalists who set their sights on the promise of
Third World independence and hopes of a United States of Africa conceived
extra-metropolitan political modalities and alliances.5 In other words,
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL ICI
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IÇ2 MEREDITH TERRETTA
10 Maquis camps were based on both sides of the Anglo-French boundary. See below
and J. Takougang, 'The Union des Populations du Cameroun and its southern connection',
Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, 83:310 (1996), 8-24.
11 Although UPC leaders in exile did not achieve an international media campaign on
the same scale as the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne (GPRA),
they utilized the same methods as the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) of Algeria
and the GPRA, attempting to transform the UPC's claims into a 'diplomatic revolution'.
See M. Connelly, 'Introduction, in Connelly, Diplomatic Revolution, 3-13.
12 Cooper, 'Possibility', 168.
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL I93
13 Curiously, although the case of the UPC demonstrates that, even in this 'first phase'
of Africa's decolonization, exiled nationalists played a crucial role in the struggle for
nation, the literature does not reflect this. To my knowledge only one historical study
considers the UPC's external activity: see D. Pouhe Pouhe, 'Les liaisons extérieures de
l'UPC, 1948-1960', (unpublished MA thesis, University of Yaounde, 1999). In contrast,
the role of exile in later liberation movements in eastern and southern Africa is well
documented. See, for example, L. H. Malkki, Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and
National Cosmology among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania (Chicago, 1995); J. D. Sidaway and
D. Simon, 'Geopolitical transition and state formation: the changing political geo-
graphies of Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia', Journal of Southern African Studies,
19:1 (1993), 6-28; S. Ellis, 'The historical significance of South Africa's Third Force',
Journal of Southern African Studies, 24:2 (1998), 261-99; R. Suttner, 'Cultures of the
African National Congress of South Africa: imprint of exile experiences', Journal of
Contemporary African Studies, 21:2 (2003), 303-20; N. Manghezi, The Maputo
Connection: The ANC in the World of F RELI M O (Johannesburg, 2009); M. G. Panzer,
'The pedagogy of revolution: youth, generational conflict, and education in Mozambican
nationalism and the state, 1 962-1 970', Journal of Southern African Studies, 35:4 (2009),
803-20.
14 My purpose in this article is not to recount the history of the UPC's activities in
French Cameroun, but rather to emphasize its international foundations and its spread
beyond French territory after its proscription. For the standard political history of the
UPC nationalist movement in French Cameroun from 1948 to 1956, see R. Joseph,
Radical Nationalism in Cameroun : The Social Origins of the UPC Rebellion (Oxford,
1977); for a classic approach focused mostly on 'formal' politics, see V. Le Vine,
The Cameroonsfrom Mandate to Independence (Westport, CT, 1977). Revisionist histories
from various disciplinary perspectives have proliferated, beginning with Mbembe,
Naissance. But see also: J. Onana, Le sacre des indigènes évolués : Essai sur la professional-
isation politique (l'exemple du Cameroun) (Paris, 2004); E. Tchumtchoua, De la Jeucafra à
l'UPC : L'éclosion du nationalisme camerounais (Yaounde, 2006); and B. A. Ngando, La
présence française au Cameroun (iqi6-iq5q) : Colonialisme ou mission civilisatrice?
(Marseille, 2008).
G. Donnât, Afin que nul n'oublie: L'itinéraire d'un anticolonialiste (Paris. 1086).
16 Cameroonian representatives included Ruben Um Nyobé, an active trade unionist at
the time; Mathias Djoumessi, the ruler of the Bamileke chieftaincy of Foreke-Dschang;
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194 MEREDITH TERRETTA
and Celestin Takala, a Bamileke merchant based in Douala. See E. Mortimer, France and
the Africans, 1044-1060 : A Political History (New York, 1969), ch. 5.
17 As part of its initial constitution, the RDA stipulated that each territory should have
the right to choose whether or not to join the French Union. Not until October 1950
did the RDA, guided by the leader of the Part Démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire,
Félix Houphouët-Boigny, break with the French Communist Party and move towards
collaboration with the metropolitan French Assembly and support for the French Union.
See Schmidt, Cold War, 25-7, 30-67.
18 Y. Pouamoun, 'Félix Roland Moumié, 1925-1960: l'itinéraire d'un nationaliste in-
stransigeant' (unpublished thesis, DIPES II, Ecole normale supérieure, Yaounde, I997),
18. For a biographical sketch of Ruben Um Nyobé, see A. Mbembe, 'Introduction', in
Le problème national kamerunais (Paris, 1984), 18-25.
19 See Cooper, 'Possibility', 167.
20 A. Gueye, Les intellectuels africains en France (Pans, 2001); J.-M. 1 chaptchet,
Quand les jeunes africains créaient l'histoire (Paris, 2006); J.-P. Ndiaye, Enquête sur les
étudiants noirs en France (Paris, 1962).
21 Joseph, Radical Nationalism, 170-1.
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL I95
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IQ.6 MEREDITH TERRETTA
From its inception, the UPC and its affiliate women's, youth, and labor
parties broadcast the fact that the territories of Cameroon were not colonies,
but UN Trusteeship territories, administered jointly by the French and the
British. Beginning in 1951, Um Nyobé traveled annually to New York to
speak before the UN General Assembly's Fourth Committee and, upon his
return from trips abroad, he gave accounts of his visits in public gatherings
and UPC congressional meetings. Copies of his speeches circulated as tracts
in local meetings.
27 The UPC was the sole nationalist movement in francophone sub-Saharan Africa to
use arms in the struggle for independence. Although upéciste leaders did not refer to
South Africa explicitly (as they did with Algeria and Vietnam), there are striking parallels
between the UPC's military strategy post- 1957 and that of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the
armed wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party, formed in 196 1. See Ellis,
'Historical significance', 264.
28 UPC leaders in exile would have had occasion to cross paths with Franz Fanon in
1958 at the All African Peoples' Conference discussed below. However, my intent is not
to suggest that upécistes read and evoked Fanon, but rather to classify UPC nationalism
as fitting a Fanonian model. See F. Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, trans. R. Pilcox
(New York, 2004), 130, 142. For Fanon, anti-colonial revolution in African colonies ne-
cessitated equal parts of social and political consciousness, and violence was a necessary
path to liberation from colonial rule. Yet he warned against the revolutionary 'intellec-
tual' who overlooked the contributions of a local peasantry and/or lumpen proletariat.
29 The UPC's armed struggle began in the Sanaga-Maritime in late 1956 and spread to
the Bamileke region in late 1957. The complex history of the UPC maquis in the Mungo,
Wouri, Mbam, Nkam, Bamenda, and Kumba regions (the latter two in Anglophone ter-
ritory) has yet to be written. As the years progressed, UPC militia groups became in-
creasingly factionalized and it would be misleading to present the maquis as a unified
front. What is certain is that there were numerous resistance camps in regions that the
conventional historiography has entirely overlooked. Several MA theses have begun to
explore the histories of specific maquis. For the Mbam, see L.-C. Oubel, 'La rébellion
dans la subdivision de Ndikinimeki (Région du Mbam), 1955-1969- approche historique'
(unpublished MA thesis, DIPES II, Ecole normale supérieure, Yaounde, 1999); for an
interesting perspective on the UPC in British territory, see T. Sharp, ' Binaries of nations :
the "Anglophone problem" in Cameroon and the presentation of historical narratives on
the internet' (unpublished MA thesis, University of Manchester, 2008).
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 197
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IQ.8 MEREDITH TERRETTA
leaders spoke out against the dissolution of the UPC as 'absolutely illegal,
as Cameroun is not a French territory, but a territory under UN
Trusteeship'.34 After the AEC gathering, a student branch of the UPC, the
Union Nationale des Etudiants Kamerunais (UNEK), emerged in France
and declared its support for the UPC and its affiliates. Cameroonian students
resolved to maintain contact with the leaders of the UPC who fled French
territory after the official ban and to send new petitions to the UN protestin
the ban and the forced deportation of nationalists.
Student supporters in favor of the UPC became the most crucial leaders of
the movement, those who would form its intellectual and political nucleus,
particularly during the years of exile after 1957. Many of these student
achieved doctoral degrees, such as Osende Afana, in economics, Hogbe
Nlend and Woungly Massaga in mathematics, and Abel Eyinga in law.35 In
1954, one young member of the AEC, Pierre Kamdem Ninyim, studying at
Lycée Pascal in the 16th arrondissement in Paris, returned to Cameroon to
succeed his father as traditional ruler of the chieftaincy of Baham in the
Bamileke region. Kamdem Ninyim would become one of the dozen or more
openly pro-nationalist chiefs in the region, facilitating the articulation be-
tween UPC nationalism and traditional governance, thus adding timbre and
resonance to the grassroots dimensions of UPC nationalism.36
The Fédération des Étudiants de l'Afrique Noire en France (FEANF) was
an affiliate of the communist International Union of Students (I US) based in
Prague. FEANF kept abreast of current events in Africa, including the ebb
and flow of anti-colonial demonstrations and their suppression by French
administrations.37 Their missive to Kwame Nkrumah in 1965 demonstrated
their familiarity with Ghana's support of revolutionaries and their recog-
nition that this support was threatened or undermined by other African
states, including Ivory Coast and Niger, which 'were not free' and 'should
be made to shed their imperialist ties'. In order to enable freedom fighters to
'carry on the struggle for their respective countries', FEANF students re-
quested that Ghanaian passports and scholarships be granted to students
abandoned by their governments for political reasons.38 They also expressed
their wish to send a delegation to student meetings in Ghana.
Students and other Africans in exile became part of a global network with
hubs in Accra, Conakry, and Cairo in Africa, London and Paris in the
metropolitan sphere, and Moscow and Peking in the East. African students
and activists followed Soviet bloc and Chinese scholarship funds, and par-
ticipated in international conferences and gatherings such as those arranged
by non-governmental organizations such as the Women's International
Democratic Federation, the I US, and the World Congress of Partisans
of Peace.39 In Accra, African anti-colonialists' transnational ties were
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 199
40 Ras T. Makonnen was named George Thomas Nathaniel Griffith by his parents at
the time of his birth in British Guiana. He later changed his name, claiming that his father
was of Ethiopian origin, when he became involved in anti-colonial and Pan-African
politics. See H. Adi and M. Sherwood, Pan-African History : Political Figures from Africa
and the Diaspora since 1787 (London, 2003), 1 17-22.
41 Makonnen, Pan- Africanism, 155.
42 B. H. Edwards, The Practice of Diaspora : Literature, Translation, and the Rise of
Black Internationalism (Cambridge, MA, 2003), 242.
43 See, for example, British National Archives, Kew (BNA) FO 371/155344,
Mr. Eastwood, Colonial Office, to Sir Roger Stevens, Foreign Office. 14. Aug. 1061.
44 CAOM, Affaires politiques, 3335/1, Propagande et action psychologique des
groupements extrémistes au Cameroun, s.d. apparently 1955; CAOM, Affaires poli-
tiques, 3309/1, Note de synthèse sur les activités politiques et sociales du mois de janvier
1955-
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2OO MEREDITH TERRETTA
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 2OI
50 Ibid. 4.
51 BNA, CO 554/2367, Despatch No. 18 from British Embassy, Yaounde to FO, 6 June
i960.
52 CHAN, Foccart papers, Fonds privés 149, Service de documentation extérieure et
de contre-espionage (SDECE), 'Soudan-Cameroun (UPC)', 30 Sep. 1958.
Ail information on the AASO is taken from CHAN, Foccart papers, Fonds publics
2092, Note d'information, 'La conférence de solidarité Afro-Asiatique de Conakry
(11-16 Avril i960)', Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Dir. de l'Afrique-Levant.
54 The AASO's Director's Committee was comprised of 27 members, each one
representing a particular nation: Algeria, Cameroun (UPC), Peoples' Republic of China,
Belgian Congo, North Korea, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan,
Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mongolia, Morocco, Uganda, Pakistan, Somalia, Southern
Rhodesia, South-West Africa, Tunisia, UAR, USSR, North Vietnam, and Yemen. The
organization's permanent secretariat was made up of 12 members chosen by the directors'
committee: Algeria (FLN), Cameroun (UPC), China, Congo, Guinea, India, Indonesia,
Iraq, Japan, UAR, Uganda, USSR. The UPC held seats in both the Director's
Committee and the permanent secretariat. Ibid.
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2O2 MEREDITH TERRETTA
55 Ibid. 56 Ibid.
57 The bureau was constituted informally from the date ot Ghana s independence, and
given a legal status in 1959 after Padmore's death: see K. Armah, Peace Without Power:
Ghana's Foreign Policy, 195J-1966 (Accra, 2004), 27. I am grateful to Akosua Darkwah
for providing me with a copy of this publication. 58 Ibid. 58.
59 GNA, SC/BAA/136, Conference of Independent African States, 15 Apr. 1958.
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 203
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2O4 MEREDITH TERRETTA
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 205
We would be rung up by the police at the frontier and told that some fellows had
arrived ; they would have no passports . . . We needed enlightened policemen on the
frontiers who would know not to enforce the regulations too strictly.71
The exiles included the sons and daughters of Bamileke chiefs or of the
nascent Cameroonian bourgeoisie, urban laborers and members of labor
unions, the elite cadre of late colonial intelligentsia - school teachers such as
Gertrude Omog and Ernest Ouandié, the vice-president of the UPC, doctors
such as Félix Moumié, and finally the sons of small-scale farmers and
traders, many of whom had had minimal schooling.72 In rare cases, elders
accompanied the youths.
At the African Affairs Centre, UPC leaders sorted out those who
showed intellectual promise from those who had not spent much time
in school. Scholarships were obtained for those who would some day
make up the national intelligentsia.73 The others undertook the military
training that UPC leaders expected would ensure the eventual overthrow
of the Franco-Cameroonian government in formation.74 By mid- 1960, if
not before, the One Kamerun (OK) party, carrying on the UPC movement
under another name in the British territory of The Cameroons, distributed
scholarship application forms prepared by Moumié to its members.75
70 Resolutions adopted by the All African Peoples' Conference, Cairo, 23-31 Mar.
1061.
71 Makonnen, Pan- Africanism, 215. Those housed at the centre included Patrice
Lumumba from the Belgian Congo, Felix Moumié and Ernest Ouandié of Cameroon,
Holden Roberto of Angola, the Egyptian President Nasser's representative, Dr Gallai,
Rabaroca and Mulutsi of the PAC, Banda and Kenneth Kaunda from southern central
Africa, and Mbiyu Koinanee and Odinera of Kenva.
Interviews with Job Njapa, Nkongsamba, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008; with Ignace
Neguin Djoko, Baham, 2002, 2003, 2004; with Fo Marcel Ngandjong Feze, Bandenkop,
1999, 2001, 2002, 2003; with Marie-Irène Ngapeth-Biyong, Yaounde, 1999; and with
Jacqueline Kemayou, New Bell. Douala. 200«;.
73 Ibid. 74 Ibid.
75 Ibid, and BNA, FO 371/146650, 'Jeanne', 85 Brecknock Rd., London to 'Felix'
[Moumié], Accra, 22 Aug. i960, in British Embassy, Leopoldville, Congo to
E. B. Boothby, Esq., Africa Department, Foreign Office, 28 Oct. i960.
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2O6 MEREDITH TERRETTA
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 207
MILITARY TRAINING
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2O8 MEREDITH TERRETTA
Tensions between the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bureau
of African Affairs surfaced early on, as Nkrumah's more nationally oriented
advisors chafed under the power and influence wielded by the Pan-
Africanists, and feared that the Ghanaian government's sympathy and aid to
freedom fighters would develop into a foreign relations nightmare.95 Over
time, these predictions began to come true. As the political leaders who
spearheaded the nationalist movements most invested in Nkrumah's project
of a non-aligned United States of Africa began to disappear, so too did the
visions of Pan-African unity. On 3 November i960, the poisoning of UPC
President Moumié, ordered by the French government and carried out by the
undercover agent Bechtel in Geneva, dealt a final blow to the unity of the
UPC in exile.96 Two months later, in the night of 16-17 January, Belgians,
Katangans, and Congolese collaborated in the assassination of Patrice
Lumumba, former prime minister of Congo.97
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 2OO,
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2IO MEREDITH TERRETTA
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CAMEROONIAN NATIONALISTS GO GLOBAL 211
CONCLUSION
107 While maquis camps remained in the Mbam and south-eastern Bamileke regions, the
invading second front had a lot of ground to cover from their point of entry at Dja and
Lobo before reaching the first 'red zone' several hundred miles due north-east.
108 On Ernest Ouandié's arrest, see APN, Secteur militaire du Littoral, Qtr. de
Nkongsamba, Bulletin de renseignements, Objet : Rapports entre ressortissants Dschang
et Bangangté à Mbanga, 22 Sep. 1970. On Ouandié's execution, see E. Kamguia K.,
'39 ans après: Ernest Ouandié reste immortel', La Nouvelle Expression, 15 Jan. 2010;
J.-A. Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 119;
M. Beti, 'Le Cameroun d'Ahidio'. T emits Modernes. ^16 (Nov. 1072).
109 Cooper, 'Possibility'.
110 Joseph, Radical Nationalism; Schmidt, 'Anticolonial nationalism'; van Walraven,
' Decolonization ' .
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212 MEREDITH TERRETTA
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