Friday, March 28, 2014

Is the Crimean Referendum an ideal paradigm for Africans? Replies with some illustrations from the former British Cameroons.

Key words: Africa, Canada, Quebec and referendum, Ottawa, Gatineau, Light Railway, Crimea, Ukraine, Russia, Crimean War, Conundrum of Flight 370 of Malaysian Airways,AfricanUnity,Boundaries, Referendum, Plebiscite, Czechoslovakia, Scotland, Walsh, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Mandated Territory of the League of Nations, Trust Territory of the U.N.O., U.N.O. State of British Cameroon, France and UK.


FOREWORD 

When a massive plane as BOEING 777, Fight 370 of the Malaysian Airways vanished in thin air on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers on board,  it is fitting for all of us to be concerned. The relentless search to locate its debris, jetsam is no longer the sole concern of the Malaysian Government or the Boeing company. It is because we are human and are bent on forestalling such an incident in the future. The passengers whose whereabouts is still a conundrum are no longer seen as Chinese, Malaysians, US citizens, Americans, Indians or Arabs but are seen as some of us.  The huge sums of money being spent on search and rescue operations each day could be invested on other pressing projects to help our citizens. We will not for Flight 370 intrigue is now our priority irrespective of our link with China, Malaysia, or where the passengers happen to have hailed from. At this juncture, the passengers and the craft are like our missing sheep from our flock. Drink and eat, we will not until the sheep is seen and the puzzle solved and concluded.  What we are doing is human nature. Similarly, where does our humaneness go to when we sit by and watch a country vanish in thin air in Africa once called British Cameroons for the last 53 years with approximately 10 million inhabitants? These have literally been stateless or being forced to be with other states, Cameroon Republic and Nigerian Federation not to their liking. When we read Mr. Richard Dowden's missive attached, we were urged to react and right his wrong and perhaps educate others for immediate and positive action. We know that the idea that could bring about a positive change in the world starts as a muster seed. 

INSINUATION, CRIMEAN DEBACLE AND BRITISH CAMEROONS

Some outsiders always feel that they have a panacea for African unity problems or they could solve their apparently interminable plethora of problems, particularly descendants of Europeans whose parents or fore-parents created some of them in the first place. We were enthused with Mr. Richard Dowden's thought-provoking and controversial article appended below and his insinuation that he saw no reason for states or areas of states that want to separate from the main ones doing so as those states are not strictly speaking like European ones that evolved naturally. What does he mean by 'naturally'? He outlined a good number of them but for the sake of  our argument we will underscore and dwell on the former British Cameroons (See Fig. 1, a facsimile of the authentic UNO Map No. 1140 of the United Nations published in January 1959).

Fig I Map of British Cameroons as in 1959 by the U.N.O., now known as U.N.O. State of Cameroon/Ambazonia.

that to him falls under one of those states that had not evolved naturally as his country the United Kingdom (UK). For Mr. Richard Dowden to suggest that the Former British Cameroons, that is Trust Territory of the Cameroons Under British Administration with approximately 10 million inhabitants at the time of writing (March 28, 2014) keeps on staying with Cameroon Republic, the former Cameroons Under French Administration where they are being treated as inferior second hand citizens, when they had been independent since 1954 till 1961 is preposterous. (We have enclosed a map of the U.N.O. of British Cameroons. This map that portrays its legitimate boundaries and embodies its history are not allowed to be seen by its citizens by its occupying state,  Cameroon Republic, Western Africa. There are some persons of Cameroon Republic who have gone to the great extent of even denying that this nation state ever existed. To them my revelation is fiction. Is it?)

We see Dowden standing up one day to state that the French who once defeated the British and sat over them for centuries should come back and rule Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Cameron, his cronies and all British peoples to day, as the present status quo is not natural. Could he venture make this suggestion? Could he dare suggest that Carlisle, that is what the British used to call New Haven and Brittany that were once British enclaves in France be returned to Great Britain?


Fig II, Flag of British Cameroons 1915-1961

In the same vein, we see people with his trend of thoughts saying that Great Britain should come back and take over the rule of the Republic of United States of America as it never evolved naturally. How clumsy does this political tomfoolery sound? By inference, we also see him stating that he does not see anything wrong with London Town declaring a city state and keeping away the rest of Britain from its affairs as the city state of Hong Kong in S.E.Asia is fairing well. Perhaps he might be trumpeting to the world of the future, as some Quebecers who are getting frustrated with Quebec having a referendum to get out of their union with the rest of Canada are even suggesting that Montreal (Mount Royal) be cut off from the rest of Quebec and form a city state as Hong Kong once did (See Fig. IV, the map of Quebec Province in Canada below). Whatever the case, if the common consensus, that is people exercising their rights decide that they want the status quo or changes democratically, it had to be respected. However, it should not, as we have said below be attributed to some outside false forces as the French of Charles de Gaul or  as the case of Crimea being cut off with bayonets by Putin's Russia.

THE  UNITED KINGDOM WAS NOT BUILT BY FORCE

Where don't we see such a hack with his reasoning? We see him campaigning for Northern Ireland to cut off and join the rest of Ireland as it had ever been the wish of the Catholic Irish and still is. We see him blessing Scotland to cut off from the rest of the United Kingdom and storming England to get the imprisoned Queen Mary Stuart of the Scot from the imprisonment of the spinster Queen Elizabeth I (1556). He must consider how the North Sea oil will be shared! Furthermore, my ears hear him telling the Walsh to leave that United Kingdom and go back and work in their collieries and revive their moribund language and other traditions that had been trampled upon by English colonialism. 

What don't we see? We see men of this caliber's mind's eyes planing and advocating for lots around the world that could cause untold damages and internecine wars or keep warring faction at loggerhead for the unforeseeable future and that is sad where it is just for sensationalism. What we are saying in fairness is that if a political union is not working, it should be debated and solutions found rather than incubating force by assuming or insisting that there was nothing wrong with the status quo. To him there is nothing wrong with warring factions in Africa, the Kurds strive to form Kurdistan, the Bakochist separatists in Balochistan in Pakistan and many more striving to be politically free.

Fig III, On the map adopted from Philip's Elementary  Atlas of Comparative Geography, 1949, the Mandated Territory of British Cameroons is clearly discerned and marked Br. Mand. next to Cameroon, French Mandate

As alluded to above, as a Briton this director has forgotten that given opportunity the Republic of Ireland would like to have Northern Ireland back but for some papist British who settled in that part of their territory and the Scots that had in the days of Queen Elizabeth I (1556) been independent though with strong ties with the French. Whatever the circumstances,  a people do change their mind with time. The Walsh Kingdom would like to have their independence too. A true English would frown at this for dismantling one great, though archaic system that had withstood plenty of storms in the past and maintained peace hitherto. Nonetheless, if the majority feel that the union has outlived its usefulness and it could  be dissolved, done away with and a novel rapprochement established.

The Walsh and the Scots could feel that way. Why? Would they not be members of the EEC as the English yet running their states to their liking instead of having the feeling that they are kowtowing to the English? Whatever route the united kingdoms decide to take, they cannot live as an island, call it isle. They would have to meet not only once but always and break bread at the same table as they had done before otherwise they cannot function properly. 

Can Crimea completely dissociate itself from Ukraine? It would be ridiculous if  they were to be like Africans states where an Angolan entering Cameroon Republic and U.N.O. State of Cameroon requires paid entry and exit visas. In the case of Europeans of British extraction, they would not need visas or separate passports to travel around the EEC. Therefore, why could the wishes of the Scots not be granted by the English who have been living together since the 16th century, to be precise since 1707? If our able gentleman will reply that it was a mutual agreement for them to live as a kingdom within the United Kingdom when they had lived independently for centuries, he would be awarded a naught otherwise a good number of Scots will not be anxious to get out of the union.

SOUTH SUDAN REPUBLIC

Reverting to Africa, for Dowden to suggest that South Sudan Republic should have continued to be a carpet-wiper of the Arabs of Sudan Republic - rightly Mahdist Republic- because of the recent internecine squabbles in that newly independent country, makes one to wonder if he could have supported the Arab of Sudan to cut off the head of his fellow English Governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, General Charles Gordon when the Arabs wanted to drive away the British from Sudan as his way of supporting Arab independence? He would be assuming that we are splitting hairs. We are looking at the past as willy-nilly it does affect our present and future. In consequence, it cannot be ignored. We cannot work in isolation as history has shown us that man does not necessarily digress from his past deeds.

If British Cameroons, presently known as U.N.O. State of Cameroon have the least opportunity, as we hope they will sooner or later peacefully, they will leave Cameroon Republic immediately irrespective of it being looked at as Crimea opting to join Russia. The 'Russia' of the U.N.O. State of Cameroon to our journalist and author of the article is the Federation of Nigeria. The point is the former British Cameroons will not owe Cameroon Republic but Cameroon Republic will owe the former British Cameroons aka U.N.O. State of Cameroon for oil and other mineral resources they have been extracting from their territory gratis. The southern section of the British Cameroons, that is Southern Cameroons left Nigeria because of their maltreatment by Nigerian civil servants and particularly Ibo traders. So to suggest that they join Nigeria is naivety on the part of the author. 

QUEBEC EXAMPLE AND THE LANGUAGE FACTOR

If Quebec under its incumbent Premier Pauline Marois decides to cut off from the rest of Canada by the ballot box after weighing the consequences could such a move be respected? The language or cultural factors seem to dictate the inclination of Qeubecers. They have the feeling that if French their language was allowed to decline, that would be the end of Quebec. Have they ever thought of the feelings o the First Nation Peoples whose languages in that Province is long gone owing to the French settlers and imposition of their culture? In the long run,  it is not a language or culture that keeps nations alive and in tack, it is the economic worth of such nations. Ask yourself why the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman and the British Empires faltered? It was not poor governance but their poor bombastic economic performances and in ability to move with time. The English language instead burgeoned in those dominions and territories that were once ruled by the British. Where the language factor is over-harped, marginal learners are instead discouraged from learning it. 

The fact remains that the security and economic progress of Canada will be far stronger than what it is now if all Canadians were focused on the economic development of all of Canada without persistent distraction be a faction always thinking of getting out year in year out. If that were to happen the winner would be the USA and that will signal the death of the French language in North America that Quebec French speakers are trying hard to preserve. If British Cameroons has a modicum of what Quebec has now, we mean their independent police force, a democratic government, running their economy and no one getting their oil and timber wealth and telling them to go to hell as the former British Cameroons is constantly being reminded and treated by Cameroon Republic, this essay will not even be necessary. 

The light railway being built to ameliorate commuting to and within Ottawa and its environs does not take into consideration the regional town of Gatineau that is only separated by River Ottawa from the City of Ottawa. It is the interminable threat of Quebec separatists that make developers and planners not to put their eggs in their basket or for them to ignore what is happening in Ottawa. The mistake is akin to planning the London Underground Network, UK that Dowden knows so well without taking into consideration the South Bank. 

Whatever Quebec does as a semi autonomous province will be their democratic right but there are lots of questions that they need to answer before carrying on with their gambling exercise.  Canada being a civilized democratic nation does not interfere in their political rights as in the forthcoming election on April 7, 2014. However, they would need to ratiocinate as there will be no question of them being spared to leave without paying their debts and wanting to share certain amenities as Canadian currency, infra structure and many more. They must start in earnest to think more about these aloud. For example, The First Nation Peoples whose borders abut or crisscross that of the Northern USA have declared that they would not agree on such a separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada.

Fig IV, Map of Quebec Province, Canada



That is a unique case whose history has no place in this response except for our comparison. 

What is awry in the Crimea case is where a super power, Russia pulls the strings, taking that advantage of chaos of a bad regime in Ukraine and the new stance of the Obama's Government to advance the force of argument and not the argument of force to cut off part of Ukraine's national territory. What happens if Westerners are cornered? Would they sit tacitly that they do not want to start another Third War with a super power, Russia? Having made the above observations, a people have to be comfortable and do what they want and not tied to some other state or states where they are ever wrangling and having duels. Do Quebecers ever quarrel with the rest of Canada? 

Let us reiterate. To suggest that the neglected British Cameroons would like to join Nigeria tells me that the author has no clue of the history of British Cameroons, the raison d'etre of most of them opting to leave any association with Nigeria and the shoddy referendum that the British carried out of their accord and imposed on the U.N.O. in 1961 as in this citation by Professor V. Fanso:
Coming back to another source you have made reference to, I met Malcolm Milne in person in 1996 when I was a Fellow at the University of Oxford. I held many discussions with him on the issue of Cameroon reunification and told him clearly that they, the British, produced bogus and much distorted information about the Southern Cameroons economy in order to persuade the United Nations not to grant the territory independence in its own right and also to force its inhabitants to vote in favour of integration with Nigeria. I wanted to know from him why they thought it was proper to terminate their administration of British Cameroon generally and Southern Cameroons in particular by going against both the UN Charter and the colonial understanding that every colonized people should be granted independence at the end of colonization. I also said that the British did not like Foncha at all and called him names because he had stolen the show and taken Southern Cameroons away from Nigeria into re-unification against their wish. He found it difficult to refute some of the things and to convince me with his defensive arguments..(see ntemfactofage.wordpress.com/tag/drvibangmail-com/)

At that plebiscite of 1961 they asked the British Cameroons to either achieve political independence by either joining the one year old Cameroon Republic (that is Cameroons Under French Administration that was of the same status before the British Cameroons) or Nigerian Federation. The main reason was that British Cameroons was not viable to stand on its feet economically and that was myopic. Come to think of it, do you really leave your home where you have been comfortable as British Cameroons since 1954 to enter an alien's home where you would be subordinated and you call that political independence? Then you are a political fool.  If that were the reasoning, why did Namibia that had the same status as the British Cameroons not remain with the Republic of South Africa that was looking after its interest? It was because the trusteeship was to let the trust territory get matured after which it would be politically independent and not dependent on another country. Then why would the world's ombudsman, the U.N.O. and strong nations like the USA, Canada, China and Brazil sit by and watch another mayhem in the making when its bud could be cut by parley? It is opportune to fight decisively as the British fought to regain the Falkland Islands or to broker peace? Is the world not tired of wars? The benefits of  democracy and peace are immeasurable? They are harbingers of industrial development. The world has advanced phenomenally since the end of the second World War, 1945 because we have lived in relative peace. But with this trend of thought of Dowden, some persons will one day sit and glamorized colonialism and slavery of Africans and the First and Second World Wars. Would they?  

AFRICANS CAN COLONIZE

We should be reminded that Africans can colonize and had enslaved and sold their kinds to Arabs, Africans and Europeans in the past even hitherto. Africans can do that with the connivance of some 'civilized' European states. Some of us were extant when the French President Vallery Giscard d'Estaing in 1973 received diamonds from Jean-Bedel Bokassa as gifts and supported the dictator to waste the state funds in crowing himself the Emperor of Central African Empire as his way of copying another disgraced French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Mankind is the same be he African, European or Asian. They all came from one womb in Africa irrespective of some in the present generation allowing color of the skin out of naivety to befuddle their reasoning. Some ever feel that they are superior to the others even of the same color and locale. So the tendency to enslave is still inherently there and can still happen to day if some persons are given the sanction. Consequently we have to keep open our eyes and increase our resolutions. How many persons are confined or sold as sex slaves as your are reading this missive? There are many even in the ward where you live and work. Do not be apathetic and say that it is not your concern.  In the 21 century we cannot entertain modern form of slavery, apathy because this dreadful act is carried out by Africans or others in some remote and primitive parts of the world. If we do, they will come to haunt all of us one day.

ONENESS OF MAN AND JOINT EFFORTS

Even though the man of today is civilized and he does no necessarily look before he leaps as assumed. There is no question of using brute force just because one has got the weaponry and can outdistance the others with his gumption. Deep reasoning and sympathy should prevail. If it were not so, Obama would have intervened in Syria, Central African Republic, and remained put in Afghanistan to right the wrong. The message the modern man is putting at the table for all and sundry to see is that proper reasoning, justice and democracy are what will govern the united man of the modern world and not the sort of uncouth behavior of President Putin and his cronies in Russia. We started this with the search for the debris of the Malaysian Flight 370 vanished in thin air over India Ocean. It was seen that it is the concern of all of us. Why? 26 countries have joined hands in the search and rescue operation. Several sorties each day with no end in sight. That is the oneness of man being shown, the work of God. So, if there is injustice in Africa, it should not be ignored for 53 years as the case of British Cameroons because it is only Africa and not many are being reported in the Western media as dying. We live now in a different world and not that of yesteryear where we did not want to know what was happening behind the hills. 

NEW MILLENNIUM CIVILIZED THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS

Once more the writer forgot what the British did during the French occupation and rule the United Kingdom. The British fought hard to drive the invaders away. When the Moors took over Portugal and Spain the natives one day gathered courage and drove them away. Why did they do that? They did not want humiliation and subjugation. No one in his right frame of mind should support subjugation in the 21st century. We have to associate with each other through mutual agreement like any matrimony and not by the use of force as is the case with Cameroon Republic (LRC) troops and governance in the former British Cameroons (aka Ambazonia). You will see that if what Russia did in March 2014, occupying Crimea took place in the 19 century, Crimean friends would have been mobilizing then for war against Russia. The British with the tacit support of America did not allow the occupation of the Falkland by the Argentinians in 1982. They opposed it. Your Britain after the death of Arthur Wesley, the Duke of Wellington, in 1852 who taught Emperor Bonaparte were concerned and their land forces took part in the Crimean War.  A different sort of war is being wedged to counteract or chastise President Putin's aggressive Russia for its political misdemeanor. The West is unleashing economic sanctions in the absence of fostering constructive dialogue in resolving conflicts. We are not saying that they get it right most of the time but on this day and age wars are not necessary unless all avenues of peace have been exhausted. That is why dictators are sidelined and persons feeling being cheated are listened to. What happens if they ignore all pleas and carrying on as killing their people as the Syrian government is doing now?

Why would our writer feel that the sentiments of Africans are different from those of Europeans or Asians? We are repeating for emphasis. However, we will hear some persons state that slavery and colonialism were good for Africans. A cranky Cameroon pastor in the USA was hushed down recently when he stood up to advance that colonialism was better for Africans. Others will stand up to state that the colonization of the USA by Britain and taxation without representation was good for the USA. Others will state that apartheid that caused untold damage and mayhem in Southern Africa was good for Africans. There are some citizens of British Cameroons who will stand up to state that the occupation of their territory by Cameroon Republic is good for them. There were some blacks in South Africa who never saw anything wrong with apartheid, separate development based on race and color of individuals. 

BALKANIZATION AND AFRICAN UNITY

My suggestion is that unique cases of peoples or a group of people who want to be independent from the main body may have to be looked into and it should never be interpreted as another Balkanization of the present day Africa. We all knew in the 1980s that there was something wrong with the Czechoslovakia. The Czechs in the UK or wherever they were in the world spoke openly against their union with the Slovaks and demonstrated. In the long run it was concluded and they separated from the Slovaks and all of them are living happily there after. They could demonstrate, Paul Biya's regime gives no room for demonstration not even to talk of dialogue and that is scary. There is no question of having a bedfellow who wears spiky pajamas and you being forced to share the same bed indefinitely.

It is no longer the imperial dictatorship or colonialism of the Europeans to be exhumed in mother Africa.  If imperative, African kingdoms or tribes as European tribes that have grown big to be nation states could enter new arrangements on whom they would want  to link up with as the EEC did and it should not be on coercion of the like of Cameroon Republic (former French Cameroon) and U.N.O. State of Cameroon (the former British Cameroons) where the former ever feels that it had the right to control and dictate to the later in the way it pleases. Where it feels that it had the right to extract its oil, gold, iron, hard woods, plantations and give the rightful owners nothing and we members of the civilized world as Canada, USA, Germany and Australia sit by and concur their action because the former British Cameroons is not physically fighting back as once did Eritrea.

Where force would be applied or used, the dream of African unity would be buried in a cement mortar before it is even born. The example of Cameroon Republic (ex-French Cameroun) and the former British Cameroons is clear evidence that big states would like to assimilate smaller ones should the idea of African Unity be forged in the way the union of Cameroon Republic was done with that of U.N.O. State of Cameroon (former British Cameroons). In this case, smaller states of Africa rather be on their own than to go into some false or pretentious union to tell the world that they are together with some African states when it is cosmetic. Gambia tried with Senegal and it never materialized and the case of Eritrea aforementioned and Ethiopia, British Cameroons and Cameroon Republic are glaring examples where unity that is intrigued never worked and it is disintegrated.

COMPARE WITH KATANGA DISTRICT

Furthermore, for any suggestion that Katanga would have been carved out of the Democratic Republic of Congo when we know that the Whites who were fanning the secession were interested not in peace of Africans but to covet the minerals in that state is crazy and patronizing of Africans as had ever been. Also, our writer forgets that the founding fathers of the African Union (AU) of which Abubaca Tafawa Balewa, PM of the Federation of Nigeria, President Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon, President Julius Nyrere of Tangayika now Tanzania, and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President Sedar Senghor of Senegal among many others were present, it was unanimously agreed that the colonial boundaries of the then states of Africa were to be sacrosanct. That kept peace but if Cameroon Republic entered Southern Cameroons or any part of the British Cameroons as the new colonialist, it was an infringement of the international law. Similarly if Tshoumbe wanted to carve out Katanga with the tacit support of mercenaries from the then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and the racist South Africa, it was an infringement of the international law. What Cameroon Republic did under President Ahmadou Ahidjo to enter Southern Cameroons is not different from what the Russian are doing to strengthen their stronghold in Crimea. If we can condemn this act, as we did when Saddam Hussein entered Kuwait why have we ignore the case of the British Cameroons for fifty-three years (53) years? Is it because British Cameroonians are blacks or slaves or they are not cousins of Americans?

END NOTES

If countries decide to live on their own, it is their right. Switzerland soldiers singly and is a role model for many an African countries. A union could be worked out as that of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Western Africa, Union douarniere et economique de l'Afrique centrale (UDEAC) in Central Africa, Southern African Development  Community (SADAC)and as the case of Southern and Eastern Africa, East African Community (EAC). Members join it from the position of equality and not that of subordination. If tomorrow Nigeria owing to it size and wealth were to go about hectoring small nation states of Western Africa that were with ECOWAS, it would mark the dismantling of that economic union.  After all, most of what we call African states lived as fragmented kingdoms (no matter how big or small they were), prior to the coming of European for thousands of years and all these problems were and are created by European colonialism. It will be seen that tribalism, that is a term some anthropologists of European extraction would not want to fathom) as that in Europe  is alive and kicking and this is a sign that the forged European creation is not even working as Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who had dreamed of having a united Europe under him by the use of brutish force. This is the naked truth some of you will be contesting: We do no see a French man dying for a German first but he is prepared to die for his fellow French man first except he is a Vichy remnant. The EEC is for economic and defensive strength and not really to the liking of many Europeans. If not why are there skeptics as Switzerland? If not why is the UK still anchored to their old pound sterling instead of the Euros? Why do the British still drive on the left side of the road instead of keeping right as in most part of the world? As some persons come out with outlandish ideas, some persons would even be against a one single government for the Continent of Africa by Africans.
Dr. Viban Viban Ngo.


Post Script: I am replying to the article from the Royal African Society Journal entitled "Is the Crimea referendum a good model for Africa - Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society, London, UK first published on March 18, 2014. I could not do it where it was first written as I wanted it to have a wider exposure. Sadly Africans that are supposed to be our clientele, that is future in our readership of our missive are missing. How they learn even in the electronic world cannot be understood. 

Highly recommended video: Readers interested in the above article may watch this video by Francesca Irma from France outlining some of the grievances of the British Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia.

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About the Author: Viban Viban NGO, a Canadian You may contact him for further information by writing to him on Email vibanngo@yahoo.com URL http://www.flagbookscanadainternationalinc.com