Ceded at Dawn

Description

The Aborted Decolonization of the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons

Ceded at Dawn identifies and examines decolonization as the principal source of the smoldering tension that persisted between the two former United Nations Trust Territories in Cameroon which finally exploded into an armed conflict in 2017. French Cameroon (now the Republic of Cameroon) was decolonized while the decolonization of British Cameroons was abandoned unfinished. The international experiment on independence by joining was an exceptional route selected for the decolonization of British Southern Cameroons and was defended with the untenable arguments that British Southern Cameroons was too small and too poor to be granted sovereign independence. Both British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroon rejected independence by joining – the latter registering her objection in a “No” vote at the General Assembly meeting in April 1961. In British Southern Cameroons on the other hand, the suppression of bilateral agreement on confederation of states of equal status, the nullification of their self-governing status and worst of all the wrongful transfer of that self-governing state to the Republic of Cameroon on no known terms became a complete recipe for a disaster awaiting outburst and eruption. Ceded at Dawn documents and methodically analyzes these developments using archival and recently declassified British colonial sources. Historians, diplomats, political scientists, scholars of the UN system and international law as well experts on decolonization will find this volume it very illuminating.

Praise for “Ceded at Dawn”

“Ndangam’s work is a highly compacted confluence of factual, historical, legal, philosophical, sociological and archival sources enriched with copious lately bewildering, scandalous, incriminating, highly confidential and secret British documents.”

­— Dr. Anthony Ndi, PhD Associate Professor of History, Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda

Table of Content

Introduction    

Part I: In the Name of Decolonization

Chapter 1
British Cameroons is Dismembered
The Road Map is Changed
Different Categories of Independence
Inconsistencies and Violations of the Charter
“Independence by Joining” is Conceived
The Red Line which Anglophones in Cameroon Must Never Cross
British Southern Cameroons is Obliterated and Extinguished
Decolonization is Aborted and Abandoned

Part II: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Chapter 2
Plebiscite on Independence: A Cosmetic Exercise in Democracy
On the Horns of a Dilemma, the UK Discards the Expendable
Absence of the UN
Clandestine Dealings between Britain and Ahidjo: Transfer of Southern Cameroons
The UK and Ex-Service Men of the British Crown
Independence by Joining: Cold Shoulder and Veto
UN (GA) Resolution 1608 XV

Part III: Virtually at War Throughout

Chapter 3
Truth: The First Casualty of the War
The Statehood of the Southern Cameroons UN Trust Territories
Independence or Re-unification
Two Views on the Annexation of the Southern Cameroons
Cameroon’s Odd Revolution: Ahidjo’s Coup
The Catapult Revolution
Strike by Common Law Lawyers and Teachers

Part IV: Determined to be Free

Chapter 4
The Aftermath of Ceding
Perspectives of the Conflict
Fuel on the Fire:  The Church dances Crabwise

Concluding Reflections
God Saw Goodness in Separation
“Is this Los Angeles?”
Flowers that Bloom in Paradise
Appendix