Product Code Database
French Cameroon, also known as the French Cameroons (), was a French mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
French Cameroon was created from the eastern part of the former German colony of Kamerun (). Its status, from 1919, was that of a ‘mandated territory’ of the League of Nations (LON), later becoming a ‘trust territory’ under the United Nations (UN). It was also a member of the French Union as an associated territory, then a trust state of Cameroon, and finally a member state of the French Community.
In 1946, a Representative Assembly of French Cameroon (ARCAM) was constituted. Paul Ajoulat and Alexandre Douala Manga Bell were elected deputies of the French National Assembly. Some private and public schools were opened, while the best students were sent to Dakar (Senegal) or France to study in college. The colonial administration also built electricity and water infrastructures in large cities. In 1952, the Representative Assembly became the Territorial Assembly of Cameroon (ATCAM).
The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), an anti-colonialist party created in 1948 and which struggled for unification of both and for independence was outlawed in 1955. The Cameroon War then escalated and lasted for at least seven years, with the French Fourth Republic leading a harsh repression of the anti-colonialist movement. The conflict found its roots in the opposition between the settlers and the Cameroonese trade-unionists in the cities. After the Brazzaville Conference of January 1944, during which the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) issued several promises concerning progressive self-rule, the settlers organized themselves in 1945 in "General estates of colonisation" ( Etats généraux de la colonisation").
A Cercle d'études marxistes (Marxist Study Circle) was created by Cameroonians in 1945, soon followed by the creation of the Union of Confederate Trade Unions of Cameroon ( Union des syndicats confédérés du Cameroun, USCC) at the initiative of the CGT trade-union. Conflicts erupted in September 1945, with the settlers violently debating with the French governor. Members of the USCC were arrested. In 1948, Ruben Um Nyobé became the head of the resistance movement, with a nationalist and revolutionary program. Nyobé's UPC was at first only the local section of the African Democratic Rally created in 1946. However, it refused to split, as did the African Democratic Rally, with the French Communist Party (PCF) in 1950. After some revolts and increasing tensions with the colonial administration, the UPC was outlawed on 13 July 1955 by the governor Roland Pré, forcing Nyobé into hiding, from where he led a guerrilla war against the French administration.
France granted internal autonomy in 1956, and the ATCAM became the Legislative Assembly of Cameroon (ALCM). André Marie Bbida became prime minister in 1957, and Ahmadou Ahidjo vice-premier. Despite the requests by Rubem Um Nyobe, head of the UPC, the new government refused to legalize the UPC. André Bdida renounced in 1958, replaced by Ahidjo, while Um Nyobé was killed by a French commando in the "maquis" on 13 September 1958. Following his death, the UPC divided itself, while competing leaders, verbally in favor of Marxism revolution, radicalized the movement. Starting in 1959, the colonial war juxtaposed itself with a civil war, Ahmadou Ahidjo taking the place of France in fighting the UPC. The successor of Nyobé, Félix-Roland Moumié, was assassinated in 1960 in Geneva by the SDECE, French secret services.Jacques Foccart, counsellor to Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou and Jacques Chirac for African matters, recognized it in 1995 to Jeune Afrique review. See also Foccart parle, interviews with Philippe Gaillard, Fayard – Jeune Afrique and also "The man who ran Francafrique – French politician Jacques Foccart's role in France's colonization of Africa under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle – Obituary" in The National Interest, Fall 1997
The insurrection continued after independence was granted, even though the UPC had been officially dismantled. The rebellion was really crushed only in the 1970s, after the death in the "maquis" of Ossendé Afana in March 1966 and the public execution of Ernest Ouandié, a historic leader of the UPC, in January 1971.
Estimates about the number of victims of the war ranged around several tens of thousands of deaths, mainly after independence. The war featured human rights abuses by UPC militants and the troops of Cameroon and France.Johnson, Willard R. 1970. The Cameroon Federation; political integration in a fragmentary society. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Despite the efforts of writer Mongo Beti, the war and the brutal methods employed by the French government has been overshadowed in France by the Algerian War. The lack interest has been attributed to the use of professional soldiers in the conflict, the low number of Cameroonian immigrants in France requesting recognition of the crimes committed during the war, and, more recently, the fall of Communism.
French Cameroon became independent on 1 January 1960, becoming the Republic of Cameroon. The civil war with the UPC lasted for years afterward.
]]
The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by Germany as a protectorate during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. During World War I, it was occupied by French and Belgian troops.
In 1922 it was mandated to Great Britain and France by the League of Nations. The French mandate was known as Cameroun, in French West Africa. The British mandate was administered as two territories, Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons in British West Africa. British Northern Cameroons consisted of two non-contiguous sections, divided by where the Nigerian and Cameroon borders met.
Northern Cameroons became a region of Nigeria on 31 May 1961, while Southern Cameroons became part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon on 1 October.
Colony and mandate
[[File:Cameroon boundary changes.PNG|350px|thumb|left|Cameroon from 1901 to 1972
Independence
French Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroon on 1 January 1960, and Nigeria was scheduled for independence later that same year, which raised question of what to do with the British territory. After some discussion (which had been going on since 1959), a plebiscite (British Cameroons referendum) was agreed to and held on 11 February 1961. The Muslim-majority Northern Cameroons area opted for union with Nigeria, and the Southern Cameroons area voted to join Cameroon.Nohlen, D, Krennerich, M & Thibaut, B (1999) Elections in Africa: A data handbook, p177
Governors
See also
External links
Categories: History Of Cameroon, French Equatorial Africa, Cameroons, French, History Of Central Africa, Cameroons, 1918 Establishments In Africa, 1960 Disestablishments In Africa, 1918 Establishments In The French Colonial Empire, 1962 Disestablishments In The French Colonial Empire, States And Territories Disestablished In 1960
|
|
