US, Nigeria Voted For S. Cameroons Independence - Justice Ebong

By Francis Tim Mbom

One of the proponents for the Independence of Southern Cameroons, Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong, has disclosed that the USA and Nigeria voted in favour of independence for the then UN's Trust territory, Southern Cameroons, during the 1152nd UN General Assembly meeting that held on April 19, 1961.

The said disclosure is contained in a September 22 address to the "Peoples of Southern Cameroons" where in, Ebong now in self-exile in Nigeria, called off celebrations to mark October 1, as "Southern Cameroons independence day."

During the UN held plebiscite of February 11, 1961, a majority of Southern Cameroonians voted for re-unification with French Cameroon in the East. But in his address, Ebong stated that from declassified British documents in respect to the "expiry date of the British Official Secrets Act," the UN General Assembly, held two months after the plebiscite, voted for separate independence for the Southern Cameroons.

According to his address, 50 countries, among them the USA and Nigeria, voted "yes" in favour of independence, two voted 'no' and nine abstained."Of the 50 countries that voted for the separate independence of the Southern Cameroons on April 19, 1961, was the USA and Nigeria," Ebong stated.

The address, however, does not state why the British kept a UN resolution 'secret.'
  "These un-impeachable historical facts…have been kept secret from the people of Southern Cameroons until the expiry date of the 'British Official Secrets Acts' was made public."

Ebong stated that in his address that on the night of September 30, prior to October 1, when Southern Cameroons gained independence by joining French Cameroun, the Queen of England "secretly handed over Southern Cameroons as a gift" to the then French President, Charles de Gaulle.

     As to why a UN vote on April 19, yet on the status of Southern Cameroons, two months after the plebiscite of February 11, Ebong stated that from the outset in 1959, when the UN decided that its trust territories be granted self governance, the USA and other UN members were in favour of a separate independence for the peoples of Southern Cameroons.

    "The USA congratulates the peoples of Southern Cameroons for their accession to auto determination as it constitutes the will of the population who want to run their affairs…"

    This was the declaration of the US Ambassador to the UN, Clement J. Zabloiski during the 896th General Assembly meeting of the UN that held on October 6, 1959, as stated by Ebong's September 22 address.

     He quoted Zabloiski as saying there was no genuine reason, at the time, to deny the Southern Cameroons the option for self-rule as happened to other trust territories.
For "the results of a hurried choice (the plebiscite) imposed on the population of the Trust Territory," Zabloiski warned, "would be catastrophic for their political future."
   

In the same vein, a British MP, Lord G.M. Thompson in an August 1, 1961, address to the British House of Commons, foresaw that the fusion of the English speaking peoples of Southern Cameroons with French speaking Cameroun was an expensive political gamble that was going to generate a plethora of very complex problems, given the cultural differences of the two.

    "The problem of uniting these two territories would in any event be difficult. They are two territories of completely different cultures with different political systems-there are extremely complex problems in bring these two countries together within one National State."

Comments

[Africa]

SCNC is gradually moving from right to left changing to CNCS ( Cameroon Nationals of Crooks and secessionist).At last the story of stollen victory or rigged election is now discounted with the fact that "During the UN held plebiscite of February 11, 1961, a majority of Southern Cameroonians voted for re-unification with French Cameroon in the East".Thus my Late Grand father Vote and mom is now spared.I must rejoiced for democracy.
At thesame time I am not rulling out the fact that there are some elements of marginalization of some sort in Cameroon.But then how can we look at our equals african brothers as colonial maters??.There is a lot the English provinces of Cameroon can get from the governtment far more that the GCE Board and University of Buea if they fight their way with one voice.There are some leason our brother of the french have learn from us.We need to stand up with one voice and stir the country towards its part of civilazation through dialouge and peaceful demostrations.

[Ma Mary]

Africa, have you seen any of the documents of which Ebong speaks? I have seen the British declassified document, a one paragraph letter from the British Ambassador. The UN documents that chronicle the independence vote on the Southern Cameroons are available in any major university library in the US. If you are in the US, verify this for yourself. Finally, it is incorrect to state that there was "reunification". No such term appears in UN documents. They talk about "independence by joining". "Reunification" is fiction and propaganda not based in history or law.

Finally, when the Southern Cameroons voted, it did so to become a coequal partner in a union of two states. It was illegal to dissolve the federation. It was the equivalent of dissolving the states in America and collapsing them into the federal structure. Such an event cannot even be contemplated, let alone voiced, because it will mean the dissolution of the US or a second civil war. The events since 1961 are tantamount to secession by la Republique du Cameroun and annexation of the Southern Cameroons.

Africa, I do not know how old you are. If you are a young person, maybe you are only aware of our present colonized status, and think that is normal. There is something else about the "brotherhood" with la republique that you mentioned. All humans are brothers, but if your brother persecutes, enslaves and exploits you, you reserve the right to demand that he stays outside of your fence and your compound and your worldly goods.

I suggest that you google and read up on the "Stockholm Syndrome" which is a peculiar thing that occurs that causes hostages to develop affection for their kidnappers and oppressors. Take care, you might be coming down with the Stockholm syndrome.

MM

[Africa]

MM
I must be suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome".That is true and correct. But do you realized that it was such a syndrome that have give you the chance to lived in the USA as a free man.Take a look at History;
Martin Luther Jr had an acute stage of this syndrome he didn't only develope the affection to the oppressors (White Racist) at that time but he show them how to love, He taught people how to demostrate peacefull at the barrel of the Gun. Not to flee from it in seeking of Greener pasture ,or refuge else where.
And then what happen, it work, better and best than any politics can do and it will move through out time. Amen.Why try to build castel in the Air when there are better workable ways to do it on the Earth??.
I think we Cameroonian should start to throw away the complexities in which we look at things and know that what is workable is simple and free.
Get Back to Cameroon and teach people(the oppressors) how to love and rule, to live a true and simple life and see for yourself how much change you will impact on the people.
Come join us in Africa to make the continent a place to BE.

[JB Samba]

MR Africa,

Just by postting under an alias tells me that you don't have confidence in yourself and are narrow minded.

What you just posted above tells a clear story that you have completedly missed the whole point about "stockolm syndrome".

Martin Luther King Jr. (may his soul rest in perfect peace) had no trace of this syndrome. Had it been he had, he won't have had the guts to start and successfully manage the peaceful revolution the way he did. He would have been contented with the position of the black race in America (if he had the syndrome), but he was not.

Somebody with this syndrome will go to any length to defend his/her oppressor (just the way you are doing) and will not revolt against the oppressor like Martin Luther King Jr. did (not even peacefully.

I'm definitely sure you have the "stockolm syndrome" triple fold. You are a very narrow minded person and belong to the 'narrow minded' streets of Yaounde.

Long Live the SCNC
Long Live the Southern Cameroons

[Reader]

My question is was the fate of southern Cameroon in 1961 to be determined by the wish of the majority of southern Cameroonians or the votes of Nigeria and the USA or classified documents?

[Africa]

JB Samba of all,JB Samba the almighty of minds.
I must be living in yaounde in constant strugle with Cameroon worries and more infected with your "Stockolm sydrome".Sitting on the spot and fighting(revolting) to share love with others.
I haven't left the country or ran away like a coward but braced the oppressor face to face,understanding his tactics and learn more how to change him.
WHY didn't your Martin Luther of all Never asked for a Complete Repartation of Africans Back to their MotherLand or FatherLand at that time??.You the greatest of Minds(never narrow in any Issues)can Tell US Why???.This could have sounds like Secession and Going back to their rightful place where they Belong.After all it was the white Man who Carry them there so he should have taken them back.(thats is history and fact that you find pleasure to take refuge in).
Can you really tell me if the Black Man in USA is 100%free compare to the white?? A fact that Hurrican Katarina exposed.
I will have to say that same sydrome is keeping Bushfallers in Bush,they are Happy to lived at the edge of the economy in the west than the corrupt society which they elud in Africa.Which is worht fighting for JB Samba??.
African Unite so that we maybe able to get out of the economic "stockolm syndrome" that have soo far incapacitates our very way of thinking.I pray to Jah that our brothers and sisters who are at the forefront of this syndrome(Notably those in Europe and America) will come and join us so as to increase the force to overide the burden off Africa.
Once again. Africans Unite.Start it from Home Start it from CAMEROON:

(JB samba if you will like to know more about me send me a mail at jeo_brown2005@yahoo.com .I don't find pleasure in being popular not even as to us it for assylum papers).

[Martin]

Mr Africa

Your suggestion for all nationalists to return home and take the fight to colonial representatives on the ground is mistaken.

For one reason, Yaounde is highly restrained at home because of the relay potential which Cameroonians in the Diaspora can apply to any news and photos of repressive measures.

What we need is more peaceful activism, based on facts and democratic arguments at home and overseas for justice to prevail on all fronts in the battle against neo-colonialsm.

Martin

[felix]

Mr Reader your question is quite simple but very difficult to answer.I may delibrate on it.
I guess the Answer is:They JOIN L'republic inoder to gain INDEPENDENCE OR Mami Mary put it;"independence by joining".
What I have not understand about SCNC is what they want to Restored?.A federal State which was voted for or some time when they were dependent??. Following the timeline of Cameroon History Southern Cameroons was not independent.Perhaps they could have told us that they will like us to go back to some time Frames like The Trustee period when Southern Cameroon lived Under the British.
If we accepted to join should we shape our realtionship or keep complaining and asked for a break up.I have long told these activist to learn from Nigeria or other states who have broken up only to reunite again.

[JB Samba]

Mr Africa,
If you have chosen to remain in your niche, that's your business. I don't need to know more about you than what I already know (which tells me glaringly the type of person you are - NARROW MINDED). I am a very busy person and don't have time for people of you ilk.

[martha]

I've read this article and I have some serious questions. First, are UN general assembly resolutions secrer? Or better still is it the British gov't who keeps these secrets?
Secondly, it seems illogical that Nigeria will vote for a seperate southern cameroonian state when they could have voted for 'southern cameroon' to join them.
The SCNS has reduced itself to a toothless dog barking organization, not that it was ever something else. Dishonest in the sense that my name could be Atangana and I'll get and SCNC card and file for assylum in the U.S. I'll even get a story published in this newspaper about how the cameroonian gov't is trying to assasinate me. It sickens me when people approach me and tell me they hear there's some kinda war going on, with the gov't killing anglophone Cameroonians.
I've decided to fight this by prooving that 99% of these "stories" in the U.S. are fabricated. I've found a gov't official who has agreed to work with me. For one, he's already seen that those newspaper reports and even statements by lawyers are just jokes.
How SCNC build an honest state when the association right now is based on lies and forgery? I'm out to show this to the world.
martha

[ATS]

ha! ha! yet another Yang and co associate. It's not strange martha that you found a gov't official and decided to work with him. But i feel you'll be able to reason properly if you worked with your own mind and had no selfish interest like your state officials do.

[Fotoh Paul Ebong]

I just Discovered nice arguments and thought I could chip in as well though maybe too late.
I am an anglophone, and one who has suffered the injustices of La Republique several times.The gendarms of la repulique came to my house got me out and tortured me for being road blockage during the ghost towns in the 90s.I later on attended the university of Dschang(presummed to be bilingual) where I struggled to get a degree as an average student.Here if one is sincere he will understand the fact that kife in Cameroon for the anglophones is not easy at all levels. :y singular experience in this country has proven to me that though we can't blame ourselves for inheriting different colonial cultures, we need to aggree on how to cohabit with them. where this aggreement is not respected, where negotiations fail, where concessions and compromises by hungry and egocentric individual continue destroy the future of thousands each day, then we are left or pushed to undesired extremes. We all have a point to make, our differences in approach should not be a source of division but a necessity to explain over and over until we are convinced of the right way forward. Today we have been frustrated by international bodies, by our opressors with the external think tank of France, by our own brothers of the southern Cameroon. The UN can come in if there is war, the western countries are waiting for a spark to sell arms,...
Form strong unions out there and pursue our case, demonstrate outthere because here we are being silenced and sold out, create forums of discussions. let the world speak of it. Taking up arms should be the last resort.

[Fotoh Paul Ebong]

Mr Africa and J.B I forgot to say that you all need the patience of getting into another's thought to better understand him/her.
One of the greatest difficulties of an African is to backeddown. If southern Cameroon is where thera are today, its because of the divid and rule theory which split them, weakened them, disintegrate them and slowly an atmosphere of distrust,scorn,and fear reigns between the anglophones. beware of this reality and fight it first with humility and acceptance of others ideas even if they do not suit ours in the mean time. The stronger we build our union the better for the fight.
Today there is Obama, did you here his speach in Ghana? lets take the chance not only for our cultural heritage but as a beginning of a fight for the liberation of the black continent from its exploiters as well as from its inhumane rulling dictators. May God bless Africa.

[njimaforboy]

Why would u want to live in bondage? WHY WOULD U WANT TO COHABIT WITH SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT WANT TO COHABIT WITH YOU? These thoughts should be erased from the memory of any English speaking Cameroonian. Negotiations occur because there is good faith and two or more people willing to negotiate. An English Cameroonian has more in common with some of our Nigerian Sibblings than with the so called French Cameroons. We are in a cursed union and France will never let us free voluntarily. It is difficult for the Master to let his slave go free. We have to die trying.

[A P Geofrey]

My fellow country men i have said this time and again on many defferent forums dealing with this issue of southern Cameroons,SCNC,SCAPO and others, and i will say it again here. Seccesion is something that La republic of the king will never give anybody whether with or without bloodshed. So what we as Southern Camerrons should be fighting for and I even think all Cameroonians should be fighting for is a return to our Federal state. Because that's the only way we are going to get some degree of autonomy for all the regions including Northwest and Southwest and probably with time we will be deciding for ourselves. This is a more easier goal to achieve from La Republic and if we put all our forces together we can even get the surport of other provinces first of all because it is not only the Southern Cameroons that is not happy with these regime but all of Cameroon and secondly the problem is not with the french speaking people of Cameroon (francophones) but with the regime in place and we all know that so let's face the poblem as it is.

[limbekid]

I know this is a rather late entry, but I could not help but notice this quotation supposedly form a British MP, Lord G.M. Thompson, on why a union could not work:"...two territories of completely different cultures with different political systems..." Granted we are currently operating under different adopted political systems, but how can we talk about different cultures? What was the relationship between the man from Lebialem and his cousin from Dschang; or the man from Santa and next door Mbouda, before the colonial era. Is the Hausa from the North culturally closer to the Sawa, or other neighbouring Hausa in Nigeria?

Are there no alternatives to solving our developmental problems without recourse to history?

While we are at it. Are Anglophone legal practitioners any less corrupt because they speak English, practice Common Law, and wear a wig?

[njimaforboy]

When i go to Yaounde to run my errands, i meet Francophones in every government office. They treat us English speaking Cameroonians as second class citizens. There is no difference between the regime and francophones. For us, the problem is Francophones.Our goal is seperation, Biya remains the president of Francophones. If we go for Federation, Biya will never accept power sharing. His predecessor planeed a coup when there was power sharing and won.
Also, it is important to note that there is corruption all over the world. That is not the issue. We all agree that Africa was poorly partitioned. That was yesterday. Today, we are fighting for freedom. Freedom from the illegal occupation of West Cameroon by a corrupt puppet rogue regime of the French government,headed by Biya Paul, the biggest mobster of all time, more dangerous than Dillinger, Castellano and Al Capone combined.

[Fotoh Paul Ebong]

I like the differences in ideas shared, but lets be practical and realistic. presently there is no pressure group pushing our ideas ahead apart from some divided concepts of the SCNC. Our arguments could be based on some personal negative experiences,on history,on interest,on the reality we are living now but lets be conscious of one thing - humanity is created to live together but under mutual respect. there are thousands of similar problems of identity and abuse of a group of people so we are part of these difficulties in the world.
we do not need to act senslessly or with anger. we need to sit down together and share ideas on how to go ahead in solving the problem of cameroon first as anglophones. here are my rpoposals;
1. the anglophone chiefs should meet, talk about the issue of federation or secession and come out with a common opinion. off course some will be bought but let they be well informed they are working for the future of a nation not of their empty stomachs.
2. Anglophones Elits should be convened to adress the issue likewise be in US,NIgeria etc. let their ideas be forwarded to the Ca;eroonian embassies copied to the UN,EU and other bodies.
3. Just like the Bamilikees are doing, the hardworking spirit should be encourage among the anglophones so as to show good examples. We need more professional universities so lets fight by galvanising donors to support human development projects.
4. If you have a contribution let it be progressive not regressive. we do not have time to waste on trivials and interpersonal querrels.
5. if today Mandela is the most popular person on earth, the most respected person on earth is not because he fought only for the blacks - yes for the blacks and also for the whites. lets fight for the anglophones while having in mind the francophones also. Your contribution in a meaningful fight is most welcomed.