Interviewed by Joe Dinga Pefok In Douala
Vincent Feko, Founding Father 
of the Social Democratic Front, narrates in this exclusive interview how he, late Albert Mukong, Barrister Yondo Black and seven others got arrested while planning to float a new political party in early 1990. He reveals the subtle subterfuge that has been the bane of Cameroon's body politics.
Feko tells the tale of Yondo's bid to short-change him and Mukong. Excerpts:
The Post: How did you, in early 1990s, get involved in what became known as the Yondo Black Affair?
Vincent Feko: A group of concerned citizens mostly from the Northwest Province had by 1989 come together with the aim to float a political party, with the mission being to redress the plight of the English-speaking Cameroonians, by working for a return to the two-state federation. This party later got the name SDF.
It is also worth noting that the idea to create this political party was brought up by Albert Mukong (now of blessed memory), and it was also him who, after his release from prison, took the initiative to contact us individually to join him to create the party. I am talking about the real founding fathers of the SDF.
Meanwhile, since the main objective of the party then was to work for a return to the two-state federation, it became necessary for us to look for some serious French-speaking Cameroonians to join us in this mission. The initiative to go out and look for those Francophones was once more that of Mukong, and I had to work with him on that.
Was that how the two of you came to meet Barrister Yondo Black?
Yes. However, it is worth noting that it was some one else who directed us to meet him. In fact, the first French-speaking Cameroonian whom Mukong contacted was Prof. Jean Michel Tekam, who by then was based in Paris.
But he told Mukong that since he was based out of the country, it would be difficult for him to work with us. He, however, directed Mukong to contact a friend of his, Yondo Black, in Douala, whom he thought could be interested in the idea. Mukong was based in Bamenda, while I was based in Douala, where I was working.
So Mukong came down to Douala for us to meet Yondo Black. This was in December 1989. We met Yondo Black, and Mukong briefed him on the reason for our visit, which was to sell to him the idea of joining in to float a political party.
Yondo Black reflected for sometime as we sat together, and then embarrassingly turned around and tried to sell to us the same commodity, which we had proposed to him a moment earlier.
He told us that he was heading a group that was also working to float a political party, and then went on to instead call on us to join them. But I personally thought that it was a game of dishonesty on the part of Yondo Black, because if he was then working on floating a political party, Tekam, who was his close friend would have known, and thus would either had hinted Mukong about it, or would not have directed him to the Barrister again. As we left Yondo Black, I was really bitter, and I told Mukong that we should not go to this man again.
I said we could try to see some other French-speaking Cameroonians, but not this man, whom I believed had just got the idea from us about floating a political party and was trying to play a fast one on us.
But then it is on record that you and Mukong in January 1990, again met Yondo Black.
Yes. Well, Mukong came to Douala again, but this time around mainly to see Prof. Tekam whom he told me was in the country, precisely in Douala. He said we should go to Hôtel Beausejour at Akwa where he had information that Tekam was lodging, and see him. But at the hotel, we were told he was out.
We waited for sometime, but he did not show up. Mukong then suggested that we should go to Yondo Black's place which was not far away from there. Since we were using my car, I had no choice but to drive him to the place.
But when we arrived at the place, I refused to go inside the house, and told Mukong that I would rather wait for him inside the car. But he insisted that we go in together, and we finally did, though he knew that I was not happy about that.
He, of course, knew that I did not like to meet Yondo Black again. Anyway, we entered the house and met Yondo Black with four other persons, but Prof. Tekam was not there. We were, however, told that he was being expected there shortly. So we decided to wait. We were offered something to drink, but I refused.
Did Prof. Tekam meet you people there?
Yes. He came in with one other person, Gabriel Hameni, who was then the Principal of Lycée Jos in Douala. So we were now a total of nine or ten people in the room. There was a general discussion, during which I realised that all the other persons present with the exception of Mukong and myself were members of the Yondo Black group. I also realised that they were there for a meeting, though the discussion was initially just general.
Did you and Mukong again try to sell to that group the idea of floating a political party, or you had by sitting at the meeting decided to instead switch support to the party Yondo Black had told you people about?
Well, we once more tried to sell the idea of floating a party to them. We, in fact, urged them to come on board with us to float the party. But I realised that they did not buy the idea to join us. Instead, I had the impression that they saw the situation as one of rivalry between a Francophone and an Anglophone group.
To them, it was a matter of seeing which of the two groups planning to float a political party, would do it first. So though Mukong and myself sat in the room throughout the meeting, members of the Yondo Black group were quite aware that we were not with them, just as it became also certain to us that they would not join us.
When the discussion later focused on the party they wanted to create, I did not utter a word. However, at the end, we had all become friends. It became necessary for us to exchange addresses, and so we did. I think this meeting took place on January 23.
Some important documents were reportedly examined at that meeting. Can you recall them?
Well, when the deliberations later focused on the plan by the Yondo Black group for a political party, the host of the meeting (Yondo) who was also the leader of the group, at one point pulled out two documents. One of the documents was a sort of state of the nation address, while the other was the manifesto to prepare for the floating of a political party.
But the party by then had no name. Meanwhile, members of the group discussed the two documents for quite sometime and concluded that they should be merged, and that the new document to be produced by the fusion should as well be translated into English.
It was also decided that after all the work would have been completed, another meeting was to be summoned. Well, Mukong and I went away and continued to work with other members of our own group, on our plan to float a party.
How did it happen then that you and Mukong were arrested as members of the Yondo Black group that wanted to create a political party?
What I gathered when we were in jail, was that after the January 23 meeting, members of the Yondo Black group worked and merged the aforementioned two documents as was resolved at the meeting. It was said that the manuscript of the new document that was produced, was given to a certain young lady who by then was a secretary to a certain Director at the Port Authority in Douala, to type.
The young lady was said to have, after typing the document, secretly kept a printed copy. By then her boss was out of the country on mission. When her boss returned to the country, she showed him the document. The said Director immediately took it to the Governor of the Littoral Province, who by then was Luc Loe.
The Governor, on his part swiftly brought in the CENER, and they started tracking down one by one, all those who attended the meeting of January 23. The first person was arrested on February 9, and he was a guy who had told us he was a journalist, and was resident in Edea. I can only remember that he was fondly called John-John.
To get to John-John, the CENER picked up his girlfriend who was then working at SONEL in Douala, and forced her to show them where he was living. Meanwhile, other members of the Yondo Black group like Anicet Ekane, Wanga, Henriette Ekwe, Moutoume, and Gabriel Hameni were picked up one after the other. The last member of the group based in the country to be arrested, was Barrister Yondo Black himself. This was on February 19.
Were you and Mukong aware of the numerous arrests?
No, we were not aware that anything like that was happening, for we had not been in touch with Yondo Black or any member of the group, since we separated after that meeting of January 23. In fact, the first arrest that I heard about was that of Yondo Black.
It was a professional colleague of mine, who had whispered it to me at a SOBA meeting at Bonanjo, on the evening of that February 19. But then it did not, the least, occur to me that the arrest could have had any link with the meeting of January 23 or the political party they wanted to float.
That was why the CENER took me by surprise when they came for me at my office, which was at the Douala Port, in the morning of Monday February 21. The CENER men presented themselves and told me about their mission to my office. They asked if I knew Yondo Black, and I answered in the affirmative.
They asked if I had a copy of the document which we had prepared to create a political party, and I told them no. They thought I was lying, and mounted pressure on me. I told them that I knew the document was not yet ready, since another meeting had not yet been summoned as we had agreed at the January 23 meeting.
You see, since I realised that these fellows had known that I was at the January 23 meeting, I thought it wise to accept that I was a member of the Yondo Black group, because if I had refused they would definitely have wanted to know what I was doing at the meeting, and this might have led their investigation to uncover that there was a plan to float another party in Bamenda, with the name, SDF.
Meanwhile, the CENER agents took me to my house, and carried out a search. Fortunately, they neither found any document about the SDF nor any documents about the party the Yondo Black group wanted to create.
They, however, took away copies of two letters which Mukong had written to the President of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Britain, highlighting the terrible marginalisation of Anglophones in Cameroon. Fortunately, there was nothing in the letters about a plan to create a political party.
The CENER men also took away a copy of the African Confidential publication. I was arrested and taken to BMM, and locked up. I was in my cell alone. It was only the next day that I saw all the other colleagues who had earlier been arrested, and they told me all they knew was that our arrest had to do with the meeting of January 23.
What about Mukong?
By then Mukong was still in Bamenda. He had not yet been arrested. But when he heard about my arrest, as well as that of Yondo Black, he knew that the CENER would soon go for him, and he was in fact waiting. It might interest you to know that when I got in contact with Yondo Black and the other fellow detainees a day after my arrest, they all unanimously asked me to quickly look for away and send word to Mukong that he should escape abroad.
They said while abroad, Mukong known for what he was, would be able to effectively mobilise influential quarters and organisations to mount pressure on the Biya regime, for our release. I did send the message to Mukong, but then he refused to escape, and on February 26 he was arrested in Bamenda and brought down to Douala to join us in detention.
Mukong explained to us that he refused to run away because he could not reconcile such a decision with his conscience. He noted that he was the one who persuaded me to come along with him to Yondo Black's house on that January 23, when the meeting which led to the arrests took place. So he said he could not have gotten me into such a situation, and then run away.
You people were eventually released?
After a series of interrogations, we were in March transferred to Yaounde to face trial at the Military Tribunal. But then following pressure that came in from many directions, it became difficult for the regime to put us on trial for planning to create a political party.
This was because though Cameroon had for over two decades been operating as a one party state, the constitution in principle authorised the existence of other political parties, or better still, a multiparty system. So the regime that had arrested us for planning to float a political party, dropped that charge.
Instead, fake charges were levelled against us. It was said for example that in the aforementioned document that was produced to create the party, we insulted the Head of State, that we tried to incite the population against the government, and so on and so forth.
Worth noting that while we were in detention in Yaounde, a French lawyer who visited Mukong, disclosed to him that we were to be discharged, for we had in reality committed no crime by wanting to create a political party.
However, the funny trial did take place, with the prosecution proposing to the judges that we be each given a sentence of at least 20 years imprisonment, as well as a heavy fine to pay. At the end, however, most of us were discharged and acquitted. Only Yondo Black and Anicet Ekane, were each given a six-month imprisonment term. Definitely due to continuous heavy pressure, the two were soon also released.
May the soul of Pa Mukong rest in peace. Just Hope the Fru Ndis and the Ben Munas can leart from this interview. Fri Ndi is the biggest thief mankind has ever seen. The real reason for the creation of the SDF was to better the lives of the anglophones. But today the SDF is of the rail.
Mr fru Ndi, dissolve this SDF thing and join the SCNC. You will never rule Cameroun, not to talk of changing it. The Francophones hate you. Come join the SCNC and within the shortest time the Southern Cameroons shall be free. Note that when the Southern Cameroons is free, La Republique will come to its senses, because when money finish eye di open.
Posted by: Rene Dibi | Friday, 01 September 2006 at 06:42 AM
Rene Dibi, As you know Mr. Fru Ndi as the biggest thief, why then asking him to dissolve the SDF and join the SCNC? So you are telling us that SCNC is makeup of big thieves like Mr. Fru Ndi? Know that the anglophones lives will still be better in La Republique if the present regime was working for the Cameroonians. They are doing their job as if they are working on their family farms. The job they are doing is a "two partie" job as the big farmers do with their farm care takers. As you said the Francophones hate Mr. Fru Ndi, who voted him in 1992? were they only the Anglophones? what is the population of the Southern Cam? Rene give Mr.Ndi the respect and mind your words. thx
Posted by: ABENEI | Friday, 01 September 2006 at 03:28 PM