By Churchill Ewumbue-Monono (culled from Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon, 2009)
A policy advocacy initiative, the origins of the National Youth Day in Cameroon can be traced to the special days celebrated by youth organizations in the Southern Cameroons such as 22 February, the “Thinking Day”, celebrated by the Girl Guides and Brownies in commemoration of Lady Banden Powell. There was also the Commonwealth Youth Sunday marked by the reading of a Message from the Queen, Church services and a March-Past by youth groups such as the Boys Scouts, Girl Guides, Boy’s Brigades, Red Cross and other youth organizations. It was presided by His Honour the Commissioner of Southern Cameroons, or his Deputy Commissioner who took the salute and read the speech to the parades...
The “Thinking Day” and the “Commonwealth Youth Sundays” were however limited to members of youth movements, most of who were in Victoria and Kumba Divisions. It did not have a very important territorial impact like the “National Days” which were celebrated throughout the territory. In colonial Southern Cameroons, there were two of such important national days. First was the “Empire Day”, which was celebrated in the territory for the first time in 1949 and featured sporting and cultural events, as well as by a march past. Then was the Southern Cameroons Day, celebrated every 26 October to commemorate the creation of a quasi-region for Southern Cameroons in 1954.
Following the 11 February 1961 and the formal reunification of Southern Cameroons and the French Cameroons on 1st October 1961, Southern Cameroons was replaced by the federated state of West Cameroon, which made its continuous celebration irrelevant, especially as the KNDP propagandists saw in the day a mark of Dr. Endeley’s success. In acknowledging both the importance and irrelevance of the day, the Prime Minister, Dr. John Ngu Foncha argued that:
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Wow, that was informative - never new about "Southern Cameroons" day and always assumed that Ahidjo created and imposed the "youth day" after the creation of the one-party system in 1966. I guess this is another "petit cadeau" from Southern Cameroons to La Republique which has come back to haunt us...
Posted by: I-Ras | Thursday, 11 February 2010 at 01:06 PM
Ras,Information technology,the world today is an industry of Knowledge.Its amazing to read such interesting stories on Youth Day celebration in Southern Cameroons.With less analytical precision, the internet has reactivated our political consciousnes,created much awareness,and will keep on educating Southern Cameroons on very sensitive matters we had never come across.Thank you sir.
Posted by: asafor | Thursday, 11 February 2010 at 02:13 PM
This is a great and educative piece by Mr. Ewumbue-Monono.
I really learned a lot from it.
Hopefully more Southern Cameroonian youth will read and digest the article and re-awaken their conciousness.
Thanks Sir.
A+
Paa Ngembus
THE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS SHALL BE INDEPENDENT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
Posted by: Paa Ngembus | Friday, 12 February 2010 at 01:07 PM