African-on-African Colonization: The Ill-Fated Ambazonia-Cameroun Political Partnership

by Carlson Anyangwe

Overview

African-on-African Colonization: The Ill-Fated Ambazonia-Cameroun Political Partnership is an extensive study of the phenomenon of African-on-African colonialism in postcolonial Africa; an egregious and vexed development that is causing instability and insecurity in many parts of the continent. Using Ambazonia as a case study, Carlson Anyangwe discusses two manifestations of colonialism that emerged from the ashes of white colonialism (neo-colonialism and African-on-African colonialism) and how Ambazonia has been impacted by both. Anyangwe also examines the Ambazonia-Cameroun political association—that was later turned into Ambazonia (formerly British Southern Cameroons)—to explore Cameroun’s colonial occupation of Ambazonia and Ambazonia’s long struggle to be free and accede to sovereign statehood. Interweaving several complex issues garnered from historical sources, political developments, and eye-witness accounts, this book provides a deeper understanding of the complexity of motives and concatenation of forces in Ambazonia, expressing the critical need to decolonize Ambazonia in an era of freedoms and democratization. This book is a compulsory reading for Ambazonians and scholars of the distorted history of Ambazonia and Cameroun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666950649
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/15/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	394

About the Author

Carlson Anyangwe is professor emeritus at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Background

Chapter 1: The Toponym, Ambazonia

Chapter 2: Colonial Encounters

Part Two: Boundaries

Chapter 3: Land Boundaries

Chapter 4: Maritime Boundaries

Part Three: Politics

Chapter 5: Diary of Salient Political Events in Ambazonia from 1951 to 1961

Chapter 6: Forcible Actions Designed to Make Ambazonia an Internal Colony

Chapter 7: Ephemeral Ambazonia-Cameroun Political Association

Chapter 8: The Last Trick of a Notorious Illusionist: The 1972 Fraudulent ‘Referendum’

Part Four: The Decolonization Imperative

Chapter 9: Decolonization of Ambazonia: Arguments Founded in Law

Chapter 10: Decolonization of Ambazonia: Arguments Founded in History and Politics

Chapter 11: Implications for Ambazonia of Putin’s War in Ukraine

Appendix I: The Ambazonia – Nigeria Land Boundary Alignment

Appendix II: The Ambazonia – République du Cameroun Land Boundary

Bibliography

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Do we need to understand Ambazonia (zone on Ambas Bay) and her people of the territory formerly known as the United Nations Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons in former British West Africa? Carlson Anyangwe provides a resounding answer: Yes. His smart, careful, methodical, and authoritative analysis of the anti-colonial struggle of Ambazonia represents one of the first full accounts of a democratic and self-governing people with known and recognized international boundaries sacrificed at independence in 1961 by the UK (trustee) and the UN (trustor). Ill-Fated Ambazonia-Cameroun Political Partnership is a masterpiece compellingly told in lucid and arresting detail by a frontline expert and witness of the persistent conflictual relations between Republique du Cameroun, the latter-day African re-colonizer and the people of Ambazonia desirous to restore independence as a right in history and international law. A major sore point in the annals of the decolonization of Africa is this woeful tale of the self-determination struggle of Ambazonia in République du Cameroun. Anyangwe brilliantly interweaves several complex issues garnered from historical sources, political developments, and eye-witness accounts of actors on all sides of the decolonization of Ambazonia in a multi-vocal text. This book begins to help us–citizens, academics, leaders, policymakers in all walks of life and particularly those interested in justice and peace studies–make sense of the complexity of motives and concatenation of forces which make the Ambazonian decolonization imperative a critical human need in an era of freedoms and democratization.

Fonkem Achankeng

This magnum opus by Carlson Anyangwe belongs to the canon of revolutionary works like How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Walter Rodney), and Black Skin, White Masks (Franz Fanon). Unlike many writers before him, Anyangwe leaves the reader completely in shock by exposing the dirty linen on a taboo subject: Black-on-Black colonialism. While there is almost universal condemnation of European imperialism, there is an embarrassing and audible silence in the scholarship on this insidious and pernicious African-on-African colonialism. Anyangwe artfully articulates how one African country (Republique du Cameroun), itself a victim of French imperialism, effectively followed the same playbook in annexing and colonizing a neighboring African state (Ambazonia). He masterfully dismantles the myth of reunification used by French Cameroun to justify its claim of sovereignty and illegal occupation over Ambazonia.

In the end, the reader is saddened by the continued silence from the global community in the face of pogroms being committed in Ambazonia by French Cameroun as it wages a colonial war of occupation. Despite this, there is still hope. Anyangwe contends that the moment of freedom has come for Ambazonia as its people have shown that after successfully liberating themselves from the previous colonizers, they are now prepared to live free or die trying.

Harry A. Akoh