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The ‘Igbo Scare’ in the British Cameroons, c. 1945–61

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Victor Bong Amaazee
Victor Bong Amaazee
Affiliation:
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Bambili, Mezam, Cameroun
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Extract

La peur de la domination de la tribu Ibo constitua l'une des raisons majeures pour la décision du Sud-Cameroun Britannique à voter en 1961 pour quitter le Nigéria complètement et de s'unir avec la République du Cameroun. Dès les années 1920, après que la Grande-Bretagne avait obtenu un mandat international sur un part de l'ancienne colonie allemande, elle le gouvernait comme apanage du Nigéria, et le développement, que ce soit économique ou culturel, était très tardif. Les indigènes faisaient concurrence à grande peine aux immigrants du Nigéria, surtout les Ibos, dont la résilience et l'ingéniosité dans le commerce, alliés à leur manque de modestie dans le succès, provoquaient l'envie. Les politiciens camerounais contribuaient aux stéréotypes ethniques en incitant des rumeurs fantasques. Certes, des autres rivalités importaient aussi, mais dans les élections de 1954, 1957 et 1959 le mécontentement avec les liaisons au Nigéria fut clairement associé aux sentiments anti-Ibo.

Type
Politics in the Late Colonial Period
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , July 1990 , pp. 281 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 Until 1949 they constituted Cameroons Province (which up to 1939 was one of Nigeria's Southern Provinces and thereafter one of its Eastern Provinces). In 1949 Bamenda Division became a Province.

2 Eyongetah, T. and Brain, R., A History of the Cameroon (Harlow, 1974), 141–2.Google Scholar

3 Achebe, Chinua, The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu, 1983), 46–7.Google Scholar

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7 Kuczynski, R. R., The Cameroons and Togoland: a Demographic Study (London, 1939), 278.Google Scholar This tabulates labourers from territories other than the British or French Cameroons; the basis for such statistics is discussed in Ibid. 280–1.

8 Ardener, Edwin, Ardener, Shirley and Warmington, W. A., Plantation and Village in the Cameroons (London, 1960), 198–9, 105–6.Google Scholar

9 Ibid. 199.

10 Cameroons Federal Union, Memorandum submitted to the Visiting Mission of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations Organization, November 1949 (Lagos, 1949), 1, 10, 28.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 17–18.

12 Senior District Officer, Victoria Division, to Resident, Cameroons Province, Buea, n.d. (1948). Cameroon Archives, Buea (CAB), PC/h(1948)1, ‘Conditions of Settlement’.

13 Principal, St Joseph's College, Sasse, to Fowler, 4 March 1948. CAB. Ibid.

14 Resident, Cameroons Province, Buea, to Secretary, Eastern Provinces, Enugu, 29 June 1948. CAB, Ibid.

15 Secretary, Eastern Provinces, to Resident, Cameroons Province, 13 May 1948, CAB, Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid. ‘Ibo Tribal Mania, 1948’.

18 D.O., Buea, to Resident, Cameroons Province, 22 Jan. 1948. CAB, Ibid.

19 D.O., Victoria, to Resident, Cameroons Province, n.d. (March, 1948). CAB, Ibid.

20 Ibo Tribal Union, Buea, to Superintendent of Police, Buea, 25 Aug. 1951. CAB, SI (1948), ‘Ibo Union petitions’.

21 Superintendent of Police, Buea, to Ibo Tribal Union, Buea, 29 Aug. 1951. CAB, Ibid.

22 D.O., Victoria, to Resident, Cameroons Province, n.d. (March 1948). CAB, PC/h (1948)1, ‘Conditions of settlement’.

23 D.O., Buea, to Resident, Cameroons Province, 22 Jan. 1948. CAB, Ibid.

24 Notice by D.O. in charge of Bakweri District, Buea, 6 Feb. 1948. CAB, Ibid.

25 Bakweri, N. A., Buea, to Senior D.O., Victoria, 21 Feb. 1948. CAB, Ibid.

26 Senior D.O., Victoria Division, to Resident, Cameroons Province, n.d. (March 1948). CAB, Ibid.

27 Ibo Union, Buea, to Commissioner for the Cameroons, 25 Aug. 1953. CAB, SI (1941)1, ‘Ibo Tribal Union’.

28 Cameroon Union, Victoria, to fishing heads of Mboko, Kongo Mbome and Iseme, 9 Feb. 1948. CAB, Ibid.

29 Notice by N.A., Tiko, 8 Feb. 1948. CAB, PC/h (1948)1, ‘Conditions of settlement’.

30 Jonah Dike, Tiko, to Ibo Federal Union, Victoria, 17 Feb. 1948. CAB, SI (1941) ‘Ibo Tribal Union’.

31 President, Federated Council, Victoria, to Senior D.O., Victoria, 6 April 1948. CAB, Ibid.

32 Mamfe Ibo Union to Resident, Cameroons Province, 25 Jan. 1952. CAB, SI (1948), ‘Ibo Union petitions’.

33 D.O., Mamfe, to Senior Resident, Cameroons Province, 9 March 1952. CAB, Ibid.

34 D.O., Mamfe, to Senior Resident, Cameroons Province, 10 Dec. 1950. CAB, Pdg (1950). ‘Disturbances in Mamfe town’.

35 Ibid.

36 Kale, P. M., Political Evolution in the Cameroons (Buea, 1967), 42–3.Google Scholar

37 Nigerian Daily Times, 19 July 1953.

38 Ibo Union, Bamenda, to Resident, Bamenda Province, 7 Sept. 1953; Ibo Union, Buea, to Commissioner for Cameroons, 25 Aug. 1953. CAB, SI (1941), 1, ‘Ibo Tribal Union’.

39 Foncha to Ibo Union, Bamenda, 23 Sept. 1953. CAB, Ibid.

40 Ibo State Union, Bamenda, to Asst. Secretary, K.N.C., Bamenda, 20 Oct. 1953. CAB, Ibid.

41 Resident, Bamenda, to Ibo Union, Bamenda, 14 April 1954. CAB, Ibid.

42 S. A. George to Divisional Surveyor, Posts and Telegraphs Dept., Enugu, 7 Oct. 1953. CAB, SI (1948), ‘Ibo Union petitions’.

43 Nigerian Daily Times, 11 Nov. 1955.

44 ‘Address by Brigadier E. J. Gibbons, C.B.E., Commissioner of the Cameroons, as President of the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly at its inaugural meeting in Buea, 26 Oct. 1954’, 3–4. CAB, SI (1941), ‘Ibo Tribal Union’.

45 Kale, , Political Evolution, 43.Google Scholar

46 United Nations Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in West Africa, 1958, Report on the Trust Territory of the Cameroons under British Administration (T/1426/Add.1), 14.

47 Ibid. 38.

48 West Africa, 4 May 1957, 411.

49 U.N., Report, 6.

50 Kale, , Political Evolution, 42–3Google Scholar; West Africa, 4 May 1947, 411; U.N., Report, 6.

51 Ibid.

52 The Fon of Kom to Commissioner, Southern Cameroons (Premier's copy), n.d. (1958). CAB, PC/C 1958/1, Mme disturbances, Wum District.

53 Southern Cameroons Gazette, Buea, 27 Jan. 1961 (vol. 7, no. 4), 3–5.Google Scholar

54 Ibid. 18 March 1961 (vol. 7, no. 14), 88.