Mobility, National Sovereignty and Changing Relations: The Nigerian Migrants in Southern Cameroons/Anglophone Cameroon

Tangie Nsoh Fonchingong University of Buea-Cameroon

Research questionThe principle of National Self-determination

entails the right of a people who consider themselves distinct to choose the state in

which they wish to live and the type of government it should have. To what extent

can transnational migrants influence this choice?

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Introduction The Nigerian migrants in the Southern Cameroons The Nigerian migrants and the economy. • The Nigerian migrants and the administration• The Migrants and the locals

The 1948 Secular• Nobody is allowed to sell his or her house to an Igbo, neither should anybody

give his or her house for rentage to an Igbo.• No farm land must be sold to an Igbo or rented to an Igbo.• Nobody must allow an Igbo to enter any native farm or forest for purpose of

finding sticks for building or for any other purpose• Houses or farms already sold to any Igbo man shall be purchased by the

Native Authority who will afterwards resell same to some suitable person.• Nobody shall trade with Igbo for anything of value or not.• All landlords must ask their Igbo tenants to quit before 15 March 1948.• No Cameroonian woman is allowed to communicate with the Igbo in any form.• Anybody disobeying these rules shall be liable to a fine of five pounds or five months I.H.L.

Political Decisions• The 1957 elections: The Kamerun National

Congress (KNC) of E.M.L. Endeley vs the Kamerun Peoples’ Party (KPP) of N.N. Mbile

• The 1961 plebiscite: The Cameroon Peoples National Convention(CPNC) vs Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP)

The migrants in the post 1961 period• Became de jure foreigners and lost privileges• Required to obtain Nigerian passports• Required to pay residence permits• Barred from public service jobs & econ.act.• Prevented from owning real estate property• Subjected to constant police harassment

Survival Strategies of the Migrants• Group-level: the Nigerian Union• Individual strategies: sending chn. & wives

back home; using middlemen and bribes; purchasing Cameroonian documents; settlement; two-party

• The social media: cell phone and internet

The Southern/Anglophone Cameroonians in the post 1961 period

• Assimilation: change of the currency and diving system; bias in favour of French language; closure of financial institutions and ports; the 1972 referendum; the 1984 decree

• Marginalization: appointments, recruitment and development projects.

Anglophone Pressure groups & Obiectives• Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM)• Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC)• Southern Cameroons Peoples’ Organization

(SCAPO)

Anglophone Grievances We have been disenfranchised, marginalized and treated

with suspicion. Our interests have been disregarded. Our participation in national life has been limited to non-essential functions. Our natural resources have been ruthlessly exploited without any benefit accruing to our territory or to its people. The development of our territory has been negligible and confined to areas that directly or indirectly benefit Francophones. Through manoeuvres and manipulations, we have been reduced from partners of equal status in the Union to the status of a subjugated people (AACI 1993:9-10.)

J.N. Foncha’s Resignation from the regime The Anglophone Cameroonians whom I brought to

the union have been ridiculed and referred to as ‘les Biafrais, les enemies dans la maison, les traitres’, etc,etc., and the constitutional provisions which protected this Anglophone minority have been suppressed, their voices drowned while the rule of the Gun has replaced the dialogue which the Anglophones cherish very much.( Mukong 1990:155).

Activities of the Anglophone Pressure Groups• Mobilizing the Anglophones and Sensitizing the

international community• The use of the social media • The 1995 Mission to the UN• The 2002 suit against Nigeria in Abuja High Court• The 2003 suit against Republic of Cameroon at the

African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia.

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ConclusionInfluenced by the attitude of the Nigeriamigrants the Southern Cameroonians made

what they now consider a Wrong choice at national self-determination which has impacted negatively on the socio-political and economic status of both groups.

Thank you