Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0070/00704.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 32KB | 510 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00704}
$Pretitle{366}
$Title{Cameroon
Chapter 2C.   Beginning of Modern Nationalism}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Harold D. Nelson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{french
upc
political
national
union
cameroons
federal
assembly
support
ahidjo}
$Date{1974}
$Log{Figure 3.*0070401.scf
}
Country:     Cameroon
Book:        Area Handbook for the United Republic of Cameroon
Author:      Harold D. Nelson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1974

Chapter 2C.   Beginning of Modern Nationalism

Political Activity

     Reforms begun in French Cameroun shortly before World War II-including
official support for mixed European-African quasi-political organizations,
modifications of the administration, and the establishment of municipal,
councils-did not reflect French interest in local political development as
much as French concern for the security of its regional African interests.
Germany had launched a major campaign for the reestablishment of
Grossdeutschland (greater Germany). This campaign included the use of mass
media as well as diplomatic pressure and was supported by German plantation
owners in adjoining British Cameroons.

     Events of the early war years brought a change in French attitudes.
Gratitude for support by French Camerounians and other African peoples
for the Free French cause-including military enlistments-was reflected at the
January 1944 Brazzaville Conference of French colonial administrators.
Participants not only proposed to offer Africans representation in the organs
of the new Fourth French Republic but also African participation in the
structuring of its constitution. The basic perspective, however, remained
assimilationist; although Africans were to exercise control over local
administration, political evolution independent of the French Republic was
not envisioned.

     The agreement in 1946 to place French Cameroun under the trusteeship
system of the United Nations left the political future of the territory open.
Although the United Nations Charter specified that eventual self-government
was the goal of the trusteeship and established a Trusteeship Council with
more powers than its counterpart had under the League of Nations, the manner
and final form self-government was to take was left vague as a result of
divergent opinions at the 1945 Charter Conference in San Francisco. The French
first agreed to trusteeship in early 1946 but then hesitated and delayed
negotiations until late in the year. The final terms submitted to the United
Nations were loosely structured but were accepted by that body rather than
delay or prevent international supervision.

     The federal political structure discussed at the Brazzaville Conference
was more decentralized than the French Union actually formed under its 1946
Constitution. The constitution did, however, bring numerous administrative
and judicial reforms and moved toward representational government. It
established the French Union, composed of the French Republic, the independent
associated states, and the associated territories. Cameroun was classified as
an associated territory. All territories were granted representation in the
Assembly of the French Union, but this body had mainly an advisory role in the
preparation of legislation related to overseas territories.

     The dependencies were not only given local representative assemblies
but also seats in the legislative bodies of the French Republic. Election to
the representative assemblies, enlarged and renamed territorial assemblies in
1956, and to the French National Assembly was by the vote of a dual electoral
college. Under this system Europeans and assimilated Africans voted for one
group of representatives and the African majority, for another set.
Representatives sent to the Council of State of the French Republic and to the
Assembly of the French Union were selected by the representative assembly. The
role of this body was largely advisory except in budget matters. Deliberations
were subject to veto by the Council of State of the French Republic. Such
action occurred only twice, however, between 1946 and 1956.

     Under the 1946 Constitution of the French Union, the dual legal system
underwent two major alterations. The new system distinguished between French
nationals who were considered citizens of the French Republic and were subject
to metropolitan legal codes and Africans who became citizens of the French
Union. Both were assured the same rights, but Africans were liable to
traditional legal codes. They were no longer subject, however, to the systems
of prestation or indigenat. Citizens of the French Union were given the right
to vote if they belonged to one of several categories. By 1952 these
categories included all property holders, notables, taxpayers, heads of
families, and literate citizens.

     Other reforms were initiated later. In January 1949, for example, the
membership of the Council of Notables was enlarged to include representatives
of labor unions, traditional associations, and cooperatives. The growth of
other representative institutions, such as municipal councils and the
representative assembly, reduced the importance of the council, except in the
north.

     As in the case of the reforms instigated just before World War II, the
various administrative changes brought about by the 1946 Constitution
reflected neither French response to nor the actual presence of growing
national political consciousness. In 1945 JEUCAFRA remained the only political
organization; although it supported the concept of self-administration, its
platform was assimilationist. Nonetheless, the variety of external factors
including the position of French colonial administrators as Brazzaville and
reforms in other French territories-resulted in the creation of a framework in
which debate could take place, issues could emerge, and national awareness
might be nurtured.

     The development of national consciousness shifted between parliamentary
maneuvers and spurts of extraparliamentary violence. Political parties did not
play an influential role during the 1940s, however, and candidates in early
elections campaigned on a popularity basis rather than in terms of an appeal
to party affiliation. The first groups to play an organized role in local
politics were labor unions.

     The scarcity of goods in Cameroun in 1944, soaring inflation, and the
administration's support for the first time of the right of labor to organize
and strike stimulated the formation of labor unions. The most important of
these was the Cameroun Federation of Labor Unions (Union des Syndicats
Confederes de Cameroun-USCC). The USCC was sponsored by the largest of all the
French metropolitan labor organizations, the General Federation of Labor
(Confederation Generale de Travail-CGT), which was dominated by
communist-oriented groups. The inability of the USCC to obtain satisfaction
through negotiation resulted in wildcat strikes and riots in Douala. The
unrest was quickly quelled by the French.

     As the 1946 elections approached, various metropolitan political parties
sought to establish local affiliates. A small local group without affiliation,
the Camerounian Democratic Movement (Mouvement Democratique Camerounais), also
was formed. The politicized Union of French Cameroun (Union Camerounaise
Francaise-UNICAFRA), which was formed from JEUCAFRA in 1945, also prepared to
participate in the trust territory's first elections. All these groups were
short lived. They held in common the feeling that the French were not helping
Cameroun to develop politically, but they disagreed over tactics to improve
the situation. One camp supported evolution through the existing framework and
cooperation with France. The other adopted a more radical approach calling for
self-government outside the context of the French Union, a proposal defined
as illegal by the 1946 Constitution. This led to violent agitation, which
continued into the independence period.

     In early 194