Bamileke Diasporas: Aetiological Consideration Of The Bamileke Implantation In The Bamenda Grasslands (Cameroon), 1922-1961
- January 24, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Roland Mba Komo (PhD)
Abstract: – When the Germans were defeated and evicted out of Cameroon by the combined British and French troops, the failure to implement the Condominium led to the partition of Cameroon into two between the British and the French. With this partition, the borders were closed for both the mobility of goods and persons either ways. This partition was approved by the League of Nations in 1922. From 1922 when the League of Nation’s Mandate started in the British Southern Cameroons and in the French Cameroon, to 1961 when the Southern Cameroons voted to reunify with the Republic of Cameroon (former French Cameroon), the hitherto fluid relations between the two territories was hindered. The study examines the motives for the migration and implantation of the Bamileke in to the Bamenda Grasslands. It maintains that in spite of the restrictions of international boundary between the two Mandate and Trust territories of French Cameroon and British Southern Cameroons, cross border mobility was not forestalled. Prevailing circumstances in French Cameroon permitted the Bamileke to create new social spaces straddling the artificially imposed frontiers. Using the chronological approach, the paper spans through key historical periods: the Mandate and Trusteeship periods. The study made use of primary and secondary sources of information. The conclusions were drawn after a qualitative analysis of the data.
Key words: Bamileke, Diasporas, Aetiological, Implantation, Bamenda Grasslands.
I. INTRODUCTION
In 1884, the Germans annexed Cameroon after staging a coup against the British. Unfortunately for the Germans, the outbreak of the First World War in Europe provoked the British and the French to extend the war to Cameroon in 1914. Initially,German Cameroon was attacked on two fronts by the French troops advancing from French Equatorial Africa and British troops from their base in Nigeria. This was met with some stiff resistance from the Germans which provoked the formation of a joint Anglo-French military commandunder the leadership of Brigadier-General Charles Mcpherson Dobell. This was called the West African Expeditionary Force. Charles Dobell reversed the initial German victories especially on the side of the British and by February 1916,
