The Francophone/Anglophone Split over Article 47 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroon: An Abiding Malaise with an Explosive Charge

Abstract

Voting in 1961for reunification with the Republic of Cameroon instead of remaining Nigerian, the Southern Cameroons made a point. Neither the Treaty of Versailles partitioning the defunct German protectorate between Britain and France nor the superimposition of new values by the successor powers affected nationhood developed under the Germans. They were instead enriching features of that national identity of Kamerun. However, time has revealed how difficult it is to become the beacon of enlightened tolerance. Points of friction emerged, many articulated in the 1993 Buea Declaration that led to the creation of the Southern Cameroons National Council and the 2003 petition mainly for secession to the African Commission. One remains an oozing sore, with all possibilities of opening up into a running sore anytime – the 1972 referendum for the switch to unitarism that gave national destiny a decisively Francophone tilt. Anglophones contend Article 47 of the Federal Constitution guaranteed permanence of status beyond even the power of a referendum and that abolishing federalism entitled them to assert independence from the union. Against these, however, are surefire pro-Francophone arguments: the ‘Francophone spirit’ of the text and the agreed superiority of the French language, which stacked the odds against Anglophones even from the start.