Citizenship and belonging: Who takes the prodigal child? (The Anglo-Bami and The 11th Province in a divided Cameroon: In search of a southern cameroons citizenship)

Citizenship and belonging: Who takes the prodigal child? (The Anglo-Bami and The 11^th Province in a divided Cameroon in search of a southern Cameroons citizenship)

As the debate rages on about the independence of the southern Cameroons, one group of people are left puzzled by what becomes of them. These are people in quest of an identity and a sense of belonging in a political debate that continues to polarize communities as well as divide families. For the most part, the Anglo-Bami have been struggled to assert allegiance in a political construct that thrives on promoting hate, division and pitting communities against each other.  Among the ruling francophone junta (the government ministers and CPDM big wigs) especially those from the “Pays Organisateur”, the Anglophones have always been “les enemis dans la maison”.  Where they have been deemed partners, their role has been to serve and promote the government’s agenda in bringing the Anglophone to toe the line of political expediency.

Today the question is being asked what happens to the Anglo-Bami and the 11^th Province when Southern Cameroons become independent. A lot of the debate in this quest for identity and belonging has included defining the terms Anglophone and francophone, identifying and defining who a southern Cameroonian is and how does someone become a citizen of an independent southern Cameroons. This is not a thesis on citizenship, neither is it a glossary on contextualising terms to suit their applicability within the Cameroon and southern Cameroons polities. Rather it is a personal reflection based on the realities of that I face and will face in an independent Southern Cameroons given my personal and family situation.
I am Anglo-Bami. My maternal grandmother hailed from Baminjindam and got married to a man from Akum.  I don’t know much about maternal grandfather and where he came from but I won’t be surprised if he had a Bami lineage. My paternal grandmother hailed from Babajou and got married to a man from Akum, born to a Bami father and a princess to the Akum Palace. My paternal grandfather, the son of a Bami man and the princess of Akum was to be given authority by the Babadjou chief to proclaim himself chief of Santa after the British and the French divided the Babadjou chiefdom at Matezem (present day tollgate in Santa) to create an international boundary that separated British southern Cameroons from French Cameroons. So if you know the Bomas you’d certainly know that by blood and by marriage we cannot distinguish ourselves from the Bamis. All my sisters but one is married to Bamis- Bafang, Bandekop, Babadjou, Bagante etc etc. My nieces and nephews are pure breed francophone: born, breed and educated francophone.
There is no universal definition of citizenship. However, in a much more liberal sense citizenship is conveys a sense of or a feeling of or a meaning of belonging and being included in the nation-state. It is the membership of nation state and this membership is dependent on a set of rights and duties forming a relational contract between the individual, peers and social institutions. There has been an erosion of people’s rights and the negation of its duties and responsibilities to the people by the state. Paradoxically the state has expected and has sought to command that citizens uphold their responsibilities to and perform their duties under the social institutions. This has contributed to the loss of the meaning of belonging, of that sense of identity, of acceptance within the Cameroon nation state.

As the southern Cameroons seeks to assert itself as a nation state there seems to be emerging an irony of fact or a paradox of history. The some Anglo-Bamis and people of the 11^th province are feeling alienated and are losing their sense of and the meaning of belonging all over again.

Within every nation state or country citizenship is attained through clearly defined pathways. Most often the primary route to citizenship is by birth. For some countires if you’re born in country or what constitutes that country’s territory (a plane, a ship in international waters etc) you automatically acquire that citizenship (principle of jus soli). Others grant citizenship by right of blood (principle of jus sanguinis), where automatically qualifies to take the citizenship of their parents irrespective of where they are born. Some countries also grant citizenship through meeting clearly defined qualifying residency requirements.

To be able to ease the worries, galvanize the movement, to be able to flesh the bones of the visionary state it is important that we start articulating what citizenship will look like in an independent southern Cameroons. For a new nation state, a country becoming independent and being able to exercise its sovereignty including deciding who its citizens are it will make a lot of sense for an independent southern Cameroons to apply jus soli and jus sanguinis in its elaboration of citizenship statutes/law and applying this retrospectively to cover those who can demonstrate birth rights or blood ties to qualifying parents at the time of independence. Therefore if you were born in the southern Cameroons or if your parents were born in the southern Cameroons, or qualify for citizenship by virtue of blood rights (jus sanguinis) you automatically qualify for citizenship at the time of independence.

If you’re unable to attain citizenship through jus soli and jus sanguinis then residency requirement should be applicable to determine your suitability for citizenship. This principle too should be applied retrospectively, meaning that if at the time of independence you can demonstrate that you have lived in the southern Cameroons for the required duration then you should be able to attain citizenship.

There should also be a transitional period for citizenship acquisition by affiliation. For example for people who do not meet jus soli, jus sanguinis or the residency requirement they may apply for and be granted citizenship if they have been married to someone (for a length of time equal to or surpassing the amount of time required to meet the residency requirement and) who qualifies for and takes up citizenship or whose children qualify for and take up citizenship.

Finally, considering that there is over half a century of shared history between the southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroon it might be reasonable to set a transitional period for citizenship acquisition by application. What this means is that for people who do not qualify for citizenship by another means but will like to become citizens of the southern Cameroons, they may apply to commission for citizenship affairs, based clearly defined criteria for citizenship. They must demonstrate that they believe and uphold the ideals and values of the southern Cameroons state and where possible be willing to demonstrate that they are of upright moral standing. While the state may seek to promote inclusion it must also strive to protect its citizens.  

The main idea is to portray that the southern Cameroons state will not function on exclusion. Rather its principles should be guided by a desire to not repeat the ills of history experienced under the baton of French Cameroons, to fight marginalisation in all its forms while at the same time delivering social justice, development and highest services for its citizens.

 I must state that I believe in the historical rightness of the southern Cameroons struggle for independence. I believe in its legality. I believe it is not only justified but morally imperative and incumbent on us, as a people, as Cameroonians and as Southern Cameroonians, to assess within the prevailing context and for the sake of the social and economic development of the peoples of the two Cameroons, what will be in the greater good for the greater number of people. Mind you not everyone will benefit from a separation. Far from it! However, it is time to rise above self-interest and self-preservation to a point of self-sacrifice; it is time to inconvenient us to convenient future generations.

As an Anglo-Bami by birth and having children of my own caught up in the Anglo-Bami dilemma I don’t struggle with asserting myself as a Southern Cameroonian because I was born and breed a Southern Cameroonian. For you my fellow Anglo-Bamis and the people of the 11^th Province if you believe you’re a Southern Cameroonian don’t question your right to citizenship; claim it, assert it and exercise it. Don’t doubt where you belong because if you’re unable to define yourself others will define you. In 1961 Southern Cameroonians walked into already defined structures and institutions skewed to systematically disadvantage and exclude them. A new Southern Cameroons will be starting on a clean slate. It is therefore important that as an assertive citizen you make your voice heard in shaping the institutions of state designed to advantage the many and not the few.