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Cameroon
Achieved statehood after French military suppression of UPC insurgency and negotiated transfer to moderate leadership.
- Independence
- January 1, 1960
- Before
- French Cameroun (UN Trusteeship)
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Ahmadou Ahidjo
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC)
From German Kamerun to Trust Territory
Kamerun was declared a German protectorate in 1884. Allied forces occupied it during the First World War, and in 1916 Britain and France partitioned it; the League of Nations confirmed the division as mandates in 1922. After 1946 both parts became UN Trust Territories, formally destined for self-government, which gave nationalists a right to petition the United Nations directly.
The UPC and a Hidden War
The Union des Populations du Cameroun, founded in Douala in 1948 with Ruben Um Nyobè as secretary-general, demanded independence and reunification of the two Cameroons. After riots in May 1955, France banned the party in July, and the UPC took up arms. French forces waged a harsh counter-insurgency in the Sanaga-Maritime and Bamiléké regions; Um Nyobè was shot dead by a French-led patrol on 13 September 1958.
Independence Under Ahidjo
France transferred power instead to the moderate Ahmadou Ahidjo, Prime Minister from February 1958. The UN approved the end of the trusteeship in March 1959, and French Cameroun became independent on 1 January 1960, the first of the year's newly independent African states, while fighting continued. The exiled UPC president Félix-Roland Moumié died in Geneva in November 1960 after being poisoned, a killing widely attributed to French intelligence.
Chronology
- 1884 — Germany declares a protectorate over Kamerun
- 1916–1922 — Kamerun partitioned by Britain and France; League mandates confirmed in 1922
- 1948 — UPC founded
- 13 July 1955 — France bans the UPC; armed insurgency follows
- 13 September 1958 — Ruben Um Nyobè shot dead by a French-led patrol
- 1 January 1960 — French Cameroun becomes independent
- 1 October 1961 — British Southern Cameroons joins the Federal Republic after a UN plebiscite; Northern Cameroons joins Nigeria
Aftermath
Ahidjo, who became President in May 1960, built a centralised one-party state closely tied to France. The UPC insurgency was not finally crushed until the execution of Ernest Ouandié in January 1971. The union of francophone and anglophone Cameroon remains contested, and grievances in the anglophone regions escalated into armed conflict after 2016.
Legacy
The suppression of the UPC was one of France's least acknowledged colonial wars and left Cameroon with a conservative government closely dependent on Paris. The union of francophone and anglophone territories continues to fuel conflict today.