African-on-African Colonization

Reviews / Votes

Do we need to understand Ambazonia (zone on Ambas Bay) and her people of the territory formerly known as the United Nations Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons in former British West Africa? Carlson Anyangwe provides a resounding answer: Yes. His smart, careful, methodical, and authoritative analysis of the anti-colonial struggle of Ambazonia represents one of the first full accounts of a democratic and self-governing people with known and recognized international boundaries sacrificed at independence in 1961 by the UK (trustee) and the UN (trustor). African-on African Colonization: TheIll-Fated Ambazonia-Cameroun Political Partnership is a masterpiece compellingly told in lucid and arresting detail by a frontline expert and witness of the persistent conflictual relations between Republique du Cameroun, the latter-day African re-colonizer and the people of Ambazonia desirous to restore independence as a right in history and international law. A major sore point in the annals of the decolonization of Africa is this woeful tale of the self-determination struggle of Ambazonia in Republique du Cameroun. Anyangwe brilliantly interweaves several complex issues garnered from historical sources, political developments, and eye-witness accounts of actors on all sides of the decolonization of Ambazonia in a multi-vocal text. This book begins to help us-citizens, academics, leaders, policymakers in all walks of life and particularly those interested in justice and peace studies-make sense of the complexity of motives and concatenation of forces which make the Ambazonian decolonization imperative a critical human need in an era of freedoms and democratization. -- Fonkem Achankeng, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh This magnum opus by Carlson Anyangwe belongs to the canon of revolutionary works like How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Walter Rodney), and Black Skin, White Masks (Franz Fanon). Unlike many writers before him, Anyangwe leaves the reader completely in shock by exposing the dirty linen on a taboo subject: Black-on-Black colonialism. While there is almost universal condemnation of European imperialism, there is an embarrassing and audible silence in the scholarship on this insidious and pernicious African-on-African colonialism. Anyangwe artfully articulates how one African country (Republique du Cameroun), itself a victim of French imperialism, effectively followed the same playbook in annexing and colonizing a neighboring African state (Ambazonia). He masterfully dismantles the myth of reunification used by French Cameroun to justify its claim of sovereignty and illegal occupation over Ambazonia.

In the end, the reader is saddened by the continued silence from the global community in the face of pogroms being committed in Ambazonia by French Cameroun as it wages a colonial war of occupation. Despite this, there is still hope. Anyangwe contends that the moment of freedom has come for Ambazonia as its people have shown that after successfully liberating themselves from the previous colonizers, they are now prepared to live free or die trying. -- Harry A. Akoh, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, (University System of Georgia) Unlike many writers before him, Anyangwe leaves the reader completely in shock by exposing the dirty linen on a taboo subject: Black-on-Black colonialism. Anyangwe artfully articulates how one African country (Republique du Cameroun), itself a victim of French imperialism, effectively followed the same playbook in annexing and colonizing a neighboring African state (Ambazonia). He masterfully dismantles the myth of reunification used by French Cameroun to justify its claim of sovereignty and illegal occupation over Ambazonia. In the end, the reader is saddened by the continued silence from the global community in the face of pogroms being committed in Ambazonia by French Cameroun as it wages a colonial war of occupation. -- Harry A. Akoh, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, (University System of Georgia)