Ernest Ouandié and the Unfolding Verdict of History

By Chief Charles A. Taku* [caption id="attachment_103749" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Chief Charles Taku is a former President of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA)[/caption] Pan African revolutionary hero Ernest Ouandié was condemned to death by a neo-colonial court-martial in Yaoundé, La Republique du Cameroun on January 5 1971 and executed in Bafoussam on January 15, 1971.  He did not testify during the neo-colonial court-martial. He left on record, the following prophetic message full of historic and ideological significance to victims of  colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa and beyond which LRC and its court-martial were representative executioners: ” You will one day have to answer  for this mockery of  a conviction before history! As far as I am concerned, I am ready, under these conditions, to be executed rather than submit to a mockery of a trial”. This message relates to the sham independence which predatory neo- colonial France purported to grant to Cameroun. The supposed structures of governance of  neo-colonial Cameroun are remote-controlled  by colonial treaties and puppet leaders.  The judiciary, the military and security architecture of the neo-colonial state are mere instruments of oppression. These coercive instruments of oppression were relied on to enforce the assassination of Ernest Ouandié who was a leading  African voice of freedom from colonial rule and neo-colonialism.  Because of his historic stand against colonialism and neo-colonialism, Ernest  Ouandié  must be celebrated as an African liberation hero and not as a citizen of La Republic du Cameroun. It is hard for me to characterize him as a Camerounais. He may be one by birth but his revolutionary message resonated beyond La Republique du Cameroun. Albert Mukong, a  revolutionary  contemporary of Ernest Ouandié who spent time with him in Ghana and in the dungeon of La Republique du Cameroun prior to his assassination, told me that the revolutionary leader was not afraid of death because for him, alive of dead, the  struggle for the total liberation and genuine independence of LRC and Africa would not abate and therefore, killing him was an exercise in futility. The events that followed the assassination of Ernest  Ouandié  on January 15, 1971 validate the struggle for the genuine freedom of Africa and the independence of La Republique du Cameroun which Ernest  Ouandié  and his fellow freedom fighters engaged in. This struggle was radically opposed to the sham independence of LRC  which occurred on January 1,1960. It is significant to note that  shortly after the assassination of Ernest  Ouandié the FranceAfrique neo-colonial  vassal state of LRC invalidated January 1,1960 as the date of its sham independence, proceeded to  annex the Southern Cameroons and imposed the date of this criminal act  May, 20 1972 as its supposed date of independence.  Therefore, La Republique du Cameroun has never been independent; not on January 1, 1960 and not on May 20, 1972. The assassination of  Ernest  Ouandié  and other opponents of colonialism and neo-colonialism  was intended to obfuscate  this reality and to kill the genuine revolutionary quest in LRC for genuine independence. [caption id="attachment_103750" align="alignnone" width="600"] Ernest Ouandié a Cameroonian and African hero was a leading African voice for freedom from colonial rule and neo-colonialism.[/caption] Prior to the assassination of  Ernest  Ouandié, the sham independence of LRC was mired in the blood of  freedom fighters. On January 3, 1964, Tankeu Noe was  assassinated and 15 freedom fighters were assassinated as part of the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the independence of LRC. No record of a genuine trial of these freedom fighters meeting international standards has been shown to exist.  Following from this, agents of neo-colonial vampire state of LRC have fine-tuned their genocidal proclivity in slaughtering Southern Cameroonians and  plundering of its economy.  The entire territory has been blighted, ancestral civilian settlements torched and systemic rape used  an authorized weapon of war.  For these acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the President of LRC in his end of year address to his nation delivered at the threshold of the anniversary of the sham independence on January 1, 2023, praised soldiers and militias who he deployed to commit these atrocities crimes for their effectiveness and rapacity in carrying out their assigned tasks. The assassinations of LRC’s  freedom fighters, in the supposed independence month of January starting from the blood which was spilled on the very day of the supposed independence, January 1, 1960,  make the month of January and the anniversary date of the sham independence signposts for  the collective memory of the assassination of the freedom and independence of the people of LRC. The assassination of the freedom hero on January 15, which is the mid of the month of January, carries symbolic weight necessitating the individual and collective recommitment of freedom lovers in Africa to intensify the struggle against colonialism, neo-colonialism and a total rejection of FranceAfrique and its enslaving legacy of puppetry leadership and neo-colonial vampire economy . * Culled From January Issue of PAV Magazine. Chief Charles A. Taku, a traditional Chief from Cameroon, is an International Lawyer with thirty-six years’ of trial experience. He specializes in International Criminal, Humanitarian, and Human Rights Law and Practice. He is also a former President of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA)