Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung: The  Southern Cameroons Memory Of Justice And Restoration Bows Out

By Chief Charles A. Taku

The death of the former Chairman of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung, in exile in the United States of America carries significant symbolic weight. Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung was instrumental in hosting the Bartasof Hotel First Southern Cameroons Restoration Framework, which was organised by the Southern Cameroons Restoration Movement (SCARM). The Bartasof Conference preceded the Southern Cameroons Peoples Council (SCPC), which midwifed the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC).

Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung provided his hotel, Bartasof Hotel in Buea, capital of the Southern Cameroons, for the three-day conference, which was attended by delegates from all the counties of the Southern Cameroons. Mola Njoh Litumbe, Albert Womah Mukong, and many other historic Southern Cameroons leaders attended or were represented. The historical record will show that the Bartasof Hotel Restoration Conference paved the way for the Southern Cameroons restoration struggle to reclaim the distinctive identity of the Southern Cameroons from Buea, the historic capital of the Southern Cameroons.

The collective mandate which the Southern Cameroons delegates delivered from Bartasof Hotel led to the signature referendum, which delivered a resounding vote for the restoration of the Southern Cameroons. It dealt a blow to the spirit of fear and intimidation which had hitherto held Southern Cameroonians captive. Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung thereafter, on behalf of the Southern Cameroons, delivered a message to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, during a visit to Yaoundé, and secured a public statement from the UN Secretary-General in support of a peaceful, internationally mandated dialogue to resolve the Southern Cameroons problem.

The President of the UN General Assembly 64th session, Ali Abdussalam Treki, thereafter presented two maps to President Paul Biya in Yaoundé, underscoring the historic legality and legitimacy of the Southern Cameroons. Paul Biya later made a series of confessions, beginning in Buea on 20 February 2014, when he declared during the so-called 50th anniversary of ‘reunification’, among other perfidious statements, the truth that “history has not forgotten that Buea was the capital of Southern Cameroons.” Prior to this public statement, even a mere clamour for a return to federation was considered subversion and led to detention by the BMM and the oppressive state-terror mechanism. Albert Mukong and several Southern Cameroonians suffered egregious detentions over many years under this oppressive system designed to suppress the Southern Cameroons and obliterate its identity. President Paul Biya followed with another confession in an interview with Mo Ibrahim in Paris, admitting that over several years the Republic of Cameroon had unsuccessfully attempted to suppress and eviscerate the identity of the Southern Cameroons.

Despite these confessional statements, President Paul Biya opted for, and declared, a genocidal war against the Southern Cameroons instead of pursuing the peaceful resolution of the conflict which Ambassador Fossung, on behalf of the Southern Cameroons, had proposed to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and which the Secretary-General had endorsed. President Paul Biya’s oppressive police went further to arrest and detain Ambassador Fossung from his residence in Buea, putting his life under threat. This forced him into exile in the United States, where he continued to advocate for an internationally mandated process to examine the root causes of the Southern Cameroons conflict. In response, the Government of Cameroon escalated oppression, war, and violations of international humanitarian law in the Southern Cameroons, which have claimed thousands of lives, devastated the territory, and endangered peace and security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung has died holding firmly to the fact that the Southern Cameroons did not seek the path of war to resolve its problem, which is rooted in international law and frameworks for peaceful dispute resolution. The war was imposed on the Southern Cameroons by President Paul Biya, and the people are exercising their right to existential self-defence, protecting their territorial and cultural identity and integrity.

Southern Cameroons’ departed heroes and historic leaders—Dr. J.N. Foncha, S.T. Muna, Njoh Litumbe, Albert Mukong, Chief Ayambe, Gwang Gumne, Ambassador Martin Epie, Dr. M.N. Luma, and many others—died hopeful for a victorious outcome in which justice and peace would overcome fear, war, and terror. The verdict of history belongs to justice, which can never be extinguished or suppressed indefinitely. The spirit of justice, rising from the Southern Cameroons mountain in Buea and carried by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean to the diplomatic halls of the United Nations in New York and beyond, will ultimately deliver justice to the Southern Cameroons and honour the sacrifices of its martyrs. Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung will occupy a remarkable place in the golden book of liberation and justice.

Desmond Tutu asserted that the memory of justice is a catalyst for peace. This statement is applicable to the identity and justice struggle for which Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung and Southern Cameroons leaders lived, sacrificed, and died—from the time the territory was transferred from UN trusteeship into colonial rule over six decades ago. In the foreword to Reflections in Prison, in which Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and six other apartheid-era liberation heroes recounted their prison experiences, edited by Mac Maharaj, Desmond Tutu stated: “My identity is linked very intimately to my memory… Nations are built through shared experiences, memories, a history. That is why people have often tried to destroy their enemies by destroying their histories, their memories—those things which give them an identity.”

The death of Ambassador Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung in exile in the United States of America, at a time when there are renewed attempts by the Republic of Cameroon to amend its constitution in ways that may further erode the collective memory and identity of the Southern Cameroons, symbolises the restless nature of colonial rule and its eventual collapse under the weight of its illegality. This adds to a long historical record of attempts to erase the identity of the Southern Cameroons: annexation, colonisation, dismantling of governance structures nurtured under UN trusteeship, humiliation of historic leaders, imposition of an apartheid-style system, state terror, economic exploitation, cultural destruction, and prolonged conflict.

Like Fon Gorgi Dinka, Albert Womah Mukong, Chief Ayamba, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and thousands of others, Chief Fuamaze Henry Fossung endured detention for his leadership in the struggle for self-determination and peaceful existence under international law. The historical record shows that before their passing, Dr. J.N. Foncha, S.T. Muna, N.N. Jua, and Dr. E.M.L. Endeley repudiated any arrangement that legitimised annexation, apartheid, and oppression. Chief Fuamaze Fossung strongly upheld this position.

He has departed at a time when the spirit of justice, self-preservation, and identity has become deeply rooted in the conscience of the Southern Cameroons people. His life and contributions toward justice and enduring peace will remain in the memory of time, and like Mandela and others, the cause of justice and peace for which he stood will ultimately prevail.