HRH Fon Angwafor III, one of the politicians that was present at the Foumban Conference of 1961 on the reunification of the two Cameroons.

What contribution did you make towards reunification?

During independence and reunification and during the reign of my father which came at the end of World War II before the real battle started and when I took over the throne of the Mankon Fondom, as early as the late fifties, I joined the other traditional parties that believed and campaigned for reunification up till February, 1961 when the plebiscite took place and we voted for reunification.

Which was this party that you joined?

Two prominent parties were for independence and reunification, one led by Dr John Ngu Foncha and the other by Winston Ntumaza. Foncha was from Nkwen and  Ntumaza was the son of Mankon and both of them agreed on reunification.

What did you think Southern Cameroons could achieve by reuniting with East Cameroon and not with the Federal Republic of Nigeria?

At that time, many of the civil servants or those who matter were Nigerians. Their attitude to Cameroonians was not pleasing. For instance, in the market when a Nigerian, many of them who were Ibos bought something from a Cameroonian trader, he or she will expect the Cameroonian to transport it right to his house. We didn’t like that kind of attitude. Also, after standard six, we proceeded to Nigeria to continue with secondary education.  There was no government secondary school in Cameroon by then. We had almost nothing as we were placed as an appendage to the eastern region of Nigeria. We were not directly involved in the administration. We started by arguing for a state. There were three states in Nigeria; the northern, western and eastern regions. We were administered as part of the eastern region but we told them we wanted our own region. It is from here that we changed to the idea of joining our brothers from east Cameroon. We were not part of those who took the decision to divide Cameroon.

Before the Foumban Constitutional Conference there was the Bamenda All Party Conference that took place in Bamenda. What were some of the issues discussed at the conference to take along to Foumban?

Well, as you may like to know, the conference took place in the Mankon Community Hall, now the British Council Library. There were lots of ideas that were discussed including the proposal for the two Cameroons to be administered as a Federation when they come together. We had left Nigeria which was a Federal State and we went with the idea of forming a federation with East Cameroon which was already independent.

Were the decisions taken in Bamenda tabled for discussion in Foumban?

We had expressed our opinion of what the country should look like. All these proposals were carried to Foumban by the Prime Minister, Dr John Ngu Foncha. But the programme for the conference was drawn by him and Ahidjo. The ideas of East Cameroon were equally discussed with their Prime Minister. We followed but the agenda presented at that meeting.

Were you satisfied at some of the decisions taken in Foumban?

We were not satisfied with all the decisions. At the same time we were happy that we had left Nigeria.

Many Cameroonians who were not in Foumban will like to know what really happened there during that conference.

The leaders of the two Cameroons, President Ahidjo and Prime Minister Foncha had met together and drew up the programme for discussion. But what we resolved was not exactly what we took to Foumban.

There is this controversy to the fact that Foncha hid the proposals from East Cameroon handed to him by Ahidjo to come discuss with his people before the conference. Were you aware of this?

We couldn’t have known if he didn’t present it to us. But we discussed here before leaving for Foumban. We made our own proposals and not the ones he made with Ahidjo. May be he extracted certain ideas from there and presented to us, but as far as I am concerned, I can’t say with certainty what proposals they had.