‘Independence by Joining,’ Memory, Memoranda, and Narratives of Betrayal & Abandonment of British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia)

This chapter analyzes the feelings among British Cameroons’ nationalists and people in postcolonial Cameroun Republic collected through memoranda and narrative stories. The examples of memoranda on the “restoration of statehood and sovereignty” of British Southern Cameroons and the narratives of the people are used to consider other ways of approaching the conflict and peace analysis of feelings, with particular reference to a context of colonial betrayal and conflict as conceptualized by ex-British Southern Cameroons’ nationalists and people. The methodology involved analyzing the feelings of British Southern Cameroons’ nationalists and people by engaging with the critical reflections in their narratives and the memoranda sent to former colonial authorities and multinational organizations regarding the annexation and colonial occupation conflict. The chapter argues that ex-British Southern Cameroons’ national identity forms the central focus of the broader self-understanding of the lives of the people of ex-British Southern Cameroons in former British West Africa. It suggests that conflict analysts and practitioners should aim to pursue the methods of the humanities, which treat the language of conflict parties as a vehicle of conscious and critical self-inquiry into the roots of conflict experience and feeling.