View source for British Cameroons

{{Short description|British mandate from 1916 to 1961}}
{{redirect|Cameroons||Cameroon (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = 
| conventional_long_name = British Cameroons
| common_name            = Cameroons
| status                 = League of Nations Mandate
| empire                 = United Kingdom
| p1                     = Kamerun
| flag_p1                = Reichskolonialflagge.svg
| s1                     = Federation of Nigeria
| flag_s1                = Flag of Nigeria.svg
| s2                     = Cameroon{{!}}Federal Republic of Cameroon
| flag_s2                = Flag_of_Cameroon_(1961-1975).svg
| image_flag             = Flag of British Cameroon.svg
| image_coat             = British_Cameroons_Seal.svg
| image_map              = Map of British Cameroons.svg
| national_anthem        = [[God Save the King]] (1916–1952)<br/>[[God Save the King|God Save the Queen]] (1952–1961){{parabr}}{{center|[[File:United States Navy Band - God Save the Queen.oga]]}}
| capital                = [[Buea]]
| common_languages       = [[English language|English]] (official)<br>[[Duala language|Duala]], [[Oroko language|Oroko]], [[Grassfields Bantu languages|Grassfields]], [[Fula language|Fula]], [[Kanuri language|Kanuri]] widely spoken
| religion               = {{nowrap|[[Christianity]] <small>(southern area)</small><br/>[[Islam]] <small>(northern area)</small>}}
| government_type        = 
| era                    = World War I
| event_start            = [[Kamerun]] partitioned
| date_start             = 20 July
| year_start             = 1916
| event_end              = Integration into [[Nigeria]] and [[Cameroon]]
| date_end               = 1 October
| year_end               = 1961
| currency               = [[British West Africa pound]]
| today                  = [[Cameroon]]<br>[[Nigeria]]
| demonym                = 
| area_km2               = 89,526
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
}}
'''British Cameroons''' or '''British Cameroon''' was a [[British Empire|British]] [[League of Nations mandate|mandate]] territory in [[British West Africa]], formed of the Northern Cameroons and [[Southern Cameroons]]. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of the [[Borno State|Borno]], [[Adamawa State|Adamawa]] and [[Taraba State|Taraba states]] of [[Nigeria]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prnigeria.com/2019/04/20/nigerian-states-northern-cameroons/|title=The Nigerian States that Formed Parts of Northern Cameroons|last=El-Sudi|first=Ibrahim Tukur|date=2019-04-20|website=PRNigeria News|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-25}}</ref> while the Southern Cameroons forms part of the [[Northwest Region (Cameroon)|Northwest]] and [[Southwest Region (Cameroon)|Southwest regions]] of [[Cameroon]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Njung |first1=George N. |title=The British Cameroons Mandate Regime: The Roots of the Twenty-First-Century Political Crisis in Cameroon |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1 December 2019 |volume=124 |issue=5 |pages=1715–1722 |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhz1025 }}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Cameroon boundary changes.PNG|300px|thumb|left|Cameroon from 1901&ndash;1972 {{legend|#ff8040|[[Kamerun|German Kamerun]]}} {{legend|red|British Cameroons}} {{legend|blue|[[French Cameroon]]}} {{legend|green|[[Cameroon|Republic of Cameroon]]}}]]

The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by [[Germany]] as a [[protectorate]] during the "[[Scramble for Africa]]" at the end of the 19th century. The [[German Empire]] named the territory [[Kamerun]]. During World War I, French and British troops invaded the German colony Kamerun (Present day Cameroon) and decided to divide the German colony into two regions.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Dupraz |first1=Yannick |title=French and British Colonial Legacies in Education: Evidence from the Partition of Cameroon |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=September 2019 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=628–668 |doi=10.1017/S0022050719000299 |s2cid=28463640 |url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/119359/1/WRAP-French-British-colonial-Cameroon-Dupraz-2019.pdf }}</ref> One of the regions would be French administered ([[French Cameroon]]) and the other would be British administered (British Cameroons).<ref name=":0" /> The British were more concerned with other areas of Africa, specifically Nigeria.<ref name=":0" /> Thus, the French gained a larger portion of Cameroon when the country was divided.<ref name=":0" />

===League of Nations mandate===
During [[World War I]], it was occupied by British, [[France|French]] and [[Belgium|Belgian]] troops, and a later [[League of Nations mandate]] to Great Britain and France by the [[League of Nations]] in 1922. The French mandate was known as [[Cameroun]] and the British territory was administered as two areas, ''[[Northern Cameroons]]'' and ''[[Southern Cameroons]]''. Northern Cameroons consisted of two non-contiguous sections, divided by a point where the Nigerian and Cameroun borders met.  In the 1930s, most of the white population consisted of [[Germans]], who were interned in British camps starting in June 1940. The native population of 400,000 showed little interest in volunteering for the British forces; only 3,500 men did so.<ref>I.C.B Dear, ed, ''The Oxford Companion to World War II'' (1995) p 163</ref>

[[File:Map of British Cameroons in 1949.jpg|thumb|left|Detailed map of Cameroons under United Kingdom trusteeship, 1949, showing provinces, districts and towns. Produced by the Survey Department, Lagos, Nigeria.]]

===Trust territory===
When the [[League of Nations]] ceased to exist in 1946, most of the mandate territories were reclassified as [[United Nations trust territories]], henceforth administered through the [[United Nations Trusteeship Council]]. The object of trusteeship was to prepare the lands for eventual independence. The United Nations approved the Trusteeship Agreements for British Cameroons to be governed by Britain on 6 December 1946.

=== Colonial legacy ===
Under colonial rule, Cameroons was ruled on the basis of indirect rule which allowed natives to execute judicial and executive decisions.<ref name=":1">{{cite SSRN |last1=Lee |first1=Alexander |last2=Schultz |first2=Kenneth A. |date=2011 |title=Comparing British and French Colonial Legacies: A Discontinuity Analysis of Cameroon |ssrn=1903316 }}</ref> The British in Cameroons used indirect rule because it meant that Cameroonians would comply willingly rather than having to coercively force compliance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jua |first1=Nantang Ben |title=Indirect Rule in Colonial and Post-Colonial Cameroon |journal=Paideuma |date=1995 |volume=41 |pages=39–47 |jstor=40341691 }}</ref> This was important because it gave citizens of British Cameroons autonomy and helped to establish “a greater vitality of local political institutions in West Cameroon”.<ref name=":1" /> Despite the indirect rule used to invigorate the spirit of citizens, the British found that they had to "approach various developmental programs" because "there was little involvement of the local people in planning and executing community development programmes."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kwo |first1=Emil Molindo |title=Community Education and Community Development in Cameroon: The British Colonial Experience, 1922-1961 |journal=Community Development Journal |date=1984 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=204–213 |doi=10.1093/cdj/19.4.204 |jstor=44256284 }}</ref>

In British Cameroons, European immigrants were subject to the laws of their home country while natives of Cameroons were held to customary law which was typically overseen by British administrators.<ref name=":1" />

The legal system established during the colonial era continues to be implemented, specifically, customary laws and the two legal systems.<ref name=":1" /> As the community development programmes grew,  there was a large delay in educational efforts because British Cameroons ". . .had no secondary school in the territory."<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Ndille |first1=R. N. |last2=Litt |first2=D. |date=2018 |title=British and French Implementation of Colonial Educational policies in Cameroon 1916-1961: A Comparative Analysis |journal=International Journal for Research in Educational Studies |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=1–18 }}</ref> Secondary education was largely the work of missionaries such as St. Joseph College which opened in Sasse, Buea, in 1939.<ref name=":2" />

===Independence===
As French Cameroon gained independence, British Cameroons was still under the administration of Nigeria.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lekane |first1=Gillo Momo |last2=Asuelime |first2=Lucky |title=One Country, Three Colonial Legacies: The Politics of Colonialism, Capitalism and Development in the Pre- and Post-Colonial Cameroon |journal=Journal for Contemporary History |date=June 2017 |volume=42 |issue=1 |doi=10.18820/24150509/JCH42.v1.8 |doi-access=free }}</ref> French Cameroun became independent, as Cameroun or Cameroon, on January 1, 1960, and Nigeria was scheduled for independence later that same year, which raised the question of what to do with the British territory. As colonizers of Nigeria, the British desired for the two to be united.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last1=Mokube |first1=Eric |title=Diplomacy and Nation-Building in Africa: Franco-British Relations and Cameroon at the End of Empire (review) |journal=Africa Today |date=2012 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=94–98 |id={{Project MUSE|494435}} {{ProQuest|1281851956}} |doi=10.2979/africatoday.59.2.94 |s2cid=142614803 }}</ref> After some discussion (which had been going on since 1959), a [[1961 British Cameroons referendum|UN-administered plebiscite]] was agreed to and held on 11 February 1961. The Muslim-majority Northern Area opted for union with Nigeria, and the Southern Area voted to join Cameroon.<ref>Nohlen, D, Krennerich, M & Thibaut, B (1999) ''Elections in Africa: A data handbook'', p177 {{ISBN|0-19-829645-2}}</ref> No option was given for British Cameroonian independence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Njeuma |first1=Martin Z. |title=Reunification and Political Opportunism in the Making of Cameroon's Independence |journal=Paideuma |date=1995 |volume=41 |pages=27–37 |jstor=40341690 }}</ref> The driving force for the unification of east and south Cameroon was Ahmadou Ahidjo and the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) as the French were not concerned because southern Cameroon did not align with the French community established.<ref name=":3" />

Upon reunification with French Cameroon, Anglophone Cameroonians "made up about 20% of the federal population…their French counterparts made up a majority at 80 percent".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Njung |first1=George N. |title=The British Cameroons Mandate Regime: The Roots of the Twenty-First-Century Political Crisis in Cameroon |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1 December 2019 |volume=124 |issue=5 |pages=1715–1722 |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhz1025 }}</ref>

Northern Cameroons became the [[Sardauna, Taraba State|Sardauna Province]] of [[Northern Region, Nigeria|Northern Nigeria]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HCoSuJMof9EC&dq=%22northern+cameroons%22+%22sardauna+province%22&pg=PA155 ''Parties and Politics in Northern Nigeria''], Routledge, 1968, page 155</ref> on 1 June 1961, while Southern Cameroons became [[West Cameroon]], a constituent state of the [[Cameroon#Independence|Federal Republic of Cameroon]], later that year on 1 October 1961.

The separatist [[Ambazonia]] movement seeks to create an independent state out of the Cameroonian portion of British Cameroons, arguing that its Anglophone population is persecuted by the Francophone population of the rest of Cameroon.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.voaafrica.com/a/cameroon-military-executing-abusing---hrw/6697215.html |title="Cameroon Military Executing, Abusing" - HRW |agency=Agence France-Presse |publisher=Voice of America |date=11 August 2022 |access-date=22 March 2023 |quote=In 2017, resentment at perceived discrimination snowballed into the declaration of an independent state -- the 'Federal Republic of Ambazonia,' an entity that is not recognised internationally. }}</ref>

==Governors==
{{main|List of colonial governors of Cameroon#British Cameroons}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Africa|Nigeria|Cameroon}}
*[[Postage stamps and postal history of British Cameroons]]
*[[Ambazonia]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|British Cameroons}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060925063939/http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Chilver/Paideuma/paideuma-Introdu.html The road to the unitary state of Cameroon 1959–1972]
*[http://www.getingetoutandgetaway.co.uk National Service Memoirs of a National Serviceman who served in the British Cameroons at the time of the vote to join with the French Cameroons or Nigeria]
* [https://research.un.org/en/docs/tc/britishcameroons Cameroons under British Administration Trusteeship Documents – UN Documentation: Trusteeship Council]
{{British overseas territories}}
{{League of Nations mandates}}

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[[Category:British Cameroon| ]]
[[Category:British West Africa|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:History of Cameroon]]
[[Category:Historical geography of Nigeria]]
[[Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in Africa|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:League of Nations mandates|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:United Nations trust territories|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:Former British protectorates|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:Former colonies in Africa|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:Cameroon–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:Nigeria–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:1922 establishments in the British Empire|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:1922 establishments in Africa|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:1961 disestablishments in Africa|Cameroons, British]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1961|Cameroons, British]]