Cameroon: Treatment of ethnic Bakweri in Cameroon by the government and the population in general; whether the Bakweri live in specific areas of Cameroon, and, if so, their treatment in these areas

Information extracted from the Bakweri Lands Committee Website indicates that the Bakweri, who have historically occupied "the region around the slopes of Mount Fako stretching right down to the Atlantic Ocean," have been involved in a long-lasting land dispute with Cameroon authorities since their land was first expropriated by the German colonial administration in the late 1880s, and later by the post-independence governments of Cameroon (BLC 22 July 2003). With the advent of German colonization in 1884, the passing of the Crown Lands Act in 1896 and another land policy passed in 1903,

... the Germans alienated about 400 square miles of the most fertile land around the Mount Fako area alone, and stripped the Bakweri of over 200,000 acres of their most fertile lands all over Fako division. With no organized groups or leaders yet emerging to defend the rights of the Bakweri, this disheartening situation continued until the First World War, which ended with the defeat of the Germans and their replacement in the Western part of Kamerun by the British (ibid.).

When Cameroon became a United Nations Trust Territory at the end of the Second World War, "the Cameroons Development Corporation Ordinance, 1946 (No. 39 of 1946), created the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) to take over and exploit the ex-German plantations," which "came into existence on January 1, 1947" (ibid.).

The Bakweri Lands Committee (BLC), was created as a counter interest group to '"take charge of all the land in Victoria division which virtually belongs to the natives"' (ibid.). However, a 1974 law made the government of Cameroon the sole "'guardian of all lands'" and empowered it to appropriate any land (ibid.). The BLC was dormant until July 1994 when on Thursday July 15, 1994, President Paul Biya signed decree No. 94/125 announcing the privatization of the CDC. There was an instant wave of anger across Anglophone Cameroon, particularly in Fako division where the indigenous population had not been informed of the planned privatization. As soon as the decree was made public, Bakweri political, traditional and other leaders mobilized to revive the moribund BLC and to adopt a common position with regards to the privatization, which had planned without the slightest consideration to the Bakweri land problem (ibid.).

On 4 August 1994, over 500 Bakweri from Fako

gathered in Buea for the presentation of the memorandum to the public, and to the Governor of the Southwest Province for onward transmission to the President of the Republic. In the memorandum, the Bakweri argued that if privatization had to take place at all cost it had to be on the basis of "a creative and enlightened partnership between the owners of the land on which the corporation operates and the providers of finance capital without which it would not be possible to run a modern, technologically-sophisticated agro-commercial complex like the CDC." They insisted that any privatization plan should be based on "terms which recognise the ownership of land as a distinct variable which together with the cash make plantation agriculture possible. Therefore, landowners deserve ground rent compensation in much the same way as the CDC was liable to pay ground rents for the use of the land" (ibid.).

Apparently, the 1994 protest and memorandum was followed by "a six year war of attrition between the BLC that stuck its grounds, and the Cameroon government that was reluctant to give any credence to the Bakweri demands, at least publicly" (ibid.).

In March 2000, the government reportedly banned a planned BLC general assembly meeting in Buea, and a letter of 6 June 2000 from the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako requested the leadership of the BLC '"to put an end with immediate effect, to all activities of this illegal committee'" (ibid.).

In the meantime,

intense consultations between the people of Fako and the Fako Diaspora community led to the establishment, in May 2000, of an interim bureau of the BLCC in the United States, with the goal of establishing an effective, active and visible BLCC presence within the Fako and Cameroonian Diaspora community; and to open permanent lines of communications with all potential buyers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), donor agencies, NGOs and foreign governments directly or indirectly involved in the above-mentioned sale (ibid.).

After a series of meetings, Fako chiefs resolved in June 2001 that

"... the Bakweri Lands Claims Committee (BLCC), which has spearheaded the battle for the restoration of Bakweri land rights over a period spanning over half a century, and as presently constituted, be and is hereby declared the legitimate representative of the Bakweri in pursuit of their land claims, and is the only legal body authorized to negotiate with the Government of Cameroon and other parties on all matters pertaining to the lands leased to the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC)" (ibid.).

Under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF)/Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) programme with the government of Cameroon, the Cameroon government's public companies scheduled to be sold off include the CDC (BLCC-USA 16 June 2000). In a letter addressed to the managing director of the IMF, the BLCC-USA pointed out that

under the terms of the lease of these lands to the CDC, the latter was required to pay annual ground rent, for the benefit of the disposed indigenous natives. The native Bakweri have never been paid any part of these rents, and with privatization looming in the horizon, whereby their lands will be alienated to foreign companies, the Bakweri resolutely refuse to recognize any privatization of the CDC that does not take into account the just, long-standing and legitimate rights of the Bakweri over their land (ibid.)

Additionally,

the position of the Bakweri, the land owners, is that while they are not opposed to privatization per se, the rental terms under which their land is leased to foreign developers should be clearly spelt out and acceptable to them, with a clear statement of the reversionary Bakweri interest in the land. ...

Should the privatization of the CDC go ahead without the input of the Bakweri on whose land most of the corporation's agro-industrial activities are located, we reserve the right to seek legal redress against the Government of the Republic of Cameroon, the IMF, the World Bank as well as all lessees who derive title to the land by whatever means, in any country of the world where such bodies are located....

It is worthy of note to all concerned with the privatization of the CDC that there is right now very high socio-political tension in the English-speaking provinces of Cameroon, where the lands under discussion are to be found. Privatizing the CDC without the consent and participation of the native landowners carries grave risks especially to potential investors, as the object lesson in Zimbabwe and Kenya amply illustrates (BLCC-USA 16 June 2000).

According the BLC, the issue had not been resolved the by the end of 2001, and so the year ended on "a no-war-no-peace situation" (BLC 22 July 2003).

In January 2003, BLCC reportedly threatened to sue a South African Company for buying CDC tea estates in Bakweri territory from the government of Cameroon, which did not consult the BLCC when arranging the deal (The Herald 8 Jan. 2003).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Bakweri Lands Committee (BLC). 22 July 2003. "The Bakweri Land Problem: A Historical Review." [Accessed 6 Sept. 2003]

Bakweri Land Claims Committee, U.S.A. (BLCC-USA). 16 June 2000. Lyombe Ekoet al. "IMF Sanctioned Privatization of the Cameroon Development Corporation" Challenged (fwd). (stop-imf 27 June 2000) [Accessed 6 Sept. 2003]

The Herald [Yaounde]. 8 January 2003. Christopher Ambe Shu. "Privatisation of CDC Tea: Bakweri Landowners Threaten to Sue Buyers in South Africa." [Accessed 6 Sept. 2003]

Additional Sources Counsulted

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series

Amnesty International

Country Reports 2000-2001

Encyclopedia of the Third World

Ethnologue: Languags of the World

Human Rights Watch

IRB Databases

Dialog

Internet sources, including:

Africa Online

AllAfrica.com

Search engine

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