The Kamerun society: A missing link in the independence struggle in the British Southern Cameroons, 195661

The history of the liberation struggle in Cameroon is a half written story. Like in the history of Africa, many of the actors in this struggle have been deliberately or inadvertently written off and/or forgotten. This explains why the Kamerun Society (KS) is seldom mentioned in most colonial Cameroon historiography. In passing, some actors in the politics of the period made reference to the KS dismissing it as a group having nothing but mischief to offer. At its best therefore, the KS has received only an ethnic or marginal orientation. This paper attempts a placement of the KS in its proper historical context. It argues that the KS, from its establishment, was a broad-based organ that made positive strives in the liberation struggle in the Southern Cameroons. In colonial Africa, most pressure groups were reservoirs to political parties and the KS was no exception. Its contribution to Southern Cameroons liberation laid in its role as the think tank of the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) which eventually negotiated the reunification between the British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroon. Key words: Forgotten, people, struggle, independence.