Setting a colony up for independence is difficult. When a colony was taken from the Germans and divided between Britain and France doubly so. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
To look at the stamp, it appears to be that of an independent country celebrating the first anniversary of independence. This completely airbrushes out the struggles of putting together a new country. This perhaps is appropriate. The French were going and so were the British. They were just trying to leave the locals in the best hands they could find. Pretending the French were still making the decisions was foolhardy.
The stamp today is issue A32, a 20 African Franc stamp that was issued by the French Colony of Cameroon on May 10th 1958. It is the first stamp issue since French Cameroon was granted autonomy. It showed a mother lifting a baby to the Cameroon flag. The stamp is worth 80 cents used.
Cameroon had been a German colony through World War I. In taking it, the territory was divided into French and British sectors. The people spoke different languages and had different colonial systems. The northern part of the territory was mainly Muslim, and the southern area mainly Christian. Building a cohesive country was going to be difficult.
At the time of the stamp, the first African prime minister Andre-Marie Mbida was in charge. He was a southern Christian socialist who favored a 10 year process toward independence while Cameroonians were trained to take charge. This was not quick enough for the French. they were in favor of being out as quickly as possible with Cameroon staying on in the French African community of nations. Mbida considered this false independence. A French Governor General replaced Mbida with Ahmadou Ahidjo, a northern Muslim rival who was in favor of quicker independence but wanted to maintain close relations with France.
There was also the problem of British Cameroon. An election was held on short notice giving the British area the choice of joining independent Cameroon or joining Nigeria. Independence or continued colonial status was not an option. The northern part went to Nigeria and the southern part to Cameroon. Initially the British part had some self rule but this was done away with and there have since been attacks on English language speakers.
Ahidjo sent Mbida into exile as Ahidjo’s successor did to him. There have only been two presidents of independent Cameroon in the 58 years since independence and such relative stability has offered some benefit to the economy. The country is by no means free and the now aged President spends most of his time in Switzerland.
The articles I have written have shown me how difficult it is to leave a colony or to stay. The few countries that avoided colony status do not seem much better off either. Some questions only have least bad answers. What happened in Cameroon was probably that.
Well, my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast ex leaders in exile, and in Cameroons case the current leaders “working vacations in Switzerland”. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.