Bakweri Digital Archives

The Bakweri Land Claims Committee: Standing the Test of Time and History

Created shortly after the Second World War, precisely in 1946, the Bakweri Land Committee (BLC), which is now officially referred to as the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC), has been at the forefront of the Bakweri campaign for compensation for, and restitution of, their lands initially expropriated by the Germans at the end of the 19th Century, and taken over by the Government of Cameroon, immediately after the reunification of British and French Cameroons in 1961.

Season's Greetings and New Year Wishes to all BLCC Members & Supporters

Wonyamoe

The year 2006 has just ended, giving way to 2007.

It gives me singular pleasure to take this opportunity to express profound thanks and appreciation to all those who have contributed in raising awareness to the Bakweri plight concerning the claim to their ancestral lands, and for the giant steps achieved in 2006.

For the year which has just started, BLCC looks forward to participating in the negotiations prescribed by the African Human Rights Commission and endorsed by the Summit of the African Union.  It is our firm hope that these negotiations which will be carried out under the auspices of the African Commission, wil resolve this century old dispute that has agonized the spirit of the Bakweri, once and for all.

In wishing all our members and sympathizers a Happy New Year, be it remembered that the struggle to this point has sometimes encountered fearful odds.  In April 2006, the BLCC organized a welcome home reception for Professor Ndiva Kofele-Kale, lead counsel for the Bakweri case before the African Human Rights Commission, in grateful appreciation for his meritorious services.  News of the reception triggered a menacing death threat from the Fako Administration, but the reception went on regardless.

The attached five prints captured some events during the reception, and are now being officialy released as souvenirs, with BLCC's best wishes for a happy New Year.

Mola  Njoh Litumbe
BLCC Secretary-General

The Passing Away of a Great Bakweri Chieftain: H.R.H. Chief Peter Moky Efange of Soppo Wonganga

By Mola Njoh Litumbe, BLCC Secretary-General

News of the transition of  the President of the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC), HRH Chief Peter Moky Efange early on Tuesday morning August 29th 2006 at the Buea General Hospital, caught the BLCC family and many Cameroonians off-guard, although it was well known that over the past two years or so, His Royal Highness had not been enjoying robust health.

A Brief History of the Bakweri Land Problem

When Cameroon became a German Protectorate in 1884, the Germans realized that the area around Mount Cameroon, home of the indigenous Bakweri ethnic group, was an agricultural paradise. They immediately instituted a policy of wholesale confiscation of native lands for large-scale commercial agriculture. Through the use of coercion, brute force, and a series of repressive laws, the German colonial Government forced local indigenous communities to give up vast expanses of native lands without compensation.

Bakweri Armed Resistance to German Colonialism, 1891 - 1894

Contrary to widely-held beliefs that the Bakweri made no effort whatsoever to resist the spoliation of their lands by the Germans, they did in fact mount a fierce anti-German campaign, particularly around the slopes of Mount Fako, and successfully inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Germans at Buea in 1891; the first ever German military loss on the African continent, which led to a complete reappraisal of German colonial/military policy on the continent, and, unfortunately, laid the basis for the brutal campaign to annihilate the Bakweri.

African Human Rights Commission Rules on Bakweri vs. Cameroon Land Case

• The Bakweri have a Strong Case Backed by History and Law
• The BLCC has the Mandate to Speak on Behalf of the Bakweri
• The BLCC and Cameroun should seek an “Amicable Settlement” of Land Dispute.

Following its ratification by the Summit of the African Union, the African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights has published its ruling on the matter of the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) Vs Cameroon (Communication 260/2002) after a two-year delay.

2004 Government Double Standards: Land Rents, Royalties and the Bakweri Land Problem

When the case pitting the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) against the State Cameroon came up for consideration before the 34th Session of the African Commission Human & Peoples’ Rights, the head of the Cameroon delegation, Dr. Dione Ngute, wondered why the Bakweri wanted "to be treated differently" from other Cameroonians. He was referring to the Bakweri and BLCC demands that land rents and royalties be paid to the indigenes of Fako for the exploitation of their indigenous lands by the CDC for agro-industrial purposes.

2003 Minister Frederic Kodock: Royalties should be paid to the Bakweri

In 2003, the Minister of State for External Relations sought the Expert Opinion of the Minister of State for Agriculture Honorable Frederic Augustin Kodock (currently Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development), specifically about the BLCC’s demand for royalties for indigenous Fako lands under the control of the CDC. As Minister of Agriculture, the Honorable Kodock had supervisory authority over the CDC and had a solid mastery of the CDC/BLCC file.

2004 BLCC Reacts to Govt Announcement for Relaunching Privatisation of CDC

Cameroon Tribune, in its edition of Wednesday May 12, 2004 carried a report that the Hon Meva’a m’Eboutou, Minister of Finance and Budget, had published during the previous week, a notice of request for manifest interest in the banana, rubber and oil palm sectors of the CDC which are to be privatised.  The report also stated that one Derrick Garvey, Chairman of Brobon Finex, the company that purchased the tea sector of CDC, had stated that the land on which is developed the plantations of the CDC belongs to Cameroon, and that his company has only bought 65% of the tea estates, but not the land.

2004 BLCC vs. Cameroon - Final BLCC Submission on Admissibility

Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Following the rules of procedure under the ECOSOC Resolution 1503 Procedure, not only do Applicants have no access to Respondent Government’s submissions but they equally have no right of audience before the Sub-Commission, a right reserved only to States party to the United Nations Charter. However, by inference from the letter dated 18 July 2002 from the Governor of the South West Province to the BLCC (which letter was written on instructions from Respondent’s Minister of External Relations), it would appear that Respondent made two critical assertions before the U.N. Sub-Commission on the basis of which that body concluded that the complaint before it was premature.

2003 BLCC Vs. Cameroon - Prof. Kofele-Kale's Oral Submission to the African Commission

Submission Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Banjul, The Gambia in the Matter of In the Matter of BLCC v Cameroon - 15 November 2003 (10:15 a.m.-12:28 p.m.)

2003 BLCC Letter to Pacific Inter Link of Malaysia

I have been instructed by my client, BLCC, to advise you to think twice before you commit the resources of PIL and the 14SA Group of Companies in a venture that is still mired in controversy and whose promised financial and economic rewards may prove to be illusory in the long run. Should you succeed in your bid to acquire any of the CDC oil palm, plantations up for sale, it would in all likelihood be on terms that include some form of leasehold on the land.

2003 BLCC vs. Cameroon - BLCC Response to Cameroon's Reply on the Exhaustion of Local Remedies

Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

I. Summary

In its Reply dated 8th May 2003, Respondent sets forth two basic reasons why this Commission should declare the BLCC communication inadmissible. First, that the conduct of the Southwest Procureur General in the John Niba Ngu/Brobon Finex case (“CTE Litigation”), though illegal is insufficient to justify a conclusion that the courts in Cameroon are similarly tainted. To support the proposition that the Cameroon judiciary is independent, Respondent cites the Ncho v. Itoe case where the courts in the Northwest Province entertained a complaint against the Procureur General and found him guilty.

2003 Bakweri Land Claims Committee Vs. Cameroon: BLCC Response to Preliminary Objections of Cameroon

Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 

Summary

On October 4, 2002, after nine long years of waiting on Respondent to resolve the Bakweri Land Problem, Complainants submitted a Communication to the Commission asserting that Respondent had violated its obligations under the African Charter. Complainants requested that the Commission resolve the problem and grant them appropriate relief.

2003 BLCC Submission on Admissibility to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

Communication 260/2002 – Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) Vs. Cameroon

Introduction

On behalf of the Traditional Rulers, Notables and Elites of the indigenous minority peoples of Fako Division (the “Bakweri”), in the Republic of Cameroon, and their accredited agent, the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (“BLCC”), and at their request, the undersigned Counsel, presents this Submission on Admissibility as a supplement to Communication 260/2002 - Bakweri Land Claims Committee/Cameroon which the Commission considered and decided to be seised at its 32nd Ordinary Session that held in Banjul, The Gambia from 17th - 23rd October 2002.

2002 BLCC Petition to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

Communication Under Articles 55, 56, and 58 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Concerning Violation of Land Rights of an Indigenous Ethnic Minority in Cameroon

While the core of this Communication centers on the persistent violation of the protected right to property, other fundamental human rights are also implicated.

BLCC Notice to Brobon Finex

“A [South African] Company that should have been sensitive to minority rights and land issues has chosen to be complicit in the dispossession of the Bakweri people of their ancestral lands”

Sir, BLCC believes that your company may have, perhaps with all the best intentions, agreed to this deal without the benefit of a full and complete disclosure on the status of the lands which these tea estates occupy. Our interest is, of course, in the Tole/Bwiyuku estate which is in Bakweri territory.

2002 Without a Trace: On the Trail of the Elusive Brobon Finex

A BLCC-USA Investigative Report

An extensive investigation carried out the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) into the identity of Brobon Finex since October 2002 seems to give credence to increasing evidence and allegations being made in Cameroon (even by the Government-owned Cameroon Tribune) that this South African “consortium”, which recently purchased the Tea estates of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), may be a dummy Corporation set up by unscrupulous Cameroonian nationals (with the aid of South African accomplices) to defraud the Cameroonian people.

2002 BLCC Reaction to the Sale of CDC Tea Estates

Statement by the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (BLCC) following the announcement on the Privatisation of the Tea Estates of the Cameroon Development Corporation - Thursday 6th June, 2002

In the last few days, information has been carried by the public Radio and the Press to the effect that the Cameroon Government has decided, unilaterally, to privatise the tea estates of the Cameroon Development Corporation.

2001 Letter to PriceWaterhouse Coopers

Prof. Kofele-Kale: "BLCC will Seek Legal Redress Against PriceWaterhouse Coopers for Participating in Dispossessing the Bakweri of their Lands"

RE: The Status of Bakweri Lands after the Sale or Privatization of the Cameroon Development Corporation

On the 24th February 2001, I addressed a letter to you and attached a copy of a separate one that had earlier been sent, on instructions of the Secretary General of the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (“BLCC”), to prospective foreign buyers of the assets of the Cameroon Development Corporation (“CDC”) which put them “on notice that a cloud continues to hover over the title to the lands on which stand the CDC plantations.”

2001 CEFAM Resolutions Adopted By Fako Chiefs and Notables

Resolutions adopted at a meeting of Fako Chiefs, Notables and Elite at their meeting in CEFAM (Local Government Training Center), Buea on July 28, 2001

Preamble
At a meeting of Fako Chiefs, Notables and Elite, held at CEFAM Buea on Saturday 7th  April, 2001, it was agreed to establish a special committee to explore the possibility of setting up a trust which would cater for the rights of owners of CDC lands, under the Land (Perpetual Succession) Ordinance. The committee comprised all members of the Executive of the Fako Chiefs Conference, two representatives of the BLCC, two lawyers, and an educationist.

2000 BLCC Letter to Prime Minister Mafany Musonge

On October 4 2000 the BLCC leadership met with the Prime Minister of Cameroon, the  Honorable Peter Mafany Musonge, and some of his top aids, among them the Honorable Ephraim Inoni who would subsequently replace Musonge as Prime Minister.

Mafany Musonge & Ephraim Inoni (former & current Prime Ministers of Cameroon) were both present at the October 2000 meeting with BLCC leadership

2000 Fako Reaction to CDC Invitation to Tender

At the invitation of the Traditional Rulers, the elites and notables of Fako Division, gathered at the Limbe Urban Council Hall on Saturday 4th November 2000 to discuss the announced invitation to Tender for Cameroon Development Corporation estates following the irreversible privatization of the Cameroon Development Corporation.

2000 Open Letter to All Prospective Buyers of CDC Plantations

October 12, 2000

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

The Cameroon Government (“Government”) has recently issued a call for tenders
for the sale of the Cameroon Development Corporation (“CDC”). It is rumored that your corporation is among those that have expressed an interest in acquiring some of CDC’s property. As Counsel for the Bakweri Land Claims Committee (“BLCC”), the accredited agents of the Bakweri people, it is my duty to advise you to think twice before you commit the resources of your shareholders in a venture that is still mired in controversy and whose promised financial and economic rewards may prove to be illusory in the long run.

2000 BLCC-USA Letter to IMF

Privatizing the CDC without the consent and participation of the Native landowners carries grave risks especially to potential investors.

We, the Bureau of the Bakweri Land Claims Committee-USA (BLCC-USA), together with our fellow Fako indigenes living in all continents of the world, assembled through the revolutionary technology of the Internet, have been made to understand that in June 2000, the IMF Board of Directors reviewed the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF)/ Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) program of the Republic of Cameroon, and that the Managing Director, Mr. Horst Koehler, will be visiting Cameroon in July 2000.

2000 Letter from Concerned Cameroonians

Letter from Concerned Cameroonians Regarding the IMF-Sanctioned Privatization of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC)

"Unilateral privatization of the CDC without proper consultation of the people cannot provide a viable and sustainable solution to Cameroon's economic problems....

Leaders of our country are currently in the process of taking one of the most important decisions regarding the allocation of land since Kamerun became a German colony in 1884, and yet little effective effort has been made to consult the people and engage them in debate over this monumental decision.

1999 BLCC Memorandum to President Biya

Memorandum Dated 3rd March, 1999 to H. E. President Paul Biya Concerning the Privatisation of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC)

A. A Historical Background
A Delegation of several members of the government recently visited the South West Province with a view to explaining to the Chiefs, elite, and the population, Government’s intentions with regard to the Privatisation of the CDC, and to ally their fears on such questions as employment, social services, and land currently leased to the Cameroon Development Corporation.

1999 Signatories of the BLCC Petition

An exhaustive list of ignatories of the BLCC Petitition dated 3rd March 1999 to President Paul Biya regarding the Privatisation of the Cameroon Development Corporation.

click here to print or download complete list of signatories

1999 Fako Diaspora Support for the BLCC

We, Fako elements living in all continents of the world, assembled through the revolutionary technology of the Internet, have the honour to state that we have read a copy of the letter of 3rd March 1999 addressed to your Excellency by the Bakweri Land Claims Committee, (BLCC) seeking redress for injustices perpetrated on our people for more than a century. We would like to state that we unreservedly associate ourselves with the sentiments expressed by the BLCC as it seeks to regain the lands of which the Bakweri were dispossessed.

1999 The Internet Debates on the Bakweri Land Problem

After the 1999 BLCC memorandum was published in Cameroonian Internet forums it generated a flurry of heated and sometimes acrimonious debate among members of the Cameroonian Diaspora commmunity, many of whom had never heard of the Bakweri Land Problem, or where not aware of the extent and brutal nature of German land expropriation in Fako division in the late 19th century.

1994 - Bakweri Reaction to the Announced Privatisation or Sale of the CDC

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.

1994 Bakweri Memorandum on the Privatization of the CDC

On August 4, 1994, over 500 sons and daughters of 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.” 

1994 Prof. Ndiva Kofele-Kale: Bakweri Ancestral Lands Shall Not be Alienated without Consent

Submission presented for the Bakweri people by Professor NDIVA KOFELE-KALE during a meeting between the Assembly of traditional rulers, notables and elites of Fako division and a government delegation led by Mr. Ephraim Inoni, Deputy Secretary-General at the Presidency, to discuss the Presidential decree privatizing or selling the Cameroon Development Corporation held at the Buea Municipal Council Chambers on Thursday August 18, 1994.

1948 Petition of the Bakweri Land Committee, Cameroons under British Mandate

AFRICA [Journal of the Royal African Society], Vol. 18, No 4, October 1948, p. 307)

The petition dated 24 August 1946 was forwarded to the Governor of Nigeria with a request that it be presented to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations. The petition formulated a demand on the part of the Bakweri Land Committee, which claims to represent ‘the entire populace of the Bakweri people i.e. including the sub tribes of Bota and Bimbia of the Victoria division in the Cameroons under British Mandate’, for the return of 580 square miles of land which were alienated by German Government during their administration of the area, and sold or leased as plantations, or to missions, or retained as Crown lands.

1946 Letter to the British Secretary of State for Colonies, 1946

In August 1946, DAVID ENDELEY, Honorary Secretary of the Bakweri Land Committee addressed two petitions to the British on behalf of the BLC. The first one was addressed to the Chief Secretary of the Eastern Province of Nigeria, and demanded that the plantation land be returned to the natives, together with a financial compensation commensurate to the years of exploitation of Bakweri lands. The second petition, cosigned by 25 prominent Bakweris, was addressed to the British Secretary of State for Colonies, Arthur Creech Jones, who received the letter about a year later, long after the CDC had been formed and gone operational.

Here is the petition which gave an exhaustive analysis of the havoc that plantation agriculture had wreaked:

June 1946 - The BLCC is Created

Chief GM Endeley: "The Committee shall continue to exist as long as the Bakweri people live"

Here is a copy of letter No. B.L.C./2/1 dated 18th June, 1946  which was signed by Chief Gervacius M. Endeley of Buea Native Town, in his capacity as District Head and President of the newly created Bakweri Land Committee, In the letter, the Chief informs the Resident of Cameroon Province of the creation of the Bakweri Land Committee.  This is the very first letter ever written to the colonial Administration by the Bakweri Land Committee.