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.

Since its creation, the BLCC has undergone numerous transformations, with virtually all the members of the original land Committee having passed on. The last of these was the venerated land activist Chief Phillip Mofema Ewusi, President of the BLCC in its 1990s incarnation, who, unfortunately, passed away in November 1999, just as the BLCC struggle was entering its most critical stage since the the Cameroon reunification.

Today, the BLCC's membership and leadership cuts across numerous generations of Bakweri, both at home and in the Diaspora, who are determined to keep the issue alive for as long as it takes the Cameroon government to finally concede that the people of Fako division do, in fact, have a legitimate claim to the lands under the control of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), which the government has so far failed to fully privatize as a result of the unresolved land dispute.

The BLCC is controled by a Board of Trustees elected in 2000. The Board is headed by:

• A President - Chief Peter Moky Efange of Wonganga, Small Soppo
• Four Vice Presidents
  Chief David Ikome Molinge of Muea
  Chief Lobe Njembele of Missellele
  Chief Samuel Ekum of Bimbia
  Chief Mokoko of Bibundi   
• A Secretary General - Mola Njoh Litumbe
• Four Assistant Secretaries 
  Mola John Mokako Endeley
  Mola Smith Molua Becke
  Mola Mokako Elali
  Dr. Gladys Martin
• A Communications Department
• And a host of legal, Technical, Diaspora and other advisers
• Ex Officio members include former and current MPS and all Fako Chiefs who constitute the Chiefs Advisory council.

The BLCC also has a branch in the United States, the BAkweri Land Claims Committee in the United States of America - BLCC-USA.

Comments

[Mr. Samuel Teke Mbua]

I wish to thank the individuals that has faught this battle.we stand behind the elders who put an effort to fight this our fathers land.this is just the begining.tell those thieves not to sell our land.this land must be given back to the owner

[Francis Mondembe Menyoli]

I am delighted with the efforts of the BLCC to reclaim nativ lands from the state. please keep this spirit up, as we are strongly behind praying for the success of this cause.

[Ekema Roland]

Let me first of all thank all the bakwerians of good faith who are behind this struggle, and also to tell them that we the youth are strongly behind them. We must take what belongs to us no matter the hides, for it our right to have our God give posession.HOLLAND