George Ngwane

Book Review: Protecting Minority Language Rights by Geroge Ngwane

A Review by Ngome Elvis Nkome (Ph.D.)*

Ngwane, George (2023). Protecting minority language rights = Protéger les droits des langues minoritaires. Denver, CO: Spears Books.

Synopsis 
This is another seminal piece of work by an erudite scholar, writer, Advocate, Pan-Africanist, Mwalimu George Ngwane on a contemporary issue that straddles academic and professional disciplines such as law, ethnology, linguistics, literature, human rights, heritage studies, and languages. The author has demonstrated his unmatched knowledge and knitted experiences of identity, cultural heritage and minority intricacies in the world. His book entitled Protecting Minority Language Rights is not only timely but actually gives readers an insight into the origins, manifestations, frustrations and socio-linguistic rationale for protecting minority language rights in the world.

Processing Pathways to Peace

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Being a keynote presentation at The Rotary Club President's Night, Limbe, Cameroon, 22 March 2024.

We seem to be now be living comfortably in a world of war to the point where the question that preoccupies us is “Where next?” with all the instruments of peace at our disposal, all the peace institutes and institutions growing by leaps and bounds, we still have made peace an elusive item on our daily agenda..

Problem

Every peace process must begin with identifying the problem. Most problems unfortunately carry the ‘elephant metaphor’.  The problem can be the ‘elephant in the room’, we know the problem but we do not want to discuss it; the problem can be linked to the parable of ‘the elephant and the six blind men’ where each of them touches the same animal but their interpretation is based only on what they perceive. So we see the problem only through our individual judgement rather than the whole picture. Having a whole picture or a consensus on what the problem is constitutes the fundamental recipe in any pathway to peace. And that’s why Chinua Achebe says ‘A man who doesn’t know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body’.

Addressing the armed conflict in Cameroon; constitutionally speaking

By George Ngwane

Abstract
For close to eight years and counting, Cameroon has been engulfed in an armed conflict whose root causes stem from what is called ‘The Anglophone Problem’. Historically Anglophones are the English-speaking part of Cameroon that decided through a Plebiscite on 11 February 1961 and Reunification on 1st October 1961 to join their French-speaking part to make what is today Cameroon. Anglophones have had different politico-geographical nomenclatures from Southern Cameroons, West Cameroon to the North West and South West regions. The country itself has mutated from Federal Republic of Cameroon (1961-1972), United Republic of Cameroon (1972-1984) to today Republic of Cameroon. The root causes of the armed conflict have had different interpretations as much as the solutions provided for their closure. This paper seeks to suggest the role and relevance of exploring a multilateral Constitutional Convention in Cameroon as a foray to conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Just Published: "Protecting Minority Language Rights" by George Ngwane

George Ngwane. (2023). Protecting Minority Language Rights. Protéger les droits des langues minoritaires. Spears Books, Denver, CO. Available from SpearsBooks and worldwide on all major online bookstores.

Fresh off the press is George Ngwane’s book PROTECTING MINORITY LANGUAGE RIGHTS, a bilingual volume that makes the case for why minority language rights are human rights.

According to Professor Joshua Casteliino, Executive Director of Minority Rights Group, International London and Professor of Law, the book offers those interested in linguistic rights insights into the dilemmas facing African countries, set against the backdrop of developments in the international framework for the promotion of linguistic rights.

Commissioner George Ngwane invited to the United Nations (UN) forum on minority issues in Geneva, Switzerland.

I got an invitation, as Executive Director of AFRICAphonie, UN Minority Senior Fellow Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Geneva, and Board member of the Minority Rights Group International London, from the United Nations (UN) to attend the Forum on Minority Issues that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, 1-2 December 2022.

George Ngwane with Dr. Fernand Varennes, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues 

I am familiar with the forum because I had this same invitation in November 2016 when I was doing my Fellowship on Minority issues with the Office of High Commission for Human Rights, Geneva. That year I did not only participate in the forum but made a formal presentation at the plenary.

George Ngwane Bags Promoter of Press Freedom Award

Originally published by Boris Esono Nwenfor in Pan African Visions.

On the occasion of the celebration of the World Press Freedom Day, renowned writer, pan-Africanist and member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism Ngwane George Esambe is set to bag another national award in his fight to see the freedom of journalists being materialised in the country.

In a communiqué dated April 29 from the Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Associate professor Dr Kingsley Ngange noted that Geroge Ngwane is to receive the Promoter of Press Freedom in Cameroon award on Tuesday, May 3 on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day.

Through his organization AFRICAphonie, the astute writer and political analyst have for over the years been engaging media practitioners on the aspect of press freedom in the country while also urging the government to look into the media laws in the country that need to be modified.

On March 24 in Buea, AFRICAphonie schooled some fifty journalists on Press Law and Access to Information funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. That training was the second phase of the project after the multi-stakeholder conference that had taken place in Yaounde the previous month.

Women, Bilingualism and Local Development

A Lead Discussion by George Ngwane, Member National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism.

Date: 3 March 2022; Target Audience: Women of the National School for Local Administration (NASLA) Buea

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our discussion is focussed on Official Bilingualism which is the use of English and French in the public domain. Right from the grassroots level of participative development women have had a 3 P role (Pedagogic, Professional and Policy) in the promotion of bilingualism.

George Ngwane voted Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association Board Member

Originally published in The Guardian Post, no. 2263, Friday October 8, 2021.

Writer and peace activist, George Ngwane has been made a member of the first elected Board of Directors of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association, RPFAA.

Ngwane, an educationist, political analyst, and Pan Africanist was voted alongside Derran Moss and Rukmini Ryer from many other peace fellows that engaged in the process. Shortly after taking over office, Ngwane and his peers have engaged in a series of activities to enable RPFAA attain its goals.

This, they explained in their priorities list for 2020-2022, is hinged on the works of the previous Board of Directors, which setup key processes, policies and procedures for the RPFAA´s operations.

Keynote Address: 2nd Annual International Multi-Country Peace Conference

2nd Annual International Multi-Country Peace Conference, 21 - 22 Sept., 2021, Tou’Ngou Hotel, Yaounde.

Theme: The protection of human rights of ethnic minorities and Conflict Prevention using Early Warning Mechanism

A keynote address delivered by Mwalimu George Ngwane

Focus

• Overview of conflict prevention and Peace building in Cameroon and the role of Government and civil society
• Broader understanding of conflicts in the region

Restructuring the Anglophone Dialogue in Cameroon

By Mwalimu George Ngwane (Originally published in The Guardian Post, N° 2239 , Friday September 10, 2021, pp 6-7).

‘The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war” Norman Schwarzkopf

On September 10 2019, the Head of State, President Paul Biya in a message to the nation convened a Major National Dialogue to address the crisis in the South West and North West regions. A crisis to quote him ‘that not only jeopardize the safety and wellbeing of the population living there but also far reaching consequences for the national community as a whole’. President Biya continued ‘the entire national community has hopes that this will be an opportunity for our brothers and sisters in the North West and South West regions to close this particularly painful chapter, to forget their suffering and to return to normal life’.

In his opening speech at the Major National Dialogue Prime Minister Dion Ngute challenged the attendants to ‘make history and find solutions to the problems that have separated us physically and intellectually in recent years”.

Interview: George Ngwane on "Inside the Presidency"

In this edition of Inside the Presidency hosted by Ashu Nyenty, George Ngwane, member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, talks about the work of the commission, particularly regarding its campaign against hate speech and xenophobia; the Anglophone Crisis and the way forward; and other national issues.

 

Can COVID-19 Cure COFID-16 in Cameroon?

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Pandemics have had great influence minimizing conflict curves and engendering peace settlements. Can COVID-19 pandemic provide scope and space for the management of what I term the Conflict Over Federalism, Independence or Decentralisation (COFID) that reached its manifest stage in 2016 in Cameroon? Can all parties in the ongoing crisis in Cameroon emulate the “Push for Peace within a Pandemic” call to stop the fighting and start the healing?
Under the terms of a peace agreement that came into effect on 22 February 2020 (within COVID-19) South Sudan set up a Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity in Juba (capital of South Sudan) under the mediation efforts of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). All the parties acknowledged that the Transitional Government is not a goal but the beginning of a process towards the transition to civil rule.

COVID-19 and Community Ownership in Cameroon

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

One of the major problems of disease management and research especially those that are sporadic, fatal and viral is their lack of people-inclusive and empowerment strategies. Quite often communities are basically beneficiaries of a hands-out process rather than a hands-on outcome. This is the case of the alarmist COVID-19 pandemic. Such a top-down approach has sometimes left the mitigating measures of COVID-19 only in the hands of a Santa Claus (government, public officials, and elites) club while disempowering the main target groups (local communities) from a domesticizing, indigenous and home-grown discourse. While this is universally understood as a legitimate responsibility of duty bearer (government) who are accountable and responsible to the welfare of their citizens, the act should now have a paradigm shift from public grandstanding to populist endowment.  Strategies like use of community radio, creation of local Task forces, promotion of grassroots distributive economy and enhancement of proximity traditional health response stand out.

Public Policy Objectives and Practices for Education in minority languages: An African Perspective

By George Ngwane

Being a presentation at the Africa-Middle East Regional Forum on Education, Language and Human Rights of minorities October 27-30th 2019, Tunis, Tunisia.

Bonjour,
Good morning,
Asange!!! (my mother tongue)

I would like to thank Tom Lantos Institute for inviting me to talk on public policy objectives and practices in minority languages. From the program you have in front of you, you can also see the other derivatives of this working group. Seeing the caliber of participants in his group I am confident that the lapses in my presentation shall be adequately complemented so that we all come out with practical Observations but especially Recommendations emanating from this topic that can help in lobbying and policy advocacy.

My presentation shall delve into a brief overview of language typology in Africa, the various legal instruments militating for the protection of minority languages, the policy-formulation and practices of minority languages in education and most especially some succinct observations and practical Recommendations.

Major National Dialogue in Cameroon: Faces of Federation

By Mwalimu George Ngwane (Originally published in The Sun, No. 0563, September 30, 2019)

Prologue

As Delegates at the Great Debate officially called the Major National Dialogue ponder over the mechanisms and modalities that can resonate with President Biya’s concern with solving the crisis in the North West and South West regions, their minds shall inadvertently be filled with long term institutional guarantees that would both stem the tide of the crisis and forestall the eventuality of further conflict. History is replete with cases of Peace Talks ending either in resentment and re-escalation or in reconciliation and de-escalation. The choice therefore is in the hands of the over four hundred delegates that have been invited nationally but particularly in the hearts of those representing the North West and South West regions.

Models of a Dialogue Assembly

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

So much ink and spittle have been spilled since 2016 on the need for a Dialogue platform or Assembly to seek sustainable solutions to the ongoing crisis in Cameroon. However both the form and the content of such an Assembly are still shrouded in conjectures and speculations.
A few models of or approaches to a Dialogue Assembly would help state and non-state actors who believe in creating dialogue spaces make decisions,recommendations,proposals, and implementation benchmarks that hopefully should resonate with the aspirations of the citizenry. Models identified below do not include those targeting trade unions or socio-professional groups. The focus here is on grievances of a national character where the Dialogue Assembly is both dynamic in process and structured in event.

Mwalimu George Ngwane: Minority Rights Group is a true Diversity Ambassador

By Edwin Kontoh*

Cameroonian writer and Executive Director of AFRICAphonie, Mwalimu George Ngwane has described the Minority Rights Group (MRG) International London as a trustworthy Ambassador of defending diversity in the world since 1969. Ngwane made this statement in his speech during the 50th birthday celebration of the MRG hosted by Lord Harries of Pentregarth at the House of Lords Westminster, London on May 13th 2019.

Ngwane traced his relationship with MRG from the early 90s when he used to read about their activities in Africa, to 2016 when he spent three months with the organisation as a Commonwealth Fellow. It is during his spell with this organisation that he was privileged to travel to Cardiff, Wales, to study the structures and functioning of the Welsh Language Commissioner. On his return to Cameroon in May 2016, he wrote a seminal article in a local newspaper on the need for Cameroon to create a National Commission for Bilingualism.

Silencing the Guns and Summoning the Talks

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

In a 2015 publication by The Africa Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), Durban, South Africa, titled “Silencing the guns, owning the future”, the authors question the paradox that is Africa in terms of unprecedented levels of economic growth on one hand, and rising instability and insecurity in a number of particularly concerning regions and member states on the other. Recognizing this, and building on references to Agenda 2063 and African Union vision of ending all wars in Africa by 2020, the publication further engages collective multistakeholder deliberations on existing and emerging peace and security threats to the continent and the responses required to address these and achieve a war-free continent by 2020. Practitioners and policy-makers are well aware that Vision 2020 is immensely ambitious.

Cameroonian Elected Board Member of Minority Rights Group Africa

Cameroonian writer, pan Africanist and Executive Director of AFRICAphonie, Mwalimu George Ngwane, has been elected to the African Advisory Committee of the International Minority Rights Group Africa as member of Board of Trustees.
Ngwane was elected with three other members - Dr Melakou Tegngem from Ethiopia, Ms Evelyne Neisere from Kenya and Ms Juliet Nakoto Odol from Uganda - during a Board meeting that held in Kampala, Uganda from 8th to 9th February 2019.

Comprehensive Amnesty Programmes as a Component of Inclusive Dialogue

By Mwalimu George Ngwane* [Originally published in The Guardian Post No. 1499, September 25, 2018]

An amnesty programme is cost-effective but not a substitute for a substantive discussion on the root and/or proximate causes of the conflict... fighters are often willing to surrender their weapons only when there is a clear and concrete agenda for addressing the issues that led them to take up arms in the first place.

The Guardian Post of Monday, September 17, 2018, carried a front page caption titled “Ambazonia fighters promised huge compensation to surrender weapons”. The full story on Page 5 further quotes the North West Governor, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique said inter alia:

“Our children, brothers, sisters and loved ones who have been misled and misguided to take up arms against the fatherland are called upon to surrender their weapons to the nearest administrative, traditional, municipal and regional authority and as a follow up they will be entitled to psychological and logistical support for their eventual rehabilitation and reintegration into society”.

This is definitely an innovative twist in what is referred to as an amnesty programme, but which has not been given the visibility and potency it deserves in the current Anglophone crisis. Granted that there have been calls for blanket amnesty for especially the jailed, the Diasporans and the spoilers connected to the conflict, but little attention has been paid, except for military offensive, to the ”Ambazonian”  combatants, militants or fighters on the ground who wield deadly  weapons.

Mainstreaming Moral Cultural Policies into Democratic Governance in Africa

The purpose of this essay is to find a nexus between democracy and governance as inspired by cultural values in Africa. It is to find explanations as to how traditional core African values; indigenous knowledge and indigenous institutions have impacted on or can shape political systems and democratic institutions in the continent. It shall be necessary to explore those cultural values especially within a pre-colonial Africa, their relevance to the Afrocentric and Eurocentric definition of democracy and governance and their limitations in contemporary nation-building efforts within the continent.

It must be understood that Africa’s political governance architecture and democratic perceptions do not spring from a mystical or mythical source. It is arguably the result of a long process of cultural elaboration. It comes from this reality that every people of the world have developed throughout their history, particular forms of social, economic and political organisations as well as particular forms of thought, beliefs, attitudes, symbols, images, etc. It is this set of values which confer on them specificity, an identity and a personality. It can be said that all what constitutes our cultural past and present affect our outlook and condition our political development. Rather than being prescriptive, the conclusion aims at leaving the choice of democratic models with the people. Yet, there is room to strongly affirm that if other countries have developed their governance structure from a cultural imprint, Africa cannot be an exception.

Click here to download this article (pdf)

George Ngwane, Guest Panelist at the Launching of a Linguistic Guide at the UN in Geneva

On March 17, 2017, George Ngwane was in Geneva, Switzerland, as a guest panelist at the launch of a book titled "Language Rights of Linguistic Minorities: A Practical Guide for Implementation" by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority issues, Rita Ndiaye. 

The purpose of this very timely guide is to assist policy makers and rights holders in understanding and implementing the linguistic human rights of linguistic minorities, thereby striking the necessary balance between a state’s official language (or languages) and its obligations to use or respect the language preferences of linguistic minorities.

Here are the Mwalimu's opening comments during the panel discussion:

A Conflict Transformation Approach to the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

"One of the most important lessons I learnt in my life of struggle for freedom and peace is that in any conflict there comes a point when neither side can claim to be right and the other wrong, no matter how much that might have been the case at the start of the conflict.” Nelson Mandela

We all agree that Cameroon is presently facing an unprecedented Anglophone crisis. We also agree that there is need for dialogue. However what some are still to understand are those to be involved in the dialogue (people), what such a dialogue shall focus on (problem) and how the dialogue shall be carried out (process). In other words the key elements in dialogue are the people, problem, process, and to a great extent, the power relations of the conflicting parties before and after the dialogue.

Cameroon: President Biya’s Appointment with the Anglophone Spring

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

In an interview granted me by The Rambler newspaper of November 28th 2016, I made the following observation:

“There is a need for constructive dialogue as recommended by the African Court on Human and Peoples rights which as far back as 2009 stated in Article 215 of the Banjul Declaration that the Cameroon government enters into constructive dialogue with Anglophone pressure groups. Lest I forget the Special Rapporteur for Minority Rights at the UN Rita Ndiaye made a country visit to Cameroon in 2010 and also issued a report which contains the Anglophone problem. And in all of these we have not even heard the President Biya’s voice like we did in the Eseka train crash. My conclusion is that it was time Mr Biya made a public statement on the Anglophone problem and urgently too.”

Biya’s 2016 end of year speech was close to addressing what has now escalated into an Anglophone spring or a West Cameroon Renaissance, but unfortunately fell short as deconstructed in the following five D factors of speaking to the historical and socio-political realities of our fifty-six years of coexistence.

George Ngwane: Time for President Biya to Make a Public Statement on the Anglophone Problem

Mwalimu George Ngwane speaks to the Rambler newspaper after his Minority Fellowship at the United Nations.

Rambler newspaper: You have just returned from the Minority Fellowship in Geneva, Switzerland. What was it about?

George Ngwane: The Minority Fellowship is a Fellowship within the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner that attracts annually actors from an ethnic, linguistic, national and religious minority background.

George Ngwane delivering an oral statement on the Anglophone problem to the UN Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, Switzerland

It has both Russian and English-speaking participants selected from a wide range of competitive parameters. This year I was in the company of Fellows from India, Pakistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Colombia, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina and then Japan. So you see it is like a rainbow family drawn from each corner of the globe. We were made to understand that selected Fellows are those who have been consistent in articulating their country’s human rights issues with a particular slant to minority rights.

Just Published: Diary of a Dismissed Delegate by Mwalimu George Ngwane

Mwalimu George Ngwane (2016). Diary of a Dismissed Delegate: Public Good at the Mercy of Bureaucracy and Sycophancy in Cameroon. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Publishers. 118 pages. Available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes&Noble and African Books Collective

About this Book

Diary of a Dismissed Delegate is the personal story of the trials and travails of George Ngwane as a civil servant in Cameroon.

With documented evidence in support, the book delves into the destructive machinations of the bureaucracy and sycophancy at the heart of the Cameroonian public service, and its detrimental effects on meritocracy and the public good. It is a system where the personalisation of power devalues virtue, devotion and dedication to truth and the call of justice.

For a country that has the ambition to recapture her lost middle income status, one that boasts of a huge critical mass of human capital, and that has all the potentials of a double digit economic development, political patronage and intolerance to creative freedom must be anathema.

Reviews

Open Letter on the Persistent Arrest and Detention of Anglophones in Cameroon

The Minister of State in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals
The Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation

Sirs

The persistent arrests and detention of Anglophones

SCNC Detainees in Buea in 2011 (photo by Patrick Sianne)

You have certainly been informed by your Regional Administrative Collaborators of the arrest and detention of 15 Anglophones whom various media organs refer to as Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) activists on July 16 2016 in a RESTAURANT in Molyko Buea. No reasons for the arrest were advanced by the Superintendent of Police Roger Nana Ngongang of the Molyko Police station. The activists were arraigned in Buea Magistrate Court on July 27th 2016, refused bail and hearing further adjourned to August 12 2016.

Sirs, you must also be aware that another Anglophone, Maxwell Oben, was arrested in 2014 while he was boarding an URBAN BUS from Buea to Yaounde and has been in detention in the Buea Central Prison.

Time for a National Bilingual Commission in Cameroon

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

A Press Release of June 16, 2016 by the Cameroon Bar Council ‘vehemently condemns the translation disparity between the French and English versions of the Penal code bill introduced in the June 2016 Parliamentary session’. The Release fears that the unprofessional translation would result in the divergence in interpretation and the likelihood of misinterpretation and application of the said bill with the probability of creating chaos in the administration of justice.

Petrol station in Mamfe in English-speaking Cameroon with all-French signs.

The date of the issuance of the Press Release coincides with the International Day of the Child observed worldwide in memory of the eleven year old Hector Peterson and his more than 60 friends who were massacred in Soweto, South Africa for standing up in arms against the imposition of Afrikaans language in their educational system.

In a terse opinion in the Post newspaper of February 15 2016 captioned “Cameroon as French Bilingual country”, Yerima Kini Nsom states inter alia

“it has become an unwritten law that almost all the official documents in Cameroon appear only in French. Nobody cares a damn as to the fact that those who speak, read and understand only English are cheated of their right to information”.

The Anglophone Problem and Biya’s Comfort Zone

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Since May 9th 2015 the media in Cameroon have been awash with conversation on what is now simply called ‘The Anglophone problem’.  These narratives have been fuelled by the resurgence on this statehood reclaim or linguistic minority issue which based on the Press Release of Common Law Lawyers Conference of 13th February 2016 seems to be getting more radical and volatile. Another Press Release sent to me by the Cameroon Education Forum on 4th March 2016 titled ‘Reflection on the Anglophone sub-system of Education in Cameroon’ justifies the Anglophone marginalisation argument on ‘the role the political systems play in the minority Anglophones’ education structures, processes and outcomes, the growth and economic development, the status differentiation, the social mobility and other factors of the minority Anglophones’.

Ngwane Awarded 2016 Commonwealth Professional Fellowship

George Ngwane has been awarded his fourth Fellowship in his career as an academic, civil society actor and public intellectual. He was awarded the 2016 Commonwealth Professional Fellowship tenable at the Minority Rights Group International, London UK, where he shall be carrying out exchange research on Global Advocacy Programs and minority rights with special focus on Cameroon.

The Fellowship that began on 8th February 2016 at the Minority Rights Group Office, London shall last a couple of weeks. By becoming a Commonwealth Fellow in the UK, Ngwane is following in a tradition of over 22,000 individuals holding Commonwealth awards since the scheme began over fifty years ago. The Fellowship is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as part of its strategy to develop people and skills that will contribute directly to the development of their countries.

STV Debate: George Ngwane Discusses the "United States of Africa"

Can the United States of Africa become a reality or is it wishful thinking? George Ngwane and other panelists debate this controversial topic on STV (Spectrum Television) with host Jessie Bawak.

 

Cameroon: Another Foumban, Another Referendum, Another Federalism

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

I was surprised but not shocked that the question on Federalism was not asked by journalists during the Press conference President Paul Biya jointly hosted with the visiting French President, Francois Hollande at the Unity Palace on July 3 2015. Yet for close to three months successively, the media have been awash with headline stories about the All Anglophone Lawyers’ Declaration on federalism; the South West Chiefs’ Conference’s unprecedented stance on Anglophone marginalization; the South West Elite Association’s reiterated stand on federalism; the pro-federalist utterances by francophone intellectuals like Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, Noucti Tchokwago and Prof. Maurice Kamto; Christian Cardinal Tumi’s interview in which he stated categorically that “if Anglophones are given another Referendum, they would rather leave Cameroon”; Ben Muna’s clarion call for another Referendum to determine the Southern Cameroon’s new option; Honourable Cyprian Awudu Mbaya’s crusade against the lopsided policies of bilingualism in Cameroon; and behold, the petition signed by fifty Anglophone lawmakers and addressed to President Paul Biya over the ‘boko haramisation’ of the constitutional status of English language and Anglophones in the country.

Cameroon: Why We Need a Two by (X) State Federation

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Anglophone Lawyers have spoken. Cameroon needs a Federal system. Going by the experiences surrounding the debate on the concept of Federation among Anglophones, I will not be surprised at the re-emergence of rebuttals and old hackneyed but sometimes sterile blame game narratives in our public space.

The common denominator between the Southwest and the Northwest Regions is that they both stand for a Federation. A ten-state Federation emphasises Provincial Protection, while a two-state Federation emphasises Regional Sovereignty. The magic numbers of two and ten have put the North Westerner and South Westerner at daggers drawn as if any of the principles has been bought by the establishment yet.  We have been so divided along the lines of two and ten that we refuse to see the issues involved and the risks concerned. Just as we have echoed a unity-in-diversity conversation, so too have we given a false impression that a person who believes in the two-state federation must be a North Westerner or a naive South Westerner.  

Why all Anglophones are Members of the SCNC

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Before and after the All Anglophone Lawyers’ Conference of 9th May 2015, claims and insinuations were linked to the real or imaginary interference of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) with the deliberations and outcome of the conference. As would be expected the conveners of the conference have gone at length to dissociate themselves from SCNC control as if the SCNC was a pariah organisation.

 SCNC is a product of the All Anglophone Conference (AAC) of 1993 and 1994 that brought together different shades of Anglophone opinion to be crystallized into a common vision. It was only after the Cameroon government failed to take on board proposals by the AAC that a new pressure group emerged like it is often the case in liberation theology to give visibility, potency and geo-political relevance and space  to the Anglophone struggle.  It is here that the SCNC was born. It was no more a liberation of a people as it was for a territory that freely opted for a Union in 1961 but got short changed on 20 May 1972 with a unitary state.

Cameroon: Testament to the All Anglophone Lawyers’ Conference

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

The Post newspaper of Monday April 13 2015 carries on its major headline “All Anglophone Lawyers’ Conference to hold in Bamenda”. The date of the Conference is supposed to be “in the weeks ahead” which means sooner than later. The article further quotes the “Conveners” of the conference, Barristers Eta Bissong Jr and Harmony Bobga as saying that “the struggle of the lawyers is to preserve the Anglophone identity from being completely being wiped out” hence urging “legal practitioners to understand the current drifts in the legal system and the need for a common front”. Seen within the ambit of a professional association this move is very laudable as it seeks to consolidate the gains Anglophone lawyers made in preventing submissions in Anglophone courts to be done solely in French even if the appointment of strategic legal practitioners in Anglophone backyard is still deliberately francophonised.

Preventing Renewed Violence Through Peace Building in the Bakassi Peninsula

By George Ngwane

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This paper examines a conceptual framework of international conflict dynamics and resolution surrounding the Bakassi peninsula dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria and outlines intra-community tensions after its peaceful resolution through the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict in 2002 and handing over of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon in 2008.

Although this peace initiative and pacific settlement has reduced armed conflict, it has unwittingly and paradoxically become a trigger factor for simmering tensions which threaten renewed violence as non-confrontational actors have now shifted conflict issues to primordialism (identity-based), resources (interest-based) and refusal to abide by the ICJ decision (values-based).  The latest violence of 13th February 2015 in which pirates attacked a police boat at sea in the peninsula killing a Police Inspector and kidnapping a Police Commissioner is a core indicator that renewed armed violence cannot be ruled out in the peninsula.

Click here to download complete article in PDF format.

Article on the Life of George Ngwane in Indian Newspaper Amar Asom

The Sunday, March 22, 2015 edition of the Indian newspaper, Amar Asom,  carried an a story based on the life of George Ngwane. The newspaper is published in Assamese, the official language of the state of Assam in India. It also uses the Assamese alphabet.

Click here to read or download the article in PDF format.

Searching for Common Ground in Nepal

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Political engineering is as contentious as defining and adapting democracy in conptemporary society. Both processes can by omission or commission polarize the very society they seek to build. The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is therefore no exception.

Our field work as Rotary Peace Fellows to Kathmandu and Pokhara in Nepal for close to ten days (14th -22nd March) was about identifying conflicts and making contributions to solutions already crafted and initiated by local actors in search of common ground on the field. Kathmandu being the political capital of Nepal, and Pokhara being the eco-tourism live wire of Nepal were by design our main epicenters of conflict and peace discussions.  

Africa: "When will this Independence End?"

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Today 6th March 2015 marks the 58th anniversary of the Independence of Ghana. Ghana being the first African country to have gained Independence is still like her other African countries tottering on the trajectory of positive peace.

And the words of Kwame Nkrumah still resonate with this reality today. "Besides, political independence, though worthwhile in itself, is still only a means to the fuller redemption and realization of a people. When independence has been gained, positive action requires a new orientation away from the sheer destruction of colonialism and towards national reconstruction. It is indeed in this address to national reconstruction that positive action faces its gravest dangers”.

The Iceberg of Opposition Politics in Cameroon (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Shortcomings of the Opposition
It is generally argued that the playing field in Cameroon does not militate in favour of Opposition parties winning elections. With no genuine independent/neutral persons within an Independent Electoral Commission (be it National Elections Observatory or Elections Cameroon), and with a contentious new electoral code adopted by a CPDM majority parliament in March 2012, the elections have been reduced to a two horse race between the CPDM and its French translation- RDPC.

In effect according to Dr. Tangie Fonchingong, there are a lot of exogenous factors that deprive the Opposition from starting the election race on the same block as the ruling party- disenfranchisement, nonchalant international community, low civic participation, rigging, sterile political debates occasioned by the trading of accusations of illegitimacy between the ruling party and the Opposition parties etc.