Cameroon's Future at Stake: Agbor Balla Reiterates Self-Determination Stand, Calls for Massive Voter Registration to Vote Out Those Who Stand Against Change

Cameroon's Future at Stake: Agbor Balla Reiterates Self-Determination Stand, Calls for Massive Voter Registration to Vote Out Those Who Stand Against Change

Colbert Gwain @The Muteff Factor (formerly The Colbert Factor)

When the community of Muteff in Fundong Subdivision, then part of Menchum Division in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, fought for greater autonomy in the 1980s and 1990s, strategists within the community recognized that shifting from one extreme position to another wouldn't be effective. Despite potentially having an upper hand in the fight, given Muteff's historical role in supplying successors to the mainland Abuh, the community leaders judged the actions of one successor as excessive injustice. 

This successor, who had moved to the First Class traditional seat of Abuh, attempted to undermine Muteff's authority by decreeing that even the small autonomy Muteff originally had would be taken away. Specifically, the heads of goats slaughtered in the "Chong house" during death celebrations, which had previously been retained by Muteff, would henceforth be brought to Abuh.

Despite these tensions and the fact that Muteff shared boundaries with smaller, independent fondoms like Achain and Ajung, which could have potentially influenced Muteff's decision to seek independence, the community opted for a middle-of-the-road approach. This approach involved establishing their own recognized village head, traditional council, community hall, market, school, and other institutions. To reassure the Kom fondom and the Fundong administration that they had no intention of seceding from Komland, Muteff focused on building a bridge over the River Ngwah, which would link Abuh to Muteff village. This strategic effort towards internal self-determination ultimately earned Muteff the goodwill of the Kom kingdom and the Fundong administration, who in turn facilitated their desire for self-determination.

It is likely within this same logic and thinking that renowned international lawyer and defender of Anglophone minority rights in Cameroon, Agbor Balla, has been insisting on the need for Anglophone activists and fighters to settle for internal self-determination, as opposed to external self-determination, in the ongoing existential conflict that has claimed over 8,000 lives and displaced thousands internally and externally since 2017.

Given the complexities and challenges associated with external self-determination, Barrister Agbor Balla believes that fighting for internal self-determination, as was the case from 1961 to 1972, is more pragmatic than outright secession, which appears more challenging and less appealing to the international community. By leveraging existing structures and institutions to achieve greater autonomy and recognition for the Anglophone community in Cameroon, it is possible to address the underlying issues driving the current conflict while minimizing the risks associated with a more radical solution.

Agbor Balla has not been alone in this thinking. Since the outbreak of the conflict in 2016, many Cameroonian researchers have emphasized internal self-determination as a more honorable way out of this conflict. Prof. Kevin Ngong Toh of the University of Bamenda, Cameroon, has even curated a theatrical piece on this topic, leveraging W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of "twoness." In his 2019 PhD thesis, "Internal Self-Determination in International Public Law," Kumaravadivel Guruparan affirms that "internal self-determination is the viable alternative to external self-determination" and offers a theory of internal self-determination that relates to external self-determination.

According to Guruparan, internal self-determination can serve as a credible alternative to external self-determination. Like Balla, Guruparan discourages a static and time-frozen understanding of claims made by groups seeking external self-determination. He concludes by arguing that while claims for external self-determination by minority communities may initially benefit from "temporal plurality" (as seen in the early stages of the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon), such claims tend to break down when attempts at achieving external self-determination fail to yield the desired results.

Guruparan holds that a deeper appreciation of internal self-determination as a viable path to self-government would discourage secessionist tendencies both in the Global North and Global South, while encouraging the "exploration and building of plurinational societies."

Though Agbor Balla did not detail his thinking on the type of self-determination, such as federation, he would want for the Cameroonian situation, The Muteff Factor dares to suggest the Canadian model. In this model, Quebec residents refer to themselves as proud Quebec nationals within a united Canada and participate in the Francophonie games with a Quebec-only team, rather than a mixed Canadian team. Similarly, in Cameroon, Anglophones could be allowed to proudly refer to themselves as Ambazonians within a united Republic of Cameroon, where they attend the Commonwealth games with an Ambazonian-only football team. This would more than compensate for the thousands of lives and property lost in the last eight years of the raging senseless conflict that could have been avoided.

Given the numerous forces within and outside the government that oppose extensive reform of the current system, Balla urges Cameroonians at home and abroad, particularly extremist Anglophones calling for a boycott of the upcoming presidential election, to give internal self-determination a chance. He advocates for massive voter registration and massive voting out of those who have hindered change in Cameroon.

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