 | This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience.(July 2018) |
Union of the Peoples of Cameroon Union des Populations du Cameroun | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 10 April 1948 |
| Ideology | Nationalism Marxism [1] Socialism Anti-colonialism Independence |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Seats in the National Assembly | 0 / 180 |
| Party flag | |
 | |
The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (French : Union des Populations du Cameroun - UPC) is a political party in Cameroon.
The UPC was founded on 10 April 1948, at a meeting in the bar Chez Sierra in Bassa. Twelve men assisted the founding meeting, including Charles Assalé, Léonard Bouli, and Guillaume Bagal. The majority of the participants were trade unionists. In many ways UPC was a continuation of the Cameroonian Rally (RACAM).[ example needed ] On 11 April 1948, a Provisional Bureau was established. Bouli was elected general secretary, Bagal joint general secretary, Emmanuel Yap the treasurer and J-R Biboum the joint treasurer. The following day the statutes of UPC were deposited at the Mayor's office in Douala at 10.50 am. The group was, however, not legally registered. On 13 April, UPC issued its first public declaration of intent, the "Appeal to the Cameroonians".[ citation needed ]
On 6 May, another meeting was held, this time at the residence of Guillaume Bagal in Douala. The statutes and the "Appeal to the Cameroonians" were revised. A new Provisional Bureau was constituted made up of General Secretary: Étienne Libaï; Joint General Secretary: Léonard Bouli; Joint Secretary: Guillaume Bagal; General Treasurer: Emmanuel Yap; Joint Treasurer: Jacques Biboum; Members: Nkoudou Raphaël, Owona Ernest-Marie. [2] On 14 May, the revised statues were handed over to the Mayor's office in Douala. On 9 June the authorities allowed the registration of UPC, following pressure from the African Democratic Rally (RDA) and the French Communist Party (PCF).
On 17 June, the Provisional Bureau decided the UPC would call itself the "Cameroonian section of RDA", and that the first public function of UPC would be held on 22 June in Douala. The meeting of 22 June was held in the Salles de Fêtes d'Akwa and was attended by around 500 people. Libaï and Bouli addressed the function. Participatants included Ruben Um Nyobé, Charles Assalé, as well as traditional chiefs such as Ekwalla Essakra and Lobé-Bell. In November, Ruben Um Nyobé took charge of the organization as its general secretary after a vote at a meeting of the Provisional Bureau. Before the meeting of the enlarged Provisional Bureau, Léopold Moumé-Etia had been mentioned as another possible candidate for the position, but he declined the nomination on personal grounds. At the second congress of RDA, celebrated in Treichville, Côte d'Ivoire, 1–5 January 1949, membership of the UPC in the RDA was confirmed, and Um Nyobé was elected vice-president of RDA.
Despite his friendly relationship with the PCF, the historian Thomas Deltombe points out that the organization is not a communist party and that it "was above all a fraternity by default. Who else but the communists, in the 1950s, were ready to take a stand for the liberation of the colonized peoples? UPC activists could identify themselves, as individuals, with communist sympathies, but the UPC, as a nationalist movement, was not. "While some of its leaders such as Félix Moumié or Ernest Ouandié are indeed sensitive to communist ideals, others, notably Ruben Um Nyobe, consider that the UPC must remain neutral on ideological issues to bring together all Cameroonian independence activists.[ citation needed ]
On 10 April 1950, the enlarged Leading Committee holds a meeting in Dschang. During the course of the meeting a decision is taken to regard the function as the first congress of UPC. The congress lasted until 13 April. A new Leading Committee was elected with President: Chief Mathias Djiomessi; General Secretary: Ruben Um Nyobé; Vice-presidents: Guillaume Bagal, Phillipe Essama Essi, Félix Moumié, Samuel Noumouwe and Treasurer: Emmanuel Yap. After the congress Charles Assalé left the movement and joined the procolonial fold. The party published the papers La Voix du Cameroun, Lumière, Étoile and Vérité.
After trying a parliamentary vote in 1952 without success, the UPC turned to the United Nations, who had the guardianship of Cameroon, to demand independence and reunification. Under the aegis of Ruben Um Nyobé, the Secretary-General, the party requested of the 4th UN General Assembly supervising committee in December 1952: [3]
Ruben Um Nyobé proposed that for about ten years before independence there should be a program that would give Cameroons adequate training to assume responsibility for the state arising from independence. [6]
From 1953, in the face of increased repression by the colonial power, the UPC followed the urging of Dr. Félix-Roland Moumié to move into radical political action. According to historian Bernard Droz, China provided weapons to the UPC. [7] Seven years after its founding, in 1955 the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon controlled 460 village or neighborhood committees and 80,000 members, particularly on the coast in central, south and west Cameroon, among the Bamileke and Bassa.
Representatives of the party were invited in 1958 to the "Conference of Independent African States" organized by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah.
In 1952, the party created a women's branch, the Democratic Union of Cameroonian Women. While the latter is not defined as "feminist", it nevertheless contributes to destabilizing the places generally assigned to women by colonial authorities or traditional leaders, for example by calling for the abolition of laws prohibiting women from taking up certain professions or commercial activities. Its activists send multiple petitions to the United Nations and organize demonstrations challenging the administration. [8]
The Cameroonian Democratic Youth was founded in 1954 and became an important lever for recruiting young activists. It is increasing its contacts with other youth organisations, particularly in Eastern European countries, and participates in conferences abroad. Its leader Hyacinthe Mpaye, who was involved in the French army during the Second World War and a CGT trade unionist, was close to Marxism: he explained what he thought was a necessary alliance between Cameroonians and the French working class. The JDC has a strong autonomy from the UPC. [8]
On the other hand, the UPC considers economic claims to be inseparable from political claims:" the employers are supported by the administration and this administration can only pursue a policy of national oppression in our countries by using economic weapons and material means held in large part by private companies. The UPC considers, and trade union activists agree, that the economic emancipation of our people is impossible without the political achievements necessary for the economic, social and cultural progress of the people. [8]
In 1954, the new French High Commissioner Roland Pré was determined to liquidate the UPC. The party leaders are gathered in Douala to facilitate their surveillance and carry out judicial harassment against them. Abel Kingué, the vice-president, is thus prosecuted for "contempt of court" for a case dating back to 1951; Pierre Penda, a member of the steering committee, is the subject of five consecutive cases; Félix Moumié is prosecuted for "defamation and insult"; and Ruben Um Nyobè is convicted of "libelous denunciation". Roland Pré is currently conducting a purge within the judicial system, sending back to France magistrates deemed "too soft" in their repression of the UPC. Cameroonian law enforcement agencies and organizations close to the administration (including the Rassemblement des populations du Cameroun) are mobilized to prevent UPC public meetings and speeches. The control of private correspondence is becoming systematic, while activists' homes are frequently searched.
After the first revolt in May 1955, suppressed by the French colonial authority at the time, the party was dissolved by a decree dated 13 July 1955, and its leaders were forced to go into exile in Kumba in the British Southern Cameroons, then in Cairo, Conakry, Accra and Beijing. [9] On 28 January 1956 the UPC presented its position in a declaration to the international press signed by Félix-Roland Moumié (President), Ruben Um Nyobé (Secretary General) and the two Vice-Presidents, Ernest Ouandié and Abel Kingué. They called for reunification of French- and British-administered areas as an independent state. [10]
Ruben Um Nyobé was killed in the bush on 13 September 1958. [11] Felix Moumié would be poisoned in Geneva in October 1960, by the French secret service. The UPC continued its armed struggle until the arrest in August 1970 of Ernest Ouandié, who was shot six months later on 15 January 1971. Meanwhile, another leader of UPC, Osendé Afana, was killed in the south-east on 15 March 1966.
After a long period of hiding, the UPC officially re-surfaced in 1991 with the return to multiparty politics in Cameroon. The party held Congresses more or less unitary in 1991, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004 and 2007. In 1997 the UPC presented an official candidate for president, Professor Henri Hogbe Nlend. He came second behind the incumbent President Paul Biya. Another attempt to nominate a member of UPC was made in 2004 with Dr. Samuel Mack Kit, but this nomination was rejected by the Supreme Court, ostensibly due to an incomplete application. The UPC has been elected to parliament and ministers to the government of Cameroon until 2007.
At the crossroads of West Africa and Central Africa, the territory of what is now Cameroon has seen human habitation since some time in the Middle Paleolithic, likely no later than 130,000 years ago. The earliest discovered archaeological evidence of humans dates from around 30,000 years ago at Shum Laka. The Bamenda highlands in western Cameroon near the border with Nigeria are the most likely origin for the Bantu peoples, whose language and culture came to dominate most of central and southern Africa between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE.
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was a Cameroonian politician who was the first president of Cameroon, holding the office from 1960 until 1982. Ahidjo played a major role in the establishment of Cameroon as a Neo-imperial state after the assassination of The Union Des Populations Camerounaise (UPC) by imperial France as well as integrating the French and English-speaking parts of the country. During Ahidjo's time in office, he established a centralized political system. Ahidjo established a single-party state under the Cameroon National Union (CNU) in 1966. In 1972, Ahidjo abolished the federation in favor of a unitary state.Ahidjo resigned from the presidency in 1982, and Paul Biya assumed the presidency. This was an action that was surprising to Cameroonians. Accused of being behind a coup plot against Biya in 1984, Ahidjo was sentenced to death in absentia, but he died of natural causes in 1989.
Alexandre Biyidi Awala, known as Mongo Beti or Eza Boto, was a Cameroonian author and polemicist. Beti has been called one of the most perceptive French-African writers in his presentations of African life.
Articles related to Cameroon include:
Félix-Roland Moumié was an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader, assassinated in Geneva on 3 November 1960 by an agent of the SDECE with thallium, following official independence from France earlier that year. Félix-Roland Moumié succeeded Ruben Um Nyobé, who was killed in September 1958, as leader of the Union des Populations du Cameroun.
Ruben Um Nyobè was an anti-colonialist Cameroonian leader, slain by the French army on 13 September 1958, near his natal village of Boumnyebel, in the department of Nyong-et-Kellé in the maquis Bassa.
Andre-Marie Mbida was a Cameroonian statesman, a nationalist, the first Cameroonian to be elected Member of Parliament at the French National Assembly, a Prime Minister of Cameroon, the second African-born Prime Minister in Sub-Saharan Africa, the first Head of State of French-speaking autonomous Cameroon from 12 May 1957 to 16 February 1958, and the first political prisoner of independent Cameroon from 29 June 1962 to 29 June 1965.
Augustin Frédéric Kodock was a Cameroonian politician who was Secretary-General of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon from 1991 to 2011. He worked in Cameroon's state administration during the 1960s and then worked at the African Development Bank through the 1970s. After a stint as head of Cameroon Airlines in the mid-1980s, he participated in the beginnings of multiparty politics in the early 1990s, becoming Secretary-General of the UPC. Allying himself with President Paul Biya, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development from 1992 to 1994 and then as Minister of State for Agriculture from 1994 to 1997. Subsequently, he was again Minister of State for Agriculture from 2002 to 2004 and Minister of State for Planning from 2004 to 2007.
French Cameroon, also known as the French Cameroons, was a French mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
Ernest Ouandié was a leader of the struggle for independence of Cameroon in the 1950s who continued to resist the government of President Ahmadou Ahidjo after Cameroon became independent in 1960. He was captured in 1970, tried and condemned to the death penalty. On 15 January 1971, he was publicly executed in Bafoussam.
Castor Osendé Afana was a Marxist economist and militant nationalist who died in 1966 while fighting as a guerrilla against the government of Cameroon.
Boumnyébel is a community in Cameroon about 120 kilometres (75 mi) along the road from Yaoundé to Douala. The village is on the road from Edéa to Yaoundé, at the junction with the road from Bafia.
Abel Kingué was a political leader in the struggle for the independence of Cameroon from France.
Tankeu Noé was a member of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) guerrilla forces in Cameroon fighting first against French colonial government and then against the government of Ahmadou Ahidjo in the Douala region.
Ndeh Ntumazah was a leader of the pro-independence movement in Cameroon in the 1950s. He was forced into exile, and was unable to return to his country until 1991, when he returned to the political fray. After his death he was honoured by an official burial.
Tayap is a small village of Cameroon located in the Centre Region, between the country's capital Yaounde (86 km) and Douala (164 km). The village of Tayap is part of the Ngog-Mapubi district of the Nyong-et-Kéllé department.
The Cameroon War is the name of the independence struggle between Cameroon's nationalist movement and France. The movement was spearheaded by the Cameroonian Peoples Union (UPC). Even after independence, the rebellion continued, shaping contemporary politics. The war began with riots in 1955 and continued after Cameroon gained independence in 1960. Following independence, the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo requested continued French military intervention to fight the UPC rebels. The UPC rebellion was largely crushed by the Cameroonian Armed Forces and French Army by 1964. This war is often forgotten because it occurred at the height of France's biggest colonial independence struggle, the Algerian War.
Marthe Ekemeyong Moumié was a Cameroonian anti-colonialist writer and activist. She was a member of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, and the former wife of the assassinated political leader Félix-Roland Moumié.
Françoise Foning was a Cameroonian businessperson and politician for the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM). She began a career in business at age 12, opening a restaurant before entering into the tourism, transportation, food, medical and education sectors. Foning became president of CPDM's women's division in 1992 and was appointed the party's leader in Douala and the national committee five years later. In 2002, she was elected deputy mayor of Douala II and began serving in the National Assembly that same year. Foning led the African Network and Cameroonian Businesswomen and consulted The World Bank, the African Development Bank along with several international agencies. She was founding president of the Association of Cameroonian Businesswomen and the NGO World Female Company Managers. A street in Douala was named in her memory.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
