Abstract
The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) was created in 1946 and went operational in 1947 through the enactment of two important ordinances by the government of Nigeria. As an agro-industrial company, the principal objective at inception was the management of the ex-German plantations in Cameroon for the welfare of the workers in particular, and the inhabitants of Southern Cameroons in general. Curiously, the creation of the CDC coincided with a rising spirit of nationalism in the territory, culminating in the granting of independence by reunification with the Republic of Cameroon in October 1961. Considering that the end of British rule was accompanied by reunification, and not integration with Nigeria, the objective of this paper is to highlight the post reunification implications on the CDC. Even though it drastically reduced Nigerian domination of the plantations and offered the corporation greater access to seaport facilities in Douala, the article posits that the CDC suffered enormous setbacks at the end of the British trusteeship in the territory. Using qualitative historical designs, the finding of the study admit that the end of British rule provoked the suspension of Commonwealth funding, cancellation of banana trade preferences, tariff imbroglio, cross-territory security concerns, among the other constraints. However, the article concludes that the federal government equally embarked on a number of remedial measures which went a long way in mitigating the post-independence challenges faced by the CDC.
KEY WORDS: Economic backlash, Cameroon Development Corporation, British rule and Southern Cameroons.
Keywords
References
- Primary SourcesGoogle Scholar ↗
- CDC Archives Bota, LimbeGoogle Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1947Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1948Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1955Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1958Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1959Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1960Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1962Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1965Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1968Google Scholar ↗
- Annual Report of the CDC, 1990Google Scholar ↗
- File NO, 1946 An Ordinance to Provide for the Establishment of a Corporation Known as the Cameroon Development CorporationGoogle Scholar ↗
- Secondary SourcesGoogle Scholar ↗
- BooksGoogle Scholar ↗
- Aka, Aloangamo A. The British Southern Cameroons, 1922-1961: A Study in Colonialism and Underdevelopment. Planteville: Nkemj Global Tec, 2002.Google Scholar ↗
- Ardener, Shirley. Banana Cooperatives in the Sothern Cameroons: ConferenceGoogle Scholar ↗
- Proceedings. Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, 1958.Google Scholar ↗
- Ardener. Edwin et al. Plantation and Village in the Cameroons: Some Economic and Social studies. Oxford University Press, 1960Google Scholar ↗
- _______________Kingdom on Mount Cameroon:Studies in the History of the Cameroon Coast, 1500-1970. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996.Google Scholar ↗
- Berderman, Sanford H. The Cameroon Development Corporation: Partners in National Growth London: Brown Knight Ruscott Ltd; 1968.Trusteeship. Lagos, Government Printers, 1960.Google Scholar ↗
- Berill, Kenneth C. The Economy of Southern Cameroons Under United Kingdom, Trusteeship. Lagos, Government Printers, 1960.Google Scholar ↗
- Epale, Simon Joseph. Plantation and Development in Western Cameroon 1885-1975: A Study in Agrarian Capitalism. New York: Vantage Press, 1985.Google Scholar ↗
- Johnson, W.R. The Cameroon Federation. Political Integration in a Fragmented Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.Google Scholar ↗
- Kolefe-Kale, Ndiva ed. An African Experiment in Nation Building: The BilingualGoogle Scholar ↗
- Cameroon Republic Since Reunification. Boulder Colorado: West view Press, 1980.Google Scholar ↗
- Konings, P. Labour Resistances in Cameroon, Managerial Strategies and Labour Resistance in the Agro-industrial Plantations of the Cameroon Development Corporation. Yaounde. Editions Cle, 1993.Google Scholar ↗
- Le Vine, V. T. The Cameroon Federal Republic. London: Ithaca, 1971. NgohV.J, The Untold Story of Cameroon Reunification, (Limbe: Presprint PLC, 2011).Google Scholar ↗
- Rubin, N. Cameroon: An African Federation. New York: Pragaer Publishers, 1971.Google Scholar ↗
- Torrent, M. Diplomacy and Nation Building in Africa, Franco-British Relations and Cameroon at the End of Empire. London: Tauris and Co Ltd, 2012.Google Scholar ↗
- ThesisGoogle Scholar ↗
- Arrey M. E. “The Economic Integration of the Cameroons and Impact on the Economy of West Cameroon: A Case Study of Victoria Division 1961-1972.”Post-Graduate Diploma (Maitrise) Dissertation, University of Yaounde, 1994.Google Scholar ↗
- ReportsGoogle Scholar ↗
- Anderson, Kjell. Report on the Economic Aspects of Reunification. Presidency Republic of Cameroon. Yaounde: Mimeographed. February, 1961.Google Scholar ↗
- Sydney Phllipson. Report on the Financial, Economic and Administrative Consequences to Southern Cameroons on Separation from the Federation of Nigeria. Lagos: Government Printers, 1959Google Scholar ↗