Nationalism or Power-Politics: Understanding The Dynamics of Militancy in The British Southern Cameroons, 1953-1961

Expounding on the independence struggle in British Southern Cameroons between 1953-1961, this paper sets out to unveil the underlying forces behind the nationalist movement in the British Southern Cameroons with the goal of giving visibility and clarity to the dynamics that characterised militancy in the territory from 1953-1961. The paper evolves from a laid down premise that Nationalism in its expression and manifestation in the territory, did not meet its goal of Sovereign Power but rather engendered Power-Politics which greatly influenced militancy in the territory rendering it persistently inconsistent and dynamic in character. To bring light to the above argument, the qualitative research approach was put into use and it permitted a constructive analyses and confrontation of primary as well as secondary sources while making use of the question guide as the main research tool. The result of this exercise revealed that KAMERUN Nationalism was the principal driving force in the British Southern Cameroons independence struggle. It was later observed that this primary force in the struggle was infiltrated and even shattered by Power-Politics which in turn gave rise to divisions, dissentions, disagreements, resignations, alliances and counter alliances. All this pushes forward a conclusion that; the path to independence in Southern Cameroons was trapped in the net of nationalism and power politics with the latter taking precedence of the former hence leading to the non-attainment of sovereign power for Southern Cameroons in 1961. Keywords: Nationalism, Power-Politics, Dynamics, Militancy,This article has been published at www.cjar.eu, Issue: 8, Vol.#2, August 2021