34 Years Ago, The 1st President Of The Republic Of Cameroon Died In Dakar :: Cameroon
Died on November 30, 1989, exactly 34 years old as the first president of the Republic of Cameroon so suddenly left land ties in Dakar, land of asylum to penetrate the surreal secret of the mystery of life
It was the result of a heart attack. Ahmadou Ahidjo thus left in the silence and indifference of the Cameroonian authorities.
But, with dignity. With the affection of his family and a few rare friends including Emile Derlin Zinzou, former president of Dahomey (now Benin). In the funeral oration pronounced by the latter, peace to his soul, and taken from the RFI sound archives, certain sentences deserve to be revisited
”Ahidjo my friend, my brother, this is our last meeting, at least in this world, since we are believers. (…) Happy are those who die leaving traces, a furrow. The furrows that you have dug will attest for a long time to come in the eyes of succeeding generations, what you were that no one would dare to contest: the builder, the father of modern Cameroon. In truth, you only had one great passion: Cameroon.
No one will be able to ban you from History and prevent it from being serene and impartial, saying that you were a great and worthy son of your homeland and of Africa (…) And destiny is not forgetful that you brought back to die in Africa and here (in Dakar). For the authentic African that you were, it is a great consolation (…),” declared Emile Derlin Zinzou on the day of the funeral.
In an interview given a few months ago to the French television channel France 24, Paul Biya, the Cameroonian head of state addressed the question relating to the remains of his predecessor remaining in Dakar since his disappearance on November 30, 1989. “I understood that there was a problem regarding the former president (…) Yes. There were unfortunate events which I will not return to, in 1984, and the National Assembly, on my proposal, passed an amnesty law. Those who experienced these sad events have regained their rights, some are even in government. The problem of repatriating the remains of the former president is, in my opinion, a family problem (…)”.
In an interview given to Jeune Afrique Economie (No. 169, July 1993), the former first lady and widow of Ahmadou Ahidjo made details which remain relevant today on this question. Germaine Habiba Ahidjo indicated that: “I would like to remind you that Ahidjo was a head of state. He doesn’t just belong to his family. It belongs first and foremost to the Cameroonian people. He is not a simple citizen. He was President of the Republic in his country, and he was buried here (editor’s note, in Dakar) by a President of the Republic (editor’s note, Abdou Diouf). (…) All I can say is that we ensured that if one day he had to return to Cameroon, it would be possible, while respecting the rites of our religion. The rest doesn’t belong to me,” she said.
“The remains of former Cameroonian President Ahmadou Ahidjo, who died and was buried in the Yoff cemetery in Dakar on November 30, 1989, will be repatriated to his country in March 2010,” headlined some Cameroonian newspapers in their publication last June. According to these sources, This decision was taken by mutual agreement between the Senegalese and Cameroonian authorities.
Indeed, from June 8 to 14, Martin Belinga, special advisor to President Paul Biya, stayed in Senegal to discuss the subject with President Abdoulaye Wade. The discussions therefore resulted in an agreement on the date of the transfer of the remains of the former Cameroonian head of state.
Who was Ahmadou Ahidjo?
Fulani, born in Nassarao, near Garoua on August 24, 1924, it was in 1941 that Ahmadou Ahidjo, after two years of training at the Yaoundé Higher Primary School, was recruited at the Post Office and assigned to Douala.
(1) Entered politics in 1947, he was elected delegate of Benue to the Territorial Assembly. Advisor to the French Union in 1953, he consolidated his position by becoming president of the Territorial Assembly in 1956, the year in which he created the Movement for the Evolution of North Cameroon. In 1957, Cameroon became a trustee state, with André-Marie Mbida as Prime Minister and Ahidjo as Deputy Prime Minister.
For France, this status must evolve towards independence. But it faces two pitfalls:
– the insurrection of the nationalists of the Union of Cameroon Populations (UPC) since December 1956
– Mbida’s opposition to any idea of independence.
Paris does not procrastinate, which decides to put down the UPC rebellion and oust Mbida, whom it replaces with Ahidjo, considered more flexible. The latter plays the game and transforms his parliamentary group into a party, the Cameroonian Union (UC), whose influence is limited to the north of the country. On January 1, 1960, he proclaimed the independence of Cameroon, of which he became, five months later, its first president.
(2)Once in power, Ahidjo clearly shows his desire to be the sole master on board, with national unity as his sole leitmotif. Reunification with what remains of Cameroon under British supervision, creation of a national party thanks to the rallying of other political groups to the UC, renamed the Cameroon National Union (UNC), muzzling of the opposition? These are its major projects. And he achieves them with unexpected skill and firmness. If individual freedoms are sacrificed, he seeks on the other hand to modernize his country.
Ahidjo entered history on November 4, 1982, when he renounced power like the Senegalese Léopold Sédar Senghor, two years earlier. And passes the torch to his Prime Minister Paul Biya. But he keeps the presidency of the UNC. Biya has a hard time with this situation, which deprives him, in some way, of the full exercise of power.
In March 1983, Ahidjo proposed the institutionalization of the party, to assert its primacy over the state. Biya responds by dismissing from the government relatives of the latter, who leaves the country in July and settles in France. A month later, his successor announced the discovery of a plot allegedly instigated by Ahidjo. In February 1984, at the end of the putschists’ trial, the former president was sentenced to death in absentia.
Now living between France and Senegal, Ahidjo closely follows developments in his country. And gets into recurring anger at each bad news. His health suffered, until the fatal outcome. His body, buried in Dakar, has still not been repatriated to Cameroon, due to lack of authorization.
Apart from the rehabilitation, as part of the democratization process in December 1991, of Ahmadou Ahidjo at the same time as Ruben Um Nyobe, Félix Roland Moumié and Ernest Ouandié, will the Cameroonian government initiate another significant phase of recognition of these historical figures? Is there a strong signal this November 30, 2005 towards the family of Ahmadou Ahidjo and the Cameroonians? We lose nothing by waiting for the last word from Ahmadou Ahidjo’s “constitutional successor”.
According to certain indiscretions, one of Ahmadou Ahidjo’s last wishes would be to be buried in the family vault set up in Nasarao, his native village between Garoua and Pitoa where his mother, his first wife, and one of his uncles.
(1) Histoire du Cameroun, Engelbert Mveng, P-P59-60
(2) Tshitenge Lubabu MK, JA’s notebooks
