Bamileke Diasporas*: Aetiological Consideration Of The Bamileke Implantation In The Bamenda Grasslands (Cameroon), 1922-1961

When the Germans were defeated and evicted out of Cameroon by the combined British and French troops, the failure to implement the Condominium led to the partition of Cameroon into two between the British and the French. With this partition, the borders were closed for both the mobility of goods and persons either ways. This partition was approved by the League of Nations in 1922. From 1922 when the League of Nation’s Mandate started in the British Southern Cameroons and in the French Cameroon, to 1961 when the Southern Cameroons voted to reunify with the Republic of Cameroon (former French Cameroon), the hitherto fluid relations between the two territories was hindered. The study examines the motives for the migration and implantation of the Bamileke in to the Bamenda Grasslands. It maintains that in spite of the restrictions of international boundary between the two Mandate and Trust territories of French Cameroon and British Southern Cameroons, cross border mobility was not forestalled. Prevailing circumstances in French Cameroon permitted the Bamileke to create new social spaces straddling the artificially imposed frontiers. Using the chronological approach, the paper spans through key historical periods: the Mandate and Trusteeship periods. The study made use of primary and secondary sources of information. The conclusions were drawn after a qualitative analysis of the data.