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The Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) Also known as The Youth League or TheLeague

A Brief HistoryThe birth of the SCYL is really the culmination of the Southern Cameroonsintellectual consciousness and militancy in the fight for justice for the SouthernCameroons. The process that went as far back as 1984 was the attempt by LaRepublique du Cameroun to assimilate one of the last bastions of the Southern

Cameroons Nation and its unique educational system.

The ploy by LRC to harmonize the two systems came soon after 1961 and in 1983 theMinister of National Education sought to introduce a new Group CertificateCameroon GCE Scheme for the Southern Cameroons Schools Nationwide. The ministerwas arrogant enough to assert that the primary aim was to raise the level of theGCE to that of the Baccalaureate (the French equivalent of the GCE Advanced Level)to facilitate the entry into Technical Institutions for Southern Cameroonsstudents. What an Insult!

This was met with serious resistance by Southern Cameroons Students, Teachers andParents who saw their educational system as the last remaining part of theircultural heritage. The project was shelved but not abandoned.

The Ministry of National Education of La Republique du Cameroun fell short ofhonoring its financial obligations to the London GCE Board for Technical supportoffered through the British Council, part of which was the printing of GCECertificates, and to the local markers of the GCE Exams.

The London GCE Board stopped printing the certificates when LRC was more than 5years behind its payment. When LRC took over control and assigned its staffs andsecretaries to run and type examination questions, Southern Cameroonians said No!It was at this point that the Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC) startedadvocating for the creation of a GCE Board. Parents Teachers Associations groupedto form the Confederation of Anglophone Parents Teachers Association (CAPTAC) withmuch support coming from the Cameroon Anglophone Movement (CAM).

The crisis was not limited to the creation of a more effective GCE regime but alsoan institution that will host the product of a properly managed examination. Thisis how the Cameroon Anglophone Students Association (CANSA) saw the light of dayto join forces with other progressive movement to demand a University in theSouthern Cameroons.

Most of these students became victims of La Republique du Cameroon. In 1993, thefirst batch of the University of Buea was matriculated not before the Yaoundregime had instituted fees in the University. Though the University of Buea had noLibrary, Laboratory, Restaurant and even enough lecture halls and despite the overburdened nature of Southern Cameroons parents in running nursery, primary,secondary and High schools, the occupation regime decided to raise the fees of the

University of Buea to 550 thousand francs CFA.

Under the leadership of the Students Union, students resisted and stalled themachination. The regime responded with dismissal of the Student Union President Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga.., Jr., and dissolving the Students Union. Somestudents responded with the creation of the Committee of Respected Alternativesthat worked underground to pressure the administration. And for the first time,another student Lucas Cho Ayaba led a one man demonstration that shook the veryfoundation of the University. He too was sent the Akwanga way.

The SCYL emerged from the rubble of all of these resistant groups as a League that

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rallies the Southern Cameroons Youth. The Cameroon Anglophone Students Association(CANSA) was represented by its then Secretary General Ebai George. The Universityof Buea Students Union was represented by its expelled President, Akwanga Ebenezerwho had been leading student actions from Victoria to Buea and other citiesagainst the raping, killing and torture of students in the then Yaound Universityand had also led students in defiance of the tele-guided Buea universityauthorities. When the Students Union was dissolved Ayaba, Cho Lucas and Nwana,Benedict Kuah founded the Committee of Respective Alternative Voices and

represented this organization in the foundation of the SCYL. Bah-TangohChristopher Fomunyoh had been one of the most dynamic and consistent activist whowas behind the Cameroon Anglophone Movement. He represented the Free West CameroonMovement. Emmanuel Nkea, Cornelius Asonganyi Bedefeh and Issa Abdourahim were alsopresent. After series of meetings including the famous Presbyterian Church MolykoIndependence Proclamation gathering dubbed Divine Service, a two day conference atthe Garden Park Hotel in Molyko ended with the creation of the Southern CameroonsYouth League on the 28th May 1995