REASON WHY THERE IS EJAGHAM IN CAMEROON AND NIGERIA

REASON WHY THERE IS EJAGHAM IN CAMEROON AND NIGERIA

REASON WHY THERE IS EJAGHAM IN CAMEROON AND NIGERIA

Before colonial powers came scrambling for territories in Africa, there were no COUNTRIES in Africa. Instead, people of common ancestry were living in groups (tribes) governed by culture, tradition and customs. Each tribe spoke same language, had a ruler and sub rulers.

When colonial powers came, they started scrambling to occupy and own peoples and lands.

The Germans settled around the Douala area in Cameroon (but there was no Cameroon then) , while the British settled somewhere in Nigeria (but there was no Nigeria then).

These powers started expanding to the hinterlands to occupy more territories and lands.

The Germans and British on expanding, met in our tribe (EJAGHAM TRIBE).

The League of Nation (or the world power in charge at that time) had to put a boundary between these two colonial powers since some land disputes started showing up.

To make the boundary simple, they took the CROSS RIVER as a natural boundary for the two powers.

This boundary was rejected because it separated the Ejagham tribe into two. The Ejagham revolt, but boundary was already set in place. This brought about EJAGHAM CAMEROON and EJAGHAM NIGERIA.

Anyways, during the early days of this putting of boundary, things were going smoothly between the Ejagham people on both sides. Business continued as usual.

But at one point, the Germans seeing that all business directions is towards Nigeria and not towards Douala (Cameroon) , they started to bring about BORDER RESTRICTION.

This restriction was going to separate the Ejagham people.

The British had no problem with the Business of Ejagham people because they were the ones benefiting.

Finally, the Germans decided to make strong border restriction preventing Ejagham Cameroon from doing Business with Nigeria, but rather, to do Business with Douala in Cameroon.

The Ejagham Cameroon people fought against this restriction until it went to arm struggle. The GERMANS – EKOI war lasted for about 5 years (1899 to 1905). The Ejagham in Nigeria was not involved in the war.

(NB: Ejagham was once called EKOI. Some say that this name was a nickname given to us by the EFIK people because of the business Ejagham people were mainly doing. Ejagham business was mainly CAMWOOD, and it means EKOI will surely be the way Efik people call CAMWOOD – but pls let’s do findings).

The Ejagham of Cameroon killed the German Commander called Weiss. At this time, the Germans became more dangerous and defeated the Ejagham people in the war, and from then, complete border restriction was put in place – families were separated.

This separation stayed until during the first world war.

The British and French Army fought against Germany in Cameroon and defeated the Germans.

Cameroon was then owned by British and French. The border restriction became lose and the Ejagham people could reunite.

Cameroon for many years was a German Colony. But after the first world war in which France and Britain jointly defeated the Germans, Cameroon was shared between France and Britain.

France was given almost all of Cameroon, while British took just a small part.

The French part was called EAST CAMEROON (Today called FRANCOPHONE CAMEROON – Making up 8 regions of the 10 regions of Cameroon).

The British part was called WEST CAMEROON (today called ANGLOPHONE CAMEROON – making up just two regions of the 10 regions of Cameroon).

France taught FRENCH LANGUAGE and French culture to her own part (FRANCOPHONE CAMEROON) while BRITISH taught ENGLISH LANGUAGE and British culture to WEST CAMEROON.

Because West CAMEROON was considered small, the British who were already owning Nigeria, decided to administer WEST CAMEROON under NIGERIA.

In Cameroon, the EJAGHAM PEOPLE are found in EYUMOJOCK SUBDIVISION which constitutes of three clans (NJEMAYA, NGUNAYA and OBANG).

We in Cameroon and Nigeria are one family, and we must remain as one ….