The Place of Cameroon in US Policy toward Central Africa after the Events of September 11 2001

Literature review

The particular topic of Cameroon US relations does not abound with much publication. However, some researchers and political analysts have had to discuss the subject. It is useful for research endeavors to review the state of the art, so that the researcher can build on past works. Until now, authors have simply noted a `rivalry' between France and the US in Africa; others have underscored the growing interest Africa has for the US. Yet other authors have studied the Golf of Guinea as a strategic pivot of great power rivalry and interest especially for the US. We will argue that the U.S. is fast replacing France in Cameroon as the imperium, and that Washington envisages Cameroon as a proxy for the region in the post 9/11 grand strategy.

Following the Iraq war of 2003, a group of lecturers in I.R.I.C. (International Relations Institute of Cameroon) wrote a book on the African perception of the war particularly and Africa US relations in general. Writing on the implications of the war on Africa, Pondi offers the following analysis

In Africa, a particularly vulnerable continent with multiple cultural and historical links, marked with susceptibilities with the United States, this victory [of the coalition over Iraqi forces] rather leaves a bitter pile for the popular appreciation of the inhabitants. This is so for at least five reasons.^9(*)

These five reasons, he identifies to be 1. The failure of operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1992; 2. the inadequate responses to the 1998 US Embassies bombings in Nairobi and Das es Salam with neither official mourning nor compensation for the innocent lost of Africans' lives;^10(*) 3. The US penchant for military force with the consequent destruction of lives and property; 4. The ease with which the US was spending $100 billion while several Africans wallow in misery; 5. The disparity between funds for war and those for reconstruction.^11(*) In all these analyses, apart from the first two that have direct links both with our topic and 9/11, the other analysis are important only to understand the changes that have been taking place in Africa US relations at large. It is likely that while many African would sympathize with 9/11, reactions regarding the Iraq war, as studied by Pondi, are rather hostile. Our work will pay only partial attention to how Cameroonians (both the population and the government) reacted to 9/11, while studying how the US applied post 9/11 changes to Cameroon.

In an article published in 2005, Mvomo Ela wrote on «Petrostrategie et appels d'empire dans le Golfe de Guinée» (Petrostrategy and invitations for empire in the Gulf of Guinea). In this article, the author examines the changes and reconfiguration of power that has been taking place in the region of the Gulf in recent years. Mvomo describes the Gulf of Guinea as running from West Africa to Angola, describing the region as «un espace enjeu».^12(*) In his view, the stakes of the Gulf of Guinea lay in the «increasing instability of this home of disorder»^13(*) - the Middle East. That is to say that the regain of interest in Central Africa is due to insecurity in the Persian Gulf. In the same studies, and to justify this assertion, Mvomo states that «7 of the 8 billion barrels of oil reserves discovered in the world in 2001 are found in the Gulf of Guinea».^14(*) The specialty of oil in this region lies in three factors; its quality (low sulfuric quality), its location offshore (for the most part) shelters it from social and political instability, and the easy access due to favorable fiscal and administrative conditions.^15(*)

In effect, in spite of these advantages, the Gulf of Guinea (to which our zone of studies belongs) is in fact liable to considerable insecurity. Mvomo's paper identifies the Gulf as the `crossroads of African civilizations'<sup>16(*)</sup>, which could likely suffer from three ills; (1) socio-political uprising (as is the case with the Ogoni people in Nigeria, a case which could instigate other peoples in the region in a spillover effect), (2) drug trafficking, and (3) rise of Islamic fundamentalism. These ills have been exacerbated by pouches of socio-political instability in almost all the countries in the region. This leads Mvomo to explain the notion of `invitation for empire', referring to the tempting resources in the region and the need for empire builders to secure them.^17(*) The problem with considering the Gulf of Guinea in the new posture of Cameroon US relations is that it is largely dominated by Nigeria. The heavy weight of this country in the Gulf of Guinea Commission does not explicate the role of Cameroon in the Central African zone and how the US intends to promote and valorize that position. Chouala has observed that «in the geopolitics of the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria constitutes at the same time the strategic rival and the main military threat to Cameroon».^18(*) Though we shall study the stakes of the Gulf of Guinea and Cameroon in US policy toward the region, our main focus will be the Central African zone.

What is the role of Cameroon in this heightening of interest in the sub region? It is to this question that a special issue of one of the most widely read Cameroonian daily, Mutation,-Les Cahiers de Mutation, consecrated some reflections with a revealing title, «Que cherchent les Etats Unis au Cameroun?»^19(*) [What is the US seeking in Cameroon?]. Analyses (from journalistic facts) here are based on the simple assumption that contrary to the difficult years of the 1990s when relations between the two countries were strained, the 9/11 events have ushered a new trend of relations centered on the resources of the sub region. The important question Nkot (editor) asked is this «could Cameroon be a place where a deadly battle is being fought between the US and France (?)».^20(*) Screening through the different aspects of Cameroon US relations, the authors of the special issue elucidate on the place Cameroon occupies in the minds of US policy makers, as well as the image Cameroonians have of the US. This document, though one of the rare to tour the question of Cameroon US relations, especially in the post 9/11 era, has the principal flaw of being journalistic. It does not ask the real questions of scientific research; neither does it analyze the facts gathered. It however gives us an insight into some of the main issues that confront politicians of both countries in dealing with bilateral relations.

US - Cameroon relations have been read from other angles. Studying US presence in the region from a security perspective, NDJOCK considers Central Africa to invite the US for action because of the spiral of conflicts;

Faced with this `spiral of conflicts', the UN, on the proposition of Cameroon (shared by the other states of the sub-region of Central Africa), created on 28 May 1992, the Permanent Consultative Committee of the United Nations on Security Issues in Central Africa (PCCUNSI-CA).^21(*)

This reading does not only bring to the lamplight the motives of the US in the sub-region, but also the place of Cameroon as leader and facilitator in a conflict-ridden zone. For the US to manage conflicts in the region in particular and Africa in general, it became indispensable to create a structure, a security forum, a military program which can carter for such needs. This needed to be without the implication of US military in actual battles. Njock sees ACRI (African Contingency and Response Initiative), which corresponds with the new US security policy towards Africa to work «...with regional allies who, eventually would do the interventions which neither Washington nor the Europeans do want to get involved any more».^22(*) In this concept, a country like Cameroon could play that role of a regional ally in US intervention in the Central African sub-region.

The US policy in Cameroon could also be studied from a center - periphery North-South paradigm. In this sense, foreign power presence in Cameroon requires a realist reading. This study has been done by Ebolo Martin Dieudonne. For him,

The implication of the US and France in the Democratization Process in Cameroon operates simultaneously on the promotion of the political and economic liberal model, and on the promotion of their national interests. Only that the US commitment towards the instauration of a democratic state of law looks more stated than the rather ambiguous role played by the French in this key country of their African backyard.^23(*)

This work is important because it studies the behavior of US policy-makers toward Cameroon in the 90s. The vision of the US as different from that of the French is important in understanding the changes that took place after 9/11. The link between democracy and foreign policy, especially in those years, and the changes in Cameroonian politics is well specified when Ebolo says «For some people, the future of liberty, stability, peace and the US depends to a certain degree on the future of democracy.»^24(*) In this case, a somewhat interdependence exist between the political future of both countries, and bilateral relations are constantly shaped by internal politics. Ebolo once more explains this when he says «Opposition forces have largely cautioned the US actions [in Cameroon] at the time when they were criticizing, not without vehemence, French activism.»^25(*)

* ⁹ Jean Emmanuel Pondi, «Washington et Londres dans le Bourbier iraqien: Analyses des Contours et des Conséquences d'une Victoire à la Pyrrhus?» in Une Lecture Africaine de la Guerre en Iraq, Jean Emmanuel Pondi (ed), Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2004, p. 17.

* ¹⁰ The point here is that 9/11 means little to Africans after their own 9/11 was just regretted and nothing more. So, why pursue the terrorists right to Iraq? This point is highly debatable.

* ¹¹ Pondi, op. cit. pp. 17-19.

* ¹² This refers to a somewhat territory for games or great power rivalry, in the nature as the Great Games of the 19^th century in the Asian Minor.

* ¹³ Mvomo Ela, «Pétrostrategie et appels d'empire dans le Golfe de Guinée», Enjeux No. 22, pp 7-11, January-March 2005 p. 7.

* ¹⁴ ibid, p7.

* ¹⁵ ibid, p. 7.

* ¹⁶ ibid, p. 8.

* ¹⁷ This reading of empire must be distinguished from Ferguson's Empire by invitation, which refers to a situation whereby a weak state calls for a stronger state for protection and possible annexation.

* ¹⁸ Yves Alexandre Chouala, «La Crise Diplomatique de mars 2004 Entre le Cameroun et la Guinée Equatoriale : Fondements, Enjeux et Perspectives», Bordeaux, GRAPS/CEAN-IEP, 2004, p. 3.

* ¹⁹ Les Cahiers de Mutation, Vol 23, Yaounde, South Media Corporation, July 2004.

* ²⁰ Nkot Fabien, «Objet ou sujet de l'Histoire», in Les Cahiers de Mutation, op. cit, p. 2.

* ²¹ NJOCK, La Regionalisation de la Securité Collective : Le cas de L'Afriaue Centrale, 2001, p. 2 

* ²² Ibid, p. 118.

* ²³Ebolo Martin Dieudonné, L'Implication des Puissances Occidentales Dans le Processus de Démocratisation en Afrique : Analyse des actions Américaines et Françaises au Cameroun Th, 3^e Cycle, IRIC, 1997. p. 293

* ²⁴ Ibid, p. 295.

* ²⁵ Ibid, p. 294.