Using Adom Getachew’s Argument to Explain Our Situation

Many African crises today were not created by Africans. They were created by incomplete, rushed, or poorly structured decolonization. The colonial powers were supposed to hand over functioning territorial states with clear legal foundations for sovereignty. Instead, in many places, they left before finishing the job.

Getachew summarizes it in one sentence.
African nations did not inherit freedom. They inherited the debris of empire.

That line could be written directly about Southern Cameroons.
We did not create this mess. We did not design the political architecture. We did not vote for the confusion. But we are the generation responsible for fixing it.

1. Countries in Africa With Similar Unfinished Decolonization Problems

Getachew’s work helps explain a small set of African cases where decolonization was left half done. Only a few look anything like what Southern Cameroons is experiencing.

Western Sahara

Spain left without completing the transition.
There was no final legal transfer of sovereignty.
The UN still lists it as a non self governing territory.

Mayotte and the Comoros

France kept Mayotte by separating it from the Comoros.
The UN declared the process invalid under decolonization rules.

Somaliland

It was a recognized independent state in 1960.
It voluntarily united with Somalia, but the union was never properly ratified.
They now argue for restoration based on the flawed union.

Eritrea before 1991

It was annexed by Ethiopia without a proper legal union.
It took three decades to correct the mistake.

These examples show the pattern Getachew is describing. But Southern Cameroons stands out even among these.

2. Why Southern Cameroons Is Unique Even Among These Cases

When you apply Adom Getachew’s logic, our situation has three features that appear nowhere else in Africa.

A. A fully documented UN process that stopped halfway

Southern Cameroons passed through every required step of UN decolonization.

A trusteeship
UN supervised elections
An elected government
A UN General Assembly vote
A requirement for a tripartite conference

Then the process stopped. The tripartite conference never happened. No union treaty was completed. No treaty was deposited at the UN.

Western Sahara, Somaliland, and Eritrea do not have this level of documentation showing an incomplete UN process. We are the only African people whose entire decolonization procedure under UN supervision was halted without completion.

B. The only case where the partner state was already fully independent before the attempted union

La République du Cameroun became an independent sovereign state on January 1, 1960.
Southern Cameroons was still a UN trust territory in 1961.

This timeline does not exist anywhere else in Africa.

One side was already a sovereign state.
The other side was still under international administration.
And the supposed union was never legalized.

This is exactly what Getachew means by a broken worldmaking process.

C. The only case where the so called union partner later restored its original identity

In 1984, La République du Cameroun changed its name back to its 1960 name.

This is unprecedented. It is the legal equivalent of Tanzania dropping the name Tanzania and returning to Tanganyika, or Senegal returning to its pre federation identity after the Mali Federation.

Both would legally dissolve the union.

Getachew’s framework makes this obvious. A union that was never completed, and whose only partner later restored its original identity, is not a union. It is an occupation. No other African case matches this exact combination of events.

3. The Moral Point We Must Teach Our People

Adom Getachew’s argument is not about blaming Africans. It is about understanding how responsibility passes from one generation to the next.

We did not create the legal vacuum.
It was created by Britain, the UN, and LRC failing to carry out Resolution 1608.

We did not design the confusion.
It comes from the trusteeship ending without a final treaty.

We did not choose this problem.
It was inherited, the same way many African countries inherited broken institutions and unfinished political structures.

But here is the truth that matters most.
We are not responsible for creating this crisis, but we are responsible for completing the process and fixing it.

If we do not fix it, the next generation will inherit the same broken architecture of empire. That is exactly the pattern Getachew warns about.

4. Why This Understanding Strengthens Our Legal and Diplomatic Strategy

When our people understand this framework, something changes.

They stop feeling guilty.
They stop seeing themselves as rebels.
They start understanding they are completing an unfinished legal process.
They adopt discipline instead of emotion.

And the world begins to understand the truth.
This is not secession.
This is not rebellion.
This is not tribal politics.
This is an incomplete UN decolonization file.

And under that framework, only two bodies have legal authority.
The United Kingdom, the Administering Authority.
The United Nations, the Supervising Authority.

Not LRC.
Not the AU.
Not Nigeria or ECOWAS.
Not France.

This is exactly what Getachew’s scholarship points to.
Postcolonial states repair their world by correcting the foundational legal errors created by empire.

And Southern Cameroons is the textbook example of a decolonization process that must be completed in order for a stable, lawful future to exist.