Naming of tugboats; an act that reopens painful wounds and raises serious questions about the sincerity of LRC
By Dr.Martin Mungwa
The recent naming of tugboats after Dr. John Ngu Foncha and Dr EML Endeley, by Cameroon’s Minister of Transport may appear to some as a gesture of national unity and reconciliation. Yet for the people of Southern Cameroons—commonly referred to as Ambazonia—it reopens painful wounds and raises serious questions about the sincerity of such symbolic acts.
Dr. Foncha was not merely a politician; he was a central figure in the formation of the 1961 union between the British Southern Cameroons and La République du Cameroun. However, that union—intended to be a federation of equals—was dismantled without consent. Over the last six decades, Ambazonians have watched as their institutions, economy, and autonomy were eroded or outright destroyed.
What followed was not integration but marginalization. The Cameroon Bank, West Cameroon Marketing Board, the Tiko and Victoria seaports, Cameroon Air Transport, Ndu and Tole Tea Estates, CDC, Yoke Dam, UNVDA, WADA, MIDENO, and the dream of transforming CCAST Bambili into a technological university—all were sacrificed at the altar of centralization.
Even Foncha himself was not spared. He was dismissed, sidelined, and buried without honour, despite his national role. In the twilight of his life, he returned to the United Nations, pleading for redress and restoration of the federal system he once believed in—only to be ignored.
To now name a tugboat after him, while the very institutions he helped build lie in ruins, is not reconciliation—it is revisionism. It does not address the cries of mothers whose sons have vanished, the schools burned in conflict, or the generations that grew up under occupation and denial.
True reconciliation requires more than names on steel hulls. It demands truth-telling, restitution, and recognition of historical injustices. It requires an honest reckoning with the dismantling of Southern Cameroons’ identity, institutions, and dignity.
Ambazonians are not opposed to honouring their own. But gestures must be matched with substance. Until then, such commemorations will be seen not as healing, but as attempts to mask a deeper wound.
Let justice precede symbolism. Let dialogue follow truth. And let history be honoured not with tugboats—but with accountability.
Secretary Martin Mungwa
Department of Communications
Federal Republic of Ambazonia
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