Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong: The Magistrate Who Spoke For Freedom

January 09, 2025 

By Doreen Namondo

For The Southern Cameroons Post

On the morning of December 30, 1999, listeners in Buea tuned their radios to CRTV, expecting routine programming. What they heard instead was the calm, deliberate voice of Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong, a serving senior magistrate, announcing what he described as the restoration of the sovereignty of the former British Southern Cameroons.

For several hours, the airwaves carried words that unsettled the political order of the day. To some listeners, the declaration sounded like a long-suppressed truth finally spoken aloud. To others, particularly within state authority, it was an unprecedented breach by a judicial officer sworn to uphold the existing constitutional framework. Either way, it marked a moment that could not be ignored.

Justice Ebong was not a fringe activist. He was a respected figure within Cameroon’s judicial system, renowned for his expertise in law and professional integrity. By the late 1990s, however, he had become closely associated with the Southern Cameroons National Council, a broad coalition of lawyers, teachers, students, and civil society actors who argued that English-speaking Cameroonians had been politically and culturally marginalized since reunification. His presence within the movement brought something rare and consequential: the voice of the law speaking from within the system rather than from its margins.

The Radio Buea broadcast was not accompanied by a call to violence or insurrection. It was, at its core, a legal and symbolic act -  an assertion grounded in historical interpretation and constitutional reasoning. Supporters viewed it as an act of conscience, a judge publicly aligning his professional understanding of the law with what he believed to be a suppressed political reality. The government of President Paul Biya viewed it differently.

Within days, Justice Ebong was arrested. He was held incommunicado for several months and later released without trial. The silence imposed on him did not erase the broadcast from public memory. On the contrary, his detention elevated his standing among many Anglophone Cameroonians. He became a symbol not because he wielded force or authority, but because he accepted personal risk for a conviction rooted in law and historical argument.

Following his release, Justice Ebong was named chairman of the SCNC and, on April 1, 2000, was proclaimed President of the Federal Republic of Southern Cameroons, often referred to as Ambazonia. Operating under intense pressure and largely in exile or clandestinity, his role was primarily symbolic. He did not command territory or institutions; instead, he embodied a claim that the Southern Cameroons question was not merely political, but legal and moral.

In later years, Justice Ebong resided in the United States, where he continued to advocate peacefully for international recognition of the Southern Cameroons cause. His efforts emphasized dialogue, legal argument, and historical documentation rather than force. He passed away in July 2019 in Washington, D.C., and was laid to rest following funeral services on July 13. His death was mourned by many within the Southern Cameroons community and the diaspora, who regarded him as a pioneer — a man who chose to speak when silence would have been safer.

More than two decades after that December morning in Buea, the Southern Cameroons question remains unresolved. The conflict has deepened, positions have hardened, and civilian suffering has grown. Yet Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong’s voice continues to occupy a distinct place in collective memory. It recalls a time when the struggle was articulated primarily through law, history, and moral argument.

History does not turn only on those who command armies or hold office. It also turns on those who take principled risks within institutions designed to preserve order. Justice Ebong’s legacy lies precisely in that uneasy space between law and conscience — where one man chose to speak, knowing the cost, and in doing so left an enduring mark on the political memory of Southern Cameroons.

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