Growth
On April 10, 1950 the enlarged Leading Committee holds a meeting in Dschang. During the course of the meeting a decision is taken to regard the function as the first congress of UPC. The congress lasted until April 13. A new Leading Committee was elected with President: Chief Mathias Djiomessi; General Secretary: Ruben Um Nyobé; Vice-presidents: Guillaume Bagal, Phillipe Essama Essi, Félix Moumié, Samuel Noumouwe and Treasurer: Emmanuel Yap. After the congress Charles Assalé left the movement and joinedthe procolonial fold. The party published the papers La Voix du Cameroun, Lumière, Étoile and Vérité.
After trying a parliamentary vote in 1952 without success, the UPC turned to the United Nations, who had the guardianship of Cameroon, to demand independence and reunification. Under the aegis of Ruben Um Nyobé, the Secretary-General, the party requested of the 4th UN General Assembly supervising committee in December 1952:
- Revision of the trusteeship agreements of 13 December 1946 that were signed without any prior consultation of the people contrary to what was claimed by Louis-Paul Aujoulat and Alexandre Douala Manga Bell, who said '... the trusteeship agreement was subject to widespread distribution, and a very broad debate in Cameroon, it has been approved by the Cameroonian people ..."
- Immediate reunification;
- Setting of a date (10 years) to end the trusteeship agreements and provide access to the political independence of Cameroon.
Ruben Um Nyobé proposed that for about ten years before independence there should be a program that would give Cameroons adequate training to assume responsibility for the state arising from recovery of our sovereignty.
From 1953, in the face of increased repression by the colonial power, the UPC followed the urging of Dr. Félix-Roland Moumié to move into radical political action. According to historian Bernard Droz, China provided weapons in the UPC. Seven years after its founding, in 1955 the national liberation movement had 460 village or neighborhood committees and 80,000 members, particularly on the coast in central, south and west Cameroon, among the Bamileke and Bassa.
Read more about this topic: Union Of The Peoples Of Cameroon
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