Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

This study attempts a historical investigation of West Cameroon reaction to the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. Informed by primary and secondary sources and based on qualitative historical analysis, the study reveals that despite President Ahmadou Ahidjo's proclamation of neutrality at the wake of the war and his ensued support for the Gowon regime, the situation at the grass-root level in West Cameroon was in divergence to official government dispositions. Surprisingly, factored by historical, geographical, cultural, ancestral and minority considerations, West Cameroonians including religious bodies at the grass-root level generally sympathised with the Biafran cause. The Igbo who for many years had been victimised, resented and accused by the indegines to be at the origins of many atrocities in Southern/West Cameroon were suddenly embraced and accepted. The paper therefore submits that the contempt, resentment or Igbophobia which the Igbo in Southern/West Cameroon had been victims of were guided by pan Cameroon sentiments and not outright hatred for the Igbo ethnic group as a people. The attitude of the Southern/West Cameroon indegines towards the Nigerians and Igbo in particular during the colonial and early post colonial years were thus driven by jingoistic underpinnings and not xenophobic considerations.

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