Black men, English suits and a Corner Office: Education and the Making of a West-Cameroon Civil Service 1954-1972

Abstract

Within the perspective of postcolonial state building in Africa and the quests to Africanize/indigenize, the study hinges on the education and manpower nexus to examine the state of preparedness of the Trust Territory of the Cameroons in the days leading to independence to establish an Indigenous civil service as the British and Nigerian colonial authorities were leaving the territory. It ascertains the nature and level of training as well as the sum of indigenous manpower that was on hand to take over the mantle of leadership as the territory gained independence. It concludes that quality and quantity of manpower production had significant and long lasting effects on the socio-economic development of the territory.