Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
The Birth Of Ekane. His Education In Cameroon And France. Why Ekane Got Into Politics, And Why He Joined UPC. Ekane’s Imprisonment In Yondo Black Affair. Why Ekane In Early 1992, Left The UPC That Was Legalized In 1991. Why It Took Long For Ekane’s MANIDEM To Be Legalized. Ekane – The Controversy A Big Critic Of The CPDM Regime, That Had Close Friends In The Regime.
Anicet Georges Ekane was born on April 17, 1951 in Douala, Cameroon. His father, Frederic Mbongo Ekane, a polygamist, hailed from Bomono – Gare in Bonangem, Dibombari Sub –division, which lies in the outskirt of Douala towards Mbanga. Anicet’s father, Frederic Mbongo Ekane, was the Chief Accountant in ‘Compagnie Soudannais’, which was one of the big foreign businesses in Douala in those days. It should be noted that one of the major road junctions in Akwa (commercial quarter or center in the nation’s economic capital), is known as ‘Soudannaise’. The name cane from the ‘Soudannaise Company’ that was located in the area.
Meanwhile as the Chief Accountant in a company like ‘Soudannaise’ in those days, Frederic Mbongo Ekane was definitely not a poor man, and so he was able to send his son, Anicet, to ‘College Libermann’ in Douala (a mission school) which then, and till today, remains one of the most, if not the most, prestigious secondary schools in Francophone Cameroon. After high school, Anicet Ekane travelled to France in 1971 for further studies. He studied at the University of Lille, and at ‘Ecole Superieure de Commerce et d’Administration des Entreprises’, where he specialized in Economy and Administration. He later returned to Cameroon, and set up his own small enterprise. But his involvement in politics and especially his arrest, detention and imprisonment in 1990 for political reasons, really caused much damage to his business. Anicet Ekane later became more of a ‘professional politician’, until he passed away in Gendarmerie custody in Yaounde on December 1, 2025, after he was arrested in Douala on October 24, 2025 for political reasons, and thrown into detention, despite his deteriorating health situation.
How Anicet Ekane Got Into Politics, And Why He Joined The UPC Party In Particular.
Anicet Ekane’s Father was a militant of the ‘Union Nationale Camerounaise’, UNC. That is, the Cameroon National Union, CNU, which emerged in 1966, when President Ahmadou Ahidjo in his game of political manipulation or intrigues, got all legalized political parties in the country (then East and West Cameroon) to merge and become one party, with him of course as the National President. The young Anicet Ekane, was not into politics then. Besides his education, Anicet Ekane had much interest in football, and was reportedly a good football player. In January 1971, Anicet Ekane, travelled to Bafoussam for a football match. It coincidentally happened that Anicet was in Bafoussam on January 15, 1971, when one of the nationalist leaders, Ernest Ouandie (one of the UPC leaders) whom the Ahidjo regime termed terrorist, was killed by firing squared, after having been sentenced to death by the Yaounde Military Tribunal. Anicet Ekane was one of the many curious youths in the crowd that watched live, the shooting to dead of Ernest Ouandie in a public square.
That horrible image never left his mind. Later that year, Anicet Ekane traveled to France for further studies. While in France, Anicet Ekane came in contact with a secret network of UPC militants on exile in France. It should be noted that the Ahidjo regime, with the backing of the neocolonial master, France, had long banned UPC in Cameroon, which they branded as a terrorist organization. UPC had thus become a clandestine organization in Cameroon. But ironically, quite a number of UPC militants that had fled from Cameroon took refuge in the ‘neo –colonial France’. There were also many new militants that had joined the organization in France. Still with the image of the horrible killing of Ernest Ouandie in Bafoussam in mind, Anicet Ekane joined the secret UPC network in France, and that was where he leant the UPC ideology, and understood more why the Ahidjo regime falsely branded UPC as a terrorist organization, and above all why Ernest Ouandie was so brutally killed by the regime. Anicet Ekane became a UPC faithful, with Ernest Ouandie as his hero.
It should be noted that it was that horrible image of the brutal killing of one of the UPC leaders, Ernest Ouandie (nationalist leader), by the Ahidjo regime, which he watched live in Bafoussam on January 15, 1971, that got Anicet Ekane to join the UPC in France, as well as to declare Ernest Ouandie his hero.
The Yondo Black Affair
Anicet Ekane lived in France for a while after his studies, and later returned home. By then, Cameroon was still a one- party- State in practice, even though the country‘s Constitution did not prohibit the creation of another political party. Before leaving France, Anicet Ekane had been linked to the underground UPC network in Cameroon, and so he secretly joined the network after his return to Cameroon. In late 1989, Barrister Yondo Black Mandengue (former Bar Council President) secretly contacted Anicet Ekane for them to work on a project, to create a political party. Batonnier Yondo Black also contacted a few other persons for the political project. The group secretly started work in early January 1990. But unfortunately an informant succeeded to infiltrate the group and in February (1990) leaked the information to the Secret Service. Yondo Black and members of his group, including Anicet Ekane, were arrested in the second half of February 1990, in what became known as the Yondo Black Affair.
But their detention and trial became a big problem for the Biya regime, because the Constitution of Cameroon authorized a multiparty system in the country, though in practice the story was completely different, as the country was politically operating as one party State. The international community, including France, asked questions on the arrest and detention of Batonnier Yondo Black, and members his group. The Biya regime tried in vain to change or disturb the story, by claiming that Yondo Black and members of his group were arrested not because they wanted to create a political party, but for purported crimes they committed against the State.
Suffice to say at the end of the trial at the Douala Military Tribunal, members of the Yondo Black group with the exception of Anicet Ekane, were either discharged and acquitted, or given suspended sentences, as the international community was watching. Barrister Yondo Black himself was given a three year suspended sentence. The Cameroon Bar Council which was headed then by the much influential, much daring and no non-sense Barrister Ben Muna, mobilized a record number of 227 lawyers, with over the 50 lawyers (expatriates) from abroad, to handle the case which involved a former President of the Cameroon Bar Council, Yondo Black Mendegue. Worthy of note that Batonnier Yondo Black Mandengue, passed away last year (2025).
Meanwhile, Anicet Ekane, alone, received an effective imprisonment sentence. He was in fact slammed a three year jail term by the Douala Military Tribunal. The judges, and other officials at the Military Tribunal, were said to have been furious at what they considered as a disrespectful or unruly behaviour of Anicet Ekane, during the trial. Ekane also reportedly embarrassed the court officials and government, when instead of responding to questions, he would instead resort to making strong criticisms against what he exposed as the very poor detention conditions in which they were subjected to. He also repeatedly questioned the reasons or justifications for their arrest and detention, and dismissed the court’s or government’s claims as reasons for their arrest and trial, as spurious. Meanwhile following his imprisonment, Anicet Ekane was soon moved from Douala to the dreaded Yoko Prison in the Grand North. He was however released from Prison, following a clemency granted by President Biya.
The Legalization Of Pro – regime UPC
By the time Anicet Ekane left prison, President Biya had in December 1990 signed and promulgated into Laws, a number of Government’s draft bills that the then one party National Assembly, had earlier that December adopted. The Biya regime baptized the laws, as Liberty Laws. One of those Laws practically saw the rebirth of multiparty politics in Cameroon. UPC resurfaced, but had to be registered afresh, according to government instruction. The CPDM that was ‘created’ in 1995, and the SDF that was created in 1990, were also asked to re-submit their files for a new registration. Then the Biya regime also played a fast one behind the scene, to ensure that the new leadership of the UPC was into the hands of friends of the regime. The regime thus manipulated the situation to see that Augustin Frederic Kodock and Prince Din Dika Akwa, both former members of UPC who had become close friends of the regime, were those that registered the UPC in 1991, with Kodock being the Secretary General, while Prince Dika Akwa was President. It should be noted that in the UPC, the real leader of the party is the Secretary General, while the post of President is more of a ceremonial office
. So the real leader of the legalized UPC faction was Augustin Frederick Kodock of Nyong and Kelle Division, with headquarters in Eseka. That was how the seat of the legalized UPC moved to Nyong and Kelle Division. It should also be noted that according to a veteran politician and an original UPCist, Henriette Ekwe, the man that the Biya regime manipulated for him to hijack the UPC as Secretary General in 1991, that is, Augustin Frederick Kodock, was dismissed from UPC in 1959 by the then UPC leader, Felix Moumie, for anti –party activities. It is no secret that Augustin Frederick Kodock was appointed into Government as Minister of Economy in the 1960s by President Ahmadou Ahidjo; at a time when the neo – colonial government had declared UPC a terrorist group, and its leaders and members were being hunted for elimination.
The Creation Of UPC- MANIDEM / Legalization Of MANIDEM
Meanwhile, Anicet Ekane and the other real or genuine members of the UPC, found it really difficult to belong to the legalized UPC led by men of the regime. They however managed to stay on throughout that 1991 that the UPC was legalized. But the separation finally came in early 1992, when the Kodock –led UPC accepted to go for the March 1, 1991 municipal and legislative elections, whereas the then Coordination of Opposition Parties and Civil Society Organizations had decided on a boycott of the elections by the opposition. Kodock even struck a deal with the CPDM Government after the election, and his UPC entered the government.
A group of genuine UPC members known as ‘UPC Fidele’, that is, UPC Faithful, emerged, led by Dooh Mchel. Of course that was where Anicet Ekane belonged. But a few years later, Anicet Ekane and a small group of UPC faithful like journalist –cum politician, Henriette Ekwe, who was a very close political friend of Ekane, decided to leave ‘UPC Fidele’ and create their own UPC party known as UPC – MANIDEM. But there was a problem to have the party registered, as the then Minister of Territorial Administration, Gilbert Anze Tsoungui, insisted that Ekane and his comrades must drop the name, UPC, before it could be registered. The minister wanted to protect the legalized pro – regime UPC faction led by Kodock, which had joined the Government. But Ekane and his comrades refused to drop the name UPC, ad insisted on the name UPC- MANIDEM. But after fighting on for more than one year in vain, Anicet Ekane and his comrades finally threw in the towel, and dropped the name, UPC, from their party’s name, for it to be legalized. That was in 1995. The newly legalized political party, or better still, UPC Faction, of which Anicet Ekane was the Founding President, was known as MANIDEM.
A Strong Critic Of The CPDM Regime, That Also Had Close Friends In The Regime
The one piece of controversy known about Anicet Ekane in politics as an opposition leader and President of MANIDEM, is that while he and his party (MANIDEM) were big critics of the CPDM or Biya regime, he at the same had some close friends who were barons of the regime. He never denied that fact. The MANIDEM Party that had become notorious for attacking or accusing any opposition party, opposition leader or opposition figure that disagreed with the party in any way, of being an ally of the CPDM regime, or of being sponsored by the CPDM regime, was permanently silence on the close relationship that the party’s National President had with some big guns of the CPDM regime. Some media men and women, especially in Douala, who knew about it, opted for one reason or the other to stay silent, except to talk about it only in gossips.
But when Anicet Ekane was a guest in the programme, ‘Carte Sur Table’, over STV in Douala in July 2025, senior journalist, Dipita Tongo, made bold to put the question to him. Dipita cited as an example of a prominent member of the regime, who was said to be Ekane’s close friend, Gregoire Owona, the Deputy Secretary General of the ruling CPDM, and member of Government. Dipita ended there. But to his surprise and that of many viewers, Ekane did not only accept that Gregoire Owona was his friend, but said he was not the only friend he had in the regime, and went ahead to mention some other names. However, Ekane insisted that his friendship with those barons of the regime had nothing to do with politics. H said they had personal relationship as individuals, and not political relationship. No comment!
Speaking as guest in the programme, ‘La Verite En Face’, over Equinoxe TV in Douala following the death of Anicet Ekane, the President of one of the UPC factions (Bafoussam Faction), Henriette Ekwe, who was a Founding Member of MANIDEM, and was known to be the closest political friend and ally of Anicet Ekane for decades, said that the UPC Family as whole, so much appreciated Anicet Ekane, who was quite an active and genuine UPCist. They were especially proud of all what Ekane did in the early 1990s, in the fight for democracy in Cameroon. But Henriette Ekwe admitted that the one thing that the leaders of the UPC family were worried or disturbed with, about Ekane, was the relationship that he later developed with some members of the regime. Madam Ekwe said she brought up the issue a number of times with Ekane as a friend and political ally, but that each time he told her he saw nothing wrong with the relationship. He said Ekane told her that if those friends give him money, he would take as money coming from friends, but that the money would not change his political views.
Speaking also over STV in Douala where he was guest in the programme, ‘Carte Sur Table’, a couple of days before the funeral of late Anicet Ekane, the eldest son or eldest child, Dr Muna Ekane, admitted that he and his brothers and sisters were aware of the fact that their late father had some friends in the regime. He disclosed that before their father died, he gave them a list of his real or close friends, and that some personalities on that list are members of the regime. He however did not mention their names, but said Paul Atanga NJi was not one of them. It would be recalled that when Anicet Ekane died, the former Secretary General of the CPDM, Emmanuel Rene Sadi, current Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, in a response to a journalist’s question, disclosed that Ekane was his friend.
