Historic football clubs of the city of Douala, Cameroon

It is rumoured that, the Bassas ran away not because of the military superiority of the Doualas, but more because the latter, were dirty and accompanying them were many Europeans. Late El Hadj Amadou Ahidjo and his party, Cameroon Union (UC), which later became known as Cameroon National Union (CNU) was given political power in French-speaking Cameroon in 1958 by the French. And coming back to football clubs, in short, Dynamos FC of Douala is a club for the Bassas and in the past, amongst the conditions needed in order to be accepted to play for the club, it was mandatory for the aspiring player to be an ethnic Bassa. There was a second hidden condition needed to play for Dynamos of Douala. Parents of aspiring players must have been members of the UPC party. Her year of glory was in 1979 when she won the Cup of Cameroon against the favourite and highly fancied Public Works Department (PWD) of Bamenda. Public Works Department (PWD) of Bamenda social club, was a club from Anglophone Cameroon, which was also the embryonic national football team of British Southern Cameroon’s, if they were, granted full-fledged independence by the British and not the funny brand of independence via unification that they were accorded in 1961. And finally, the fourth football team of the city of Douala is Union Football Club of Douala aka Nassara sportive.

Whatever Nassara stands for or mean, I don’t know. Only founders and supporters of the club can explain. But one thing is certain, Union Football Club of Douala, is a club promoted by none natives and in chief, ethnic Bamilekes from the West province. Her base is also the New-Bell neighbourhood, which is a neighbourhood that has a mosaic of natives and none natives: Bassas, Nigerians (Igbos, Yorubas and Nigerian Efiks), Malians, Mauritanians, Senegalese , people from the Greater northern province of Cameroon, who are generally referred to in Cameroon as Hausa and of course many Bamilekes live in New Bell. Union Douala was one of the top Cameroonian clubs. Their only rivals were Canon Sportive Football Club aka Kapkom of the Nkolondongo neighbourhood in Yaoundé and Tonnerre Kalara Football Club of the Mvog-Ada neighbourhood of Yaoundé. At Continental level, Union Douala was also one of greatest African Football clubs. She competed with prestigious African football clubs such as Bendal Insurance and Enugu Rangers, respectively from the cities of Benin and Enugu in Nigeria. Others were: Hafia FC, Conakry of Guinea, Ashanti Kumasi FC of Kumasi, Ghana, Royal Armed Forces FC of Rabat, Morocco, Al Ahly Sporting FC of Cairo Egypt, Al Hilal FC of Khartoum, Sudan, the Dragons FC of Congo and Tout Puissance Mazambe of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 60s, 70s and 80, were the glorious periods of Cameroonian club football and also that of Union of Douala.