The Anglophone regions in Cameroon are currently protesting against perceived marginalization policies and practices of the Francophone dominated Cameroon Government. Their grievances date back to the independence era of the 1960s when they were required by the United Nations to choose between joining Nigeria or French Cameroun as a condition for their independence. This presentation shows that the Anglophone problem in Cameroon has colonial, constitutional, cultural, and citizenship dimensions. It calls for international mediation and incentives to help Cameroon arrive at long-term equitable solutions to a colonially inherited and multi-dimensional dilemma.

1. CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES (CAS) BROWN BAG SEMINAR SERIES 2017
International Studies Building, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Anglophone Problem in Cameroon:
How do you solve a conflictual colonial heritage?
Emmanuel O. Nuesiri (DPhil. Oxford)
Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) and Cline Center for Democracy
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Citation
Nuesiri, E. O. (2017). Anglophone problem in Cameroon: How do you solve a conflictual colonial heritage? [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from https://illinois.academia.edu/EmmanuelNuesiri

2. ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM IN CAMEROON IN THE NEWS
English vs. French Tensions in Cameroon Turn Deadly
The New York Times FEB. 6, 2017, 5:48 A.M. E.S.T.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/02/06/world/africa/ap-af-cameroon-language-crisis.html?_r=0
UNDERSTANDING CAMEROON'S ANGLOPHONE PROTESTS
Protests are threatening to tear the diverse nation, dubbed "Africa in miniature", apart.
CONOR GAFFEY ON 2/13/17 AT 5:27 PM
Newsweek (http://europe.newsweek.com/cameroon-anglophone-problem-paul-biya-556151)
“According to the country’s constitution, both English and French are official
languages and hold “the same status.” But the majority of government, business
and administration is done in French… and residents of the Anglophone regions
have long complained of political and economic marginalization.”
Cameroon goes offline after Anglophone revolt
Kieron Monks, CNN Updated 6:57 AM ET, Fri February 3, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/africa/internet-shutdown-cameroon/
Online News of the Present Conflict in Cameroon: CAMEROONIAN BLOOD
RT News Video Jan. 31, 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXdfC3-JgAg

3. Population: 24 million (Anglophones are about 20%)
Demographics: 0-24 years (62%); 25-54 years (31%); 55-64 years (4%); 65 years
and over (3%)
Urban Population: 54% of total population; Yaounde (capital) 3.1 million; Douala
(commercial capital) 2.9 million
Religion: Catholic 38.4%, Protestant 26.3%, other Christian 4.5%, Muslim 20.9%,
animist 5.6%, other 1%, non-believer 3.2%
Legal System: English common law, French civil law, and customary law
Area: 475,440 sq km (about size of California)
Key Resources: Petroleum (40% of export earnings), Bauxite, Iron Ore, Timber
Labor Force: 9.6 million, agriculture 70%, industry 13%, services 17%
Unemployment: 30%
Population below poverty line: 48%
GDP: $30.87 billion, agriculture 21.3%, industry 30.8%, services 47.9%
Budget 2016: Revenues $4.765 billion, Expenditures $6.497 billion
Exports: China 16.7%, India 15.7%, Spain 6.2%, Belgium 6.1%, France 6.1%,
Portugal 5.6%, Netherlands 5%, Italy 5%
Imports: China 27.9%, Nigeria 13.9%, France 10.9%, Belgium 4.1%
CAMEROON
Data estimates obtained from CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cm.html

4. GOVERNMENT
President Paul Biya (1982 – Present)
Select Senior Members of Government (green tags are Anglophones)
Niat Njifenji
Senate
President
Peter Mafany Musonge
CPDM Senate
President
Cavaye Djibril
Speaker
National Assembly
Philemon Yang
Prime
Minister
Laurent Esso
Justice
Minister
Jacques Fame Ndongo
Higher Education
Minister

5. GROUPS PROTESTING THE ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM
Organizations Influencing On-Going Protests
CACSC - Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (the Consortium)
SCNC - The Southern Cameroons National Council
MoRISC - Movement for the Restoration of the Independence of Southern Cameroons
SCAPO - Southern Cameroons Peoples Organisation
SCYL - Southern Cameroons Youth League
Ambazonian Group
Select leaders of the Consortium
Agbor Balla Nkongho (lawyer)
On trial under terrorism law
Tassang Wilfred (teacher)
Hiding from arrest
Tapang Ivo Tanku
Activist based in USA
Mark Bareta
Activist based in Belgium

6. COLONIAL CAMEROON – THEATRE OF CONFLICT
NewYorkTimes-NewYorkTimes"CurrentHistory"TheEuropeanWar,Volume2No.5August
1915.DownloadedfromProjectGutenbergathttp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22460
At the outbreak of the war [World War 1] Cameroon was a
German territory like Tanganyika, South West Africa, and
Togoland. The Anglo-French grand strategy and war aims were to
seize these territories… Consequently, Cameroon became the
theater of an intense military struggle and a pawn of Anglo-
French imperial rivalry fuelled by the conflicting territorial
ambitions and claims of France and Britain. The outcome was
that both countries, after protracted and often acrimonious
negotiations over pieces of territory that were typical of 19th-
century imperialism, eventually abandoned a proposed
condominium for the joint administration of Cameroon in favor
of outright partition of the territory although Cameroonians
were absent from the negotiations.
Elango, Lovett Z. (2014) "Anglo-French Negotiations Concerning Cameroon during World War I,
1914-1916: Occupation, "Condominium" and Partition," Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy,
Pedagogy, Perspective: Vol. 9: No. 2, Article 10. page 109

7. CADASTRAL STORY OF SOUTHERN CAMEROONS
French Cameroun
British Cameroons –
two territories:
Northern Cameroons
and
Southern Cameroons
Source: http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Cameroon.html
Northern Cameroons voted
to join Nigeria on February
11, 1961
Southern Cameroons voted
federation with Cameroun
on February 11, 1961

8. CONSTITUTIONAL MILESTONES
Period Constitution Comments
Before 1884 Living customary law This is customary law practiced on a day to day basis, not the codified version
1884 to 1914 Reichstag German Law Decrees by the Kaiser applicable to entire Kamerun colony
1914 to 1960 British common law and
customary law
British common law for Europeans and Cameroonians who opted for it;
customary law for rural sector with chiefs as judge
French civil law and
customary law
French civil law for French citizens and Africans assimilated as honored citizens;
customary law for everyone else with French administrator as judge
1960 Constitution of Republic of
Cameroun
French Cameroon unitary constitution, power concentrated in the president
1961 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Cameroon
Amended 1960 Constitution; recognized Southern Cameroons as equal partner in
an aggregative federation (like USA) as opposed to segregative federation in
countries like Nigeria; president maintained very strong powers
1972 Unitary Constitution Name of country changed to United Republic of Cameroon; a star removed from
flag; beginnings of Anglophone discontent
1984 Amended 1972 Constitution Changed country’s name to Republic of Cameroun; Anglophone discontent grows
1996 Decentralized Constitution Amended in 2008 removing term limits for president
Cameroon constitutions concentrate power in the hands of the president, mirroring French colonial administrative style…
Fombad C. M. 2007. Researching Cameroonian Law, http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Cameroon.html;
Anna M. 2009. Constitutional protections in Cameroon: A critique of the amendment mechanisms, www.etd.ceu.hu/2009/malah_anna.pdf

9. LINGUA-CULTURAL FRICTION 1
Language and culture are inseparably interwoven…

10. LINGUA-CULTURAL FRICTION 2
New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world…
Lera Boroditsky in ‘Lost in Translation’, The Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2010
A particular language points to the culture of a particular social group. Learning a language,
therefore, is not only learning the alphabet, the meaning, the grammar rules and the arrangement of
words, but it is also learning the behavior of the society and its cultural customs.
Fatiha Guessabi in ‘Blurring the Line between Language and Culture’, Language Magazine, May2011,
Vol. 10 Issue 9, p18 (http://languagemagazine.com/blurring-the-line-between-language-and-culture/)
…language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality.
Kramsch C. 2009, cited by Georgia Ntai in ‘What is the relationship between language and culture?’,
TermCoord, September 24, 2015 (http://termcoord.eu/2015/09/what-is-the-relationship-between-language-and-culture/)
Cameroon has to accept the existence of lingua-cultural difference,
between Anglophones and Francophones,
in order to rise above it

11. LINGUA-CULTURAL FRICTION 3
British and French colonialism have created two cultural spheres with
unavoidable lingua-cultural friction on how Cameroon should be governed

12. CITIZENSHIP STRUGGLES
Citizenship is the ability to influence those who govern –
Ribot, J.C. 2011. Choice, recognition and the democracy effects of decentralization, Swedish
International Centre for Local Democracy, Visby, Sweden
…this has implication on social recognition, political representation and
redistribution of economic benefits in society. When a group perceives that
they are unable to influence those who govern they feel marginalized
Proven oil reserves in Cameroon is in the South West Region; Anglophones feel
they have little or no influence on national decision making about the resource
Anglophone
Regions

13. GRIDLOCK / DEADLOCK / STALEMATE
Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Piet Konings
Government solution to the Anglophone problem
Biya government has also often argued that the unitary state is a more suitable form of state
in the Cameroonian multi-ethnic context… In reply to the anglophone demand for a return to
the federal state, Biya has claimed… that this tends to be costly, weakening to state power,
and divisive… declining to discuss the federal or so-called "two-state option," he was
eventually willing to concede a certain degree of decentralization within the unitary state…
the so-called "ten state/region option." Biya's preferential option of a "decentralized unitary
state" was eventually reflected in the 1996 constitution.
Konings P. and Nyamnjoh F. B. 2004. President Paul Biya and the "Anglophone Problem“ in Cameroon, p. 217
Anglophone protest groups want either a 2-state federation or separation –
there is a deadlock between both sides!

14. RESOLVING THE DEADLOCK
Achille Mbembe
The Francophone Cameroun scholar Achille Mbembe in an article published in Le Monde
Diplomatique in 1986, commenting on the arrest of Fon Gorji Dinka for speaking about the
Anglophone problem, used the opportunity to give notice to influential powers Britain,
France, Germany and USA about the situation in Cameroon…
Mbembe A. 1986. ‘La contestation des anglophones’ https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1986/05/MBEMBE/39222
A CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION
The Anglophone problem, like other historic conflicts of the 20th
Century where there was deadlock between parties, requires skillful
international mediation and incentives, to help Cameroon find new
solutions to a colonially inherited and multi-dimensional dilemma

15. MEDIATION HELPED END APARTHEID
Students protesting against racial segregation in South Africa
Cecil Lockard, April 24, 1985
https://bdsmovement.net/sites/default/files/south%20africa%20protest.jpg
South Africa eventually ended apartheid
helped by the efforts of skillful international
mediators and negotiators
See
Robb A. 2013. The Game Theory Behind Mandela's Negotiations to End
Apartheid. New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/115877/end-apartheid-south-
africa-game-theory-and-mandela-negotiations
Moodley K. 2013. Negotiations – A tribute to the “Greatest Negotiator”. Emory
University LITS Online News https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/lits/2013/12/20/negotiate-
on-interests-not-positions/
Gounden V. and Solomon S. 2001. ‘Conflict Resolution in Africa: A Comparative
Analysis of Angola and South Africa.’ In H. R. Alker, T. Gurr, and K. Rupensinghe
(eds.), Journey through Conflict: Narratives and Lessons, pp. 179–195. Lanham,
Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.

16. LAST WORD
Cometh the man, cometh the hour…
Cliff Gladwin 1948
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/28/messages/517.html
Cameroonians hold out hope that President Paul Biya, will initiate action that will lead to
long-term equitable solution, to the longstanding Anglophone problem in Cameroon