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Text: Ferdin
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There is one country in Africa, near the equator, but it has hail, it has a huge agricultural scale, but the industrial level is struggling, and this country is Cameroon.
As one of the many countries in Central Africa, Cameroon's economic development is actually excellent, and even though its industrial development is relatively late, it is still known as the "economic breadbasket" of Central Africa.
In 2009, U.S. news magazines ranked Cameroon's multi-term president, Paul Biya, the world's 19th dictator, and in 2017, the United Nations declared Cameroon one of the world's most neglected countries in humanitarian crisis.
Obviously, we can get a glimpse from this information that Cameroon has many contradictions in its country, and it is clear that Cameroon is a country that is developing steadily and well, but there is a serious hidden danger of humanitarian crisis.
What is the internal situation in Cameroon, why is there such a serious humanitarian crisis, how much has its development been affected, and what is the future of Cameroon?
(Mountainous Cameroon)
The beginning of chaos - Anglo-French imperialist colonization
Like many other African countries, Cameroon suffered from colonial invasions by Western imperialist powers in modern times.
Portugal was the first to pry open the door to Cameroon, when a ship from Portugal sailed into Cameroon in 1947, thus exposing Cameroon to the Western imperialist powers.
(Cameroon, Central Africa)
In 1911, the German invaders occupied Cameroon and began to rule the region, but with Germany's defeat in World War I, Britain and France took Cameroon and divided it.
France mainly colonized the eastern part of Cameroon, and Britain ruled the western region, and on this basis, Britain divided it into Northern Cameroon and Southern Cameroon, and Cameroon was divided into three parts for a time.
After World War II, the Cameroonian people rebelled for independence, and finally French Cameroon became independent in 1960, followed by the British-ruled region a year later.
However, Britain played some tricks, first holding referendums in the north and south of the country, guaranteeing so-called "fairness, legality, and democracy", and finally the northern region was annexed to Nigeria in the west and Cameroon in the south.
(Red for Nigeria, light red for English-speaking Cameroon, blue for French-speaking Cameroon)
Although Cameroon successfully achieved independence, the northwestern region was divided into Nigerian territory, and the loss of part of the territory was unacceptable, and more seriously, the former British and former French territories were already separated under years of colonial rule.
In post-independence Cameroon, the former French region accounted for about four-fifths of the area, while the former British region accounted for only one-fifth, and the language of the two regions was not the same, one was French and the other was English.
Therefore, according to the language difference between the two regions, Cameroon is also divided into the English-speaking and French-speaking areas, the French-speaking area is independent before the English-speaking area, and the area is larger, so it is natural that its status in Cameroon is higher than that of the English-speaking area.
And this is exactly what Western capitalist countries like Britain want to see - because of the differences in language and other aspects between regions, which eventually leads to unequal cultural and political exchanges, which makes Cameroon a serious risk of division.
As Britain had hoped, Cameroon continues to haunt it to this day.
(Presidency of Cameroon)
At the beginning of Cameroon's independence, there was actually a honeymoon period between the English-speaking and French-speaking areas, and Cameroon was still called the "Federal Republic of Cameroon" at that time, indicating that the status of the English-speaking and French-speaking areas was equal.
In the seventies, the Bronze Medal of the Government of Cameroon was renamed the "United Republic of Cameroon", abolishing the previous federal system, with the obvious intention that the English-speaking community would no longer have an equal status with the French-speaking community, but would gradually be assimilated by the French-speaking community.
Since then, separatist demonstrations and riots have gradually erupted in Cameroon, and to this day, Cameroon has not been able to effectively avoid hostilities between the East and the West, and the English-speaking region has never been assimilated into the French-speaking region, and Cameroon is always at risk of secession.
Colonialism led to cultural antagonism
Why has it always been difficult for Cameroon to truly assimilate the English-speaking and French-speaking regions, and why are the people of these two regions hostile?
(Cameroonian Traditional Houses)
After the First World War, after the division of Cameroon between Britain and France, the rulers of the two countries began to implement two completely different sets of governing schemes, and quickly carried out assimilation actions.
The most intuitive is the language difference, the British measures are more cultural, while promoting the use of English, while supporting the indigenous language of the local people, so in addition to the widespread use of English in Western Cameroon, Cameroonian pidgin English was also born as a combination of languages.
France is very tough and vigorously spreads French, so East Cameroon is almost everywhere in French, so even if Cameroon becomes independent after that, the contradiction between English and French will exist for a long time.
In terms of culture, Britain is also relatively moderate, so the colonized people of West Cameroon are well aware that they are using and being used by the British, but West Cameroon has been completely invaded by French culture and has a sense of belonging to French fashion.
In terms of administration, Britain was similarly moderate, with some democratic freedoms and a degree of autonomy in Western Cameroon, while there were almost no democratic freedoms in Eastern Cameroon under French rule.
(Comparison of the colonial system of Cameroon by Britain and France)
In short, the British and French colonial policies towards Cameroon were very different, resulting in huge cultural, linguistic and political differences between the two regions, which would inevitably become a major challenge for Cameroon's development in the future.
After Cameroon's independence, because Eastern Cameroon, that is, the French-speaking region, had a larger territorial area and was independent earlier than the English-speaking region, the distribution of power and benefits between the eastern and western states was extremely unequal, and the English-speaking people began to be dissatisfied.
Cameroon's first president, Ashicho, was governed by a philosophy of centralization, so during his tenure, Western Cameroon's autonomy was weakened, and many of the local democratic parties were dissolved.
(Cameroon's first President, Ashicho)
Paulobia's successful assumption of the presidency after a bloody political struggle has strengthened Paulbia's sense of centralization more than Ashijo, not only changing the state system, but also directly changing the national system, and the equality between the East and the West has existed in name only.
According to the 2014 edition of the Top 500 African Companies published by Young Africa magazine, we know that Cameroon's top executives are almost exclusively from the French-speaking region, and English-speaking Cameroonians have little opportunity to enter the core level.
In other words, English-speaking Cameroonians are inferior to French-speaking Cameroonians in the workplace, which also shows the blatant discrimination of French-speaking Cameroonians against English-speaking communities.
(Current President of Cameroon, Paulbia)
All in all, it was the historical legacy brought about by the British and French colonization that led to the intractable division in Cameroon, and these asymmetrical relations are also destroying Cameroon's development and humanitarianism.
Imbalance with stop loss
The asymmetry between the eastern and western regions of Cameroon has directly affected Cameroon's domestic economic development and even caused a humanitarian crisis.
As mentioned above, the English-speaking region has not been treated fairly economically, and the inequality of resources and policies has led to a gradual widening of the economic development gap between the two sides, and even the enthusiasm for economic development in Western Cameroon is gradually declining.
In 2014, Cameroon counted the country's poverty situation, and there are many "big poor provinces" in the western part of the English-speaking region, which the English-speaking Cameroonian people believe are all caused by the central government's negligence, because development resources are skewed towards the French-speaking region.
(Prevalence of poverty by province in Cameroon in 2014)
In fact, as early as the early days of the establishment of the federal government of Cameroon, the English-speaking region was discontinued due to the monetary reform implemented in the country, which led to the cessation of the use of the western pound sterling, which directly caused the loss of wealth of the people in the English-speaking region and became the victims of the domestic currency reform in Cameroon.
After the overall impact on Cameroon's national economy, the government had to invest more energy in the English-speaking region, but because of the unequal resources, it had little effect, and the economic development fell into a dead circle.
On the other hand, due to the unequal relationship between the English-speaking and French-speaking regions, many protests have erupted in the English-speaking areas, with 2017 being the most far-reaching and costly.
From 2016 to 2020, protests in the English-speaking areas gradually spiraled out of control, with thousands of protesters and government soldiers opening fire on the people.
Extremist separatists have even begun to lead the population to divide Cameroon and fight for the independence of the Anglophone region, and have staged violent armed attacks, while the government forces have countered violence with violence, greatly aggravating the situation.
(Cameroon's main trading partners in 2017)
In the English-speaking region, more than 1.3 million people are already in need of humanitarian assistance, more than 500,000 people have been displaced, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries.
For a time, Cameroon was in danger of territorial division.
The best way to stop the loss is for the government to immediately formulate relevant policies to appease the mood of the people in the English-speaking areas, ensure equal relations between the regions, and in addition, vigorously develop the economy to ensure the livelihood of the people.
Foreign trade occupies an important position in Cameroon's economic development, and the mainland is one of Cameroon's largest trading partners.
epilogue
The colonial rule of Cameroon by Britain and France in modern times has laid a hidden danger for it for a hundred years, which is still difficult to eradicate today, and even shows signs of intensification.
The Cameroonian government should proceed from history, take the history of the mainland as a reference, sum up governance measures that suit its own national conditions, and do its utmost to eliminate the asymmetrical relationship between the English-speaking and French-speaking regions and promote peace and reunification between the two sides.
Bibliography:
Cameroon: the "breadbasket of the economy" of the Central African subregion_Michel Berdán Mejou Mejú
Analysis of the causes of social crisis in English-speaking Cameroon_Bai Yanyuan