The anglophone problem in Cameroon yesterday and today in search of a definition

Abstract

Since September 2017, the English-speaking peoples of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon have been subjected to unprecedented repression of genocidal dimension by the Biya regime that needs to be unpacked. What precisely led to this ugly situation which has come to be known as “the Anglophone problem?” This article sets out to lucidly capture the Anglophone problem in such a way that it is seen as a legitimate, legal, authentic and concrete statehood problem deserving national and international attention. I therefore posit cogently that the Anglophone problem is a nationhood issue that emerged after unification with the Francophone Cameroun Republic in 1961. The problem is caused by the systematic and unilateral attempts by the hegemonic Francophone regime, within the Jacobin logic, to dismantle the statehood identity of Anglophone Cameroon since 1961. By steadily destroying the Anglophone state through multiple dubious mechanisms, Anglophone fell prey to Francophone colonization, militarization, marginalization and assimilation. The birth of the self-proclaimed Anglophone state of Ambazonia in 2017 is the apotheosis of the statehood crisis.