The Anglophone Question and Postcolonial Hegemony in Cameroon

The Anglophone Question & Postcolonial Hegemony in Cameroon: The Past that Did Not Pass is a comprehensive collection of essays and analyses that explore the historical, colonial, postcolonial, legal, and international relations aspects of the politico-cultural and linguistic crisis between the English-speaking former British Southern Cameroons (now divided into the Northwest and Southwest regions), and the French-speaking majority of the former French Cameroon, la République du Cameroun. This conflict has shaken Cameroon to its core since the 1990s and led to an armed conflict between the government of Cameroon and Anglophone non-state armed groups. The premise of this book is that the Anglophone Question, the problematic situation of the muted English and Pidgin-speaking minority in French Cameroon, is one of the unfinished items of business of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, that resolved the conflicts of that great conflict. The Anglophone conflict has been exacerbated by the authoritarian republican chieftaincy that was installed in Cameroon after independence and reunification. This neo-patrimonial, kleptocratic regime of Cameroon, has, with the support of its international partners, emphasized the argument of force rather than the force of argument, thereby creating yet another frozen African conflict.

"The Anglophone Question cannot vanish by some political maneuver, as Cameroon's senile nonagenarian president has done over the decades, with his ossified knee excruciatingly painful on the nation's neck. That is my takeaway after reading this insightful, well-argued, exhaustively researched, highly intellectualized, yet practical compendium of chapters that bear an unapologetic witness to the horrific Anglophone Problem. I celebrate the authors' fearlessness, articulation and lucid presentation as the establishment continues to seal its ears with candle wax. I'll reverse President Paul Biya's mantra and say: Rule 1: There is an Anglophone Problem. Rule 2: When in doubt, consult Rule 1." -Uche Onyebadi, PhD, Texas Christian University, Texas, USA