Origins of the Anglophone Crisis
The first permanent European settlement on the mainland in the region was founded in 1858 by British Baptist Missionary Alfred Saker as a haven for freed slaves.
The Germans, who had established substantial trading centers to the southeast on the Wouri River delta (modern Douala), and the British, who had extensive interests to the west in Nigeria, both raced to sign agreements with local rulers.
Dissatisfaction with these agreements led to the brief Douala War in 1884, in which Germany assisted its local allies in winning, essentially cementing its colonial position in Cameroon and by 1887 Britain had abandoned its claims in the region.
German administration was focused on establishing plantations for cash crops, and improving transportation and communication infrastructure to bring products and natural resources swiftly to ports and thence to Europe.
Allied naval superiority allowed the swift capture of the Cameroonian coast, cutting the Germans off from reinforcement or resupply.
[6] In 1957, United Nations Resolutions 1064 (XI) of 26 Feb 1957 and 1207 (XII) of Dec 13, 1957 called on the Administering Authorities to hasten arrangements for Trust territories to attain self-governance or independence.
In 1958, the Southern Cameroons attained the status of a full autonomous region of the Nigerian Federation and Endeley's official title accordingly changed to Premier.
[9] The United Nations initiated discussions with French Cameroun on the terms of association of Southern Cameroons if the outcome of the plebiscite was in favour of a federation of the two countries.
[15] At the time, the people of former British Cameroon expected that the future state would provide "sufficient political and cultural autonomy".
Placing the blame for Cameroon's underdevelopment and poorly implemented public policies on the federal structure and arguing that managing separate governments in a poor country was too expensive, he announced a referendum on a new constitution, which did away with the federal structure in favor of a unitary state and granted more power to the President.
In early 1985, Anglophone lawyer and President of the Cameroon Bar Association Fon Gorji Dinka circulated a number of essays and pamphlets arguing that the Biya government was unconstitutional and calling for an independent state, the "Republic of Ambazonia".
meant to promote adequate regional representation in government and its services have been revised or changed at the expense of those who stood for TRUTH and justice.
...In 1993, the "All Anglophone Conference" took place in Buea bringing together all Southern Cameroons citizens who called for the restoration of the federal system.
[32] Although the government established a commission to focus on Anglophone grievances and took steps to address issues of language equity in courts and schools, continued distrust and harsh responses to protests prevented significant deescalation.
[34] The Cameroonian government stated that the declaration had no legal weight[35] and on November 30, 2017, the President of Cameroon signaled a harder line on separatist attacks on police and soldiers.
Several different armed factions have emerged such as the Red Dragons, Tigers, ARA, Seven Kata, ABL, with varying levels of coordination with and loyalty to Ambazonian political leaders.
[40] This view was mirrored by Felix Agbor Nkongho, a human rights lawyer and member of the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC).
Agbor Nkongho maintained that the protests were initially peaceful and only intended to "draw attention to the international community to what we were going through as a people".
Despite being officially bilingual, the Cameroonian administration and public life have traditionally favored those speaking French, resulting in a growing sense among Anglophones that they were being reduced to a "second-class citizenship" and existing in a "coloniality".
[40] For instance, human rights advocate Kah Walla pointed out that the entrance exam of Caneroon's École Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrature was only in French until 2017, with most Anglophone applicants being eliminated.
[42] The belief in marginalization developed over the course of several decades, causing sporadic protests and opposition which were suppressed by Ahmadou Ahidjo's and Paul Biya's governments.
[40][17] Researcher Alex Purcell also argued that the radical Ambazonian movement was rooted in the long-time dissatisfaction of Anglophones due to insufficient public service, corruption, a lack of development, electoral irregularities, inept governance, austerity, and high unemployment.
For instance, the "Ambazonian Broadcasting Co-operation" spread much propaganda and misinformation in 2017, greatly contributing to the growing anger of Anglophones.
