National Security Journal
THE TREATY
Macron Might Have Opened a ‘Pandora’s Box’ in Cameroon.
By Michael Rubin
On June 24, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise Palestine as an independent state in September; he may have unwittingly jump-started the fight for a new state more than 2,250 miles away.
Africa, of course, is filled with states whose arbitrary boundaries reflect colonial divisions. The legacy of most states is a single colonial power. That was the case with French West Africa and the Sahel, for example, or the British colonies lying along the continent’s Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts. Other territories changed colonial masters. Germany lost Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi after World War I, with South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium taking over various German possessions as war booty. In a few cases, multiple European states colonized different parts of the same territory. France and Spain divided up Morocco, for example, with Spain carving out territories on its north coast and creating the Western Sahara out of whole cloth.
The Cameroon Crisis?
Cameroon is the other former colony that had two colonial masters. Germany colonized Cameroon in 1884 as Berlin plunged into the “scramble for Africa.” After World War I, Great Britain and France took responsibility for different portions of the territory
. The British administered a strip of land alongside Nigeria, while the French ran the rest of the territory. When French Cameroun gained independence in 1960, the British-run trusteeship initially resisted joining Cameroun.
Ultimately, the northern section of the British region joined Nigeria, while “Southern Cameroons” joined the former French portion on the condition that Cameroon would be a federal republic, with the Francophone and Anglophone regions being co-equals.
Cameroon and its backers in the French government broke their promise, dissolving the country’s federalism and subjugating its English speakers. While the French speakers enjoyed relative privilege, the Cameroonian government descended into dictatorship and repressed the entire population. Since its 1960 independence, the country has had only two presidents: Ahmadou Ahidjo, who ruled until 1982, and the now 92-year-old Paul Biya, who remains the titular president.
In reality, it appears the French embassy in Yaounde and a small coterie of Biya aides run the country while Biya languishes in a French hospital where rumours circulate he has Alzheimer’s or dementia. Under Macron, the French government has been particularly cynical, propping up Biya in return for the Cameroonian dictator signing off on multimillion-dollar purchases of French military equipment.
What Happens Next?
Almost a decade ago, Cameroon’s Anglophones had had enough: Teachers, lawyers, and civil society activists took to the streets.
Repression skyrocketed. English-speakers suffered arbitrary arrest, torture, and worse. Biya’s French-backed regime has reportedly killed thousands and displaced more than a million. Rather than acquiesce to repression, Cameroon’s Anglophones fought back and now demand their own country—Ambazonia. Macron’s government has demanded that European states blacklist and repress Ambazonia activists in other countries. Lucas Ayaba Cho, for example, remains imprisoned in Norway.
France may demand Cameroon stay unified, but Macron cannot have it both ways. The Ambazonians have always had a legitimate claim to independence; they are culturally distinct and have a particular territory that is larger than the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as well as African countries like the Gambia or Equatorial Guinea. At least until Hamas launched its war on October 7, 2023, Israel was more generous and accommodating of Palestinians than Cameroon or France have been of Ambazonians or, for that matter, Nigeria has been of Biafrans.
Macron has set the precedent; there can only be two explanations if he does not extend it to Ambazonia. Either anti-Semitism motivates his embrace of Hamas and desire to punish Israel, or racism leads him to conclude Ambazonian Africans do not deserve the same status he bestows on those with whiter skin.
Either way, it is time for the Palais de l’Élysée to explain and rectify its hypocrisy.
About the Author: Dr. Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum. The opinions and views expressed are his own. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Macron Might Have Opened a ‘Pandora’s Box’ in Cameroon.
