Cameroon: President Biya’s Appointment with the Anglophone Spring

By Mwalimu George Ngwane*

In an interview granted me by The Rambler newspaper of November 28th 2016, I made the following observation:

“There is a need for constructive dialogue as recommended by the African Court on Human and Peoples rights which as far back as 2009 stated in Article 215 of the Banjul Declaration that the Cameroon government enters into constructive dialogue with Anglophone pressure groups. Lest I forget the Special Rapporteur for Minority Rights at the UN Rita Ndiaye made a country visit to Cameroon in 2010 and also issued a report which contains the Anglophone problem. And in all of these we have not even heard the President Biya’s voice like we did in the Eseka train crash. My conclusion is that it was time Mr Biya made a public statement on the Anglophone problem and urgently too.”

Biya’s 2016 end of year speech was close to addressing what has now escalated into an Anglophone spring or a West Cameroon Renaissance, but unfortunately fell short as deconstructed in the following five D factors of speaking to the historical and socio-political realities of our fifty-six years of coexistence.