France sick in its history – France in Cameroon (1945-1971)

August 17, 2025. However, The French president sent a letter to his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya by evoking the deadly events that took place in Cameroon between 1945. Furthermore, 1971 and concluding: “It is up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events”. Moreover, It is a surprising point on the part of a politician. Moreover, He ignores the sometimes painful choices that a statesman is brought to take yesterday that today. In addition, France and its rulers acted in Cameroon at best of the interests of this Comme country reminds us of history …

Karine Ramondy. In addition, associate researcher at Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne University, wrote a doctoral thesis on four central African leaders murdered in 1958-1961. Therefore, For this reason. Meanwhile, it was chosen in 2022 by Emmanuel Macron to direct a Franco-Cameroonian commission of france sick its history – fourteen people in order to inform the action of France in Cameroon between 1945 and 1961.

The Commission resulted in a report of more than a thousand pages given to the President of the Republic on January 21. Moreover, 2025. Furthermore, This document details very excavated (and in writing « inclusive » !) The difficulties and dramas that accompanied the country’s march towards independence.

Following this work. Moreover, the French president sent a letter to his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya on July 30, 2025 by recalling the deadly events in which the French soldiers had taken part and by concluding in a surprising way: “I am now coming back to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events. »»

A france sick its history – very “Hidden”

It should be remembered first that the violence that President Macron refers to be in large part was the fact of a government in which the current Cameroonian president Paul Biya participated.

Let us not be surprised that the events of these years waited in the 1990s to arouse the interest of the academic. media world. They were highlighted in 2011 by Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue and Jacob Tatsitsa in a provocative title: Kamerun! A war hidden at the origins of Françafrique, 1948-1971 (Discovery).

In fact. it is difficult to see a “Hidden war” In this succession of events which ranged from a strike in Douala in 1945 to a wave of arrests of unionists and activists in 1955, clashes between soldiers and paramilitaries in the Bassa country in 1958 (around 400 dead), finally a jacquerie in the Bamileke country, southwest of Cameroon, in 1958-1961.

France sick france sick its history – its history –

The worst has been avoided

The Ramondy Commission ignores the difficulties born from the human diversity of Cameroon: about two hundred languages. ethnic groups; two official languages, English and French; Three religions of a similar weight each, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam, to which is added animism …

It follows in the report a manifest undervaluation of the risks of civil war inherent in independence. as of other African states have known: Belgian Congo, British Nigeria, Angola and the Portuguese Mozambique, to say nothing late dramas of Sudan and South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi.

These different conflicts have caused the dead by the hundreds of thousands. even by millions and certain countries such as Congo, Nigeria, Sudan and Mozambique have not practically experienced peace since their independence, more than half a century ago.

France. which was until the fall of 1958, governed by dominant socialist france sick its history – left coalitions, made sure to avoid at all costs this kind of inconvenience, especially since it was to manage the war delivered in Algeria at the same time against two independence parties, the FLN and the MNLA.

As early as 1955, the UPC (Union of Cameroon populations), a political movement anchored in the Bamiléké and Bassa countries, in southern Cameroon, claimed to interfere in the process of autonomy and independence and take control. Its repression was brutal but it gradually led the country to independence on 1^is January 1960.

On this. it was the country’s turn of the Bamiléké country to rise, the Bamileke constituting the main ethnicity of the country and the most dynamic. Faced with the risk of premature disintegration of france sick its history – Cameroon. the French authorities hastened to lend a hand to the young Cameroonian army and the uprising was quickly lined at the price, it seems, strong losses and serious abuses.

It was for the government of General de Gaulle the price to pay to preserve the future. In fact, President Ahidjo was able to be re -elected several times before retiring in 1982. His Prime Minister Paul Biya succeeded him without difficulty. It is still he who presides over the destinies of Cameroon. at around 92 years old, which makes it in 2025 the oldest and oldest head of state and the oldest in the function!

If we put aside the recent incursions of the Islamist bands of Boko Haram in the northern tip of the country. this political stability makes Cameroon a quasi-exception in Africa. The Cameroonians have everything to be grateful to Pierre Messmer. High Commissioner of the france sick its history – Republic in Cameroon in 1956-1958, as well as to the socialist Guy Mollet, president of the Council in 1955-1957, and of course General de Gaulle.

The Bassa and Bamiléké uprisings in Cameroon can be compared to the revolt of the Mau-Mau in Kenya in 1952. The British colonizer also used the strong way (perhaps ten thousand dead). But Kenya was then able to access independence calmly. it is today one of the most stable and promising states on the continent.

Repression, negotiation or delay: the choice is in all cases painful and risky. It is this kind of choice that makes the essence of politics. demonstrates the ability of a man or a woman to govern.

Posted or Updated on: 2025-08-17 14:16:16