An eye into Cameroon's Anglophone Problem

The Anglophone Problem is real and can be traced back to Cameroon's colonial masters. This problem is socio-political and not just a language crisis as it is being portrayed in recent times.

In other, for the young English-speaking Cameroonians - who suffer the most from this problem in recent times - to understand what is happening around them a good mastery or knowledge of Cameroon's history is of great importance.

The link below provides a comprehensive article on the history of the Anglophone Problem.
Anglophone Problem full article.

Was Cameroon once a federal state? An insight into what transpired during the Foumban Conference is impedient.

"The Foumban Conference of July 17–21, 1961[edit]

The purpose of the Foumban Constitutional Conference was to create a constitution for the new Federal state of British Southern Cameroon and La République du Cameroun. The conference brought together representatives from La République du Cameroun, including Amadou Ahidjo, their president, with representatives from Southern Cameroons.^[6] Two weeks before the Foumban Conference, there were reports that more than one hundred people were killed by terrorists in Loum, Bafang, Ndom, and Douala.^[7] The reports worried unification advocates who wanted British Cameroon to unify with French Cameroun.^[7] For the conference, the location of Foumban had been carefully chosen to make Ahidjo, appear as if he had everything under control. Mr. Mbile, a Southern Cameroonian representative at the conference noted, "Free from all the unrest that had scared Southern Cameroonians, the Francophone authorities had picked the place deliberately for the occasion. The entire town had been exquisitely cleaned up and houses splashed with whitewash. Food was good and receptions lavish. The climate in Foumban real or artificial went far to convince us that despite the stories of 'murder and fire,' there could be at least this island of peace, east of the Mungo."^[6]

Before the Foumban Conference, all the parties in Southern Cameroons, the Native Authority Councils, and the traditional leaders attended the Bamenda Conference.^[8] This conference decided on a common proposal to present when negotiations with La République du Cameroun arrived. Among many things, the Bamenda Conference agreed on a non-centralized federation to ensure there was a distinction between the powers of the states and the powers of the federation.^[8] Most of the proposals from the Bamenda Conference were ignored by Ahidjo.^[8] Some of these proposals included having a bicameral legislature and decentralizing power, but instead, a unicameral system was established with a centralized system of power.^[6]

At the Foumban conference, Ahidjo presented delegates with a draft constitution. By the end of the conference, instead of creating an entirely new constitution, the contributions of the Southern Cameroons delegates were reflected in suggestions made to the draft initially presented to them.^[8] John Ngu Foncha and Ahidjo intended for the Foumban Constitutional Conference to be brief, however, delegates left the three-day conference with the impression that there would be sequential conferences to continue the drafting of the constitution.^[6][8] Mbile later noted, "We may have done more if we had spent five months instead of five days in writing our constitution at Foumban."^[1] The Constitution for the new Federal Republic was agreed in Yaoundé in August 1961, between Ahidjo and Foncha, pending approval by the House of Assembly of the two states.^[8] In the end, the West Cameroon House of Assembly never ratified the Constitution.^[8] However, on October 1, 1961, the Federal Republic of Cameroon nevertheless came to fruition.^[8]

On May 6, 1972, Ahidjo announces his decision to convert the Federal Republic into a unitary state, on the provision that the idea was supported via referendum.^[2] This suggestion violated the articles in the Foumban document that read: 'any proposal for the revision of the present constitution, which impairs the unity and integrity of the Federation shall be inadmissible,' and 'proposals for revision shall be adopted by simple majority vote of the members of the Federal Assembly, provided that such majority includes a majority of the representatives ... of each of the Federated States,'... not through referendum.^[2] Such violations easily allowed for the passing of the referendum that turned the Federal Republic into the United Republic of Cameroon.^[2] Taking into account these actions, the evidence shows that the Francophone's intentions may have not been to form a federal state, but rather to annex Southern Cameroons and not treat them as equals.^[4] In 1984, Ahidjo's successor, Paul Biya, replaced the name "United Republic of Cameroon" with "La République du Cameroun," the same name francophone Cameroon had before federation talks.^[9] With changes in the Constitution of 1996, reference to the existence of a territory called the British Southern Cameroons that had a "functioning self-government and recognized international boundaries" was essentially erased.^[9]"