海角大神

When Elie Smith was growing up in Cameroon鈥檚 English-speaking west, he was taught in school that he came from a proudly bilingual country聽鈥撀燼 British colony and a French colony stitched together in the 1960s to form a new and united nation.

So it came as a shock when he arrived in Douala, the country鈥檚 largest city, to take his national high school entrance exam, and found that all the test questions were in French聽鈥� with no translation. He spoke French, but for his many classmates who didn鈥檛, the exam was a humiliation.

鈥淵ou just had to guess at what was being said and try your best to answer what you hoped the question was,鈥� remembers Mr. Smith, who now works as a journalist and activist for the rights of Anglophone Cameroonians. But from then on, he says, he saw the idea of a united, bilingual nation as a myth. 鈥淭here is a reason why Anglophones consider themselves second-class citizens here,鈥� he says.

For decades, Cameroon鈥檚 dizzying diversity has been a point of intense pride for the small West African country. 鈥淎ll Africa in one country,鈥� its English-speaking residents boast of the country鈥檚 240-some ethnic groups. 鈥淟鈥橝frique en miniature,鈥� French speakers say, pointing to the country鈥檚 mountains and beaches, its deserts and its rainforests.

But since late 2016, that miniature Africa has also played host to a miniature, language-fueled version of an often-violent conflict that has long tested the continent as a whole聽鈥� over how to bridge gaps of culture and geography in countries mashed together by European colonial powers decades or centuries ago.

In Cameroon, like many countries around it, at the heart of those conflicts is a debate about political power聽鈥� who has it, who wants it, who deserves it. For decades, many countries in the region have been held together precariously by strongmen who kept the lid on dissent and minority rights. But increasingly, from the Gambia to Togo to Gabon, a new generation of activists are demanding more democratic systems, aiming to better integrate minority groups pushed to the periphery.

鈥淭he common thread here is regime fatigue,鈥� says Fonteh Akum, a senior researcher on peace and security in West Africa at the Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a move across the region to interrogate power and demonstrate in favor of a new version of the state where citizens鈥� participation is allowed and encouraged.鈥�

Unraveling at the seams

If every happy African democracy is in many ways alike聽鈥� as Tolstoy would put it聽鈥� every unhappy autocracy is unhappy in its own way. And in Cameroon鈥檚 two English-speaking regions, much of that unhappiness is drawn from the kind of experience Smith had as a teenager聽鈥� a persistent, nagging feeling that the country鈥檚 English-speaking minority weren鈥檛 the equals of their Francophone countrymen.

That feeling goes back a long way.聽聽

What is today Cameroon was, just over a century ago, Germany鈥檚 Kamerun. When the Germans lost their African colonies after World War I, the British and French chopped up the territory between them. Four decades later, at independence, the two halves were messily patched back together聽鈥� and members of the French-speaking majority quickly took the political reins. Although the government is ostensibly bilingual, language-related tensions have stalked the country ever since.

The Anglais-Francais divide cracked open most recently in the fall of 2016, when lawyers and teachers in the Anglophone regions began protesting the appointment of French speakers in their regions鈥� schools and courts. By the end of the year, police response to the protests had turned violent聽鈥� prompting a declaration of secession this October by an entity calling itself Ambazonia, a heavy-handed government crackdown against the demonstrators, and soon, a flood of refugees into neighboring Nigeria.

Last week, UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, announced that at least 10,000 English-speaking Cameroonians . Earlier this month, they warned that the number . Several prominent Anglophone activists, meanwhile, have been arrested in recent weeks聽鈥� including ten and Cameroonian-American poet Patrice Nganang, who was detained briefly in December for allegedly threatening the president聽鈥撀燼nd more than two dozen people have died in protests since the beginning of 2017. Several Cameroonian security forces have also been killed by secessionists. The national government, meanwhile, has had the internet in the region almost completely shut off for the last four months.

Fight for recognition

But if language set off this conflict, experts and activists say it ultimately shares a common root with many other African civil conflicts聽鈥� marginalized minorities trying to fight their way back into political life, after years or decades of alleged second-class status. Cameroon, which is about one-fifth Anglophone, has never had an English-speaking president, minister of finance, or minister of defense. (Of 35 ministers in the current government, ).聽And the marginalization of Anglophone regions goes beyond language and culture, residents say, pointing to between the country鈥檚 largely French-speaking East and English-speaking West.

President Paul Biya, born in what was then French Cameroons, has been in power since 1982聽鈥� which, after former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe鈥檚 ouster in December 2017, makes Mr. Biya the continent鈥檚 second-longest-lasting dictator. In 聽last year, the president blamed loss of life on 鈥渆xtremist rioters.鈥�

鈥淒o I need to repeat this?鈥� he asked. 鈥淐ameroon is one and indivisible! It shall so remain.鈥�

But Anglophones鈥櫬爏ense of being outsiders has been compounded by the government鈥檚 brutal crackdown on activists, says Ilaria Allegrozzi, a researcher with Amnesty International who studies Cameroon. At least 17 people reportedly died in a single day during protests in October, following Ambazonia鈥檚 declaration of independence, and .

鈥淚f there鈥檚 such a heavy-handed response to crisis that could otherwise be addressed through dialogues, through development, through education聽鈥� that鈥檚 just a game that the government will ultimately lose,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t will only increase the disillusionment of communities and push people to join armed groups [fighting for Anglophone independence].鈥�

For many young Cameroonians, however, the battle is less for independence than recognition, says Smith.

鈥淭his conflict is cyclical, but this time there鈥檚 been a new element injected into it, which is that we have a president who鈥檚 been in power for more than 30 years,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a feeling that maybe if new leadership comes up, they will be more open to looking at the grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians.鈥�

鈥淚 believe that.鈥�