Two Tongues, One Wound: How Cameroon Became Both Anglophone and Francophone

If you ask a Cameroonian today whether they speak French or English, the answer might come with a heavy sigh or a sharp opinion. Because in Cameroon, language isn’t just a tool of communication. It’s a residual colonial tool of division that still shapes who gets to belong.

Many outsiders assume that Cameroon’s bilingual status is the embodiment of unity. But what exists today—a country divided along colonial language lines—is more the result of convenience for foreign powers than a conscious choice by its people. The deep tensions between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians were seeded by two European colonisers who divided the region for their own interests, without laying the groundwork for coexistence.

Carving Up Cameroon

Before the European colonial powers struck, the region now known as Cameroon was occupied by multiple independent kingdoms. But in 1884, as part of the infamous Scramble for Africa, Germany annexed these independent territories into one colony and called it ‘Kamerun’. But Germany’s grip on the colony didn’t last long, on account of the Allies, an international military coalition comprising the British Empire, France and Russia. Germany lost to the coalition in 1916 (during World War I) and consequently, Kamerun was carved up like war loot. Three years later, the League of Nations handed about 80% of the territory to France (what would become French Cameroon) and the remaining slice to Britain. The latter administrative zone was divided into Northern British Cameroons and Southern British Cameroons, collectively known as British Cameroons.

The British didn’t bother setting up a separate colonial administration for their slice of Cameroon. Instead, they folded British Cameroons into Nigeria and ruled it from Lagos. This worked since the two discontinuous strips of land were along the Nigerian border. In keeping with the indirect rule system they used in Nigeria, Anglophone Cameroonians were administered using local chiefs, common law, and English-style education. On the other hand, their Francophone counterparts were governed from Yaoundé with a centralised French judicial system and assimilationist education model.

It was a recipe for future friction: two peoples, living side by side, but trained to think, govern, and live in entirely different ways.

The False Promise of Reunification

When the winds of independence swept across Africa in the late 1950s and 60s, the United Nations stepped in. French Cameroon had gained independence on 1^st January 1960, leaving the British Cameroons behind. On 11^th February 1961, the UN organised a referendum that offered British Cameroonians two options: join Nigeria or reunify with the former French Cameroon (now the Republic of Cameroon). Notably, a third option—full independence—was off the table.

In the referendum, 60% of voters in Northern Cameroons voted for union with Nigeria, while 70% of voters in the Southern Cameroons voted for union with the former French Cameroon. Consequently, Northern Cameroons became part of Northern Nigeria while the Southern Cameroons became part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon on 1^st October 1961. The latter union was a federated state, in which the former Southern Cameroons was now known as ‘West Cameroon’.

However, the hopes of equal partnership were dashed quickly. Rather than forming a true federation, President Ahmadou Ahidjo and his French advisers effectively absorbed the Anglophone regions into a centralised state. This decision was borne out of the fear that Southern Cameroons would secede from the union, taking away their natural resources with them.

By 1972, the federal structure had been scrapped entirely, replaced by a unitary system dominated by Francophones. Pro-independence groups claimed that this was effectively an unconstitutional annexation of the Southern Cameroons. Ahidjo’s successor, Paul Biya only centralised the administration further when he got into power in 1982.

The Consequences of a Linguistic Divide

In the decades that followed reunification, Anglophone Cameroonians were increasingly sidelined. They were poorly represented in government, the judiciary, and civil service. French emerged as the dominant language of administration, and even in English-speaking regions, national exams were often set in French.

Tensions escalated as Anglophone institutions—schools, courts, and administrative systems—were gradually eroded. Francophone civil servants were assigned to Anglophone areas without proper language training. Meanwhile, English-speaking teachers and magistrates were replaced by French-speaking counterparts, deepening feelings of exclusion.

By the early 2000s, political and cultural tensions had seriously escalated. Anglophone lawyers and educators raised alarms about systemic neglect and the increasing dominance of French-language norms. Activists reignited calls for a return to federalism, and some began advocating for full secession. Although initially ignored by the broader public and state institutions, these movements laid the foundation for a larger crisis.

In 2016, peaceful protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the appointment of French-speaking professionals in their regions sparked a harsh government crackdown. Security forces responded with violence, internet shutdowns, and mass arrests across the Northwest and Southwest.

This repression gave rise to separatist sentiment. A once fringe concept—the independent state of ‘Ambazonia’—gained widespread support. Coined in 1985 by political activist Fon Gorji Dinka, the idea of the secessionist state now resonated with many.

By 2017, the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) and the Interim Government of Ambazonia declared independence. The government’s military response tipped the country into a low-intensity civil war. Separatist militias began attacking security forces, state institutions, and schools, while the military was accused of widespread abuses including extrajudicial killings and razing villages.

As of 2023, the Anglophone Crisis has displaced over 500,000 people within Cameroon and forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in Nigeria. Dialogue initiatives have failed to yield a resolution. In many affected regions, schools remain closed and daily life is shaped by fear—marked by kidnappings, roadblocks, and military raids.

What began as a call for equitable treatment under a bilingual constitution has morphed into one of the most entrenched and violent separatist movements in post-colonial Africa.

Lingering Colonial Ghosts

What’s striking is how much of this crisis is rooted not in tribalism or religion, but in colonial bureaucracy. Germany may have planted the flag, but it was France and Britain who sowed the real division: creating parallel systems with no plan for integration.

In his 2004 analysis, scholar George Echu notes how even after decades of coexistence, Cameroon’s legal, educational, and administrative systems remain fractured along colonial lines. Instead of blending into a unique Cameroonian identity, the two systems exist in awkward parallel—competing rather than complementing each other.

The Way Forward

Resolving the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon isn’t just about ceasefires and negotiations. It requires a genuine reckoning with the country’s colonial past—a past in which external powers treated Cameroon not as a people, but as property to be divided and ruled.

It means reimagining what unity should look like: not forced assimilation, but equitable coexistence. It means reforming education, law, and governance to reflect the country’s true bilingual heritage, not just on paper, but in practice.

Until the nation’s scars are properly treated, language in Cameroon will remain not a bridge, but a battleground.