No Country For Old Dictators: Paul Biya, the Anglophone Crisis, and the Political Economy of Cameroon

Wealth of Nations Podcast

On October 7th 2018, Cameroon held elections for the presidency of the country. The ruling CPDM party won an overwhelming victory, but few consider them anywhere near free and fair. Paul Biya, the 87 year old leader of the country will serve as president of Cameroon for another 7 years. Paul Biya has been either president of prime minister of Cameroon for the last 44 years. His rule has seen the steady deterioration of Cameroon’s economy, and the buildup of political crises in almost every region of the country. Today’s podcast episode will be exploring the growing crisis situation in Cameroon. In part one, I will discuss the collapse of the patronage networks that tied regional elites to the central government. In part two, I will discuss the resentment the government can no longer soothe, especially in the English speaking regions of the country. Finally, in part three I will discuss the crisis of leadership that has made it impossible for the government to react in an adequate manner.
In 1884, representatives from the major European powers gathered in Berlin to partition sub-Saharan Africa into their respective empires. The territory that is today Cameroon largely fell into the German sphere of influence, only to be divided between the United Kingdom and France after World War I, and finally reunited after independence. The modern state of Cameroon combines former British territories deeply attached to the English language and the common law, northern territories with deep Islamic roots, heavily commercialized societies in the western grasslands, and foreign dwellers with no tradition of modern states. It is a state with little coherence even by the standards of sub-Saharan Africa. In order to control this hodgepodge of territories, the first leader of independent Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, centralized political power in his hands. The central government directly controlled monopolies on the purchase of cash crops such as rubber and cocoa, and above all rents extracted from Cameroon’s oil reserves. So long as commodity prices were high, the government was able to generate rapid rates of growth. Regional elites benefited from the state offering high paying jobs in the bureaucracy, generous deals for contractors controlled by family members of politicians, and other means of redirecting wealth to the privileged. Over the last decades, the global price for cocoa and oil have declined, and Cameroon’s oil production has declined from 190,000 barrels of oil per day to 105,000 barrels of oil per day as the countries oil reserves are drying out. As the resources at the command of the state have lessened, the patronage networks necessary for maintaining the loyalty of regional elites, once forgotten conflicts have returned with a vengeance.
The three primary conflicts facing Cameroon today are the rising tensions between the Bamileke and Beti peoples, the rise of Boko Haram in the far north of the country, and above all the Anglophone crisis in the regions of Cameroon that were once colonized by the British Empire. The Bamileke and the Beti are the two most powerful ethnic groups in the country. Paul Biya is a member of the Beti community, and Beti make up the majority of the population around the national capital, and have an outsized influence on the civil service and political establishment of the country. The Bamileke on the other hand have long been disproportionately influential in business. The success of the Bamileke people has long aroused resentment, with senior ministers in the government going so far as to threaten the Bamileke with the same fate as the Jews of Germany. The Bamileke disproportionately support the Social Democratic Front, the primary opposition group in the country, and conflict between the two ethnic groups structures elite politics in the country. In the far north of the country, the Boko Haram insurgency in neighboring Nigeria has spilled over into Cameroon. 92 soldiers and 1350 civilians have lost their lives in the conflict. Northern Cameroon is the poorest region of the country. The far north of the country has a poverty rate of 74%, more than double the national average. The Cameroonian government has been able to retake territory from Boko Haram, but the underlying causes of Boko Haram remain unsolved.
The most serious conflict in Cameroon is the Anglophone crisis. The Anglophone crisis stems from failed integration of the regions of Cameroon once governed by the British Empire into a unified Cameroon state. The British Cameroons were administered completely separately from their French counterparts, with schooling English and a common law justice system. After decolonization, British Cameroon chose to join the French speaking Cameroon rather than Nigeria because Anglophone Cameroonians feared having no effective power in a much larger Nigeria. Ahidjo removed the promised autonomy in 1972. Although some decentralization has occurred since the 1990s, real control remains in the hands of the central state. In 2016, massive protests erupted in protest over the failure of the government to publish laws in English, the lack of opportunities for graduates of English schools, underrepresentation of Anglophones in politics, and other forms of marginalization of Anglophone regions. The rhetoric of the movement steadily radicalized in the face of intransigence and violence from the central government, and calls for the creation of an independent Ambazonia emerged.Small groups of armed men began launching guerrilla attacks against security forces. The government has responded with overwhelming repression, including shutting the internet for more than two thirds 2018 in the region. One of the most depressing is the mass school closures since 2017. Ambazonian rebels have claimed that because the education system is biased against Anglophones, no one should be allowed to go to school.80% of schools are closed, and those break this embargo are faced with kidnapping and death threats. Both sides have committed severe human rights abuses, Close to 1,000 civilians have lost their lives, with 530,000 internally displaced people.
Cameroon’s elites, unfortunately, do not seem to be rising to the occasion to face the rising economic and political crises. Paul Biya has been the leader since 1982, but seems to be losing his ability to effectively as a leader. Paul Biya has to spend more and more abroad in foreign hospitals, spending more than 60 days out of the country last year. Paul Biya isn’t the only fossil in government, with the country’s elite extremely gerentrocratic and no successor is being groomed to take over after Paul Biya dies. The decentralization measures have been undermined by the governments unwilling to relinquish power. Efforts at democratization have also stalled, and elections are not free and fair, with Freedom House giving Cameroon’s government near bottom rights for civil and political rights. It is unclear how the government that will emerge after Paul Biya dies will gain the political will and legitimacy to solve the country’s intractable crisis. However, if the country is to overcome its current challenges, it will need to find to fix the problems left behind by his predecessor.
Islam, Higher Education, and Extremism in Cameroon . Brandon Kendhammer and Adama Ousmanou
The construction of the Cameroon political system: The Ahidjo years, 1958–1982, MW DeLancey
Political Economy of Cameroon Post-Independence Growth Experiences , G Kobou, D Njinkeu, BP Fosso
Contesting Local Citizenship: Liberalization and the Politic of Difference in Cameroon , D Eyoh
President Paul Biya and the Anglophone Problem in Cameroon ,
Cameroon: Flawed Decentralization & the Politics of Identity in the Urban Space , Oben Timothy Mbuagbo