Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
British influence was curtailed in 1884 when Germany signed a treaty with the chief-
doms of Douala and central Bamiléké Plateau. After WWI the German protectorate of
Kamerun was carved up between France and Great Britain.
Local revolts in French-controlled Cameroon in the 1950s were suppressed, but the mo-
mentum throughout Africa for throwing off the shackles of colonial rule soon took hold.
Self-government was granted in French Cameroon in 1958, quickly followed by inde-
pendence on 1 January 1960.
Wily Ahidjo
Ahmadou Ahidjo, leader of one of the independence parties, became president of the
newly independent state, a position he was to hold until his resignation in 1982. Ahidjo
ensured his longevity through the cultivation of expedient alliances, brutal repression and
wily regional favouritism.
In October 1961 a UN-sponsored referendum in British-mandated northwestern
Cameroon split the country in two, with the area around Bamenda opting to join the feder-
al state of Cameroon and the remainder joining Nigeria. In June 1972 the federal structure
of two Cameroons was replaced by the centralised United Republic of Cameroon - a
move that is resented to this day by Anglophone Cameroonians, who feel they have be-
come second-class citizens.
The Biya Era
In 1982 Ahidjo's hand-picked successor, Paul Biya, distanced himself from his former
mentor, but adopted many of Ahidjo's repressive measures, clamping down hard on calls
for multiparty democracy. Diversions such as the national football team's stunning per-
formance in the 1990 World Cup bought him time, but Biya was forced eventually to leg-
alise 25 opposition parties. The first multiparty elections in 25 years were held in 1992
and saw the Cameroonian Democratic People's Movement, led by Biya, hang on to power
with the support of minority parties. International observers alleged widespread vote-rig-
ging and intimidation; such allegations were repeated in elections in 1999, 2004 and, most
recently, 2011.
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