The Presidential Project to Erase Anglophones: France’s Hidden Hand in Cameroon

By Young Jean-Pierre

For decades, France has executed a subtle but devastating strategy in Africa—not through direct warfare, but by empowering loyal African presidents to enforce its geopolitical and cultural agenda. In Cameroon, this strategy unfolded through Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya—two regimes that systematically dismantled the identity of Anglophone Cameroonians. While the world viewed it as an internal affair, the erasure of Anglophone Cameroon was in fact a French-designed project with African proxies.

A War on Culture, Not Just Territory
In 2017, the respected French newspaper Le Monde revealed what it called “Le projet d’anéantissement culturel contre les anglophones”—a presidential plan aimed at culturally annihilating the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The assault wasn’t accidental. It was methodical.

Anglophone courts were shut down. English-based schools were diluted. Anglophone civil servants were sidelined. Peaceful protests were met with bullets. For over four decades, the Biya regime sought to absorb Ambazonia into a Francophone monolith under the guise of “national unity.” But this wasn’t just Biya’s vision—it was a continuation of Ahidjo’s postcolonial contract with France.

The most damning confirmation came from President Paul Biya himself, who publicly declared during a 2017 meeting in Paris:

“We tried to assimilate them, but it did not work.”

That rare admission sent shockwaves across the Anglophone world. It validated what millions had known for decades: assimilation was never a misunderstanding. It was the mission.

To the international community, Cameroon’s crisis looked like a clash of languages or a constitutional dispute. But to those who lived it, it was a slow-moving cultural genocide—designed in Paris, enforced in Yaoundé.

The Cultural Front: Alliance Française in Bamenda
One of the more understated but strategic tools of this cultural war has been the Alliance Française, France’s cultural diplomacy arm. Its presence in Bamenda, the symbolic capital of Anglophone resistance, is viewed by many Ambazonians as a calculated provocation.

Officially, the Alliance promotes French language and culture. But growing allegations suggest its operations in Bamenda serve as a soft-power outpost, subtly promoting Francophone ideology and normalizing Yaoundé’s narrative of unity. Through its sponsorships, school partnerships, and curated public events, the Alliance Française is perceived to be undermining Anglophone identity from within, while the regime suppresses it from without.

To many in Bamenda, it feels like psychological warfare cloaked in cultural celebration.

Why Was the Anglophone Identity a Target?
The answer lies in contrast. Anglophone Cameroon—what we now call Ambazonia—was rooted in British common law, a decentralized public service model, and a vibrant tradition of civic liberty. It stood as a democratic anomaly in a region dominated by centralized, Francophone, and often authoritarian governance systems.

France had a motive: If Ambazonia’s democratic model succeeded, it could inspire similar revolutions in Francophone Africa, undermining French hegemony. So the goal was not only to silence Anglophones—but to absorb them, erase them, replace them.

The Puppets and the Blame Game
France avoided the spotlight. Instead, it worked through African proxies. Presidents Ahidjo and Biya became the frontmen of this cultural colonization. But the strings were pulled elsewhere. The policies they enacted—school harmonization, language dominance, resource exploitation—mirrored strategies France had used in Algeria, Rwanda, and beyond.

Yet, not all Francophone Cameroonians are complicit. Many have suffered under the same repressive system and today stand in solidarity with Ambazonians. The problem is not ethnicity or language—it is the system that weaponized both.

Dr. Sako and the Ambazonian Rebirth
Amid these dark chapters, hope is returning. Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako, President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, describes the movement not merely as resistance, but as a national rebirth. For him, this is about rebuilding a society grounded in dignity, freedom, and identity.

His vision includes a new education system, judicial reform based on common law, community-based development, and the restoration of cultural pride. Under his leadership, Ambazonians are reimagining their nation—not in reaction to Yaoundé, but in affirmation of their own values.

As Dr. Sako has powerfully declared:

“They buried us for 60 years, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”

A New Chapter Begins
France’s strategy was clear: erase the Anglophones, blame the locals, and reap the benefits. But what was meant to be an end has become a beginning.

Ambazonia is not dying—it is awakening. And the world is finally starting to see who tried to bury it.

Young Jean-Pierre