The Evil of Napoleonic Justice in Françafrique — and How Ambazonia Plans to Break Free

The new Ambazonian constitution will anchor the common law as its backbone, while protecting traditional justice in villages and chiefdoms. A Truth and Reparations Commission will document past abuses, giving voice to victims and holding wrongdoers accountable.

By Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, on assignment in Buea, Ambazonia

Across the vast stretch of French-speaking Africa, from Gabon to Congo-Brazzaville, from Cameroon to Côte d’Ivoire, one dark institution has outlived every regime and revolution — the Napoleonic justice system. Beneath its polished legal codes and Latin maxims lies a quiet monster that has devoured truth, independence, and the very soul of justice.

For more than sixty years after the so-called independence, France’s African offspring have inherited not freedom, but obedience — a legal order built to serve the throne, not the people. And behind every dictator who overstays, every journalist jailed, and every election stolen, the same judicial machine hums beneath the marble floors of the Ministry of Justice: the ghost of Napoleon, dressed in the robes of Françafrique.

The Anatomy of a Captured Justice

In these countries, justice has long ceased to be blind. It sees only what the presidency wants it to see. Constitutional councils declare fraudulent elections “valid.” Courts punish the powerless and pardon the powerful. Prosecutors act on whispers from the palace. Laws against terrorism and cybercrime are twisted to silence dissent.

Cameroon is a textbook case. Under Paul Biya’s forty-plus years of rule, the judiciary became a weapon of survival. Civilian activists are tried before military courts. Journalists are branded terrorists for doing their job. And when the people cry for justice, the judges bow and read out the same phrase — “insufficient evidence.”

The same pattern stretches across the continent. In Congo-Brazzaville, opposition leaders rot in prison on charges of “threatening state security.” In Gabon, the Bongo dynasty built generational wealth abroad while the courts at home looked the other way. In Côte d’Ivoire, judges dance between principle and political pressure, fearing to displease the ruling hand.

This is not justice. It is legal theater — the rule of law turned into the rule of fear.

The End of the French Umbrella

But a change is coming. The old security pact that shielded these regimes is breaking apart. France has been forced out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Its soldiers no longer march as masters but retreat as strangers. Without the French military and diplomatic umbrella, the corrupt legal empires it sustained are now exposed to the storm.

Across the region, young Africans are asking new questions: Why must our judges serve Paris before the people? Why must our constitutions echo Napoleon instead of our ancestors? Why should a legal system imported to control us still define how we live, fight, and die?

Before the Fall — The Justice of Southern Cameroons

To understand why Ambazonia seeks to chart a new course, one must look back — not to Paris or Yaoundé, but to Buea, the mountain city where justice once walked on its own feet.

Under British administration, Southern Cameroons developed a unique balance of modern and traditional justice. The common-law system emphasized fairness, public trials, and the presumption of innocence. Customary courts recognized the wisdom of chiefs and elders, blending tradition with due process. The House of Chiefs gave local authority a voice in governance and lawmaking.

This system reflected the people’s identity — African in spirit, British in form, and just in practice. The Southern Cameroons High Court Law of 1955 respected customary law as long as it did not contradict natural justice. Disputes were settled in open courts, judgments were reasoned, and no civilian feared to stand before a military tribunal.

Even after 1961, when Southern Cameroons entered into federation with La République du Cameroun, its legal system remained intact. West Cameroon kept its judges, courts, and procedures. Justice still wore a local face.

That harmony ended in 1972, when the federation was abolished. Yaoundé’s unitary regime imposed its centralised Napoleonic system on a people raised under the common law. Judges became bureaucrats. Customary courts lost their dignity. The language of justice changed — and so did its soul.

Lawyers who once defended liberty were beaten in the streets for wearing their wigs. Citizens who once trusted their courts learned to fear them. Justice, which once belonged to the people, became property of the state.

The Moral Case for Independence

This contrast explains Ambazonia’s unwavering quest for independence. It is not rebellion — it is restoration. A return to the principles that once defined the Southern Cameroons: equality before the law, local justice, and independent courts.

Ambazonians are not rejecting law; they are rejecting a perverted law. The system that rules Yaoundé today is not African and not fair. It is a colonial inheritance that punishes the weak and protects the corrupt.

Ambazonia seeks a new beginning — one built on truth, dignity, and conscience. It wants a justice system that speaks in the people’s tongue, understands their customs, and answers to no foreign master.

The Roadmap Under President Samuel Ikome Sako

Under President Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako, the Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has outlined a vision for a truly independent judiciary.

Judges will no longer serve the executive; they will serve the constitution. Military tribunals will never try civilians again. Customary courts will be restored to handle community matters with fairness and cultural understanding.

The new Ambazonian constitution will anchor the common law as its backbone, while protecting traditional justice in villages and chiefdoms. A Truth and Reparations Commission will document past abuses, giving voice to victims and holding wrongdoers accountable.

Transparency will replace secrecy. Every trial will be public. Every ruling will be published. Corruption will face sunlight, not protection. And every citizen, no matter their tribe or belief, will have access to fair representation.

This is not nostalgia for colonial days. It is the modern rebirth of what worked — a justice system that serves people, not power.

The Final Word

From Gabon to Congo, from Côte d’Ivoire to Cameroon, the same shadow stretches across the courts — the shadow of Napoleonic justice, the cold hand of Françafrique. It is a system built to preserve domination through the law. But every empire has its twilight.

Ambazonia’s struggle is a declaration that this twilight has come. In breaking away from that dark inheritance, Ambazonia is not merely seeking statehood. It is reclaiming moral ground — the right to be judged by fair laws, by honest judges, in the land of its ancestors.

The fall of the Napoleonic model in Africa will not be decided in Paris or Yaoundé, but in places like Buea, Bamenda, and Kumba — where a people once knew what justice looked like, and have vowed to see it rise again.

Ali Dan Ismael
Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist
On Assignment in Buea, Ambazonia