Ambazonia: The Struggle That No Longer Threatens the World Order

Yet amid this new multipolar race for influence, Ambazonia’s question remains unresolved. The world rushes to redraw alliances, but the people of Ambazonia are left trapped in an annexation they never chose, invisible to the same great powers who once denied them independence in the name of global stability.

By The Independentist editorial Desk

Once upon a time, the British Southern Cameroons — today’s Ambazonia — carried enough weight to rattle empires. Its independence was deliberately stifled because London and Paris feared the territory could slip into the orbit of radical nationalism or the Non-Aligned Movement. In the Cold War calculus, a small, sovereign Ambazonia at the mouth of the Gulf of Guinea was too dangerous to allow.

France answered with a hidden war in Cameroun: assassinations, village bombings, and the installation of Ahmadou Ahidjo’s client regime in Yaoundé. Britain staged its betrayal in suits and committees, engineering a plebiscite that denied Ambazonia the one option the UN Charter promised — independence. Together, they chained Ambazonia to French Cameroun, silencing its sovereignty while pretending to safeguard “stability.”

The impact was devastating. Ambazonia lost its parliament, its courts, and its chance at statehood. Its people were branded as rebels instead of a nation, their identity steadily erased under Francophone dominance. For six decades, their resistance has been met not with dialogue but with violence borrowed from France’s colonial playbook.

But here is the irony: the very threat that justified Ambazonia’s suppression has long vanished. The Cold War is over. There is no Soviet Union to court Ambazonia, no Non-Aligned Movement rising in Buea or Bamenda to shake NATO. Western powers no longer fear a “rogue” Ambazonian state tipping the scales.

The real anxieties have shifted elsewhere. As Britain redefines itself through Brexit and France clings to relevance, their concerns now center on China’s loans, Russia’s mercenaries, Turkey’s bases, and Gulf state investments stretching across Africa. Across the continent, the BRICS bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, now expanding with new members — is attracting more African states eager to escape Western dominance.

Yet amid this new multipolar race for influence, Ambazonia’s question remains unresolved. The world rushes to redraw alliances, but the people of Ambazonia are left trapped in an annexation they never chose, invisible to the same great powers who once denied them independence in the name of global stability.

For Ambazonians, it is a cruel paradox. Their struggle no longer alarms the West the way it once did, yet it is also no longer considered urgent enough for the emerging powers. What was once framed as a global threat has become a silenced injustice — displaced into the background while Africa’s future is negotiated elsewhere.

The Independentist editorial Desk