Commentary

Trust, once broken, becomes extraordinarily expensive to rebuild. That is the fundamental dilemma confronting Cameroon today. Because the issue is no longer simply whether federalism is theoretically possible. The deeper question is whether the populations involved still believe a shared political future remains psychologically and politically sustainable. By Ali Dan IsmaelEditor-in-Chief, The Independentist News The

Empires rarely announce assimilation openly. They normalize it slowly. Through appointments. Through maps. Through schools. Through bureaucracy. Through language. Through dependency. Through time. The Roman Empire did it through citizenship and administration. The Soviet Union used ideological integration. By Ali Dan IsmaelEditor-in-Chief, The Independentist News The War Behind the War Empires do not always conquer

A nation celebrated internationally for over 250 ethnic groups and linguistic diversity increasingly relies on military force to suppress one of its most historically distinct populations. “Africa in Miniature” may describe Cameroon’s geography.But it cannot hide the bloodstains of a conflict the world has too often chosen to ignore. By Ali Dan IsmaelEditor-in-Chief, The Independentist

As the world watches succession unfold in Cameroon, one question may ultimately define the next decade: Will the post-Biya era produce genuine political transformation? Or merely a more sophisticated management of the same unresolved crisis? By Ali Dan IsmaelEditor-in-Chief, Independentist News9 May 2026 As Cameroon enters what may be the final political chapter of President

The survival of Ambazonia will therefore depend not only on resistance in the field, diplomacy abroad, or political negotiation. It will also depend on the preservation of clarity within the soul of the people. And perhaps this is now the deeper challenge before Ambazonia: not simply how to resist externally — but how to remain

A significant segment of the Ambazonian movement no longer views the conflict through the lens of minority rights within Cameroon. Instead, it views the crisis as a question of national self-determination and political separation. By Carl SandersGuest Writer, The Independentist News, Soho, London9 May 2026 At moments of political uncertainty, old political formulas often return

Whether intentionally or not, Pope Leo XIV may have accelerated that transition in global perception. The visible structures of power in Cameroon remain standing. But internationally, the moral and diplomatic terrain beneath those structures may now be shifting. By Ali Dan Ismael Editor-in-Chief The Independentist News At first glance, the visit of Pope Leo XIV

History Has Shifted Arenas Empires once decided. Now, systems compete. And in that competition, questions once buried do not disappear. They re-emerge— reframed, re-evaluated, and sometimes—resolved. By Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist News History leaves questions. Power decides which ones remain buried. For decades, Ambazonia has been treated as a peripheral crisis—contained within the

Unresolved obligations do not disappear with time. Ambazonia raises a question that extends beyond its borders: What is the responsibility of an administering authority when decolonisation concludes without enforceable constitutional settlement? Until that question is addressed, silence is not neutrality. It is inheritance. By Ali Dan Ismael, Editor-in-Chief, The Independentist News History does not end

If decolonization is to retain meaning, it cannot remain selective. If international principles are to retain credibility, they cannot remain conditional.Because history does not disappear. It waits. And when it returns, it does not ask quietly By Ali Dan Ismael Editor-in-Chief The Independentist News For decades, the language of empire has been softened. It has