Paper short abstract:

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon has come to represent a series of crisis or protests which occur periodically in demonstration against the perceived marginalisation of former British Cameroonians in contemporary Cameroon.

Paper long abstract:

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon has come to represent a series of crisis or protests which occur periodically in demonstration against the perceived marginalisation of former British Cameroonians in contemporary Cameroon. A number of incidents have occurred over the years including; in the 1970s against the abolition of the federal state, the change of the name of the republic reverting to the name originally used by Cameroun in 1983, the plight of Anglophone students in universities in Yaoundé in 1984, the pro-democracy and constitution change demands of the 1990s (mostly championed by anglophones) and the current crisis from 2016. The last few years have witnessed a proliferation of extremely romantic versions of Cameroon's history and in some cases suppression or fabrication of history, on popular and social media. The purpose of this articles is to articulate the historical, geostrategic and political dimension to the anglophone conflict. It investigates history in conjunction with contemporary events and geopolitics to illuminate the sources and nature of the conflict. It is argued that precedence, the nature of Cameroon's governance system and the prevailing international system predisposes the government to resist change.