The Cameroon War - Verso's Southern Questions by Thomas Deltombe & Jacob Tatsitsa & Manuel Domergue Paperback

About the Book

"According to conventional wisdom, France's empire in sub-Saharan Africa ended peacefully. But this book tells a different story. The shocking violence of a secret war roiled Cameroon in the 1950s and '60s. A mass movement for self-determination had emerged under the leadership of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), and France lashed out in acts of brutal repression. Just as they had in Algeria, French forces waged a bloody and pitiless counterinsurgency campaign. They eventually eradicated the opposition and installed a client dictatorship in the capital, Yaoundâe"--

Book Synopsis

The shocking history of France's secret war in Cameroon and its neocolonial afterlives

Legend has it that the end of France's empire in sub-Saharan Africa was a peaceful affair. This book tells a very different story, exposing the shocking violence of a secret war.

Its theater was Cameroon in the 1950s and '60s, where a mass movement for self-determination emerged under the leadership of a pro-independence party, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC). In response, the colonial power opted for brutal repression.

Employing the same methods as in Algeria, French forces waged a counterinsurgency campaign of extraordinary violence, eventually eradicating the opposition and installing a client dictatorship in Yaoundé. At the height of the Cold War, with attention focused on the Algerian bloodbath, the conflict in Cameroon received little attention at the time. Subsequently, its devastating consequences -- and tens of millions of victims -- would be intentionally obscured by French authorities and their local collaborators.

The Cameroon War uncovers this hidden history for the first time. It illuminates a forgotten struggle for decolonization at the origin of neocolonial rule in Francophone Africa that persists to this day.

Review Quotes

"The Cameroon War throws a spotlight on an episode of Franco-Cameroonian history that is still passed over in silence"
--Julien Le Gros, Le Point

"A vital corrective to historical amnesia, The Cameroon War is replete with lessons for the present"
--Musab Younis, author of On the Scale of the World

"A must-read for anyone interested in the history of national liberation in Africa"
--Kevin Ochieng Okoth, author of Red Africa

About the Author

Thomas Deltombe is an editor and journalist who writes widely for the French press.

Manuel Domergue is Research Director at the Fondation Abbé Pierre and a regular contributor to Alternatives Economiques.

Jacob Tatsitsa is a Cameroonian historian who has taught at the University of Yaoundé.