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Kamerun ! Une guerre cachée aux origines de la Françafrique, 1948-1971
Pendant plus de quinze ans, de 1955 à 1971, la France a mené au Cameroun une guerre secrète. Une guerre coloniale, puis néocoloniale, qui a fait des dizaines de milliers de morts, peut-être davantage. Une guerre totalement effacée des histoires officielles. En France, où l'on enseigne toujours que la décolonisation de l'« Afrique française » fut exemplaire et pacifique. Et au Cameroun, où il est encore risqué aujourd'hui d'évoquer ce terrible conflit qui enfanta une redoutable dictature... C'est dire l'importance de ce livre, qui retrace pour la première fois l'histoire de la guerre menée par les autorités françaises contre l'Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC), le parti indépendantiste créé en 1948, et tous ceux pour qui la liberté et la justice s'incarnaient en un mot : « Kamerun ! »
Pendant quatre ans, les auteurs ont enquêté en France et au Cameroun. Ils ont retrouvé de nombreux témoins : militaires français et camerounais, combattants nationalistes, rescapés des massacres... Dans les archives, ils ont consulté des milliers de documents et fait d'étonnantes trouvailles. Ils racontent comment furent assassinés, un à un, les leaders de l'UPC : Ruben Um Nyobè en 1958, Félix Moumié en 1960 et Ernest Ouandié en 1971. Et ils montrent comment l'administration et l'armée françaises, avec leurs exécutants locaux, ont conduit pendant des années une effroyable répression : bombardements des populations, escadrons de la mort, lavage de cerveau, torture généralisée, etc.
Plus de cinquante ans après la pseudo-indépendance accordée au Cameroun le 1er janvier 1960, cette histoire reste d'une brûlante actualité. Car c'est aussi celle de la naissance de la Françafrique, fruit du consensus colonial de la IVe République, puis de la diplomatie secrète de la Ve République. C'est l'histoire, enfin, d'un régime « ami de la France » en guerre perpétuelle contre son propre peuple : après vingt-deux ans de dictature sous Ahmadou Ahidjo et près de trois décennies de déliquescence sous Paul Biya, les Camerounais rêvent toujours d'indépendance et de démocratie.
Pendant quatre ans, les auteurs ont enquêté en France et au Cameroun. Ils ont retrouvé de nombreux témoins : militaires français et camerounais, combattants nationalistes, rescapés des massacres... Dans les archives, ils ont consulté des milliers de documents et fait d'étonnantes trouvailles. Ils racontent comment furent assassinés, un à un, les leaders de l'UPC : Ruben Um Nyobè en 1958, Félix Moumié en 1960 et Ernest Ouandié en 1971. Et ils montrent comment l'administration et l'armée françaises, avec leurs exécutants locaux, ont conduit pendant des années une effroyable répression : bombardements des populations, escadrons de la mort, lavage de cerveau, torture généralisée, etc.
Plus de cinquante ans après la pseudo-indépendance accordée au Cameroun le 1er janvier 1960, cette histoire reste d'une brûlante actualité. Car c'est aussi celle de la naissance de la Françafrique, fruit du consensus colonial de la IVe République, puis de la diplomatie secrète de la Ve République. C'est l'histoire, enfin, d'un régime « ami de la France » en guerre perpétuelle contre son propre peuple : après vingt-deux ans de dictature sous Ahmadou Ahidjo et près de trois décennies de déliquescence sous Paul Biya, les Camerounais rêvent toujours d'indépendance et de démocratie.
744 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 9, 2020
I don't know if the history documented here is new to the world (outside of its participants) since the introduction referenced newly declassified archives and interviews by the authors as main sources, or just inaccessible in English, which is what led me to La Guerre du Cameroun in French. This is the story of the start of la Françafrique, the nebulous political-military-economic agreements between France and specific ruling factions of its former colonies, maintained through economic clout, wink-and-nudge, and, I learned here, classified treaties and violence on a massive scale.
La Françafrique is rarely publicly acknowledged but it's visible if you look: when France uses its counter-terror forces to bomb an unrelated internal rebel movement in Chad, when France orchestrates coup after coup in CAR while steadily maintaining French-owned 100-year land leases, when France endorses shady election results of Cameroon's abusive, torturous, and checked out Paul Biya. I'm reading a history of rebellions in Chad now, and came across the choice quote: "The support of a regional godfather [Ghaddafi, Bashir] makes a great number of things possible, but it does not ensure victory. Until now, all regime change has been approved by Paris." At least half of West and Central African currencies are required to be stored in the French treasury, in an unbroken line from colonialism.
This fascinating history digs into one of the first places where La Françafrique was installed, claiming Cameroon as a case study on which others were modeled. The authors present the backroom deals during decolonization that selectively undermined or enhanced different Cameroonian independence movement factions to ensure that the ones friendliest to France's economic and diplomatic interests took power. The relationships between France and their chosen faction were binding, with classified treaties promising French military intervention in return for French leases, monopolies, and French people placed in 'advisory' positions in key government and military roles, acting with authority essentially in their same capacity as colonial administrators. This book powerfully details how Cameroonian people resisted this unholy alliance through competing political movements, intellectual debates, attempts at secession, and long-lasting armed rebellions. France, in turn, imposed its chosen Cameroonian outcome through indirect military and diplomatic support to its faction, but also-- and this was the part of this book that was new to me, horrifyingly so-- through direct air and ground combat as they would later in Algeria, and through forced enclosure of massive civilian populations, as the British did in Kenya.
I've spent many of my last 15 years in Francophone Africa seeing France's impact and ongoing intervention, and hearing the silence of French aid workers and French social movements. This book is important for the history it documents, but the authors intended it as cri du coeur and even cite Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya as inspiration. I'm so curious where this discussion will go.
Here is an article-length history of the same war in English, by the same authors: The Forgotten Cameroon War
La Françafrique is rarely publicly acknowledged but it's visible if you look: when France uses its counter-terror forces to bomb an unrelated internal rebel movement in Chad, when France orchestrates coup after coup in CAR while steadily maintaining French-owned 100-year land leases, when France endorses shady election results of Cameroon's abusive, torturous, and checked out Paul Biya. I'm reading a history of rebellions in Chad now, and came across the choice quote: "The support of a regional godfather [Ghaddafi, Bashir] makes a great number of things possible, but it does not ensure victory. Until now, all regime change has been approved by Paris." At least half of West and Central African currencies are required to be stored in the French treasury, in an unbroken line from colonialism.
This fascinating history digs into one of the first places where La Françafrique was installed, claiming Cameroon as a case study on which others were modeled. The authors present the backroom deals during decolonization that selectively undermined or enhanced different Cameroonian independence movement factions to ensure that the ones friendliest to France's economic and diplomatic interests took power. The relationships between France and their chosen faction were binding, with classified treaties promising French military intervention in return for French leases, monopolies, and French people placed in 'advisory' positions in key government and military roles, acting with authority essentially in their same capacity as colonial administrators. This book powerfully details how Cameroonian people resisted this unholy alliance through competing political movements, intellectual debates, attempts at secession, and long-lasting armed rebellions. France, in turn, imposed its chosen Cameroonian outcome through indirect military and diplomatic support to its faction, but also-- and this was the part of this book that was new to me, horrifyingly so-- through direct air and ground combat as they would later in Algeria, and through forced enclosure of massive civilian populations, as the British did in Kenya.
I've spent many of my last 15 years in Francophone Africa seeing France's impact and ongoing intervention, and hearing the silence of French aid workers and French social movements. This book is important for the history it documents, but the authors intended it as cri du coeur and even cite Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya as inspiration. I'm so curious where this discussion will go.
Here is an article-length history of the same war in English, by the same authors: The Forgotten Cameroon War
March 6, 2019
Ce livre présente de manière très claire et accessible les événements historiques ayant lieu au Cameroun avant, pendant et après son indépendance (1950-1970). Les trois auteurs lèvent le voile sur une histoire longtemps cachée. S'appuyant notamment sur les archives françaises et britanniques, "La guerre du Cameroun" raconte que l'indépendance du Cameroun n'a pas été du tout une transition pacifique après les guerres d'Indochine et en Algérie. Au contraire, il y a bien aussi eu une guerre d'indépendance au Cameroun. Sauf que contrairement à l'Indochine et à l'Algérie, cette guerre a cette fois-ci été gagnée par la puissance coloniale, qui avait appris de ses erreurs lors des précédents conflits. Et en lieu et place de l'indépendance du Cameroun, c'est la continuation de la tutelle française qui s'est opérée, avec Ahidjo comme collaborateur dictateur, remplacé par la suite par Paul Biya. Loin de relater un passé révolu, ce livre offre des clés de compréhension de la situation actuelle au Cameroun, dont le fonctionnement ploutocratique est une caractéristique de la mise sous tutelle de ce pays. La France s'appuie en effet sur une petite élite fortunée aux commandes du pays pour maintenir sa domination. Celle-ci bénéficie de la garantie de stabilité offerte par la France pour maintenir ses privilèges. Tout cela au détriment de l'écrasante majorité du peuple camerounais qui n'a de cesse d'être exploité et opprimé depuis plus d'un siècle.
February 4, 2023
These are the books that don't get translated and the histories that will not be included in your textbooks or curriculums. Too often Africans in the former colonies of France get blamed for their own neo-colonial condition. The common stereotype being that mental colonialism is exceptionally strong here and that the African peoples here are largely willing collaborators in their own oppression and exploitation to a greater extent than elsewhere on the continent. These are the conclusions that are easily reached when you don't know that France had to fight a guerilla army and wage a hidden war in Cameroon (comparable to the Algerian war as 'La Guerre du Cameroun' argues) in order to install the 40-year-long pro-France Ahidjo regime that has now become a 40-year-long pro-France Biya regime. The leaders of the Union of Cameroonian Peoples (UPC) had to be assassinated by French forces one after the other in order for the neo-colonial pact to be signed. In some estimates hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians were killed in Bamileke region in order for the Cameroon of Ahidjo and now Paul Biya to exist today. Because the so-called victors write history (mais nous vaincrons), we don't often hear about the UPC. We also don't often hear about the socialist, anti-imperialist and Pan-African histories of Brazzaville or Bamako. If we knew a fraction of the history we would never suggest that ""Francophone"" Africans are more responsible for their subjugation than any other colonized peoples are. France didn't just show up here and sign some contracts so Africans would give everything away, they massacred their way into those deals and they were met with resistance that scared the hell out of them. We must acknowledge that Africans in EVERY corner of this continent have always fought back against EVERY colonial power or force. Living under extreme or exceptional forms of imperialism does not mean that the people are historically complacent; Palestine is just one well known example of many peoples that demonstrate this. Cameroon is a lesser known example. Long live Nyobè! Long live Moumié! Long live Ouandié! Vive l'UPC ! Vive le Kamerun !
July 4, 2021
Document de lecture obligatoire pour mieux comprendre la Françafrique, ce colonialisme sans colonies, et le processus qui y porta. Après des guerres terribles en Indochine et en Algérie, les autorités françaises adoptent une nouvelle stratégie, pas plus bénévole, mais plus efficace, afin de continuer à contrôler les richesses acquises par colonisation.
Ayant lu récemment un livre sur les mandats britannique et français créés par l'ONU en 1919 dans les territoires pris à la Turquie, j'ai pu voir des similarités dans ce territoire arraché à l'Allemagne. Les attitudes des deux empires diffèrent, bien que le but soit assez semblable. En tout cas, la méthode française est bien moins aimable, plus répressive et, peut-on dire, sauvage.
Ayant lu récemment un livre sur les mandats britannique et français créés par l'ONU en 1919 dans les territoires pris à la Turquie, j'ai pu voir des similarités dans ce territoire arraché à l'Allemagne. Les attitudes des deux empires diffèrent, bien que le but soit assez semblable. En tout cas, la méthode française est bien moins aimable, plus répressive et, peut-on dire, sauvage.
August 6, 2017
Fine, fine book. Sorry that it probably won't be translated into English. Details, exposes France's war against the nationalist movement in the Cameroon both prior to and after independence in 1960. Details how quietly, after ending United Nations supervision of the colony-trusteeship that France systematically crushed, using the most brutal of methods, the aspiring nationalist movement led by figures unknown here in the United States (or almost) but genuine anti-colonial heroes in Africa of the stature of Lumumba, Sankora...
Not surprised it is published by La Decouverte, one of the more interesting publishing houses in France...or anywhere.
Not surprised it is published by La Decouverte, one of the more interesting publishing houses in France...or anywhere.
December 14, 2023
Un livre qui secoue et interroge. Bientôt une revue sur La Bibliothèque Qui Ne Brûle Pas.
November 24, 2022
Book title translation:
The Cameroon War
The Invention of the Françafrique*
*Françafrique = France’s sphere of influence over former French and Belgian colonies in sub-Saharan Africa
This book is an important historical document, seemingly thorough and well researched. However it’s dry as a bone, reading like a PhD thesis. The passion and motivation of the nationalists, the hubris and duplicity of the French, and the unreported deaths of an estimated tens to hundreds of thousands of people are all ink on a page.
If you are an historian looking for reference material on a poorly documented, forgotten war during the French-Cameroonian colonial period of independence, this is the book for you. I can only hope that the next historian, or maybe even a fiction writer interested in this era, can invoke some feelings or sense of human interest in order to penetrate the historical dates, names and event sequences so that people won’t forget this war — a war that the French and pseudo independent Cameroonian governments want everyone to continue to ignore and forget, especially now since there is a new horrible, underreported civil war occurring in western Cameroon. History just may be repeating itself with the same pretense (saving Cameroon from itself, restoring order and democracy), same actors (opportunistic Cameroon government aligned very closely with France), same cover up (little if any documentation, no oversight of human rights violations, repressive government disguised as benevolent keeper of the peace).
The book cover description (translated from the French) is concise and accurate in terms of explaining its premise:
Legend has it that France, "homeland of human rights", generously offered independence to its former black African colonies in 1960. This book tells a completely different story: that of a brutal, violent, murderous war, which allowed Paris to invent a new system of domination: Françafrique.
This secret war took place in Cameroon in the 1950s and 1960s. Faced with a vast social and political movement, led by an independence party, the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC), the French authorities decided to use [armed] force. Using the same methods as in Algeria (torture, bombings, mass internment, psychological action, etc.), they manage in a few years to militarily eradicate the protesters and install a pro-French dictatorship in Yaoundé [Cameroon’s capital].
In the midst of the Cold War, and while French opinion had its eyes turned towards Algeria, the war in Cameroon, which claimed tens of thousands of lives, went unnoticed at the time. It was then erased from memory by those who won it: the French and their Cameroonian allies. The crime was therefore almost perfect: the new Cameroonian authorities took up the watchwords of the UPC to empty “independence” of its content and put it at the service… of France! But the memory has been coming back for a few years. And the ghosts of Cameroon come to haunt the former colony. Which, being more and more contested on the African continent, will sooner or later have to face up to it past.
The Cameroon War
The Invention of the Françafrique*
*Françafrique = France’s sphere of influence over former French and Belgian colonies in sub-Saharan Africa
This book is an important historical document, seemingly thorough and well researched. However it’s dry as a bone, reading like a PhD thesis. The passion and motivation of the nationalists, the hubris and duplicity of the French, and the unreported deaths of an estimated tens to hundreds of thousands of people are all ink on a page.
If you are an historian looking for reference material on a poorly documented, forgotten war during the French-Cameroonian colonial period of independence, this is the book for you. I can only hope that the next historian, or maybe even a fiction writer interested in this era, can invoke some feelings or sense of human interest in order to penetrate the historical dates, names and event sequences so that people won’t forget this war — a war that the French and pseudo independent Cameroonian governments want everyone to continue to ignore and forget, especially now since there is a new horrible, underreported civil war occurring in western Cameroon. History just may be repeating itself with the same pretense (saving Cameroon from itself, restoring order and democracy), same actors (opportunistic Cameroon government aligned very closely with France), same cover up (little if any documentation, no oversight of human rights violations, repressive government disguised as benevolent keeper of the peace).
The book cover description (translated from the French) is concise and accurate in terms of explaining its premise:
Legend has it that France, "homeland of human rights", generously offered independence to its former black African colonies in 1960. This book tells a completely different story: that of a brutal, violent, murderous war, which allowed Paris to invent a new system of domination: Françafrique.
This secret war took place in Cameroon in the 1950s and 1960s. Faced with a vast social and political movement, led by an independence party, the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC), the French authorities decided to use [armed] force. Using the same methods as in Algeria (torture, bombings, mass internment, psychological action, etc.), they manage in a few years to militarily eradicate the protesters and install a pro-French dictatorship in Yaoundé [Cameroon’s capital].
In the midst of the Cold War, and while French opinion had its eyes turned towards Algeria, the war in Cameroon, which claimed tens of thousands of lives, went unnoticed at the time. It was then erased from memory by those who won it: the French and their Cameroonian allies. The crime was therefore almost perfect: the new Cameroonian authorities took up the watchwords of the UPC to empty “independence” of its content and put it at the service… of France! But the memory has been coming back for a few years. And the ghosts of Cameroon come to haunt the former colony. Which, being more and more contested on the African continent, will sooner or later have to face up to it past.
December 15, 2025
Excellent breakdown, retelling, and analysis of how truly sick and brutal French colonialism and neocolonialism really was/is. It is truly important that exposing France’s whitewashing of its colonial legacies and neocolonial exploits wipes away the facade of liberal internationalism and the “international rules-based order” and its uses of war, torture, subversion, and foreign covert and overt intervention. Anti colonial resistance doesn’t always take a left-wing or revolutionary orientation; in the case of Cameroon and “Francafrique”, independence led by French-based and French-aligned elites was farcical. Cameroon remained firmly attached to France’s neocolonial empire while initiating internal and external counterrevolutionary campaigns of torture, war, razing villages to the ground, exploiting ethnic tensions, privileging certain ethnic groups over others to maintain control over resources, development, modernization, etc. Fuck the French and free all exploited peoples across the world!
November 27, 2023
This is a history of something I knew nothing about: the struggle for Cameroon's independence and the role of the French government in the civil war that followed. Because I knew so little, I found the book very enlightening but for the same reason I found it hard to judge the author's interpretation of events (and they have a very clear point of view). For example, its unclear to me how much French policy was part of a coherent plan, as the authors seem to imply, or just a series of reactions to events as they unfolded. The book is very focused on events in Cameroon and so there's less discussion of the larger vision for a post-colonial French Africa then some readers might want.
While the book is easy to read and well structured because of its focus I would recommend it only if you have an interest in Cameroon or if you are studying decolonization. Although in fairness, I'm sure I didn't fully appreciate it since I read it French.
While the book is easy to read and well structured because of its focus I would recommend it only if you have an interest in Cameroon or if you are studying decolonization. Although in fairness, I'm sure I didn't fully appreciate it since I read it French.
December 5, 2024
La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique ** Read in Douala, Limbe, and Buea, Cameroon (November 2024)
October 9, 2025
I love reading books from a different perspective and the anglo-literary sphere, while diverse, is also remarkably mono-cultural. This book gives a truly incisive critique of the French decolonization process, it's lies and it's foibles. Definitely worth reading.
March 20, 2017
Something of a follow-up to Mongo Beti's Main Basse sur le Cameroun. Last chapter offers interesing insights on how Boko Haram can be useful for local rulers.
December 21, 2025
„Kamerun! Une guerre cachée aux origines de la Françafrique (1948–1971)“ von Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue und Jacob Tatsitsa gilt zu Recht als Standardwerk zur Dekolonisationsgeschichte Kameruns. Das Buch durchbricht ein jahrzehntelanges Schweigen über einen der blutigsten und zugleich am wenigsten aufgearbeiteten Konflikte der französischen Kolonialgeschichte: den Krieg gegen die Unabhängigkeitsbewegung Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC). Die Autoren zeigen detailliert, wie Frankreich zwischen 1948 und 1971 mit extremer militärischer Gewalt, systematischer Folter und psychologischer Kriegsführung gegen nationale Befreiungsbewegungen vorging, um ein ihm genehmes Regime unter Ahmadou Ahidjo zu installieren. Die formale Unabhängigkeit Kameruns am 1. Januar 1960 erscheint so weniger als Befreiung denn als taktischer Schritt zur Sicherung kolonialer Kontrolle unter neuem Namen.
Besonders eindrucksvoll ist die Analyse der Ursprünge der sogenannten Françafrique. Kamerun fungierte als Versuchslabor für die französische „Doktrin der revolutionären Kriegsführung“, in der Erfahrungen aus Indochina und Algerien zusammengeführt wurden. Die gezielte Schaffung paralleler Machtstrukturen, die Instrumentalisierung ethnischer Spannungen sowie der Aufbau paramilitärischer Milizen ermöglichten es, den Widerstand im Inneren nachhaltig zu zersetzen. So entstand ein neokoloniales Herrschaftssystem, dessen politische und militärische Logiken bis heute die Beziehungen zwischen Frankreich und seinen ehemaligen Kolonien in West- und Zentralafrika prägen.
Inhaltlich überzeugt das Buch durch eine beeindruckende Materialfülle. Es stützt sich auf jahrelange Archivrecherchen, bislang unzugängliche Dokumente sowie zahlreiche Zeitzeugeninterviews. Damit verleiht es den Opfern dieses lange „versteckten Krieges“ eine Stimme und korrigiert eine offizielle französische Geschichtsschreibung, die die Gewalt jahrzehntelang als bloße „Pazifizierung“ oder innere Unruhen verharmloste. „Kamerun!“ ist nicht nur ein zentraler Beitrag zur historischen Aufarbeitung für Kamerun selbst, sondern zugleich eine grundlegende Kritik an der Kontinuität imperialer Machtstrukturen im postkolonialen Afrika.
Besonders eindrucksvoll ist die Analyse der Ursprünge der sogenannten Françafrique. Kamerun fungierte als Versuchslabor für die französische „Doktrin der revolutionären Kriegsführung“, in der Erfahrungen aus Indochina und Algerien zusammengeführt wurden. Die gezielte Schaffung paralleler Machtstrukturen, die Instrumentalisierung ethnischer Spannungen sowie der Aufbau paramilitärischer Milizen ermöglichten es, den Widerstand im Inneren nachhaltig zu zersetzen. So entstand ein neokoloniales Herrschaftssystem, dessen politische und militärische Logiken bis heute die Beziehungen zwischen Frankreich und seinen ehemaligen Kolonien in West- und Zentralafrika prägen.
Inhaltlich überzeugt das Buch durch eine beeindruckende Materialfülle. Es stützt sich auf jahrelange Archivrecherchen, bislang unzugängliche Dokumente sowie zahlreiche Zeitzeugeninterviews. Damit verleiht es den Opfern dieses lange „versteckten Krieges“ eine Stimme und korrigiert eine offizielle französische Geschichtsschreibung, die die Gewalt jahrzehntelang als bloße „Pazifizierung“ oder innere Unruhen verharmloste. „Kamerun!“ ist nicht nur ein zentraler Beitrag zur historischen Aufarbeitung für Kamerun selbst, sondern zugleich eine grundlegende Kritik an der Kontinuität imperialer Machtstrukturen im postkolonialen Afrika.
March 8, 2020
Un récit intéressant de cette période de l'histoire où la décolonisation n'était pas encore achevée dans les faits, et les nombreuses violentes exactions commises à l'époque. Un récit qui éclaire aussi les pratiques mortifères de la Françafrique...
July 22, 2016
Impressionnant ouvrage qui décortique la mise en place de la fameuse Françafique à travers le laboratoire que fut le Cameroun.
Dense et passionnant il n'élude aucun des difficiles sujets liés à la décolonisation/neo-colonisation de l'Afrique par la France après la 2e guerre mondiale.
Un ouvrage certainement amené à être de référence sur le sujet.
Dense et passionnant il n'élude aucun des difficiles sujets liés à la décolonisation/neo-colonisation de l'Afrique par la France après la 2e guerre mondiale.
Un ouvrage certainement amené à être de référence sur le sujet.
February 27, 2025
Peut-être le livre le plus long que j'ai lu... Très très bon, détaillé, sourcé, bien écrit, digeste malgré la longueur. Précis et scientifique mais tout de même passionné. Une découverte.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews