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'We Remain Their Slaves' Voices from the Cameroon Conflict

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'We Remain Their Slaves' Voices from the Cameroon Conflict ‘We Remain Their Slaves’ Voices from the Cameroon Conflict A Working Paper submitted to the UK Parliament for response Authors: Roxana Willis, James Angove, Caroline Mbinkar, Joseph McAuley Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction: ‘We Remain Their Slaves’ .............................................................................................. 4 RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................................................................................ 7 RESEARCH CONTEXT: FROM THE SLAVE TRADE TO THE OIL TRADE ......................................................... 8 FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................................................. 13 Ch 1. Inequality: The Root of the Conflict ......................................................................................... 14 1.1. ANGLOPHONE DISADVANTAGE ............................................................................................................ 16 Misallocation of anglophone resources................................................................................................ 16 Unequal education and employment .................................................................................................... 18 ‘Slaves’, ‘cockroaches’, and ‘rats’........................................................................................................... 21 1.2. WORSENING LEVELS OF INEQUALITY .................................................................................................. 25 Homelessness and loss of livelihood.................................................................................................... 25 A famine on the horizon ....................................................................................................................... 28 Stolen education ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Ch 2. The Error of Moral Equivalence ............................................................................................... 32 2.1. THE ERROR EXPLAINED .......................................................................................................................... 35 2.2. THE STRENGTH OF THE STATE: FORCE, EFFECT, FEARFULNESS, AND SPIN .................................... 37 2.3. THE POWER OF THE STATE AND MECHANISMS OF AGGRESSION ...................................................... 44 Extending the business of extortion .................................................................................................... 44 Elections and the facade of state legitimacy ........................................................................................ 47 Denial of anglophone education .......................................................................................................... 50 2.4. THE AMBA: DEFENDERS OF THE GRASSFIELDS .................................................................................. 51 Solidarity with the Amba cause............................................................................................................. 52 Amba targets: Symbols of the state and defectors of the cause ........................................................ 54 Ch 3. The Complicity of the International Community .................................................................... 60 3.1. NATION STATE ACTORS .......................................................................................................................... 61 UK ........................................................................................................................................................... 61 US ............................................................................................................................................................ 66 France ...................................................................................................................................................... 71 Germany ................................................................................................................................................. 75 China ....................................................................................................................................................... 76 Canada ..................................................................................................................................................... 78 3.2. OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES ..................................................................................................... 79 The IMF and World Bank ..................................................................................................................... 79 International political organisations ..................................................................................................... 81 3.3. CAMEROON EXTERNAL TRADE RELATIONS ......................................................................................... 82 Conclusion: Routes to Peace ............................................................................................................... 85 Copyright © 2020 University of Oxford Faculty of Law, St Cross Building, St Cross Road, Oxford OX1 3UL, United Kingdom All rights reserved. Published: April 2020 Authors: Dr Roxana Willis (Principal Investigator of the Cameroon Conflict Research Group, Lecturer in Criminal Law); Dr James Angove (Postdoctoral Researcher, Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy); Barrister Caroline Mbinkar (Initiator of the Cameroon Conflict Research Group, Co-Investigator); Joseph McAuley (Co-Investigator, DPhil Candidate in Criminology). Corresponding author for enquiries/comments, James Angove: [email protected]. The Cameroon Conflict Research Group, based in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford, investigates the ongoing conflict in the anglophone regions of Cameroon. For more information, please visit: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/cameroon. Funders: The UK Global Challenges Research Fund; The British Academy; The John Fell Fund; The University of Oxford Knowledge Exchange Seed Fund; University College, Oxford; The Economic and Social Research Council. The research was conducted independently from the supporting funders and host institution. Further Acknowledgments: With special thanks to the 32 anonymous interviewees who shared their time, thoughts, and words which made this report possible. Additional thanks to supporters on the ground in Cameroon who have assisted in instrumental ways, including vital intellectual contributions and practical research support. Lastly, many thanks to collaborators from various parts of the world who have contacted the research group since the publication of the previous report and offered foundational guidance on the development of the current paper. 2 Executive Summary This report offers new insights into the Cameroon conflict and suggests a strategy for action. Findings stem from an empirical piece of research conducted by the Cameroon Conflict Research Group, based in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. The Group interviewed 32 individuals in the anglophone regions of Cameroon, from a range of backgrounds, to learn more about the causes and experiences of the conflict. The report is directly shaped by these collective voices and foreground in a socio-historical framework which stemmed from the research participants themselves – that of slavery. The anglophone regions of Cameroon were among the worst affected by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and, as this report shows, painful memories of slavery have been kept alive for anglophone populations by inequitable modern-day trade structures and continuing violent oppression. Equipped with this deeper framework, the main argument of the report is that the root cause of the conflict is socioeconomic inequality, for which multiple international actors, as well as the Cameroon Government, are responsible. Accordingly, peaceful resolution requires multilateral efforts from all responsible parties, some of whom are named within. The report introduction provides a fuller account of the main argument. After a brief summary of the research methods, we explore the context of slavery as it relates to Cameroon and its relationships with international actors. The report then develops over the course of three chapters. Chapter 1 presents first-hand accounts of life inside the conflict, showing how inequality is a chief cause, and is further exacerbated by the conflict. Additional first-hand accounts of the conflict are presented in Chapter 2, revealing the stark levels of violence in which anglophone communities live. Advancing beyond a descriptive level, the purpose of Chapter 2 is to show the error of drawing moral equiveillance between the violent acts of the Cameroon state and the oppositional (Ambazonian) forces. Interviewee experiences presented in the report show that the crimes committed by the Cameroon Government are of a special kind and must be condemned on their own terms, without qualification and comparison. Critically, the Cameroon Government is not the only party implicated in crimes committed by state armed forces: Chapter 3 reveals a whole host of nation states, international institutions,
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