12-03-2017, 11:48 PM
*** 4-Dec-17 World View -- Cameroon's English-speaking provinces on the verge of full-scale violence
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Cameroon's English-speaking provinces on the verge of full-scale violence
****
![[Image: g171203b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g171203b.jpg)
People of the Anglophone town of Eyumojock in a tense, angry standoff with police following the killing of some police officers on Wednesday (Cameroon Concord)
Separatists in the Southern Cameroons, the Anglophone
(English-speaking) regions of Cameroon, seeking independence from the
Francophone (French-speaking) government, killed four policemen and
two soldiers in two attacks in the last week. The security forces had
been sent into the Anglophone regions to try to suppress further
unrest, but separatists claim that they have set up checkpoints on
roads as symbols of Francophone occupation. The activists are
demanding for the Southern Cameroons to secede, and create an
independent nation called Ambazonia.
Ben Kuah, the chairman of the military wing of the secessionist group
Ambazonian Governing Council (AGC) said:
<QUOTE>"One of the main objectives is to clear the
checkpoints that they have put on our roads. They are the symbols
of occupation."<END QUOTE>
Cameroon's president Paul Biya promised retaliation for the attacks:
<QUOTE>"I think things are now perfectly clear to
everyone. Cameroon is the victim of repeated attacks.
Faced with these attacks of aggression, I assure the Cameroonian
people that all measures are being taken to end these criminals’
ability to do harm."<END QUOTE>
Cameroon's Minister of Defense Beti Assomo said:
<QUOTE>"Following the president of the Republic, the Head of
the armed forces’ declaration after the repeated attacks and
killings in the country, that are claimed by secessionist
movements, we are expected to arrive at concrete measures for the
immediate application of the strategy of the heads in the
army. And the process is going to continue till this situation
that we are experiencing is eradicated."<END QUOTE>
The violence started in 2016, but at the start is one almost entirely
one-sided violence, with the Francophone security forces violently
attacking peaceful Anglophone protesters.
In 2016, the peaceful protests began with claims by Anglophone lawyers
that the legal and court systems are biased toward Francophones, with
many laws passed without even being translated into English.
Anglophone teachers joined in, protesting that all courses in the
schools had to be taught in French, and that any use of English was
forbidden. The Francophone police responded by severely beating
several protesters, and shooting two of them dead.
The Francophone government has done some really stupid things in the
past year, apparently in the belief that they can end the peaceful
protests by violently attacking the protesters. The security forces
repeatedly used tear gas, gunfire, beatings and jailings against the
protesters. The government shut down the internet in the Southern
Cameroons for several months, in the moronic belief that they would
stop protesting if they didn't have the internet available to do their
jobs and earn a livelihood.
Government idiocy reached a height in August, when the government
deployed 400 additional police to the Anglophone regions to force
schoolchildren to go to school. There were still protests going on
over the schools being forced to teach all subjects in French, but
instead of simply allowing some courses like geography and math to be
taught in English, they sent the police out to drag little children to
school.
The violence took a particularly dangerous turn on September 22, when
activist forces began using small bombs to target local security
forces. On October 1, separatists staged a massive march, and
declared the independence of Ambazonia. In the increasingly violent
Francophone government crackdown that followed, hundreds of people
were arrested, and helicopter gunships were used to fire on innocent
civilians and kill them. At least 5,000 people have fled across the
border to neighboring Nigeria to escape the violence.
On Sunday, state radio said, "Paul Biya has declared war on these
terrorists who seek secession," and that a large-scale military
operation was being prepared, indicating that a full-scale violent
conflict is about to begin. AFP and Cameroon Concord and VOA
Related Articles
****
**** Cameroon and Paul Biya behave typically following a generational crisis civil war
****
As regular readers are aware, we've discovered some patterns that
countries predictably follow during the generational Awakening and
Unraveling eras, one or two generation past the end of the preceding
generational Crisis war.
In America, the Awakening era was in the 1960s, following World War
II, with massive student protests in colleges and racial protests on
the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other cities. The
government did not use gunfire and helicopter gunships to stop the
violence, and the only jailings were for specific property crimes.
The government continued in an orderly constitutional manner, with
presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
Cameroon's last generational crisis war was "UPC Revolt," 1956-1960,
which was a bloody civil war by communists attacking the Anglophone
"British Cameroons" colony and the Francophone "French Cameroun"
colony. The outcome was a single independent country, Cameroon, which
merged the British and French colonies together.
Paul Biya was born in 1933, and became president in 1982. He
consolidated his power by orchestrating a fake coup, giving him an
opportunity to eliminate all his rivals, and making him, in effect, a
dictator.
During the generational Awakening and Unraveling eras that followed
independence, Cameroon had the same student protests and other
protests that every country has, one or two generations after the end
of the preceding crisis war. But there's a sharp distinction when the
preceding crisis war was an internal civil war. In this case, the
government refuses to cede power to the opposition, fearing a renewal
of the civil war, and uses murder, rape, torture and jailings
arbitrarily against peaceful protesters in the opposition.
I've described this in numerous countries where the Awakening era
follows a generational crisis civil war, including Pierre Nkurunziza
in Burundi, Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Robert
Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Joseph Kabila in DRC, or, outside of Africa,
Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Hun Sen in Cambodia.
Paul Biya, who has been president in Cameroon for 34 years, is simply
following this same pattern, the same sociopathic violent behavior
against a peaceful opposition to remain in power at all costs. If
you'd like a simple psychology explanation for why this happens, I
will give you mine: When the leader of a country participated in an
internal crisis civil war, and during the war was responsible for
ordering the rape, torture and slaughter of other people who are
essentially his neighbors, then he's traumatized for life, and
develops the sociopathy that we've described. But whatever the
reason, we've now seen this in one country after another, and the
phenomenon is being firmly supported by the research. Quartz and Crisis Group (19-Oct)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cameroon, Paul Biya, Southern Cameroons,
Anglophone, Francophone, Ambazonia, Ambazonian Governing Council, AGC,
Beti Assomo
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Cameroon's English-speaking provinces on the verge of full-scale violence
- Cameroon and Paul Biya behave typically following a generational crisis civil war
****
**** Cameroon's English-speaking provinces on the verge of full-scale violence
****
People of the Anglophone town of Eyumojock in a tense, angry standoff with police following the killing of some police officers on Wednesday (Cameroon Concord)
Separatists in the Southern Cameroons, the Anglophone
(English-speaking) regions of Cameroon, seeking independence from the
Francophone (French-speaking) government, killed four policemen and
two soldiers in two attacks in the last week. The security forces had
been sent into the Anglophone regions to try to suppress further
unrest, but separatists claim that they have set up checkpoints on
roads as symbols of Francophone occupation. The activists are
demanding for the Southern Cameroons to secede, and create an
independent nation called Ambazonia.
Ben Kuah, the chairman of the military wing of the secessionist group
Ambazonian Governing Council (AGC) said:
<QUOTE>"One of the main objectives is to clear the
checkpoints that they have put on our roads. They are the symbols
of occupation."<END QUOTE>
Cameroon's president Paul Biya promised retaliation for the attacks:
<QUOTE>"I think things are now perfectly clear to
everyone. Cameroon is the victim of repeated attacks.
Faced with these attacks of aggression, I assure the Cameroonian
people that all measures are being taken to end these criminals’
ability to do harm."<END QUOTE>
Cameroon's Minister of Defense Beti Assomo said:
<QUOTE>"Following the president of the Republic, the Head of
the armed forces’ declaration after the repeated attacks and
killings in the country, that are claimed by secessionist
movements, we are expected to arrive at concrete measures for the
immediate application of the strategy of the heads in the
army. And the process is going to continue till this situation
that we are experiencing is eradicated."<END QUOTE>
The violence started in 2016, but at the start is one almost entirely
one-sided violence, with the Francophone security forces violently
attacking peaceful Anglophone protesters.
In 2016, the peaceful protests began with claims by Anglophone lawyers
that the legal and court systems are biased toward Francophones, with
many laws passed without even being translated into English.
Anglophone teachers joined in, protesting that all courses in the
schools had to be taught in French, and that any use of English was
forbidden. The Francophone police responded by severely beating
several protesters, and shooting two of them dead.
The Francophone government has done some really stupid things in the
past year, apparently in the belief that they can end the peaceful
protests by violently attacking the protesters. The security forces
repeatedly used tear gas, gunfire, beatings and jailings against the
protesters. The government shut down the internet in the Southern
Cameroons for several months, in the moronic belief that they would
stop protesting if they didn't have the internet available to do their
jobs and earn a livelihood.
Government idiocy reached a height in August, when the government
deployed 400 additional police to the Anglophone regions to force
schoolchildren to go to school. There were still protests going on
over the schools being forced to teach all subjects in French, but
instead of simply allowing some courses like geography and math to be
taught in English, they sent the police out to drag little children to
school.
The violence took a particularly dangerous turn on September 22, when
activist forces began using small bombs to target local security
forces. On October 1, separatists staged a massive march, and
declared the independence of Ambazonia. In the increasingly violent
Francophone government crackdown that followed, hundreds of people
were arrested, and helicopter gunships were used to fire on innocent
civilians and kill them. At least 5,000 people have fled across the
border to neighboring Nigeria to escape the violence.
On Sunday, state radio said, "Paul Biya has declared war on these
terrorists who seek secession," and that a large-scale military
operation was being prepared, indicating that a full-scale violent
conflict is about to begin. AFP and Cameroon Concord and VOA
Related Articles
- Deadly violence increases in English-speaking regions of Cameroon (12-Nov-2017)
- Cameroon police shoot and kill English-speaking protesters on Sunday (02-Oct-2017)
- Cameroon's army to force English-speaking children to attend school (31-Aug-2017)
- Cameroon: One person killed in English-speaking vs French-speaking civil unrest (23-Nov-2016)
****
**** Cameroon and Paul Biya behave typically following a generational crisis civil war
****
As regular readers are aware, we've discovered some patterns that
countries predictably follow during the generational Awakening and
Unraveling eras, one or two generation past the end of the preceding
generational Crisis war.
In America, the Awakening era was in the 1960s, following World War
II, with massive student protests in colleges and racial protests on
the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other cities. The
government did not use gunfire and helicopter gunships to stop the
violence, and the only jailings were for specific property crimes.
The government continued in an orderly constitutional manner, with
presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.
Cameroon's last generational crisis war was "UPC Revolt," 1956-1960,
which was a bloody civil war by communists attacking the Anglophone
"British Cameroons" colony and the Francophone "French Cameroun"
colony. The outcome was a single independent country, Cameroon, which
merged the British and French colonies together.
Paul Biya was born in 1933, and became president in 1982. He
consolidated his power by orchestrating a fake coup, giving him an
opportunity to eliminate all his rivals, and making him, in effect, a
dictator.
During the generational Awakening and Unraveling eras that followed
independence, Cameroon had the same student protests and other
protests that every country has, one or two generations after the end
of the preceding crisis war. But there's a sharp distinction when the
preceding crisis war was an internal civil war. In this case, the
government refuses to cede power to the opposition, fearing a renewal
of the civil war, and uses murder, rape, torture and jailings
arbitrarily against peaceful protesters in the opposition.
I've described this in numerous countries where the Awakening era
follows a generational crisis civil war, including Pierre Nkurunziza
in Burundi, Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Robert
Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Joseph Kabila in DRC, or, outside of Africa,
Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Hun Sen in Cambodia.
Paul Biya, who has been president in Cameroon for 34 years, is simply
following this same pattern, the same sociopathic violent behavior
against a peaceful opposition to remain in power at all costs. If
you'd like a simple psychology explanation for why this happens, I
will give you mine: When the leader of a country participated in an
internal crisis civil war, and during the war was responsible for
ordering the rape, torture and slaughter of other people who are
essentially his neighbors, then he's traumatized for life, and
develops the sociopathy that we've described. But whatever the
reason, we've now seen this in one country after another, and the
phenomenon is being firmly supported by the research. Quartz and Crisis Group (19-Oct)
Related Articles
- Cambodia dissolves the opposition political party so that Hun Sen can be reelected unopposed (17-Nov-2017)
- Burundi's Hutu government leaves International Criminal Court to avoid crimes against humanity charges (28-Oct-2017)
- Burma's (Myanmar's) leaders may be inspired by Pol Pot's Cambodian 'Killing Fields' genocide (29-Sep-2017)
- Mainstream media frets over Steve Bannon, the Fourth Turning, and Donald Trump (09-Feb-2017)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cameroon, Paul Biya, Southern Cameroons,
Anglophone, Francophone, Ambazonia, Ambazonian Governing Council, AGC,
Beti Assomo
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
