The France-Cameroon Multidisciplinary Joint Committee on the role and commitment of France and Cameroon in combating separatist and opposition movements between 1945 and 1971 submitted its work to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya, at a handover ceremony in two phases, beginning in Paris on 21 January 2025 and ending in Yaoundé on 28 January.
This Committee was co-chaired by French researcher Karine Ramondy and Cameroonian artist Blick Bassy. The research component led by Karine Ramondy and comprising 14 Cameroonian and French researchers delivered an almost-1,000 page scientific report, along with recommendations for remembrance, which is freely accessible on the Vie Publique website and published by Hermann. The artistic component led by Blick Bassy features about 30 artistic and cultural productions as part of a cultural season on the theme of “funerals of remembrance” which is also available on Vie Publique.
This scientific research and these proposals are a key step in the factfinding efforts undertaken by France and Cameroon since 2022. This series is part of a broader political remembrance initiated by the President of the French Republic in 2017, involving Algeria, Rwanda, Senegal and now Cameroon.
The origins of the Committee
During French President Emmanuel Macron's official visit to Yaoundé in July 2022, the French and Cameroonian Presidents agreed to set up a Joint Committee of historians and artists to examine France's role in the repression of separatist and opposition movements in Cameroon between 1945 and 1971 and to carry out an “essential historical exercise” on the path to remembrance.
The Committee's work had three goals:
- An exercise in transparency with regard to Cameroonian and French civil societies;
- A gesture of recognition and shared remembrance through artistic creation;
- An educational approach for French people about a still little-known conflict.
- In line with the commitment made in Yaoundé in July 2022, the French archives were fully opened up to Committee researchers, in order to shed light on the events of the Cameroonian independence period.
The Committee reviewed 1,100 boxes of archives, had access to 2,300 declassified documents and held about 100 interviews in both Cameroon and France.
During the handover ceremonies in Paris and Yaoundé, the two Presidents raised the issue of creating a committee to follow up on recommendations, review teaching programmes and support historical research on the period.