On behalf of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya, Minister Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, Director of the Civil Cabinet, co-presided in France with the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macro, the official handover ceremony of the report to the Memory Commission. The Memory Commission, co-chaired by the historian Karine Ramondy and the Cameroonian artist Blick Bassy, is made up of 12 multi-disciplinary scientists, and was tasked with examining France’s role in Cameroon in the fight against independence and opposition movements between 1945 and 1971.
On behalf of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya, the Minister Director of the Civil Cabinet, Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, co-presided in France with the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the official handover ceremony of the report to the Memory Commission. The Memory Commission, co-chaired by the historian Karine Ramondy and the Cameroonian artist Blick Bassy, is made up of 12 multi-disciplinary scientists, and was tasked with examining France’s role in Cameroon in the fight against independence and opposition movements between 1945 and 1971.
“Between December 1957 and December 1958, enormous atrocities were committed in the war for independence. First of all, there was the policy of regrouping populations. How did this happen? What was the impact of this regrouping policy? Why this policy? What did the regrouped populations suffer? And there were Cameroonian allies. Until now, the archives have remained in the hands of one party, France, but these archives are an important source for Cameroonians and for the scientific community in general.”
Dong Mougnol, Historian – Cameroon
The ceremony at the Palais de l’Elysée is of unprecedented historical importance, involving the compilation of archives, the gathering of eyewitness accounts, the consultation of essays and the clarification of facts fraught with bloody pain, with the aim of recording the authentic accounts that punctuated this dark period of France’s bloody colonial epic over Cameroon. To mark the importance of this historic gesture, Samuel Mvondo Ayolo and his delegation, comprising André Magnus Ekoumou, Cameroon’s ambassador to France; Simon Pierre Bikele, head of state protocol at the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon; and Captain Claude Francis Enguene, defence attaché at the Cameroonian Embassy in France, will make an official presentation to the President of the Republic of Cameroon in Yaoundé on January 28th.
“What we scientists expect from this commission is the historical truth, the truth without bias. The truth will cover obscure phases.”
Dong Mougnol, Historian – Cameroon
The achievement of this objective, formulated on July 26 2022 by Cameroonian President Paul Biya and French President Emmanuel Macron, during their official visit to Yaoundé, is above all a reflection of the methodology adopted by Cameroon through a diplomacy of dialogue, transparency and exchange led brilliantly by the Director of the Civil Cabinet Samuel Mvondo Ayolo. The content of the report symbolises Cameroon’s desire to see historians from both countries work together to investigate the past and establish ‘responsibilities’ for France’s bloody colonial epic in Cameroon. President Emmanuel Macron had promised to make France’s archives on this colonial domination available. Cameroon has opened up all the gaps in a sad relationship to re-establish a truth that conforms.