“We have lived a lie for 65 years”: Bishop Bushu on Cameroon’s deep divisions

As the bishops of Cameroon renew calls for peace during their 51st Plenary Assembly, a retired bishop from the country’s conflict-afflicted Southwest Region has issued a stinging critique aimed at the way the country’s English-speaking populations have been treated for over six decades.

“We have lived a lie for 65 years,” said Emmanuel Bushu, Bishop Emeritus of Buéa, Cameroon, who served in the Diocese of Buea from November 30, 2006, until his age-related retirement on December 28, 2019.

At 82, Bishop Bushu has lived through various stages of Cameroon’s chequered history—from the period of colonial rule to independence and the post-independence era.

The current separatist conflict in the country’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest Regions, according to the cleric, stems from historical injustices directed against the country’s English-speakers. The conflict has resulted in several thousand deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands.

In a wide-ranging interview with CWR, Bishop Bushu offers a candid and often blunt perspective on the long-standing crisis affecting Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Bishop Bushu stresses the urgent need to confront the root causes honestly, warning that without mutual respect and truth, lasting peace will remain elusive.

He also critiques current leadership and underscores the vital role of trust and accountability in resolving the crisis, saying that Pope Leo XIV’s recent visit to Cameroon and calls for justice and peace may come to nought if the authorities fail to listen and respond.

The following are excerpts of that conversation.

CWR: You have been the bishop of Buea, and now you live in Kumbo. Both areas have been centers of the ongoing separatist violence. What does the violence mean for people living amid the crisis?

Bishop Emmanuel Bushu: People are suffering enormously, but they are adapting to the situation.

CWR: Can you describe the kinds of suffering that people are going through?

Bishop Bushu: People live in fear. You leave your house and you don’t know whether you will return alive. Businesses have been shuttered. School kids find it hard going to school. I remember a lady—a government employee working for the Ministry of Agriculture. She told me that to do her work, she has to sometimes disguise herself as an old woman, because government officials are sometimes targeted. Generally, people live in fear. Anything can happen at any time. The discipline and trust that existed before are gone. It’s a fearful environment.

CWR: Let’s go back in history. The English-speaking part of Cameroon reunited with the French-speaking side in 1961, through an UN-brokered plebiscite. Has it been a union of equals?

Bishop Bushu: The English-speaking side is very small, about one-thirteenth of the surface area of Cameroon, but the population proportionally is bigger—we are about 8 million. That’s not small for a small country. Some leaders think they can simply appropriate and assimilate us, and President Biya admitted as much during an interview with Mo Ibrahim. How do you say that as a president?

CWR: After the Plebiscite, the English and French-speaking parts of Cameroon agreed to form a federation of two co-equal states. In 1972, the federation was dissolved through a referendum in favor of a unitary system. Was it a betrayal of trust?

Bishop Bushu: Yes. They wrote things down in 1961, but 12 years later, they rolled everything back and declared a United Republic of Cameroon.

How do you turn a federal state into a united state unilaterally? To solve the problem now afflicting the two English-speaking regions, we must get to the root of the problem, and it could mean revisiting this history, and if people [Anglophones] want to separate, let them separate.

CWR: But your contemporaries, such as the late Cardinal Christian Tumi, said that during the reunification in 1961, there was excitement and joy. How do you explain that initial enthusiasm versus today’s frustration?

Bishop Bushu: There were conditions for reunification, but they were not respected. That’s a big problem. One of the conditions was that the two entities would exist as a federation of two co-equal states, so that each part could preserve its identity, its culture, as inherited from the colonial powers. People here [in the Francophone part of Cameroon] just decided to assimilate us because we were very small.

One important point was also the argument about economic viability. Britain convinced the UN Secretary-General that the Southern Cameroons were too small to be independent, and it wasn’t economically viable to stand alone. So, the idea was to obtain independence by joining either the Republic of Cameroon or the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

CWR: Today, the Northwest and Southwest regions represent over 65% of Cameroon’s foreign currency earnings. Does that not challenge the economic viability argument?

Bishop Bushu: It does so completely. That argument is nonsense now. Britain had things to settle with France and used this as a pretext.

The English-speaking regions are small in size but blessed both in terms of natural resources and human capital. If you travel through the whole French Cameroon territory, you cannot come across a commercial plantation of the stature of the Cameroon Development Corporation in the Southwest region. And you have the oil from Ndian.

And in terms of human capital, you’ve got intelligent and well-educated people. The education system in the English-speaking part of Cameroon was excellent, and their graduates got straight to
universities worldwide without preparatory years, unlike in French Cameroon. The educational achievements are remarkable.

CWR: How then did the economic might of West Cameroon [today’s Northwest and Southwest regions] get dislocated?

Bishop Bushu: Following the independence by joining, the people here [in the French-speaking part of Cameroon] were shocked by how well the Southern Cameroonian services operated. Reserves were properly managed; government services were properly run. Initiatives such as the National Produce Marketing Board had significant reserves that were used to stabilize prices when they fluctuated on the world market.

Then, the Francophone-dominated government took away those reserves. They just took all that money away. They also seized various money-making institutions from Anglophone Cameroon, like the West Cameroon Development Agency; the electricity development outfit, POWERCAM, the Wum Area Development Agency, WARDA, Santa Tea, etc. … In addition, Cameroon Bank, which happened to be the most capitalized bank in West Africa at the time, was crushed. That was a bank that could grant loans of up to CFA1 million, but if you wanted a loan of only CFA500,000 from any of the French banks in East Cameroon, it had to be authorized by Paris. The economic might of West Cameroon was dislocated purposely.

CWR: What do you suggest would be the ideal solution to this problem?

Bishop Bushu: We must go to the root of the problem. What caused this? If we don’t start from there, we can beat around for a thousand years and not solve it. We must be honest enough to say, you people who are offended, just tell us what is wrong. They will tell you. If we are doing otherwise, it means we are trying to cover it up. You don’t do that and expect a solution. We cannot pretend.

The Anglophones have a serious problem. For 65 years, we have lived a lie. We are not really united. We must get back to proper unification. What many Anglophones are fighting for now is to just separate. Those who know the reality want to go to the UN and talk to the Secretary-General to bring the Anglophone problem back to the UN General Assembly, because our case was decided there initially. That’s what’s going to happen, no matter how long it takes. We have to face the number one thing that went wrong: we have been living a lie, 65 years of nonsense rule.

CWR: The Holy Father recently came and tasked the local church with peace initiatives towards resolving the crisis. Do you think the Church alone can resolve these deep historical issues?

Bishop Bushu: No, not for now. To settle matters, both sides must be willing to compromise—give and take. But if we are dealing with people who refuse to meet or listen, like the government ignoring the Episcopal Conference’s letters and requests, then it’s impossible. The Episcopal Conference has tried repeatedly to meet the President but was never permitted. A President can’t ignore such a body. This is a big conference of 26 dioceses with significant influence. The historical arguments are clear. It seems they don’t want to settle the problem.

CWR: The government has allocated lots of resources to the conflict. How do you see this approach?

Bishop Bushu: It’s futile. Machine guns and improvised explosives cause destruction and death, and fighting continues with terrible consequences. The money being borrowed and invested in the so-called war will never solve the problem but create more debt that future generations will struggle to repay. The conflict will not end with guns.

CWR: Some analysts say a realistic solution can only come after President Paul Biya leaves power. Do you agree?

Bishop Bushu: That can be. He is not a wise ruler. He may be a good man, but leadership requires qualities he lacks. People speak about Cameroon quietly, due to its past reputation, but now countries like Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have surpassed us. Forty-four years of ruin. The problem can be solved, but with this leadership, separation seems more likely. The Anglophone regions do not want to lose their identity, but others want them swallowed. That was never the agreement.

CWR: How do you respond to those who downplay the Anglophone identity?

Bishop Bushu: They joke about linguistic differences, but the education system there has always been top quality. Parents from East Cameroon [French-speaking Cameroon] know where the better schooling is, and they want their children to attend those schools. The Anglophone regions produce excellent results and standards.

CWR: Do you think the country can remain united?

Bishop Bushu: It can, but certain conditions must be fulfilled properly. Trusting the truth of what the Anglophone people say is essential. If you don’t believe them, it won’t work.

CWR: What message would you give about leadership and trust?

Bishop Bushu: When President Biya visited Bamenda in 1985, he promised to “personally supervise” the Bamenda Ring Road. More than 40 years after, that promise has not been kept. Leaders must be truthful. In Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, leaders cannot lie without consequences. Their tradition holds leaders accountable, sometimes harshly. The people remember promises and hold their leaders to account.