Emmanuel Macron is visiting Cameroon where he arrived on Monday evening. After his speech to the French community, the president was received by his counterpart Paul Biya. The two heads of state had a one-on-one meeting at the Unity Palace for more than an hour. They then held a joint press conference, during which the issue of memory was notably addressed. Emmanuel Macron wants French and Cameroonian historians to work together and the total opening of the archives.
Seven years ago, his predecessor François Hollande was the first French president to recognize the repression of separatists in the 1950s and 1960s. Will Emmanuel Macron’s France go further? He said he was in favor of joint work by Cameroonian and French historians to ” turn on the light ” on the action of France in Cameroon during the colonization and after the independence of this country, announcing the opening “ In totality » French archives on « painful moments ” and ” tragic “.
” I make here the solemn commitment to open our archives entirely to this group of historians who will allow us to shed light on this past on individual situations, episodes that you mentioned and to describe things very precisely. That is to say the involvement of France, the role also of the Cameroonian authorities of the time, before and after independence “, he said. “ It should be factually established” of the “ responsibilities “, added the French president during his joint press conference with Paul Biya.
On Monday, a group of Cameroonian political parties called on Emmanuel Macron to recognize the “ crimes of colonial France “. “ We have a historic dispute with France (…) We take the opportunity to wake up Cameroonians about the problem with France which is to put all the crimes of France on the table and settle it definitively if we want to have a peaceful relationship “, said Monday Bedimo Kuoh, member of the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (Manidem), during a press conference in Douala.
No timetable has been given for the establishment of this joint committee of historians and the rendering of the work.