In a move akin to lancing a painful colonial boil, France has made a significant admission regarding its violent past in Cameroon. President Emmanuel Macron has formally acknowledged his country’s responsibility for a brutal, decades-long war, bringing a long-suppressed issue into the open.
The “boil” of this hidden history has been festering for decades, poisoning relations and allowing distorted narratives to persist. The scalpel that finally lanced it was the report of a joint Franco-Cameroonian commission, which detailed the repression from 1945 to 1971 and the immense human cost.
Macron’s letter to President Paul Biya, while not containing an apology, served as the official moment of lancing the wound. It was a painful but necessary step toward confronting a history of assassination, mass violence, and support for post-colonial authoritarianism.
Now that the issue is in the open, the healing process can begin, but it will be long and difficult. Activists like Blick Bassy are calling for national mourning and the search for mass graves, arguing that lancing the boil is only the first step; the wound must now be cleaned and treated for healing to occur.