Cameroon: Problems of National Development

The article highlights the issues of state-building and nation-building in post-colonial Cameroon. An outline of the current situation in the economy, politics, social sphere and cultural agenda is given. The author focuses on key facts and events from the history of statehood, politics, culture and social thought of modern Cameroon. Important dates are associated with the names and activities of famous Cameroonians: politicians and statesmen Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, writer Mongo Beti, who saw culture as a means of political mobilization and a way to protest against the French colonial and neo-colonial domination in Africa.The paper discusses the causes of the “Anglophone crisis” and separatism of “Southern Cameroons”, as well as the problems of the territorial and administrative structure in Cameroon, which are directly related to the national and federal issue. The experience and prospects of Cameroonian federalism and unitarianism, the results of the “Major National Dialogue”, initiated by the central government in order to resolve the acute internal political crisis in the country, are analyzed.

Cameroon, federalism, neo-colonialism, tribalism, “Anglophone crisis”