Leveraging Pan-Africanism to Fight French Neocolonialism in Francophone Africa: A Study of the Cameroonian Audio-Visual Media and Intelligentsia

Asian Journal of Media and Communication E-ISSN: 2579-6119, P-ISSN: 2579-6100 Volume 6, Number 1, 2022 Leveraging Pan-Africanism to Fight French Neocolonialism in Francophone Africa: A Study of the Cameroonian Audiovisual Media and Intelligentsia Floribert Patrick C. Endong Department of Performing Arts and Cinematography (IBAF), University of Dschang, Cameroon Abstract. The persistence of French neocolonialism has motivated the emergence of new and very aggressive forms of pan-Africanism in most – nay all – Francophone African countries. Indeed, many Francophobic pressure groups operating in Francophone African countries have sought to resist French neocolonialism in their countries by mobilizing forms of panAfricanism, which to a great extent, are xenophobic and disruptive to France’s diplomacy in specific Francophone African countries. In Cameroon, for instance, several so-called pan-African media initiatives, such as Afrique Media, have resorted to a very combative – but professionally problematic – form of journalism called ‘journalism of opinion’ to denounce Western political imperialism and contribute in no small measure, to the fight against Western (and particularly French) neocolonialism in Cameroon. This paper seeks to illustrate the above phenomenon hinging on secondary sources and critical observations. Specifically, the paper explores indexes of French neocolonialism in Cameroon and examines how the Cameroonian intelligentsia in general and specific pan-African media houses in the countries in particular, have sought to combat this French neocolonialism. Article Info Article History Received: 30 May 2022 Revised: 31 December 2022 Accepted: 2 January 2023 Keywords: Pan-Africanism, neocolonialism, Afrique media, Françafrique, journalism of opinions, the Palaver Tree. Copyright © 2022 Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0/) 97 Volume 6, Number 2, 2022, 97-120 Introduction More than fifty years after their independence, many African countries continue to unduly chafe under the yoke of Western political, socio-cultural, and economic domination. This situation is best captured with the harsh term of neocolonialism. By definition, neocolonialism is a paradox where a postcolonial state is maintained under the political, economic, military, and cultural dominance of its former colonial master(s), years after its independence (see Nkrumah 1965). In other words, it is a situation where a postcolonial state is de jure independent but, in reality, has most, if not all, its policies dictated or controlled by the former colonial master or by any external very influential power. In line with this, the All-Africa People Conference of 1961 defined neocolonialism as “the survival of the colonial system in spite of formal recognition of political independence in emerging countries, which become victims of an indirect and subtle form of domination by political, economic, social, military, or technical means” (Martin 1984: 191). The continuous and multifaceted domination of Western powers in key sectors of African economies has been indexical to the fact that old-fashioned colonialism is not entirely abolished in sub-Saharan Africa. The phenomenon has, indeed, instead morphed into a more complex and subtle ill. Thus, what most African states have been able to achieve so far is merely nominal independence, which has simply been tantamount to being neocolonies or new forms of colonies. Kwame Nkrumah (1965: ix) describes how this new and insidious form of colonialism functions, “The essence of neocolonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.” The persistence of French neocolonialism has motivated the emergence of new and very aggressive forms of pan-Africanism in most – nay all – Francophone African countries. Indeed, many Francophobic political initiatives operating in Francophone African countries have sought to resist French neocolonialism in their countries by mobilising forms of panAfricanism which, to a great extent, are xenophobic and disruptive to France’ diplomacy in specific Francophone African countries. In Cameroon, for instance, a number of so-called pan-African media initiatives, such as Afrique Media, have resorted to a very combative – but professionally problematic – form of journalism called ‘journalism of opinion’ to denounce Western political imperialism and contribute to the fight against Western (and mainly French) neocolonialism in Cameroon. These aggressive and nearly xenophobic forms of pan-Africanism applied in Cameroon politics and media reporting have remained understudied, especially by Cameroonian scholars. The few scholars who have devoted their attention to pan-Africanism in Cameroon 98 Floribert Patrick C. Endong, Leveraging Pan-Africanism to Fight French Neocolonialism in Francophone Africa: A Study of the Cameroonian Audiovisual Media and Intelligentsia have mostly looked at the government’s application of this ideology in its public diplomacy or relation with other African countries. Therefore, there is a need to study how panAfricanism fuels aggressive and nearly xenophobic political actions and media reportage against France in Cameroon. This paper seeks to fill the gap mentioned above in knowledge by illustrating how a Francophobic form of pan-Africanism drives Cameroonian intelligentsia and media’s fight against neocolonialism, particularly French socio-political and economic dominance in Cameroon and other parts of Francophone Africa. Specifically, the paper hinges on secondary sources and critical observations to examine two issues. In the first place, it explores indexes of French neocolonialism in Africa in general and Cameroon especially. In the second place, it examines how the Cameroonian intelligentsia in general and specific pan-African media houses in the countries have sought to combat this French neocolonialism. Neocolonialism in Africa: Military, Economy, and Culture In his classic book on neocolonialism, Kwame Nkrumah (1965: 31) explained some essential routes of such new colonialism: The methods and form of this direction can take various shapes. For example, in an extreme case the troops of the imperial power may garrison the territory of the neo-colonial State and control the government of it. More often, however, neo-colonialist control is exercised through economic or monetary means. The neo-colonial State may be obliged to take the manufactured products of the imperialist power to the exclusion of competing products from elsewhere. Control over government policy in the neo-colonial State may be secured by payments towards the cost of running the State, by the provision of civi (...truncated)