The Cameroon War : A History of French Neocolonialism in Africa

According to conventional wisdom, France's empire in sub- Saharan Africa ended peacefully.

But this book tells a different story. The shocking violence of a secret war roiled Cameroon in the 1950s and '60s.

A mass movement for self-determination had emerged under the leadership of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), and France responded with brutal repression.

As in Algeria, French forces waged a bloody counterinsurgency campaign.

They eventually eradicated the opposition and installed a client dictatorship in the capital, Yaoundé. With the world focused on the Algerian bloodbath, the conflict in Cameroon received little attention at the time.

Its devastating aftermath - and tens of thousands of victims - were intentionally obscured by French authorities and their local collaborators.

The Cameroon War uncovers this hidden history. It illuminates a forgotten struggle for decolonisation at the origin of neocolonial rule in Francophone Africa, a story that is still unfolding today.