Starting in the late 19th century, several European countries took control of this land. Germany, France, and Britain dominated the country’s inhabitants and exploited its resources for their own advancement.
Cameroon became officially independent in 1960, but France maneuvered to maintain de facto control of the country. The Bamiléké people, who supported an independent nation free from colonial interference, were among the strongest advocates standing in France’s way.
In response, France led a campaign to violently suppress all voices opposing its control of Cameroon. From 1955 to 1971, hundreds of thousands of Bamiléké people were killed by the French government and their collaborators in Cameroon.
The Sacred House
A sacred house stands at the spiritual, cultural, and political center of every Bamiléké community. This is the place where important community decisions are made with the support of the ancestors. The entrance to the sacred house is built low so that a person must bend down before entering, a reminder to be humble when discussing communal matters or calling on the ancestors.
Ancestor is an honorific title that is not applied to all of one’s forebears. Years after a highly respected family member’s death and burial, descendants disinter their skull from its grave and place it in the sacred house. This honors the ancestor and ensures that their spiritual presence will remain nearby, allowing them to be called upon when necessary.
Traditional Bamiléké Spirituality
Traditional Bamiléké religion is monotheistic. God, or Si, is the Creator and source of all life. However, in Bamiléké cosmology, Si is only called out to in times of great communal happenings. When dealing with day-to-day matters, Bamiléké people reach out to their ancestors. Speaking directly to a specific ancestor, they name the problem they are experiencing, declare that they have avoided improper behavior, and ask for help. Ancestors are also thanked in moments of joy and celebration.
In moments of communal milestones, crises, or celebrations, Bamiléké communities gather at a large tree or bush chosen by previous generations of elders. Led by a spiritual leader, the community makes offerings of palm wine, kola nuts, and jujube “seeds of peace” as its members communicate with Si.
Traditional Bamiléké Culture
Bamiléké ancestral lands in Cameroon are divided into kingdoms. Within each kingdom, Bamiléké communities live together by family unit in compounds which are built in proximity to a local sacred house. Today, many Bamiléké in Cameroon have also moved to more urban centers.
The Bamiléké people have distinct foodways. One traditional dish is nkui, a soup prepared from the bark of the nkui tree. Often served with corn couscous, it is cooked to honor a new mother after childbirth and is renowned for its medicinal properties.
One unique Bamiléké cultural practice is a form of mutual economic support called shùa’a. In shùa’a, a group of people agrees to pay a fixed sum of money into a communal pool at a regular interval. One group member receives all the funds at each interval, which can then be used as capital for a larger purchase. The Bamiléké saying “shùa’a does not recognize illness” underscores the trust group members put in each other to get their payment in.
Bamiléké Unity and Diversity
The Bamiléké people are diverse in many ways, but one symbol they share is the jujube (or djem djem, in Medumba). When whole and dry, the jujube serves as an internal unifier amongst all Bamiléké branches. It is given out by the wife to the husband, or by the guest to the host as a mark of friendship. The jujube is a cultural bond that runs as deep as the Bamiléké roots in ancient Egypt.
There are many unique Bamiléké languages, including Medumba, Ghomala, Yemba, Fefe, Ngiemboon, Mengaka, and others. In future exhibits, we plan to showcase the diversity and virtuosity of these languages.
Do you remember a Bamiléké saying or proverb that one of your elders or ancestors used to express in one of these languages? Scan the QR code below and fill out the form to share this with the museum.
Colonial History of Cameroon: 1884 - 1919
Germany took control of Cameroon in 1884 to secure trade routes, resources, and imperial prestige during the Scramble for Africa. The German colonial administration ruled through coercion and forced labor, imposing a plantation economy on the region and collecting extortive taxes.
The Germans employed deliberate strategies of cultural annihilation and systematic psychological warfare. One example of this was the decapitation of traditional leaders, including King Rudolf Duala Manga Bell and Martin-Paul Samba in 1914.
Allied British and French forces took control of Cameroon from Germany during World War I, and in 1919, the territory was formally divided into League of Nations mandates. France received the larger eastern portion, while Britain administered two western strips (including parts of the Bamiléké region) and governed from neighboring Nigeria.
Colonial History of Cameroon: 1919 - 1960
French authorities in Cameroon pursued centralized rule while maintaining Germany’s coercive labor practices. Governance emphasized assimilationist ideals while operating through surveillance and repression.
France’s agrarian policies were particularly harmful to the Bamiléké. In the 1920s and 1930s, it expanded state control of the most fertile regions of the country, formally dispossessing the Bamiléké and other ethnic groups of their ancestral lands. In response, many Bamiléké migrated to other areas, which in turn increased tension in those regions.
These policies, which also affected many other local groups, fueled mass frustration with French Cameroonian rule. Soon, nationalist movements for Cameroonian independence began to challenge French rule, and they would find significant support from the Bamiléké kingdoms.
Suppression of the UPC
The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, or UPC, was a nationalist political party founded in Cameroon in 1948. Led by the charismatic Ruben Um Nyobè, the UPC’s vision of an independent Cameroon free from French influence quickly attracted the support of many members of the Bamiléké and Bassa ethnic groups. The UPC gained significant traction and support in Cameroon’s political landscape in the early 1950s, and in response, the UPC was banned from all elections in 1955. Um Nyobé and his colleagues were forced into exile or hiding.
Cameroon gained independence from France in 1960, in 1961 the southern British-administered territory joined to form a unified state, but French influence persisted. Through defense agreements, economic ties, and administrative continuity—often termed Françafrique—France maintained a strong role in governance, security, and resource extraction.
Ahmadou Ahidjo, France’s hand-picked successor, took provisional control of the Cameroonian government in 1958. In the country’s first independent election in 1960, Ahidjo was elected president in a contest marred by the absence of the UPC on the ballot.
“A Very Troublesome Pebble”
As France maneuvered to maintain its hold on Cameroon, Bamiléké support of the UPC attracted scrutiny. In a 1960 report, the French officer Jean-Marie Lamberton declared, “Cameroon embarks on the path to independence with a very troublesome pebble in its shoe. This pebble is the presence of an ethnic minority, the Bamiléké, with a tendency to rebellion…”
In response, the internal passport regime (laissez-passer) established by France began to target Bamiléké people. The passports of Bamiléké individuals were marked with their ethnic identity, and simply being Bamiléké was enough to be detained or arrested as a suspected UPC “rebel” at checkpoints throughout the country. These mobility restrictions devastated traditional trading networks, separated families, and established a climate of fear and surveillance. Elderly Cameroonians still describe the visceral fear of checkpoint encounters under this system.
The laissez-passer system was just one part of an increasingly violent counterinsurgency campaign against the UPC and the Bamiléké, and it would soon escalate.
The Bamiléké Genocide: 1958-1964
A wave of state violence targeted the UPC in 1958, marking the start of the Bamiléké genocide. Ruben Um Nyobè and other leaders were assassinated. Government forces razed villages, forcibly regrouped rural populations into controlled settlements, tortured suspected UPC sympathizers, and carried out widespread killings. The bodies of many UPC supporters were thrown into the Métché Falls.
Beginning in 1961, the use of incendiary bombs by the French military marked a significant escalation in the violence. French pilots dropped bombs that leveled entire Bamiléké communities and burned their inhabitants. The French helicopter pilot Max Bardet testified to his part in this campaign, claiming that hundreds of thousands of people were killed. In one well-documented story, hundreds of civilians sheltering in a church in Bangang were killed by an incendiary missile.
Unmarked mass graves were dug in many locations throughout Cameroon to bury those killed in these offensives. Their locations remain unverified until today.
Survivor Testimony of Dr. Gilbert Doho
Dr. Gilbert Doho (1954 - 2024) was a decorated scholar, playwright, and advocate who dedicated his life’s work to justice, cultural expression, and human dignity. A longtime professor at Case Western Reserve University, he was known for his deep commitment to students and his tireless engagement with questions of inequality, memory, and social repair.
Dr. Doho was the first individual interviewed for the La’akam Community Archive Project. Conducted by Dr. Julia Barnes and Sean Macintosh, this interview preserves Doho’s firsthand testimony of the Bamiléké Genocide—violence he worked to document and bring into public recognition. His testimony helped lay the foundation for a growing collection that now includes dozens of survivor voices.
This archive is key to the collective effort to preserve the memory of aging survivors, honor their experiences, and build a case for international recognition of the Bamiléké Genocide.
Psychological and Spiritual Violence
France and its collaborators also perpetrated acts of cultural genocide designed to disrupt the foundation of Bamiléké spiritual life.
One tactic was the public display of rows of severed heads. In Bamiléké cosmology, the head houses the soul and spirit of a person. This violent interruption of Bamiléké mortuary practices cut off the spiritual link between surviving Bamiléké communities and their ancestors who resisted French domination.
The physical and spiritual violence of the Bamiléké genocide instilled paralyzing terror across generations. The legacy of this violence is evident in the lasting interruption of traditional Bamiléké knowledge transmission, disrupted healing practices, undermined indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms, and severed connections to land stewardship traditions.
Resistance
Through it all, the Bamiléké people resisted.
Despite the assassination of Ruben Um Nyobè in 1958 and his successor Félix Roland-Moumié in 1960, the UPC remained active in its opposition to the French-supported Ahidjo government. UPC leaders maintained dynamic networks of resistance, often coordinating military and political operations in exile from Nigeria or the Congo. Other UPC forces remained in hiding in Cameroon’s Bamiléké regions, subsisting on a diet of nuts, fruit, dehydrated sweet potatoes and yams, and insects.
Ernest Ouandié, who led the UPC’s guerrilla efforts within Cameroon from 1964 onward, was publicly executed in the town square of Bafoussam in 1971. He refused to be blindfolded. As he was shot, he stared back at the firing squad and shouted, “Others will continue the struggle. Long live Cameroon!”
Ma·qui·sard
Noun- A member of the maquis.
- Bands of Bamiléké and Bassa rural guerilla fighters who fought against the occupation and French colonization of Cameroon between 1955 and 1971.
- Civilians who aided a maquisard in any way.
- Stigmatized slur that is applied to all Bamiléké people today, whether they were freedom fighters or not.
Denial of the Genocide
France has persistently downplayed its role in the Bamiléké genocide. During an official visit to Cameroon in 2009, French Prime Minister François Fillon declared, “I absolutely deny that the French forces were involved in anything related to murder in Cameroon. All this is pure invention.” French President Emmanuel Macron co-created the France-Cameroon Commission in 2022 to investigate French colonial abuses in Cameroon. However, the 2025 report fell short of full acknowledgment of the genocide. Despite Macron’s promise to open France’s military archives, they remain sealed to this day.
Cameroon has also never publicly recognized the Bamiléké genocide. The Cameroonian historian Kum’a Ndumbe III describes this as a form of "memorial apartheid", where colonized peoples are denied the dignity of mourning and memorializing those who were killed while perpetrators maintain control of the historical narrative.
The refusal to officially acknowledge the Bamiléké genocide by France and Cameroon stands in the way of justice and collective healing for descendants of survivors.
The Emergence of Bamiphobia
Bamiphobia, the distinct oppression that targets Bamiléké people, emerged in the years after the conclusion of the genocide.
Bamiphobia dehumanizes Bamiléké people, claiming they are dirty like the pigs that many Bamiléké farmers raise. At the same time, Bamiphobia perpetuates conspiracy theories about Bamiléké economic power. One stereotype is that the Bamiléké are stingy and willing to take advantage of their neighbors to get rich.
Bamiphobia is not just an oppressive attitude, but also a structural oppression. The state is Cameroon’s largest employer, and manipulated census numbers suppress Bamiléké job opportunities in the public sector. Because of this, many Bamiléké people have left Cameroon in search of a better life.
Bamiphobia obscures the true power structure in Cameroon, the decades-long reign of Paul Biya, who has been in the presidency for over 40 years. Biya and his party stoke Bamiphobia to distract Cameroonians from their own corruption and mismanagement.
Anglophone Crisis
The unification of Cameroon in 1961 brought English-speaking and French-speaking communities into a single country. Over the years, Anglophones from the formerly British-controlled territory, many of whom were Bamiléké, began to express concerns about political, legal, and cultural marginalization while living in a majority-Francophone Cameroon.
In 2016, protests led by Anglophone lawyers and teachers called for respect for the English-style common law and system of education. These protests were met with state repression and quickly escalated into an armed conflict that is ongoing today.
Amidst these tensions, some Anglophones call for independence while others advocate for federalism or more autonomy within a unified state. Across their differences, Anglophones are advocating for dignity, greater recognition of their minority status, and a meaningful say in their political future in Cameroon.
The emergence of the Anglophone struggle has also been a consciousness-raising moment for many Bamiléké people across the global diaspora.
The Creation of La’akam
Moved by the urgency of the Anglophone Crisis, a group of individuals throughout the Bamiléké diaspora established La’akam in 2019. Its mission is to remember the Bamiléké genocide, hold France accountable, and unify the Bamiléké people.
La’akam’s early facilitators were diverse; some were Anglophone, others were Francophone, and they hailed from all over the world. This diversity reflected La’akam’s goal of Bamiléké unity. Successive colonial administrations had pitted different parts of Bamiléké society against each other, especially around language and borders. La’akam articulated a vision of spiritual renaissance that would transcend Cameroon’s colonial legacy by moving beyond these divisions.
La’akam is the traditional name for the sacred house at the center of every Bamiléké community, as well as the name of the secret location where Bamiléké kings would go to prepare to rule after being selected. Similarly, La’akam was created to be a place where Bamiléké people of all walks of life could build a better future together.
Building the Future Together
Since 2022, La’akam has hosted an annual commemoration of the Bamiléké genocide and celebration of Bamiléké culture. This gathering has built momentum to break the “genocide of silence” in Bamiléké communities by speaking about the past. Today, La’akam supports community-led projects like native language reclamation efforts and teams of scholars and academics working to strengthen the case for recognition of the genocide.
The Bamiléké community is also supported by allies. Led by Noah Schoen, The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh has aided La’akam by connecting its members to descendants of Holocaust survivors, helping to secure La’akam’s first-ever foundation grant, and co-sponsoring a public program to educate the public about the Bamiléké genocide.
In 2022, cultural anthropologist Dr. Julia Barnes launched the La’akam Community Archive Project to record the first survivor testimonies of the Bamiléké Genocide and identify suspected mass grave sites in Cameroon. Together, these efforts aim to preserve memory, support survivors, and document evidence of violence that has long gone unrecognized.