The Exhibition

THE BAMILÉKÉ IN TODAY’S CAMEROON by J. LAMBERTON

Cameroon is embarking on the path to independence with, in its shoe, a very embarrassing stone. This rock is the presence of an ethnic minority: the Bamiléké (1), prey to convulsions whose origins and causes are not clear to anyone.

Our knowledge of the Bamiléké remains superficial due to the lack of a Griaule or a Richard-Mollard capable of explaining to us their problems which arise on many levels: demographic and social, national and international. Hence serious difficulties, not only in resolving them but simply in posing them correctly. In their African and Cameroonian context, a common white man’s logic only discerns them through a distorting lens. However, the future of Cameroon will be done by their solution.  (Extract fromJ. Lamberton Report before the independance of Cameroon in 1960).

SIGNIFICATION IN LIGHT OF THE BAMILÉKÉ GENOCIDE

This reminds well of the famous “Endlösung der Judenfrage” The Final Solution to the Jewish question of the Nazi leadership posed and decided in January 1942 in Wannsee which unequivocally poses the extermination of the Jews. This solution recommended by Lamberton, a top French officer in charge of “the pacification” of Cameroon is a euphemism, that is to say a pleasant word which hides the call for an extermination. Between these words and those of Wannsee, there are barely 19 years.