French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cameroon late on Monday for the start of a three-nation tour of West Africa. In an effort to restore French relations with the African continent, he will also visit Benin and Guinea-Bissau. Newspapers in Yaoundé are not sure what to make of all this.
The confusion is summed up by the front page of the French newspaper Realities.
At the top of the page, Labor Minister Grégoire Owono's appeal is aimed at what the minister calls "activists and opponents" of the French president's visit. Owono tells them that they are motivated by their stomachs and that they should stop doing that.
Below that is an article in which the opposition UPC declares itself united behind long-time president Paul Biya and calls on him to use the meeting with the French leader to underline Cameroon's sovereignty and call for new policies that will benefit all Africans.
Which may be a bit much to expect from a short visit.
War between France and Cameroon
Clément Boursin, the African director of Cristian Action for the Abolition of Torture, is on the front page of Le Jour. He says that "Macron should talk about the war that is going on between Cameroon and France".
Actually, the title is confusing because the time is wrong. What Clément Boursin seems to be talking about (and I'm basing this on a collective article in today's Paris Le Monde) is "the colonial and neo-colonial war that France has waged, censored and denied for the last 60 years".
Will Emmanuel Macron be the first president to officially acknowledge this conflict," the writers wonder, "and end one of France's great post-war taboos?"
The Guardian Post carries a major cover story from Cameroon's main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front.
"As Macron visits," we read, "SDF urges France to apologize and compensate for pre-independence atrocities."
Warning
And at the bottom of the same front page of the Guardian Post is a disturbing message from the spirit realm, with a story in which a "Prominent Prophet" warns that the French leader's visit spells doom for certain "barons of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement". ".
Promising to "observe clearly, act coolly", Signatures weekly says Emmanuel Macron is a reluctant visitor to Cameroon.
The president arrives in Yaoundé in a “weak position”, the weekly claims, “trying to salvage what can be salvaged of French interests in Cameroon, interests that are being relentlessly curtailed.
"He's here because he's scared," Signatures states coldly and clearly.
The more down-to-earth business daily Economy says the two leaders will have to discuss the war in Ukraine and the impact the conflict continues to have on grain supplies to Africa.
Blame the French
The Diapason weekly warns that "Macron is plunging into troubled waters" with this visit.
"There is a general anti-French feeling," the paper says, and this is based on the fact that Cameroon "is drowning in a series of security, health and economic crises." Blame the French.
The front page of Cameroon Today's special edition carries a grim warning for the French leader: "Our spirits say you are not welcome Mr President".
The ghosts are heroes of the struggle for independence, people like Félix Moumié and Amadou Ahidjo, victims of French brutality in the "dark hours" of recent Cameroonian history, according to the weekly.
Africa, says Cameroon Today, is running out of patience with France, a country that is clearly losing its aura of influence on the world stage. A presidential mea culpa won't fix everything, but it would be a step in the right direction.
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