French President Emmanuel Macron arrived overdue Monday in Cameroon on the begin of a three-kingdom excursion of western Africa. He may also go to Benin and Guinea-Bissau so that it will renew French family members with the African continent. The papers in Yaoundé aren't positive what to make of it all.
The the front web page of the French-language every day, Realities, sums up the confusion.
At the pinnacle of the web page, there may be a name from Labour Minister Grégoire Owono, directed at what the minister calls "activists and opponents" of the French presidential go to. Owono tells them they're influenced through jalousy and have to stop.
Below that, there may be an editorial wherein the competition UPC claim themselves united in the back of long-time President Paul Biya, and make contact with on him to apply the assembly with the French chief to underline Cameroonian sovereignty and to name for a brand new coverage so that it will be to the gain of all Africans.
Which can be watching for a chunk a whole lot from a brief go to.
War among France and Cameroon
Clément Boursin, the African director of Cristian Action for the Abolition of Torture, is at the the front web page ofLe Jour. He says "Macron have to speak approximately the battle being waged among Cameroon and France".
In truth, the headline is puzzling due to the fact the disturbing is wrong. What Clément Boursin appears to be speaking approximately (and I base this on a collective article in brand new Paris-primarily based totally Le Monde) is the "colonial and neocolonial battle which France has waged, censored and denied for the beyond 60 years".
Will Emmanuel Macron be the primary president to formally recognize that battle," the writers wonder, "and give up one of the fantastic post-battle French taboos?"
The Guardian Post includes a prime headline message from Cameroon's fundamental competition party, the Social Democratic Front.
"As Macron comes visiting," we read, "SDF urges France to apologise, atone for pre-independance generation atrocities".
A caution
And the lowest of the identical Guardian Post the front web page has a disturbing message from the spririt realm, with a tale wherein a "Prominent Prophet" warns that the go to of the French chief spells doom for certain "barons of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement".
The weekly paper Signatures, which guarantees to "Observe certainly, relate coldly", says Emmanuel Macron is an unwilling traveller to Cameroon.
The president involves Yaoundé in "a function of weakness", the weekly paper claims, "so that it will store what may be stored of French hobbies in Cameroon, hobbies which can be being relentlessly whittled away.
"He's right here due to the fact he is afraid," Signatures coldly and certainly asserts.
More down-to-earth, the enterprise every day Economy, says the 2 leaders will want to speak about the battle in Ukraine and the effect that battle maintains to have on grain components to Africa.
Blaming the French
The weekly Diapason warns the "Macron is plunging into stricken waters" with this go to.
"There is a standard anti-French feeling," the paper says, and this is primarily based totally at the truth that Cameroon is "drowning in a sequence of security, fitness and monetary crises." Blame the French.
The the front web page of a unique version of Cameroon Today includes a grim caution for the French chief: "Our ghosts say you aren't welcome, Mr President".
The ghosts are the heroes of the combat for independence, humans like Félix Moumié and Amadou Ahidjo, victims, in step with the weekly paper, of French brutality withinside the "darkish hours" of new Cameroonian history.
Africa, says Cameroon Today, is jogging out of staying power with France, a rustic that is certainly dropping its charisma of affect on the arena stage. A presidential mea culpa might not placed the entirety proper, however it might be a step withinside the proper direction.