Over the weekend, Cameroonian American singer Libianca announced the postponement of the North American leg of her global tour, in support of her December-released debut EP, Walk Away. “Hey guys, I will be postponing my tour due to death threats I have been receiving. I refuse to cancel just need time to take the necessary precautions i love you!” she wrote in the caption of the Instagram post.
The post itself is a scanned copy of a handwritten note, where Libianca shared that the ongoing threats are from a Cameroon separatist group that refers to itself as “The Amba Boys.” In a performance during the Australian leg of her tour, the singer held and waved the Cameroonian flag, a fixture in her live shows and several of her Instagram posts. Rather than interpret it as a gesture of reverence for her heritage, the separatist group translated it as a support for the country’s president, Paul Biya, the 91-year-old who’s been in power for 42 years and might seek reelection next year.
“My country has been experiencing a civil war since 2016 that left my hometown destroyed with countless numbers of my people dead and separation within the country itself,” Libiance wrote in the note, adding that her holding of the flag is “a symbol of faith.”
Born in the U.S. and partly raised in Bamenda, Cameroon, Libianca is a firsthand witness of how ethnic disputes have now worsened into a deadly conflict. “Growing up, I saw how my parents were treated as less, just going to the store and they’d be ordering something in their regular accents and the cashier would behave like they couldn’t hear them”. Now, an entire ocean away, this same conflict is negatively impacting some of the biggest moments of her burgeoning career.
Libianca’s threateners, The Amba Boys, are part of those agitating for the secession of the Anglophone region of Cameroon, citing long-held grievances. The deep rift goes back to the country’s colonial history after the French and the British were awarded Cameroon through the Treaty of Versailles, in the aftermath of World War I. Previously, Cameroon was a colony of Germany, but that was transferred as reparations after Germany lost the war.
The French received a much larger colony, with the English getting smaller regions in the northwest and southwest, including Bamenda, where Libianca lived. During the 1960s wave of independence, Anglophone Cameroon sought independence but after prolonged negotiations and some manoeuvring by the already independent La République du Cameroun, a united country was created.
However, it’s been widely alleged that the unification was a sham, with claims that the majority Francophone side of the country has annexed the Anglophone region, hampering its quest for cultural and economic self-determination. Despite outcries over the decades and changes in the constitution that should’ve decentralized power since 1996, many Anglophone Cameroonians have felt subjugated to the agenda of the almost Francophone government that continues to uphold a hyper-presidential system.
In 2016, protests erupted after Francophone judges were appointed in English-speaking regions of the country. The protests also opposed the imposition of French in classrooms, further strengthening the language as the default language in national tests. In response, the government sent security forces to break up the protests with force, resulting in the assault and imprisonment of protesters. More protests happened in the coming months.
Amidst these protests, secessionist groups began heavily advocating for an independent country named Ambazonia. On Sept. 22, 2017, thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand independence, flying blue and white flags for Ambazonia. Again, the government sent security forces, and eight people were reportedly killed in the clashes.
Weeks later, on October 1, separatists declared independence. The following day, soldiers were deployed to Anglophone regions, resulting in the deaths of 17 people. Since then, the government and armed separatist groups have been locked in a deadly conflict, with several negotiation attempts between both sides stalling and breaking down. So far, the fighting has led to the deaths of thousands, while over 700,000 have been displaced.
In addition to fighting with the government, groups like The Amba Boys have taken to aggressively threatening civilians and popular figures who appear to not be supporting its secessionist agenda. This makes an apolitical popular artist like Libianca a target, despite the meaning behind her flying the flag of her country.
“The flag is not Paul Biya,” she wrote in the Instagram post. “I am not a politician; I am a citizen who begs for peace and reconciliation.” That her neutral stance has earned her death threats, with the Amba Boys declaring her “persona non grata” on social media, is symbolic of the tensions in several parts of the country, including the place where Libianca partly grew up.
In addition to advocating for peace, the singer has assured fans that the North American leg of her tour will happen after several security measures have been deliberated on and put in place. The leg of the tour was initially meant to run from mid-April to early May. “THE NEW NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES WILL BE POSTED ONCE DETERMINED!” she concludes in her handwritten note.
