Education as a Contested Space: The Back-to-School Campaign and the Crisis of Safe Learning in Cameroon's Anglophone Regions
In 2019, as armed conflict in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest regions kept schools shuttered for years, civil society organizations including WaraSon Music launched a #Back2school campaign, using music and media to appeal for the creation of safe spaces for children to resume education—a demand that cut across the political divide.
We are all very much aware of the general insecurity that is rocking the NW and SW regions of Cameroon. Education and the freedom to go to school has been a bone of contention that both sides have been fighting on. While one side wants children to go back to school chiefly for the semblance of normalcy so that they can look good in the eyes of the international community, the other side is using it as leverage to make their voices heard.
Whatever the case, depending on whatever side of the fence you are on, you have to agree that the condition on the ground is not suitable for kids to pursue their education in a safe environment. Between the rife number of kidnappings and wanton killings, the whole situation is a good old clusterf**.
WaraSon Music Ent. joined its voice with other civil society organisations in a #Back2school media campaign. They write...
"Since 2016, the civil unrest in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon has kept almost all schools across the regions shut for 3 academic years. Today, the prolonged boycott poses devastating consequences on the future of our children and youthful population, some of these consequences already clearly visible today.
The aim of our media campaign is to sensitize and appeal to Individuals, groups, Organisations and Government organs, the need for creating a safe space for every child to go back to school.
We at WaraSon Music believe in the power of music as a tool for educating, informing, enlightening, inspiring, and creating meaningful change."
Their campaign song "Back to school" is sung by Cameroonian emerging afroRnB singer and songwriter El Kobi is already available online on our YouTube channel.
you can watch the song by clicking on the link below
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/dFKeQIlmRAw
By 2019, prolonged civil unrest in the Anglophone regions had disrupted schooling for nearly three years, creating a stalemate where government pushed for normalcy (partly for international optics) while armed groups used education access as a negotiating point. The humanitarian cost fell entirely on children and families caught between these positions.
The piece captures a crucial moment when Cameroon's civic organizations refused to accept the securitization of education as inevitable, instead centering the basic right to safe learning. It remains vital because it documents how cultural workers and NGOs responded to state failure—not with ideology, but with direct appeal to human need—and because the underlying tension between state legitimacy and protection of civilians persists in conflict-affected regions globally.