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In 2016, lawyers, teachers and students in the two Anglophone regions initially led demonstrations and strikes, which eventually involved a wider section of the population. This mobilization was against their marginalization by the Francophone-dominated government in which they were chronically under-represented in all aspects of national life: political appointments and professional training and had been treated as second-class citizens since their reunification. They argued that their vibrant economic and political institutions had been completely erased, and their education and judicial systems had been undermined and degraded. Activists spread videos that show security forces abusing human rights (by suppressing peaceful gatherings, beating, harassing, arresting and killing protesters, burning their houses, schools and hospitals) in order to produce a counter-narrative to the ‘official story’ that main-stream media had been producing. We collected and analyzed 30 videos to better appreciate the human rights abuses. The videos provide information that cannot be provided by other types of data. They are used as ‘proofs of facts’ and they contain much more visual information on bodily movement and acoustic data. The videos show appalling images not just of how French-speaking soldiers tortured Anglophones but also their inability to communicate with them adequately although they share the same country.

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Southern Cameroonians stage protest marches because of their low or negative social status identity comparative to their French-speaking compatriot. This produces a negative perception of themselves: that of a marginalized people which is a negative or a low social identity. Accordingly, they try to change this situation by mobilizing their members for a protest march as it was on the 22nd September and 1st October, 2017 and their clamor for absolute independence is much clearer today than before. They have therefore constructed a collective identity with a common goal and an emotional bond of organizing protest marches, lockdowns and executing the weekly ghost towns among other. The shared goal of the Anglophone is different from that of the Francophone while one is protesting against the form of state and the protection of their English culture, the other is protesting against a change of government or better governance. In each protest, law enforcement officers brutalized, injured, harassed, seized and destroyed their phones, barred some from joining the demonstrations and dispersed them ruthlessly by violently repressing them, using teargas as well as shooting live bullets on the crowds. While southern Cameroonians share a collective identity and massively organize protest marches, their French-speaking compatriots have conflicting interests and low protest march participation.

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