Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

25 Years Ago... Former First Lady Germaine Ahidjo on the 1984 Coup Attempt

In this final installment in our ongoing series on the April 6, 1984 coup attempt, we finally hear from former First Lady Germaine Ahidjo. In Part 1, she responds to long-standing claims that the April 1984 coup was the handiwork of her husband Ahmadou Ahidjo, Paul Biya's predecessor. And in Part 2 she talks about the life of the Ahidjo family immediately after the coup, of the Ahidjos being stripped of their Cameroonian nationality by the Biya regime, and the death and burial of the former president in Dakar, Senegal, in November 1989 (French).

See also: Repaid in his own Coins: Ahmadou Ahidjo and the Politics of Ostracism

25 Years Ago… Captain Guerandi Mbara on the 1984 Coup Attempt

25 years ago a 30-year old army Captain cast in the mold of the young African revolutionary soldiers of the 1980s rallied young officers in Cameroon in an attempt to overthrow the Biya regime. After the failure of the coup attempt, that soldier, Captain Guerandi Mbara, successfully evaded the massive security dragnet of loyalist forces and made his way to Burkina Faso where his friend and former classmate at the Yaounde Military Academy, a certain Blaise Compaore had just organized a successful coup less than a year earlier which brought Captain Thomas Sankara to power.

Upon arrival in the “land of the incorruptibles", Guerandi did not simply fade away, a bitter and frustrated former soldier unable to adapt to civilian life or to life in exile.

25 Years Ago... Tales of Ex-Leader's Role In Revolt Stun Cameroon

By Jonathan C. Randal (Washington Post Foreign Service)

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, April 14, 1984 -- A week after loyalist troops crushed a coup attempt by the elite palace guard here, shocked Cameroonians are assessing the damage to their once proud image as a rare example of African political stability and prosperity.

The official Cameroon Tribune summed up the gloomy mood in an editorial lamenting that now Cameroon had "joined the list of 32 out of 51 independent African states that have suffered at least 62 attempted, or successful, coups since 1960."

But perhaps the most disheartening aspect for residents here is the widespread belief that behind the episode is former president Ahmadou Ahidjo, the man who put Cameroon on a stable footing following independence in 1960 and voluntarily turned over power in 1981 to his hand-picked successor, President Paul Biya, to finish his term.

25 Years Ago... Gabriel Ebili: "How I Saved the Biya Regime"

Originally published in Le Jour, July 1, 2008.

  A technician at Radio Cameroun during the April 6, 1984 coup attempt, it is thanks to his actions that the mutineers’ coup proclamation was never heard beyond Yaounde. 24 years after his act of bravery, he is now a poor winemaker living in Bibondi in the Ocean division (South province).

The April 6 1984 coup failed in part because of this Radio Cameroon technician whom many Cameroonians believe is dead. Gabriel Ebili, the technician, is still alive.

The face of the man whom we met yesterday in Yaounde is marked by misery. With his hair unkempt hair and his clothes old and dirty, Gabriel Ebili was anxious to tell us about the crazy day of April 6 1984. His voice trembling with emotion, the former technician at the Department of Radio Operations is proud that he saved the institutions of the republic, particularly "the Biya regime" as he puts it. "But to what benefit?" he asks.

25 Years Ago... "Le 6 Avril": Ruminations on a Date with Destiny

Isaac Njoh Endeley*

On the 6th of April 1984, I was an ambitious and enthusiastic young student simultaneously enrolled in the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) and the Faculty of Law & Economics at the Université de Yaoundé in Cameroon. Like many others in my age group at the time, I was very optimistic about the future of my country, having previously witnessed what appeared like a smooth and peaceful transfer of power from President Ahmadou Ahidjo to his hand-picked successor, President Paul Biya.

25 Years Ago... The April 6, 1984 Coup Proclamation

Here is the English version of the April 6, 1984 coup proclamation, reportedly written by Issa Adoum, the civilian head of the coup and former CEO of Fonader, who was executed in Mbalmayo on May 2, 1984. The proclamation was read on the national radio station in Yaounde by 2d Lt Yaya Adoum.

25 Years Ago... The April 6, 1984 Coup Attempt in Cameroon

Shooting and tank movements were reported around Cameroon's presidential palace today in what appeared to be West Africa's second coup in three days - LA Times

On April 6, 1984, rogue elements from the Republican Guards, led by Colonel Saleh Ibrahim, tried to overthrow President Paul Biya who had succeeded President Ahmadou Ahidjo on November 6, 1982. Throughout this week, this blog will revisit this event which many believed changed the course of Cameroon's history. We begin with a video narrative of events leading up to the coup attempt, particularly the split between President Biya and his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo (French).

Unchained Voices: The "Coup Plotters" of April 6, 1984 Speak Out

The April issue of Les Cahiers Mutations (a spin-off of the French language daily, Quotidiens Mutations), carries a special investigative report on the failed coup attempt against the Biya regime in 1984, parts of which have been published online. 22 years after the coup attempt, the details of that event are beginning to get fuzzy in the minds of many, and stories of the gruesome coup aftermath characterized by indiscriminate arrests and summary executions now sound like urban legends to a generation of Cameroonians who did not live through the experience. In this regard, the Cahiers Mutations special report is a timely one.