At military court appearance: Djeukam Tchameni pleads for life imprisonment!.

“I Plead Guilty”

Plea by Mwalimu Djeukam Tchameni,

Before the Military Tribunal of Yaounde

Mr. President of the Court, Honourable Judges,

I stand before you charged with undermining State security, rebellion, and spreading false information. The punishment I face: life imprisonment. Well, I am going to surprise you.

I plead guilty. Yes, I am guilty. But not of the crimes of which you accuse me. I am guilty of having devoted my life to this country. I am guilty of having believed in democracy. I am guilty of having wanted a Cameroon that could hold its head high.

Before God and before humanity, and for the sake of History, allow me to explain. I Plead Guilty to Academic Excellence

I am indeed guilty of being a lifelong student. At Ekoudou Primary School in Yaounde, I ranked first in the entire school, with an average score of 19 out of 20. At Lycée Joss, I obtained my science-focused Baccalaureate C with honours at the age of 17.

In 1982, I graduated top of my class at the University of Yaounde. Then came an MBA from the University of Houston in 1985, followed by postgraduate studies in Political Management at George Washington University in 1995.

In 2005, I enrolled in a PhD programme in Knowledge Management in South Africa. In 2015, I completed postgraduate studies in Digital Economics through a joint MIT–Columbia University programme.

In 2024, I was admitted into a doctoral programme in Artificial Intelligence, and I continue writing my dissertation today — from prison. Every ten years, I return to school to deepen and update my knowledge.

I am guilty, yes.  Guilty of having refused intellectual mediocrity. I Plead guilty to having dared to be an entrepreneur. In 1986, I founded a start-up company in Douala called L'Intelligence Artificielle Inc., abbreviated INTELAR.

I designed RAMSES, the first African microcomputer, whose unique feature was its resistance to heat, dust and humidity. In 1991, the State destroyed my company. My offence, apparently, was wanting Cameroon to become a technological powerhouse like Taiwan. I am guilty, yes. Guilty of having dared to dream big for Cameroon and Africa.

I plead guilty to loving this country. I was born in 1961 in Bare, Nkongsamba, to parents who were themselves born in Mbanga.

As my father was a civil servant whose postings took him across the country, I travelled through practically every part of Cameroon. From those experiences, I developed a profound love for Cameroon and all Cameroonians.

Even as a child, I was able to recognise the common values that lie beneath our apparent diversity. I consequently developed a deep contempt for every form of ethnic chauvinism. For me, retreating into ethnic identity is an abomination. I am guilty, yes. Guilty of being a true patriot.

I plead guilty to ideological consistency. In 1979, at the University of Yaounde, I founded the Club for Studies and Reflection on African Culture (CERCA), alongside Achille Mbembe and Michel Lobe Ewane. At the same time, within a clandestine Marxist cell, I began studying the science of revolution.

Between 1982 and 1985, I further developed my political education in the United States within the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, under the leadership of Kwame Toure, a former leader of the Black Panthers.

In 1986, upon returning to Cameroon, I established the Pan-Africanist Party (P2), a clandestine organisation working to end the one-party dictatorship, restore democracy in Cameroon and promote African unity. In 1987, I travelled to Burkina Faso under Thomas Sankara, whom I met.

At that time, Ouagadougou was the Mecca of progressive movements in Africa. Upon returning from one of my trips in 1988, I was arrested by Military Security. After 17 months of extrajudicial detention, I was brought before this very military tribunal in March 1990.

I was 29 years old. I was sentenced to three years in prison for — subversion — alongside Barrister Yondo Black and Anicet Ekane. Under mounting national and international pressure, the regime released us in August 1990. We immediately set about building the Coordination of Political Parties and Associations.

CAP Liberte, a nonpartisan association that I chaired, became the first organisation to stage a public demonstration demanding a Sovereign National Conference. The Opposition Coordination subsequently adopted this demand as its rallying cry.

In 1992, CAP Liberte was among the founding members of the Union for Change, which supported John Fru Ndi's victorious presidential candidacy. 

In 2025, alongside Anicet Ekane, I co-founded the Union for Change 2025 (UPC 2025), which supported the consensus candidacy of Issa Tchiroma.

On each occasion, the people vindicated us. They will vindicate the Union for Change once again in 2027 by granting its candidates an absolute majority in the National Assembly. I am guilty, yes. Guilty of having remained faithful to my democratic convictions for more than 45 years.

I plead guilty to having paid a heavy price for freedom. I have endured three years of political imprisonment. I lost my son, Nkrumah, while I was in detention.

My company, INTELAR, was destroyed. My passport was confiscated. Following assassination attempts against me, I was forced into five years of exile. 

My wife, Makini, an African American, has struggled alongside me for Cameroon and Africa.

In 2017, construction work on her school in Bonanjo was blocked, despite a ruling by the Administrative Court in her favour.

The Minister of State Property at the time told her: "The Cameroonian rogue State is under no obligation to respect court decisions". Our children — Nzinga, Shabaka and Samory — who are Cameroonian by birthright, have never been able to obtain Cameroonian national identity cards or passports because of the unjust dual-nationality laws, which are selectively enforced. 

On 24 October 2025, I was abducted from our home without an arrest warrant. My house was searched without a search warrant. My wife's school was ransacked by armed men in uniform. Journalists close to the regime claimed that tanks, Kalashnikov rifles, drugs and other items had been found in our home. Curiously, none of these allegations appears in the charges against me.

I am guilty of having given everything to this country: my son, my freedom, my business, my family's peace of mind — in short, my life. What the Government Prosecutor Calls Crimes. Your Honour, what exactly does the prosecutor accuse me of?

Of having peacefully organised a coalition of 22 political parties and 34 associations. Of having transparently selected a consensus candidate. Of having lawfully participated in a presidential election.

Of having conducted a campaign free from partisan chauvinism, personality cults and ethnic rhetoric. Of having believed that the verdict of the ballot box would be respected.

On 12 October 2025, the people spoke. Their verdict was unequivocal. The regime refused to accept it. The country descended into an unprecedented post-electoral crisis.

State terrorism, Arbitrary arrests, Imprisonment without trial. A hundred people shot dead. Thousands of innocent citizens languishing, a year later, in filthy prisons. And those who secured victory are the ones being prosecuted — not the losers who orchestrated the violence. What a remarkable example of a judicial farce! A veritable witch-hunt masquerading as a trial!

My Submissions to the Court

Your Honour,

I am not asking for an acquittal. I am asking for the sentence that my sacrifice demands. May it please this Court to sentence me to life imprisonment. 

May I be forever deprived of the privilege of enduring this ferocious dictatorship: Its corrupt administration; Its muzzled press; Its subservient judiciary. Its unemployed youth; Its pothole-ridden roads; Its rubbish-strewn streets and its hospitals without medicines.

May I instead be allowed to spend the rest of my life in the Cameroon dreamed of by those who came before me — Um Nyobè, Félix Moumié, Ernest Ouandié and Osende Afana: A sovereign and democratic Cameroon within a united and strong Africa.

Mr. President of the Court, 

Honourable Judges

I accept my imprisonment with stoicism, because it is the price that must be paid for the freedom of my people. Sentence me. Sentence me to life imprisonment. 

Sentence me to a lifetime of witnessing the Cameroon I have always dreamed of. I plead guilty. I do so with pride. Condemn me today. History will acquit me.

I REST MY CASE

Mwalimu Djeukam Tchameni

Kondengui Central Prison

24 October 2026