Birthplace, Battleground: 41 Years On, CPDM Returns to Bamenda With a Message the Nation Cannot Ignore

There is something quietly symbolic about the fact that Cameroon's ruling party always comes to Bamenda to celebrate itself.It is here , that the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement was founded on March 24, 1985. And it is here, four decades and one year later, that CPDM militants have gathered once more at Congress Hall to mark the party's 41st anniversary with a message that feels both triumphant and urgent.

The celebration is being chaired by H.E. Philemon Yang, the CPDM's Permanent Regional Coordinator for the Northwest a figure who served as Cameroon's Prime Minister from 2009 to 2019 and, more recently, as President of the United Nations General Assembly for its 79th session. In a region where CPDM events have often been shadowed by insecurity from the ongoing Anglophone crisis, Philemon Yang's presence at the Congress Hall carries weight beyond protocol. It is a statement of continuity and, for many here, a reminder that power persists even in contested terrain.

This year's anniversary carries a particular charge. The gathering comes in the wake of the October 2025 presidential election, in which CPDM candidate Paul Biya secured 53% of the vote his lowest result in more than three decades.The message from party leadership is clear: the time for reflection is over. Now is the time to consolidate.

The 41st anniversary is being held under the theme: "Let us prepare to further consolidate the strength and position of the Party behind the National President" a call for cohesion and loyalty as Cameroon navigates a critical political period. 

In practice, that theme has a human face in Bamenda. Party organisers say this year's celebration places special emphasis on inclusion bringing youths, women, and persons with disabilities into the fold in visible, meaningful ways. It is an acknowledgment, however implicit, that the CPDM's future depends not only on its elites but on those who have too often been left waiting at the margins of Cameroonian political life.

Youth and women remain central to the party's long-term strategy, and the 41st anniversary celebrations are being seen as both a show of strength and a test of the party's mobilisation capacity among these groups. 

The party now faces two immediate objectives: preserving its territorial base across municipalities, and maintaining its majority in the National Assembly ahead of scheduled legislative and municipal elections. CPDM Secretary General Jean Nkuete has acknowledged that the political environment is becoming increasingly competitive, with an electorate that is younger, more connected, and harder to satisfy.

 

For the people of Bamenda a city that has known more than its share of grief and ghost towns over the past decade the anniversary is a complicated thing to witness. Some turn out with genuine enthusiasm; others watch quietly from a distance. But the Congress Hall fills, as it has filled before, and the speeches echo off walls that have heard many promises in many seasons.

Philemon Yang, standing before the crowd in the city of his party's birth, is expected to do what he has done at these occasions before: remind militants that the road ahead requires commitment, that the party is imperfect but consequential, and that a better Northwest and a better Cameroon is still possible.

Whether those gathered believe him may depend less on his words than on what they see when they go home after the celebrations end.

 

By Bamenjo Petronilla