On June 12th, 2023, 81-year-old John Fru Ndi, the leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and historical opponent of President Paul Biya, passed away in Yaoundé, Cameroon. His death marks the end of an era, as the SDF’s congress, scheduled for July 28th-30th, 2023, was to record his final withdrawal from political life.
This English-speaking bookseller embodies, in the 1990s, the radical opposition to President Paul Biya. John Fru Ndi was born in 1941 in Baba II, a village in Mezam, near Bamenda, in what is now the North West region, which was then Northern Cameroon, a territory administered by the United Kingdom under the mandate of the League of Nations.
After leaving to study in Nigeria, he returned to Bamenda where he exercised several professions, including that of bookseller. At the end of the 1980s, he cut his teeth in politics on a CPDM list, at the time a single party.
He was almost 50 years old when he participated in the creation of the Social Democratic Front (SDF). He is not the first choice, but agrees to take the presidency, despite the risks. On May 26th, 1990, in Bamenda, the inaugural rally of the new party was bloodily repressed.
John Fru Ndi forges the image of a courageous leader who does not back down. His aura then goes beyond the English-speaking regions. It is becoming popular in the West and Littoral regions where the economic capital Douala is located.