He Fled Persecution — and Then Was Locked Up in U.S. Detention for Over 800 Days
After leaving Cameroon for the United States, Nelson Achiri Geh was shuffled between three detention centers; at one point, he didn’t see the sun for six months
Nelson Achiri Geh’s childhood memories from Cameroon are filled with images of repression: police and soldiers marching through streets, politicians offering stern rebukes of those deemed unwelcome on their soil. For English speakers in the country, such was life.
Cameroon has two official languages, French and English, each a byproduct of a post-World War I decision by the League of Nations to grant France and England joint trustee status of the country. (Prior to that, the country had been under German rule.) After decades of tensions, French Cameroon, and then English Cameroon, gained independence in the early 1960s, but the larger French side hoarded political power. As a result, many Anglophones say they are victim to rampant harassment: Internet is at times cut off to English-speaking areas, English speakers are barred from political activity, and some are jailed and tortured.
The vestiges of colonialism set up lingering difficulties for English speakers, like Geh, who hope to flee from the…
