The Cameroonian is no stranger to such actions: for several years, he has been tracking Paul Biya in France or elsewhere in Europe. The 87-year-old Cameroonian president, in office since 1982, has become an obsession: “We have hatred for him. We will stop when he leaves power,”
Abdoulaye Thiam – His nickname, Calibri Calibro, dates back to childhood. His political activism began in the streets of Douala, a “rebellious city,” where he took part in several marches to protest, as he puts it, the government’s management, rising prices, and frequent power outages. He is not affiliated with any political party but feels close to the Social Democratic Front (SDF, opposition). During the 2008 riots, he was arrested by the police and even “tortured,” he claims.
He had to accept it: the regime was far more powerful than him. In January 2016, Abdoulaye Thiam decided to leave his family and his laundry business to go to France, his other “homeland.” But it wasn’t to flee the regime, he says: “My father is French, but he had trouble renewing his documents. I left to prove his nationality and mine as well.” This marked the beginning of a long journey across the African continent, with a traumatic stop in Libya. At this point in his story, Abdoulaye Thiam puts down his coffee, removes his cap, revealing short dreadlocks, and breaks into tears.
“I lived through the worst moments of my life,” he whispers before listing the horrors he endured or witnessed. “I was beaten, I lost an eardrum,” he growls, pulling out a medical certificate from his green shirt to prove—and support—his claims.
In December 2016, after successfully crossing the Mediterranean, he reached Paris and filed a request for recognition of his French nationality. Even over 6,000 kilometers from Douala, Calibri Calibro resumed his activism.
He once again protested against Paul Biya, notably in front of the Cameroonian embassy. “That’s where I started to get noticed,” he regrets. He made videos that he posted on his Facebook account to denounce the regime, wrote to François Hollande, then president, to remind him that Cameroon is a “dictatorship,” and raised awareness in the public and press about political prisoners…
On October 30, 2018, he created the Anti-Sardinards Brigade—a reference to the sardine sandwiches distributed during RDPC rallies—and dedicated himself to boycotting all artists close to the regime who wanted to perform for the diaspora in France.
The “brigade,” in which women call themselves “amazons,” managed to cancel several concerts. But that’s not all. When he learned that Paul Biya was staying in a Parisian luxury hotel, such as the Meurice in November 2019, his group went there to denounce “the tyrant” who “wastes public money.” When he discovered that the president was staying at a luxury hotel in Switzerland, he didn’t hesitate to cross the border with his group to disrupt his stay. “My goal is to prevent him from being abroad,” says Abdoulaye Thiam.
