British and French Colonial Education in Africa:

A Discontinuity Analysis at the Border between

French and English speaking Cameroon

Preliminary

Yannick Dupraz
2013

Abstract
It has been argued that British colonial legacy was more favorable to growth
than others, and that the identity of the colonizer could explain present day
dierences in development. One aspect of the British colonial legacy was educa-
tion: in sub-Saharan Africa, at the time of independences, countries colonized
by the British had more average years of education than the ones colonized
by the French and the dierence persisted up to quite recently. Cross country
literature is awed by the problem of selection: maybe the British colonized
the richer, more education-oriented areas. In this paper, I use the division of
German Kamerun between a French and a British part after WWI to identify
the causal eect of dierent education policies on education. I rst docu-
ment the dierent colonial education policies undertaken in French and British
Cameroon. Then, using Cameroonian census data, I undertake spatial discon-
tinuity analysis at the border between former French and British Cameroon. I
nd a discontinuity favoring the British side for cohorts born in the interwar
period. However, in the late colonial period, the discontinuity inverses, favor-
ing the French side. This is consistent with the surge in education expenditure
in French Cameroon in the last decade of colonization.

As development literature has become more and more interested in the long term
eects of institutional and political history, a series of papers has focused on the
positive impact of British legacy on development (La Porta et alii 1998 & 1999).
Education is often underlined as an important aspect of the more favorable nature

1
of British colonialism. In the period 1870-1940, primary enrolment rates were signif-
icantly higher in the British colonies of Africa than in the French ones (Benavot and
Riddle, 1988). This education dierential could still be observed in 1960 and has
persisted up to quite recently (Brown, 2000; Cogneau, 2003; Garnier and Schafer,
2006). Grier (1999) argues that the dierences in growth performance between for-
mer French and former British colonies in Africa can be explained by the impact of
colonization on education.
The literature underlined three main dierences between French and British colo-
nial education policies. First, dierence in agency: while the British entrusted re-
ligious missions, nanced through a system of grants-in-aid, with educaction, the
French established a public, free and non religious network of schools (Giord and
Weiskel, 1971); the French system was more centralized, the British one more demand-
driven (Garnier and Schafer, 2006). Second, dierence in the language of instruction:
while French colonial administrators were very adamant that instruction was under-
taken in French only, local languages were more often used (at least in the rst
grades) in British Africa; as a result, French colonial schools employed more Euro-
pean teachers than British ones. Third, dierence in the purpose of instruction: while
British missionaries, whose goal was conversion, tried to reach the largest number
of people, the goal of French colonial education was to train a small administrative
elite. Scholars argue that, because of these dierences, the British system was more
able to respond to local demand, and did so at a lower cost.
Did dierences in colonial education policies create a divergence between former
French and former British colonies of Africa in educational achievments? In order
to answer this question, mean comparison seems to be, in a rst approach, the most
intuitive method. Figure 2, constructed from Benavot and Riddle (1988) and World
Bank (1993, 2013), shows what was underlined in previous literature: enrollment
rates were higher in British colonies throughout the colonial period, and the gap
persisted, or even increased, in the last decades of the XX
th century, before closing
1
in the 2000s . However, as we can see on gure 2, the gap narrowed in the 1960s
2
before widening again . Even if we manage to convince ourselves that the post-
independence divergence was caused by colonial policies, we need to be more specic
about the channels of transmission.
However, establishing a causal eect of colonization on educational outcomes from
a simple dierence in means is an exercise in self deception. Can we really compare
settlers colonies such as Kenya, Zambia or Zimbabwe (not to mention South Africa)

1 We might think that the gap closed because of a ceiling eect. However, we are considering
gross enrollment ratios, so that there is no ceiling at 100%.
2 If we exclude South Africa as an obvious outlier, the gap closes in the 1960s.

2
whith French colonies which were mostly extractive? Can we really compare French
West Africa with a British Empire which, simply because it was more southern, was
far less penetrated by islam? More generally, the problem of this simple dierence in
means echoes the ones of the cross-country literature: selection is an obvious issue.
It is very likely that the United Kingdom, the dominant power at the time of the
scramble for Africa, simply took the lion's share and was able to colonize the richest
countries. In the case of British colonialism, economic opportunities for British
merchants seem to have mattered more: the ag followed the trade. Moreover, it is
also very likely, as noted by Ewout Frankema (2011), that the British governement,
lobbied by missionaries, also conquered the regions where the demand for Christian
education was higher: the ag followed the cross.
Selection on observables, such as share of muslim population or number of Eu-
ropean settlers, is a problem that can be dealt with even in the framework of cross
country analysis (Cogneau, 2003). However, many of the determinant of selection,
such as local attitudes towards colonization or demand for education, are unobserved.
The arbitrary nature of a number of African borders suggests we use spatial
discontituity analysis: by comparing regions on both sides of the border between
a country colonized by the French and a country colonized by the British, one is
comparing regions that are very similar in terms of precolonial history, geographical
conditions and ethnic composition. If one is able to assume that colonizer's identity
is the only determinant of education that changes abruptly at the border and that
all other determinants vary smoothly, one can identify the eect of colonial origin on
education by simply comparing people living very close to the border. In practice,
one does not only consider people living very close to the border, but also people
living further away. In that case, one controls for the smooth eects of other vari-
ables with some semi-parametric function of geographical location (Lee and Lemieux,
2009; Dell, 2010; Cogneau and Moradi, forthcoming). Division of former German
colonies of Togoland and Kamerun between the French and the British after World
War I forms particularly interesting historical natural experiments. One can argue,
more easily than for other African borders, that the division was exogenous to local
conditions, and the relatively late date of the partition allows to check for the absence
of discontinuity in education outcomes before the war.
Border discontinuity analysis has been used in a number of other papers on Africa:
Cogneau et alii (2011) nd a contemporaneous discontinuity in education outcomes
favoring Ghana at the border between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The discontinuity is
positive and signicant for individuals born before independence, which suggests that
it goes back to colonial times. Cogneau and Moradi (forthcoming) study the border
between the part of German Togoland which became a part of the Gold Coast (con-

3
temporary Ghana) after WWI and the part which became the French protectorate
of Togo. Once again, the discontinuity in education outcomes is at the advantage of
Ghana. Moreover, their dataset (recruits to the Ghana colonial army) allows them to
show that the divergence started after the division of Togoland between the French
and the British. Lee and Schultz (2011) study the Cameroonian case but, using De-
mographic and Health Survey data, do not nd any contemporaneous discontinuity
in education outcomes .
3
This paper studies a natural experiment very similar to the one analyzed in
Cogneau and Moradi (forthcoming): the partition of a German colony between the
British and the French after World War I is used to identify the eect of colonial
policies on education outcomes. Complementing the ndings of Cogneau and Moradi
with the Cameroonian case is interesting in many aspects: rst, undertaking spatial
discontinuity analysis means gaining credibility (internal validity) but losing gen-
erality (external validity). The peculiar history of German lost colonies allows us
something that is seldom possible when dealing with natural experiments: to repeat
the experiment in a dierent setting. In the case of Togoland, we can argue that the
observed discontinuity has little external validity because Ghana was, thanks to the
cocoa trade, a very rich colony. We might be worried that, when comparing Ghana
and Togo, we are not so much comparing a British and a French colony as we are
comparing a rich colony with a poorer one. It might be the case that the increased
tax revenue linked to cocoa trade led to increased spendings in all domains, including
education. Nigeria, however, of which the British Cameroons were a part between
1919 and 1961, was not a particularly rich colony. Moreover, we have every reason to
believe that the Cameroons were a neglected part of Nigeria. Moreover, contrary to
what happened in German Togoland, French Cameroon and the Southern part of the
British Cameroons were reunited 45 years after their separation and form a single
country today. This has practical advantages, such as the possibility to use national
censuses and surveys, avoiding the delicate problem of merging datasets produced
by dierent sources .
4
After documenting, using historical sources, the dierent colonial education poli-
cies implemented in French and British Cameroon, this paper undertakes spatial
discontinuity analysis at the border between formerly British and French Cameroon,
using two Cameroonian censuses from 1976 and 1987. Estimating a border eect for
each 10-year cohort allows to study the evolution of border discontinuity throughout
the XX
th century. In the southern part of the border, there is a large and statistically

3 They nd contemporary dierences in a wealth index and in access to an improved water source.
4 Cogneau and Moradi (forthcoming) avoid that problem for the colonial period, as they use
soldiers from the British colonial army in Ghana, which were recruited in French territories as well.

4
signicant border eect favouring the English-speaking side for cohorts who went to
school before the Second World War .
5 However, for cohorts who went to school
during the late colonial period, the eect fades away, and even inverses, favouring
the French-speaking side of the border. These results are consistent with the surge
in education expeditures in French Cameroon in the late colonial period. Figure 3
oers a preview of the results: it shows, for eight 10-year cohorts of the 1976 census,
the estimated border discontinuity (positive when favoring the English-speaking side,
negative when favoring the French-speaking side) in the percentage of men in each
village who attended school (gure 3a) and completed primary (gure 3b). The dis-
continuity is estimated on a 10-km bandwith across the southern part of the border
(5-km on each side). The smooth eects of geographic location are controlled for us-
ing a polynomial of order 2 in latitude and longitude. Border segment dummies are
also added (this part of the border was divided in 3 segmentss) to avoid comparing
villages that are far away from each other see part 3.1, p. 26.
The eect of British colonization is positive, large (about 10 percentage points for
school attendance and 5 percentage points for primary completion) and signicant for
cohorts born between 1912 and 1931, who were schooled during the interwar period.
However, for the cohort born between 1942 and 1951, consisting of people who were
schooled during the last decade of colonization, the eect of British colonization is
null for school attendance and signicaantly negative for primary completion (see
gure 3). These ndings are not surprising in the light of the history of colonial
education policies in the two Cameroons, especially when we consider the surge in
education expenditures in French Cameroon after World War II. These results give
some external validity to the ndings of Cogneau and Moradi (forthcoming) as far as
the interwar period is concerned, but they must bring us to reassess both the question
of persistence of colonial education policies after independence and the question of the
factors explaining the better performance of the British colonial education system.
It seems that the French system, when given sucient fundings, can outperform the
British one.
This paper is organized as follows: the rst part presents the history of Cameroon
from German colonization to post-independence, argues that the division between
French and British is indeed a convincing natural experiment and documents the
dierent colonial education policies undertaken in French and British Cameroon.
The second part presents the data, the third part the econometric strategy, the
fourth part the results. The sixth part concludes.

5 Estimating a border eect on the northern part of the border proves very dicult, for a variety
of reasons, see part 3.2, p. 28.

5
1 Cameroon from German colonization to indepen-
dence
1.1 Division and reunication: the natural experiment
The rst Europeans to set foot in the region forming present-day Cameroon were
Portuguese traders in 1532. Malaria preventing the conquest of the interior, Euro-
pean presence remained coastal and devoted to slave trade. In spite of the presence
of British missions from the middle of the XIX
th century on, the region fell under
German inuence. In 1868, a German trading post was set up near Douala. In
1884, Duala King Bell signed a protection treaty with the German, and the re-
gion became the colony of Kamerun, which quickly came to encompass the territory
of present-day Cameroon (Ngoh, 1987). In 1911, a treaty signed with the French
extended German territories south and east (see gure 1).

Figure 1: The evolution of Cameroon's boundaries

Sources : Giord and Louis, 1967 and 1971.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, German Kamerun was invaded by
French and British troops. Military operations lasted until February 1916: it was
then decided that, until the end of the war, the German colony would be divided into
a British-administered region and a French-administered region. Although it is not
very clear, it seems that, by 1916, the French and the British had decided that they
would retain German colonies in case of a victory. Negociations about the division of
Kamerun took place in a broader negociation about German colonies in Africa: as the

6
British had their eye on German East Africa (present-day Tanzania), and as South
Africa wanted German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia), the French got
most of the spoils in Kamerun (Louis, 1967): their territory, representing four fth
of the German colony, encompassed the port of Douala and the only railroad (joining
Douala and the palm oil plantations further north). The Milner-Simon declaration
of 1919 established the principle of the division of former German Kamerun between
French and British administration. The two zones were established as French and
British class B mandates by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922 (Brownlie,
1979; Ngoh, 1987, 2001). The British part of Kamerun became a part of Nigeria,
administered from Lagos, and the French part became the protectorate of Cameroon
(see gure 1).
Class B mandates, although they required that the colonial power send an an-
nual report to the League of Nations, were not very restrictive, so that, in practice,
French and British Cameroons were administered as colonies (Louis, 1967). The
narrow strip of land forming the British Cameroons was divided in two parts: the
territories of the North became part of the Nigerian provinces of Bornu and Yola,
while the South (the territory forming present-day English-speaking Cameroon) be-
came the Cameroons province, with its capital at Buea. When the League of Nations
was dissolved in 1946, the mandates became trust territories of the United Nations.
Nigeria and Cameroon both gained independence in 1960. Since the 1940's, polit-
ical parties, both in French-speaking Cameroon and in Nigeria, had been demanding
reunication of the two territories (Ngoh, 1987, 2001; Deltombe, Domergue and Tat-
sitsa, 2011). In 1961, a referendum was organized in English-speaking Cameroon:
the population of the northern part voted to join Nigeria and the populations of
the southern part voted to join the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon, which
became the Federal Republic of Cameroon (see gure 1). The border studied in this
paper is an internal border of present-day Cameroon: the border between the two
English-speaking regions of Cameroon and the rest of the country. It is worth not-
ing that, after independence, the two parts of the federation remained autonomous,
so that reunication of Cameroon did not imply that education policies became the
same on both sides of the border. In 1972, the federation became a unitary state, the
United Republic of Cameroon. However, today, Cameroon still distinguishes itself
by the duality of its education system.
The hypothesis necessary for identication in a Regression Discontinuity Design
(RDD) framework is that all covariates besides the treatment variable (here, iden-
tity of the colonizer) vary smoothly at the cuto. In our case, it requires that the
border between French and British Cameroon does not match a preexisting bound-
ary between dierent ecological zones, ethnolinguistic groups or precolonial political

7
contructions. The border set up by the Milner-Simon declaration of 1919 was very
similar to the border established in 1916, during the war, in the context of wider
negociations about the sharing of German colonies between the Entente Powers. It
would then not be very surprising to nd that the border was designed without much
concern for local conditions. It was the opinion of Colonial secretary Alfred Milner,
representing the United Kingdom at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919:

The boundaries between the dierent spheres of occupation are haphaz-

ard and, as a permanent arrangement, would be quite intolerable. They
cut across tribal and administrative divisions, take no account of eco-
nomic conditions and are, in every way, objectionable. (Quoted in Louis,
1967).

In the end though, the border negociated in 1919 was practically the same as the
one established in 1916 (Louis, 1967) .
6
Did the border cut across ethnolinguistic groups? George Murdock's map (1959)
is unfortunately not precise enough to verify this point. I therefore combined Mur-
dock's deniton of groups of essentially identical language and culture with more
precise population maps established by the Oce de la recherche scientique et tech-
nique outre-mer (ORSTOM) in the 1970's (Champaud, 1973; Franqueville, 1973;
7
Courade, 1974) . In its southern part, the border does indeed cut across ethnolin-
guistic groups (Duala, Bakossi and Bamileke: see gure 4). In the northern part,
however, it seems that the border respected the division between groups. Not that
they were fundamentally dierent: most of the groups of the region under considera-
tion are of the same language family (Northwest Bantu A), and the main dierence,
in the beginning of the XX
th century, was not an east/west but a north/south one:

6 There were however some changes: for instance, the area forming the present day Bamboutos
department was administered by the British between 1916 and 1919, but the Milner-Simon decla-
ration allocated it to French Cameroon (Tsoata, 1999).
7 I am not using the ORSTOM maps directly because the tribes represented are alternatively
tribes, chiefdoms or ethnolinguistic groups. For example, the Bamilekes are represented as a single
tribe, when we know that this group is composed of several chiefdoms; the chiefdoms of Bangwa and
Mundani, which are part of the Bamileke group according to Murdock (1959) and Ngoh (1987, 2001),
are represented as separate tribes. We might more generally wonder whether the ethnic groups
established by the ORSTOM were endogenous to the division of Cameroon between the British and
the French. It is possible that people identied to dierent groups after the partition. For instance,
the village of Santa in English-speaking Cameroon, whose inhabitants were identied as Widekum
by Champaud (1973), used to be a part of the Babadjou chiefdom, today in French-speaking
Cameroon, identied as Bamileke by Champaud (interview with Thadée Ymelong, 26/05/2013,
Babadjou).

8
it was between the highlanders, cultivating Sudanic as well as Malaysian and Amer-
ican crops, more often organized in chiefdoms and carrying out a great amount of
trade, and the populations of the coast, cultivating Malaysian and American crops,
organized in politically autononomous villages and carrying out only modest trade,
with the exception of the Dualas (Murdock, 1959) .
8
However, the fact that the 1919 border matched the boundaries of the Bamun
kingdom (which fell on the French side) is worrisome: King Njoya, ruler of the Bamun
kingdom from approximately 1883 to 1931, is famous for having converted to Islam,
together with his court, and for having invented a system of writing, known as Bamun
script. King Njoya also had a school built to teach the new script. This peculiar
history might have inuenced the supply of education directly (through the expansion
9
of koranic schools ) and indirectly (because the colonizer might have favored the
supply of education in a region that had an established political representation). It
might also have inuenced the demand for education, including western education.
Reading the 1919 Milner-Simon declaration carefully, it seems that the border was
indeed designed to respect the boundaries of the Bamun kingdom:

Thence the frontier will be determined as follows: [...] (25) Thence the
River Mabe, or Nsang, upstream to its junction with the tribal boundary
between Bansso and Bamum; (26) Thence a line to the conuence of
the Rivers Mpand and Nun, to be xed on the ground so as to leave
the country of Bansso to Great Britain and that of Bamum, to France.
(Brownlie, 1979, p. 567).

As it seems plausible that the northernmost part of the border matched a preex-
isting boundary, it will, in most of the paper, be excluded from the analysis
10
Another concern is that even a locally random border could have separated a
homogenous region in a way that biases the identication of a colonizer's identity
eect. Towns and railways are the major concern here. Indeed, as the number of
towns in 1916 was small, even a randomly drawn border could have favored one side
over the other as far as urbanization was concerned. The obvious example here is

8 In the highlands, it seems that groups originate from a common Tikar group; a number of
highland chiefdoms claim some dynastic connections with the Tikar (Ngoh, 1987, 2001).
9 In the 1976 census, among the cohort of individuals born in the Bamun kingdom (Noun de-
partement) between 1892 and 1901, 9.8% of males and 1.2% of females went to koranic schools. In
the districts of the neighboring English-speaking Northwest region, these gures are never higher
than 1% for men and 0.3% for women.
10 In any case, in the North, the border cuts across a quite sparsely populated area (which is
consistent with this zone being a historical frontier zone), making identication of a border eect
quite dicult.

9
Douala: because of its very favorable location on the tail end of the Wouri estuary,
Douala was where the rst German trading post was established in the second half
of the XIX
th century and it quickly became the commercial hub of German Kamerun
(even though, for climatic reasons, the political capital was moved to Buea in 1901).
In 1916, the city, with 30,000 inhabitant, was the biggest of the region. Railroads
are another issue: in 1916, the German had built 130 km of railway from Douala to
Nkongsamba in the North. During World War I, both the British and the French cov-
eted the port and the railroads. Lord Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies,
wrote in 1915, before the partition of German Kamerun:

What is essential that we should have is the northern railway (about 80

miles) from Duala to Bare, Mount Cameroon on the coast, which will
make a perfect sanatorium for the whole of West Africa; and the town
and harbor of Duala. (Quoted in Louis, 1967, p. 59.)

But in 1916, even though the British retained Mount Cameroon, both the port
and the railway fell in the French-administered territory. As gure 5a shows, the
border was very close to both Douala and the railroad. When German Kamerun was
divided and the border drawn, the British region was cutt o from these infrastruc-
tures which fell in French territory. This could have created a discontinuity at the
border for a variety of outcomes, even though we have every region to believe that
the border was locally random.
However, since we strongly expect the proximity of Douala and the railway to
favour the expansion of primary education, this eect would favor the French side.
But the discontinuity that appeared after the partition of Kamerun favored the
British side. Admittedly, the discontinuity inversed in the late colonial period, but,
by then, the British had had time to build transport infrastructures in the Cameroons
(even though they favored roads over railways).

1.2 British and French colonial education policies in Cameroon

This part documents the dierences between British and French education policies in
their respective mandated territories, using various historical sources, notably annual
reports sent by both colonial powers to the League of Nations (United Nations after
World War II)
11 .
British and French Cameroons were specic inside the British and French empires.
In the former German colonies of Cameroon and Togo, the French gave Christian

11 France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921-38 and 1947-57; Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1922-38
and 1949-59.

10
missions a larger role in education than in the rest of their African empire, rstly
because German missions were already active in the territories they inherited, sec-
ondly because, between the beginning of the XX
th century (the time when education
policies were put in place in the rest of French Africa) and the 1920's, passions about
the separation of Church and State had waned in France. Nigeria, of which the
British Cameroons became a part, was a poorer colony than Ghana, to which half of
German Togoland was attached
12 . We must add that the British Cameroons were a
somewhat neglected part of the immense colony of Nigeria: while Germa Togoland
was very close to Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast, Buea, capital of the British
Cameroons, laid 1,000 km from Lagos, the capital and economic heart of colonial
Nigeria
13 .

1.2.1 Education policies in French Cameroon

In French Cameroon, a 1920 decree organized the cooperation between government

and religious missions in education. Private schools, the decree stated, had to be
authorized by the colonial administration, under the inspection of which they were
placed. They had to teach exclusively in French and follow the same curriculum
as government schools. Their manager had to hold an ocial teaching certicate.
They received a subsidy proportional to the number of pupils having passed the
end of primary ocial examination (France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921). The
insistence of colonial administration on using French as a teaching language was
constant througout the colonial period. The justications one can read in various
sources are both practical (there was no common language in the territory) and
ideological:

[Our] rst duty is to cause an evolution of the people in our care towards
a superior stage of civilisation. But because France has been deemed
worthy of this guardianship, it must aim its action towards our national
genius, which cannot unfold without the help of our national language
14 .
(France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921, p. 16)

12 Reliable data from the early colonial period is hard to nd, but the Maddison database (Bolt
and van Zanden, 2013) gives a per capita GDP of 1990 Int$ 1,122 for Ghana in 1950 against 1990
Int$ 753 for Nigeria.
13 Before 1942, the Southern Cameroons were not represented in the Legislative council put in
place by the 1922 Cliord Constitution of Nigeria. The neglect experienced by the Southern
Cameroons inside Nigeria led to the creation of the Cameroons Welfare Union (CWU) in 1939,
whose main aim was to get the colonial authorities to remedy this neglect (Ngoh, 2001).
14 Translated from French.

11
Actually, ensuring the diusion of French was for France a way to establish its inu-
ence on a territory which adopted, even during German colonization, pidgin English
as its lingua franca.
The 1920 decree failed to detail what was to happen of the numerous mission
schools which could not follow its stringent requirements (if only because few teachers
hold the very demanding ocial teaching certicate). Reading the text of the decree,
one feels that the administration had their disappearance in mind: this is what
happened to 2/3 of private schools in Togo after a similar 1930 decision (Cogneau
and Moradi, forthcoming). However, the wording of the decree was vague enough
that missionaries were able to understand that private schools which did not meet the
requirements were free to undertake any form of education, completely unsupervised
by colonial administration. A 1930 decree conrmed this interpretation, stating that
non government-approved schools were entirely free of their organization, as long
as they complied with school-age limitations (France, Ministère des Colonies, 1930).
There were thus three types of schools in colonial French Cameroon: government
schools (écoles ocielles ), government-approved mission schools (écoles reconnues
des missions ) and non government-approved mission schools (écoles non reconnues
des missions ).
A 1921 decree organized public education, with 2 types of schools: regional
schools, few in number, oering a complete primary cycle, and village schools, more
numerous, oering an incomplete primary cycle. The best pupils of village schools
were supposed to continue their education in regional schools. One Superior School,
in Yaoundé, oered post primary education to a few pupils selected by a competi-
tive examination. Government schools were free and non religious; the language of
instruction was French. All teachers held an ocial teaching qualication, and the
proportion of French teachers was quite high (25% in 1930).
The requirements that had to be met by government-approved mission schools
(écoles reconnues des missions ) made them quite similar to government schools. In
exchange for meeting these requirements, they were subsidized, although these subsi-
dies were far from generous and represented only a small fraction of the government-
approved mission schools' expenses
15 . In 1930, subsidies represented less than 2.3%

15 Government-approved mission schools received a subsidy proportional to the number of pupils

passing ocial examinations: 150 francs for each pupil passing the end of primary examination
and, from 1924 on, 300 francs for each pupil passing the entrance exam into the Superior School,
provided they had no commited to be employed by the mission. These subsidies were raised in
1928 and 1936. From 1924 on, each government-approved mission school run by a teacher holding
an ocial degree also received a subsidy for each bracket of 20 pupils; in 1929, the subsidy was
increased and a lower subsidy was created for schools run by a teacher having passed the ocial
end of primary examination. Both subsidies were increased in 1936.

12
of the government-approved schools' wage bill
16 .
As far as non government-approved schools are concerned, since they were not
inspected, it is very hard to know what their exact nature was. The report sent
to the League of Nations in 1930 decribes them as schools of religious teaching,
where unqualied catechists give rudiments of instruction in the local language [...]
and rudiments of French when the teacher's ability permits it. According to Félix
Tsoata (1999), colonial administration tolerated these schools because they helped
propagating French. Pupils of government-approved schools were recruited among
pupils of non government-approved schools (France, Ministère des Colonies, 1930;
Tosata, 1999). Since non government-approved schools were not inspected by colo-
nial administration, enrollment gures given in table 14 (p. 61) were given by the
mission themselves. We should not take these gures too seriously, as they very
likely encompass parishioners attending catechism a couple of hours a week as well
as pupils receiving rudiments of formal education
17 .
French colonial education policy in Cameroon changed radically after World War
II, in the aftermath of the Brazzaville Conference of 1944. As the defeat of May 1940
had weakened France's international status and as independentist ideas had been de-
velopping throughout France's colonies, the Brazzaville Conference was organized by
the politicians of Free France to prepare the colonial empire's postwar future and
ensure it would remain French. The participants of the Conference rejected any
idea of self-government or evolution outside a French Empire, but they realized that
social and economic reforms were needed if France was to retain its colonies. The
Conference led to abolishing the indigenous status and creating the French Union,
of which Cameroon, although a UN trusteeship, became a part. A representative
assembly was created, elected half by European colonists, half by a reduced African
college, but, for all purposes, Cameroon remained governed by French administra-
tion
18 . As far as education policy is concerned, the Conference strongly stressed the
necessity of using French only as the language of instruction in public and private

16 Assuming that teachers in the private sector were paid the same wage as teachers in the public
sector: government-approved mission schools received an average subsidy of 244 francs; the average
number of teacher per school was 2.5 and mean African teachers' wage in the public sector was
4,244 francs. I do not have data on wages in private schools: teachers in mission schools were very
probably paid less than in government schools, but qualications were, by law, similar (France,
Ministère des Colonies, 1930; Cameroun, 1930).
17 Taking these gure seriously would mean that gross enrollment ratios in French Cameroon in
the interwar period were comparable with those of Madagascar or Uganda, which is quite unreallistic
(Benavot and Riddle, 1988).
18 In 1956, Cameroon obtained internal autonomy and the assembly was elected by universal
surage, but we have every reason to question the regularity of the elections (Deltombe et al.,
2011).

13
education
19 . The Conference also set up new goals for the colonial education system,
notably training Africans to be high ranking administrators and not only subordi-
nates (Ngoh, 1987). As a result of this new climate, public investment in education
surged after World War II, as is schown in table 1 (p. 18).
In increasing its educational eort, the French colonial administration adopted a
double strategy: increasing subsidies to mission schools on the one hand, in order to
increase their quality and ensure that they would teach in French only, launching, on
the other hand, a massive program of construction of public schools and hiring of pub-
lic school teachers. Two decrees, in 1946 and 1947, modied the subsidy system: in
addition to paying each mission a xed amount proportional to its educational eort,
the colonial government started paying each mission teacher a subsidy amounting to
half of the public sector wage of teachers holding similar qualications
20 . A 1949 de-
cree redened private school regulations, but its spirit was very close to former rules.
What changed was the amount of subsidies paid to the private sector, which kept
increasing. In 1955, subsidies represented 78% of the private sector's wage bill
21 . It
is worth noting that this calculation, as well as the gures presented in table 1, do
not take into account the expenditures of the FIDES ( Fonds d'Investissement pour
le Développement Economique et Social ), a fund created in 1946 dedicated to large
scale infrastructure and equipment in French colonies, which nanced, among other
thing, the construction of numerous public and private schools in Cameroon. Table
1 shows that expenditures on public schools (excluding FIDES) increased as well in
the wake of the Brazzaville Conference. As a result of this double strategy, enroll-
ments increased in both private and public schools, although the rate of increase was
higher in the public sector: between 1946 and 1957, enrollment in public schools was
multiplied by ve while it doubled in private schools (France, Ministère des Colonies,
various years).
In the aftermath of the Brazzaville Conference, which stressed the necessity of
training African for high ranking administrative positions, secondary education de-
velopped in Cameroon. Before the WWII, post primary education was available for
a few selected students at the Superior School in Yaoundé. A handful of technical
schools also oered some post primary education. The rst secondary school was
opened in 1945-46 by the government in Yaoundé. In 1956, two public secondary

19 See the letter sent by René Pléven to the Governor of Cameroon, May 16 1944 (Yaoundé
National Archives, APA 10155/B).
20 France, Ministère des Colonies, 1947; Yaoundé National Archives, 1AC 4778.
21 Still assuming that wages in the private sector were similar to wages in the public sector: the
colonial government paid 600 million francs in subsidies to a private sector employing 3,592 teachers.
Average subsidy per teacher was therefore 167,000 francs, while, at the same date, the average wage
in public schools was 213,000 francs.

14
schools, in Douala and Yaoundé, oered a complete secondary cycle, while three
public schools oered an incomplete cycle; nine missionary secondary schools oered
an incomplete cycle.

1.2.2 Education policies in the British Cameroons

The 1922 Phelps-Stokes report was fundamental in shaping British colonial education
policies in Africa. In 1920, at the instigation of the American Baptist Missionary
Society, the Phelps-Stokes Fund of the U.S.A. set up two commissions to study
education in Africa. The report of the commission studying West and Equatorial
Africa, entitled Education in Africa and published in 1922, underlined the uneven
quality of education in Africa and advocated closer cooperation between missions and
colonial governments. It also stressed the importance of local languages as a medium
of instruction. This report had a tremendous impact in British Africa, and was at
the root of the 1925 Memorandum on Education in British Colonial Territories and
of the 1926 Educational Code regulating education in Southern Nigeria, of which the
Cameroons province were a part (Fafunwa, 1974).
Like the French 1920 decree, the 1926 Education Code was made to curb the
mushroom development of very low quality hedge mission schools
22 . The new reg-
ulation ensured that missions were involved in the control of education by appointing
mission members in the board of education and by introducing supervisors of educa-
tion chosen by the missions. It revised the system of grants-in-aid, now paid solely
on the basis of assessed eciency
23 . In British Nigeria, government control was more
extended than in French Cameroon, but it was less stringent. Government control
extended to every school, whether it received a grant (assisted school) or not (unas-
sisted school), and the regulation provided for the closing of low quality schools.
Catechisms continued to exist, but they were not registered as schools and could not
undertake non religious education. However, the requirements that had to be met
by mission schools were more exible. For instance, the 1926 Education Ordinance
required that teachers must be registered as a condition for teaching in any school
in Southern Nigeria, but later regulations precised that all those over the age of 19
who were currently teaching would be enrolled on the list of teachers provided they
were of good character (Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1927).
It is fair to say that the system of grants-in-aid set up in Southern Nigeria ne-
glected the Cameroons province. Although it represented about 5% of the popu-

22 The Education Code comprised the 1926 Education Ordinance and all regulations made there-
upon.
23 Schools were classied from A to D in terms of eciency and, depending on the grading, a
varying percentage of the school's wage bill was paid.

15
lation of Southern Nigeria, the province had only 3 of the 270 assisted schools in
1929, receiving only 0.36% of the total amount of grants-in-aid paid (Fafunwa, 1974;
Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1930). However, while the total amount of grants
paid decreased in Nigeria during the 1930s economic crisis, the number of assisted
schools and the amount of grants-in-aid kept increasing in the Cameroons province.
In 1938-39, 16 assisted schools received 2.3% of the total amount of grants-in-aid
paid in Southern Nigeria (Fafunwa, 1974; Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1938).
Even though the British Cameroons received only the crumbs of Nigerian grants-
in-aid, subsidies were still far more generous than in French Cameroon. In 1930,
grants-in-aids represented 70% of the three assisted schools' African sta wage bill;
in 1938, they represented 60% of the total wage bill of 16 assisted schools (Great
Britain, Colonial Oce, 1930, 1938). Table 1 (p. 18) shows that subsidies to private
education per school-age child were always higher in the British Cameroons than in
French Cameroon during the 1930s.
One striking gure of the Cameroons province education system was its strong
reliance on Native Administration schools. These schools were very similar to gov-
ernment schools, but they were entirely nanced by Native Administrations, whose
revenue consisted of court fees and nes, a percentage of the poll tax as well as school
fees. Whereas Government schools oered a complete primary cycle, Native Admin-
istration schools oered only an incomplete cycle. In 1938, there were 5 government
schools and 19 Native Administration schools. Generally speaking, the education
system in the British Cameroons seems to have relied on local stakeholders more
than in French Cameroon. Teaching in an African language was widespread in the
rst grades (in the public as in the private sector), and European teachers were few
(there was no European teachers in Government and Native Administration schools
in 1930, whereas they represented 25% of the teaching sta of government schools in
French Cameroon)
24 .
Development of secondary education was earlier in the British Cameroons that
in French Cameroon. Before 1939, there was no secondary school in the British
Cameroons, apart from a teacher training institution
25 . A few pupils from the
Cameroons were sent to secondary school in other Nigerian provinces (notably at
Umahia College in the Owerri province). The rst secondary school was opened by
the catholic mission at Sasse near Buea in 1939, 7 years before the rst secondary
school opened in French Cameroon. In 1949, the Basel mission opened its secondary

24 One of the reasons for the British administration's preference for teaching in the vernacular was
its fear that teachers would use the widespread pidgin rather than the language of Shakespeare.
25 A normal class opened in Victoria in 1926 and was transfered to Buea later that year. An
elementary training centre was built in Kake in 1932.

16
school at Bali, near Bamenda.
The post World War II period was, for British Nigeria, a period of great consti-
tutional change
26 . In 1954, the Southern Cameroons was separated from the Eastern
27
region of Nigeria and became a quasi-federal territory . As in French Cameroon,
primary enrollment increased greatly in the late colonial period. The main reason
was a considerable increase in grants-in-aid (Fajana, 1978). While the government
of the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria proposed schemes for free univer-
sal primary education in the 1950s, the Southern Cameroons, being a quasi-federal
territory, knew no such scheme and continued to see its expenditure on education
channeled primarily to grants-in-aid. Enrollment in government and Native Admin-
istration schools increased only modestly (see table 14 p. 61), while grants-in-aid
increased substantially (see table 1 p. 18).

1.2.3 Comparing the two systems

The annual reports sent to the League of Nations and the United Nations allow to
construct statistics for the two education systems
28 .
Table 14 in appendix A gives gross primary enrollment ratios in dierent types of
schools in French and British Cameroon. It was put in the appendix because it does
not allow much inference about the global eciency of one system as compared to the
other: the dierent categories do not match, and the gures given by non-government
approved mission schools on the French side seem quite fanciful.
Table 1, which deals with the public nancing of education, is perhaps more
interesting. It shows with clarity that there are two periods to consider when com-
paring French and British Cameroon in the colonial period: in the interwar period,
public expenditure per school-age child were systematically higher in the British
Cameroons, whether we consider expenditure for government schools or subsidizing

26 The 1946 Richards Constitution divided Nigeria in 3 regions, North West and East, while the
1951 Macpherson Constitution established democratic elections to the regional houses of assembly
and empowered each region to raise funds and pass laws on education, health and other matters.
The Northern Cameroons were a part of the Northern region. The Southern Cameroons were
originally a part of the Eastern region, but, in a process that nally led to reunication with French
Cameroon, local politicians demanded a more autonomous status (Ngoh, 2001).
27 Having therefore less autonomy than the Western, Eastern and Northern regions, particularly
in the appropriation of funds (Ngoh, 2001).
28 Unless otherwise specied, gures presented in tables 1 and 2, as well as gure 14 in appendix
A, apply to the whole territories of British and French mandates. Although the British Northern
Cameroons were administered as part of the Nigerian provinces of Bornu and Yola, the reports
to the League of Nations give gures for the mandated territory only, applying when necessary a
proportionality rule.

17
 Table 1: Public nancing of education, French and British Cameroon

1925 1930 1935 1938 1950 1955

(1)(2)
Public expenditure in education per school-age child, 1925 shillings
(a) (b)
Expenditure for French Cameroon 0.27 0.65 1.12 0.64 10.57 20.06
(3) (a) (b)
government schools British Cameroons 1.05 1.89 1.34 2.02 5.50 3.77
(a) (b)
Public subsidies for French Cameroon 0.02 0.04 0.05 0.04 3.16 9.02
(a) (b)
private education British Cameroons 0.01 0.05 0.19 0.32 3.25 6.35

Education expenditure as a share of total expenditure

(c)
Total expenditure per French Cameroon 0.1612 0.4082 0.4587 0.3189 1.7741 4.0718
(2) (c)
capita (1925 ¿) British Cameroons 0.2202 0.2849 0.2450 0.3131 0.7491 0.8274
(c)
Share of education in French Cameroon 1.87% 1.67% 2.56% 2.07% 7.74% 6.51%
(c)
total expenditures British Cameroons 5.13% 6.83% 6.27% 7.30% 11.68% 8.36%

Sources : France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921-38 and 1947-57; Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1922-38 and 1949-59.
Budgetary exercises were used as an additional source for French Cameroon: Cameroun (various dates). (1):
School-age population is assumed to be 20% of total population. (2) French Cameroon gures were transferred into
pounds using the ocial exchange rate (Times Newspaper, 1971). To express the gures in 1925 ¿, I used as a
deator the UK retail price index (Times Newspaper, 1971). There are 20 shillings in a pound. (3): it is in fact
total expenditures (including inspection, secondary schooling, technical, etc.) minus subsidies to private schools.
(a): 1924 gures. (b): 1937 gures. (c): 1953 gures.

of mission schools
29 . Interestingly, total expenditure per capita was higher in French
Cameroon: we have no reason to believe that the higher education expenditure in
the British Cameroons were driven by higher tax revenue (as might have been the
case in the Gold Coast as compared with French Togo). It is worth noting that, while
grants-in-aid were, from 1925 on, paid exclusively by the colonial government, Na-
tive Authorities, in charge of Native Administration schools, supported a fair share
of the expenditure labelled expenditure for government schools: 30% in 1924, 26%
in 1930 and 17% in 1938.
After World War II, education expenditure surged in French Cameroon: real
public education expenditure per school-age child increased more than fteen-fold
between 1937 and 1950, and doubled between 1950 and 1955. The change is even
more abrupt if we consider subsidies to private education, which were very low in the
interwar period: real subsidies per school-age child we multiplied by 80 between 1937

29 Subsidies to missions per school-age child are higher in French Cameroon in 1925, which is not
suprising since the Nigerian Education Code is from 1926.

18
and 1950, and tripled between 1950 and 1955. It is worth repeating here that these
gures do not take into account expenditure of the FIDES, so that total expenditure
on education increased even more during the late colonial period. Education expen-
ditures grew in the British Cameroons as well, but the increase was less pronounced.
As far as subsidies to private education are concerned, the French mandate, starting
very low, caught up with its British neighbor. However, as far as expenditures on
government schools are concerned, French Cameroon did not only catch up with its
neighbor, but considerably widened the gap: in 1955, expenditures on public educa-
tion per school age child were more than ve times higher in French Cameroon
30 .

Table 2: Quality of education, French and British Cameroon

1925 1930 1935 1938 1950 1955

(b)
Cost per pupil in public French Cameroun 1.24 2.34 3.02 1.60 11.94 9.11
(2)(4)(5)(6) (a) (b)
schools (1925 ¿) British Cameroons 3.97 6.24 5.82 6.07 8.80 6.88
(c)
Fr. all teachers 34 95 135 64 103 121

Average teachers' annual Fr. European teachers 159 269 537 265 423

salary in the public Fr. African teachers 10 38 71 33 71

(3) (c)
sector (1925 ¿) Br. all schools 80 98 74 51 52

Br. gov. schools 52 84 126 125

Br. N.A. schools 75 57 34

Av. nb of pupils per Fr. Cameroon 37 57 54 51 47 44

(1)
teacher, public sector Br. Cameroons 26 27 29 21 26

Av. nb of pupils per Fr. Cameroons 73 76 56 106 49 49

(4)
teacher, private sector Br. Cameroons 26 30

Sources : France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921-38 and 1947-57; Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1922-38 and 1949-59.
Budgetary exercises were used as an additional source for French Cameroon: Cameroun (various dates). (1)
including Native Administration schools. (2): it is in fact total expenditures (including inspection, secondary
schooling, technical, etc.) minus subsidies to private schools. (3): French Cameroon gures were transferred into
pounds using the ocial exchange rate (Times Newspaper, 1971). To express the gures in 1925 ¿, I used as a
deator the UK retail price index (Times Newspaper, 1971). There are 20 shillings in a pound. (4): in the British
Cameroons, assisted and unassisted mission schools; in French Cameroun, government-approved mission schools
before WWII and all types of private schools after WWII.
(a): 1924 gures. (b): 1937 gures. (c): 1954 gure.
30 Note that it might be partly due to the expansion of secondary education: in the 1950s, there
were several public secondary schools in French Cameroon, but there were only private secondary
schools in the British Cameroons.

19
 Table 2 tries to assess quality of schooling in the two mandates. Before World
War II, unitary cost in the public sector was systematically higher in the British
Cameroons: this seems to have been explained by smaller class sizes (less than
30 in the British colonial public sector versus more than 50 in the French colonial
public sector) . Public sector wages, however, were higher in French Cameroon, but
the average was pulled up by the very high wages of European teachers. French
Instituteurs were paid on a metropolitan basis and received an extra allowance for
being expatriates: in 1930, they earned on average 7 times more than their African
colleagues. The presence of a large number of European teachers was a feature of
the French education system in Africa: in the British Cameroons, although the high
management of the Education Department was European, the vast majority of the
teaching sta was African. Did the presence of highly qualied French teachers
(French teachers had a secondary education while most of the African teaching sta,
at least before World War II, had only completed primary schooling) translate into
a higher quality of education, or was this double standard wage policy inecient?
Leaning towards the second option would mean that British colonial public education,
with smaller class sizes and better paid African teachers, was very probably of a better
quality, before World War II, than its French counterpart.
In the late colonial period, the picture is less clear. Even though the ratio of
African to French teachers decreased in French Cameroon, wages remained very
high, and historical sources inform us of the stress put on teachers' qualication in
French Cameroon. However, class sizes remain very high as compared with class sizes
in British Cameroon. Interestingly, this feature is true also of the private sector.
In summary, the comparison between French and British Cameroon does not
perfectly reect the overall comparison between the French and British colonial ed-
ucation systems as described in previous literature. First, in Cameroon, we are not
comparing a British system of laissez faire with a heavily regulated French system.
It is true that regulations were more stringent in French Cameroon, but a huge
unregulated private sector existed, which was not the case in British Cameroon.
The main dierence between the two Cameroons seems to have been a dierence in
nancing, with the British colonial government spending more on education (in ab-
solute terms and in percentage of total expenditures). What is striking in the British
Cameroons, as compared for example with colonial Ghana, is the importance of pub-
lic schools, even though a good share of them were Native Administration schools,
which depended on local initiative and nancing. Second, these results remind us
of the need to distinguish between the dierent phases of colonization (Giord and
Weiskel, 1971): increased French educational eorts after World War II completely
changed the picture painted for the interwar period. This result is in line with the

20
work of Huillery (forthcoming), who noticed, for French West Africa, a large increase
in net transfers of cash assets from France to its colonies in the 15 years preceding
decolonization
31 .
In the rest of this paper, I will identify, using Cameroonian census data, the eects
of these education policies on the dierent cohort that were subjected to them.

2 Data
This paper uses Cameroonian census data from 1976 and 1987 to identify the eect
of colonizer's identity on education for dierent cohorts. The main results are estab-
lished using the older census (1976), to temper the problem of selection by mortality,
but also because the 1987 census is rumored to be of poorer quality. The 1987 census
is used on a section of the border where localisation is imprecise in the 1976 census
32 .

2.1 Division by cohorts and the problem of selection by mor-

tality
Education variables give information about the education system in the period when
an individual was of schooling age. Indeed, people rarely go back to primary school
in their forties. This feature of education variables allows me to identify the eect of
colonizer's identity on education outcomes for dierent periods, using dierent age
groups.
A problem met by many researchers working with historical census data is the
problem of age heaping: the tendency for people, who often do not know their exact
date of birth, to report an atractive age gure, such as one ending in 5 or 0 (A'Hearn
et al., 2009). This phenomenon is worrisome here because, as systematic registering
of birth was more widespread in French Cameroon, the phenomenon is more pro-
nounced in the English speaking part. Because people who misreport their age are
likely to be the less educated, age heaping eectively sorts people, concentrating the
less educated at round ages. If this sorting is more pronounced in English-speaking
Cameroon, the dierence in education outcomes between the English and French

31 Most of these transfers were cash advances that were later repaid and mustn't be mistaken for
Ocial Development Assistance.
32 The 1987 census is incomplete, with several districts missing in the North of the English-
speaking zone (lms were lost during a move): Bamenda, Ndop, Kumbo and Nkambe. In the 1976
census, I had to identify and eliminate a lot of duplicate observations, all situated in the English-
speaking part. I do not know whether these duplicates were the result of an error during the coding
process or an attempt to inate population gures in certain districts.

21
speaking parts will be biased downwards at round ages (and upwards at other ages).
To temper this problem, discontinuities are estimated on 10-year cohorts around ages
that are multiples of ten, which is where most of the age heaping takes place
33 . We
will therefore consider 8 cohorts, around ages 20 to 90
34 .
The strategy of estimating a border eect on dierent age groups poses an in-
evitable problem of selection by mortality: for older cohorts, the observed individuals
are those who survived. It is very likely that surviving individuals, being the wealth-
iest, will also be more educated. Actually, the problem is not that worrisome if
we assume that selection by mortality works in the same way on both sides of the
border: it would then mean that the discontinuity measured on older cohorts is a
discontinuity on a wealthier subsample of the population. The eect of identity of
the colonizer on education outcomes might be dierent for dierent socio-economic
classes, but what is identied is still the eect of colonizer's identity on education.
The problem, however, is harsher if selection by mortality did not happen in the
same way on both sides of the border. One side of the border, for instance, could
have had a better provision of health services, so that the discontinuity in educational
outcomes might be due to the fact that people who were poorer, less educated and
would have died younger, survived.
In our case, we cannot ignore the war for independence whose casualties were
mostly on the French side of the border. Created in 1948 in French Cameroon to
demand independence and reunication of the two Cameroons, the UPC ( Union des
Populations du Cameroun ) tried to appeal to the United Nations without success.
The UPC was disbanded by the French government in 1955 and began an armed
struggle that lasted untill 1971 (after independance, military operations were under-
taken by the pro-French government of Ahmadou Ahidjo with the help of the French
army). Even after independence and reunication, military operations took place
mostly on the French side, in the Sanaga Maritime department, the Mungo and in
the Bamileke region. The deadliest operations took place in the Bamileke region
between 1959 and 1961. The death toll is very controversial, ranging from a few
thousands to more than a million, although the most reasonable estimations range
between 100 000 and 200 000 (Deltombe et alii, 2011).

33 Let's consider the cohort of people who report ages between 55 and 64. A lot of the people
who say they are 60 are actually a bit older or younger, but most of them will be in the 55-64
bracket. Although it is less important, heaping also takes place at ages ending in 5: among people
who report being 55, some are a bit older, which is not a problem since they are part of the cohort,
and some are a bit younger. This is compensated by the fact that we miss the individuals who are
in their early 60s and report being 65, since 65 is not part of the age bracket.
34 The cohort around 10 was not taken into account as it comprised children under school entry
age.

22
 Two questions arise: can this war explain, through selection by mortality, the
discontinuity estimated at the border? If it is the case, it would concern all cohorts
born before 1965, that is most of the population studied. But in fact, even a very
high death toll cannot explain a border discontinuity in education outcomes unless
mortality rates were dierent in the educated and non-educated groups. Did war
mortality strike harder the educated or the uneducated? Answering this question is
very hard. Although the leaders of the UPC were predominantly intellectuals with
at least a complete primary education, most of the ghters were ordinary peasants.
Part 4, presenting the results, provides evidence that the estimated border eects
cannot be explain by selection by mortality due to the war.
The second concern is that this war, having taken place predominantly on the
French-speaking side, could explain discontinuities in education outcomes for cohorts
born during the 1950s, as it disrupted the education system (Tsoata, 1999). This
direct eect of the war is, however, not a concern for cohorts born before 1950.

2.2 Denition of education variables

From information given, in both censuses, on the last grade attended, 3 education
variables were built: EBS , a binary equal to 1 if the individual has ever been to
school and zero otherwise, P RIM , a binary equal to 1 if the individual has completed
primary schooling, and SEC , a binary equal to 1 if the individual has completed
secondary education.
Variable EBS is equal to 1 if the individual attended any school, coranic schools
35
included . Since respondents had to name the last grade they attended from a list of
possible choices, this variable will very likely capture formal schooling, and exclude
those who attended Sunday school very sporadically.
Primary cycles are dierent on both sides of the border, and they changed
throughout the century
36 . For all cohorts considered in this paper, the primary
cycle was longer on the English-speaking side of the border. Secondary cycles were
the same length on both sides, but, since the primary cycle was longer, having com-

35 We might argue that, since we are investigating western-style education, whether provided by
missions or the government, we need to code individuals having attented coranic school as having
received no education. This is an issue for the northernmostpart of the border only, where coranic
education was well developped, especially in the Bamoun kingdom. In the two southernmost sections
of the border, coranic education was almost inexistent.
36 On the British side, the primary cycle was 9 year long up to 1931, 8 year long from 1931 to 1967
and 7 year long from 1967 to the recent suppression of class 7. On the French side, the primary
cycle was 6 year long, but a lot of mission schools oered beginners' classes, thus lenghtening the
cycle.

23
pleted secondary could have meant having received more years of schooling on the
English-speaking side. However, repetition being more prevalent in the French sys-
tem, it is not unlikely that completing primary meant on average the same number of
years of schooling on both sides of the border. In any case, let us keep in mind that
this problem only concerns variables P RIM and SEC , and that it would introduce
a bias disadvantaging the English-speaking side.
Since, in every specication, treatment and controls are at the village level, re-
gressions are run on village-level means. Separate mean variables are computed for
males and females: for a mix of supply and demand factors, the expansion of pri-
mary education in Africa, as in Europe and elsewhere, reached boys before it reached
girls
37 . It is only after WWII that enrolment rates started increasing signicantly
for women. It is therefore very likely that the border eect estimated for girls in the
interwar period will be small, if existant. It is also possible that the two education
systems produced dierent results for boys and for girls
38 .
In the end, regressions are run on the following village-level variables: ebsm c,j is
w
the percentage of men of cohort c in village j having attended school; ebsc,j is the
percentage of women of cohort c in village j having attended school. Variables
primm w m w
c,j , primc,j , secc,j and secc,j are constructed in the same way.

2.3 Geolocalization
Spatial discontituity analysis demands that observations be geolocalized. The 1976
census gives a village code, that was matched to the name of the village thanks
to a village le. The geographic coordinates of each village were recovered using
the website of the Cameroonian Ministry of Energy and Water, http://www.mng-
cameroon.org/SIG/. Geographical information about non localized village was in-
ferred by taking the mean of localized villages in the same canton (a canton is a
group of about 10 villages)
39
Since our interest is the education system at the time when individuals were of
schooling age, each individual must be attributed the geographical coordinates of
the place they lived in at that time. Unfortunately, this information is not available,
but the district ( arrondissement ) of birth is. If an individual still lives in the district

37 In the 1976 census, the percentage of females born between 1912 and 1931 who went to school
was 6.4% against 30.1% for males; the percentage of females from this cohort who completed primary
was 0.7% against 7.4% for males.
38 We might, for instance, think that the British system, more receptive to local demand, favored
the education of boys because there was a higher demand for boys' education.
39 In part of the French-speaking Ouest region, the village code corresponds to the chiefdom, a
political grouping of several villages. Therefore, in this region, geolocalization is less precise.

24
they were born in, it is assumed that they never moved and they are allocated the
coordinates of their place of residence. Migrants are reallocated in their district of
birth in the following way: since all independent variables are at the village level,
regressions are run on village means across the agegroup, adding weights to account
for the size of each village. For each district, the percentages of migrants in the male
m f
and female population are, respectively, p and p (migrants are individuals who
were born in the district but whose place of residence in 1976 is outside the district).
For each district, the means of dependent variable s across male and female migrants
m f
born in the district are s̄mig and s̄mig . It is then assumed that rates of migrations
m
outside the district were identical across village, so that village means s̄ (for men)
f
and s̄ (for women) are replaced by

(1 − pg ) × s̄g + pg × s̄gmig , g = {m, f }.

For each variable, the weight of each village is the number of individuals for whom
m f
the variable s is observed: w is the number of men for whom s is observed and w
the number of women for whom s is observed. In order to take the migrants into
account, weights are replaced by:

wg
1−pg
, g = {m, f }.

3 Econometric specications
In this paper, the eect of colonizer's identity on education variables is identied
using spatial discontinuity analysis. The idea of Regression Discontinuity Design
(RDD) is the following: when a treatment variable is determined by whether an
observed forcing variable exceeds a known cuto point and if it can be assumed that
the unobserved determinants of outcome vary smoothly at the cuto, it is possible to
identify the treatment eect by comparing individuals just under and just above the
cuto point. In practice, in order to reduce the variance of the estimated treatment
eect, individuals away from the cuto point are also considered: in that case, one
needs to control for the covariates varying smoothly at the cuto with a parametric
(usually polynomial) function of the forcing variable (Lee and Lemieux, 2009). The
classical example is test scores (Thistlewaite and Campbell, 1960): if the allocation
of merit awards is determined by wether score tests are under or above a known
cuto point, it is then possible to study their impact on future academic outcomes
by comparing people who scored just under the cuto and people who scored just
above.

25
 In our case, the treatment variable is whether the region was colonized by the
British or the French. The cuto is the border between West (English-speaking)
and East (French-speaking) Cameroon, and the identifying assumption is that all
determinants of education outcomes except identity of the colonizer vary smoothly
at the border (see part 1.1). Under this assumption, the border eect can be identied
by comparing individuals living on both sides of the border in a narrow band. Spatial
RDD is complicated by the two-dimensional nature of the cuto. Instead of being a
single point in a single dimension (like a test score), the cuto is a two-dimensional
object: the border. This raises two issues: 1/ When the bandwidth is extended to
increase power, how to control for the forcing variable, geographic location? 2/ how
to deal with potential heterogenous eects along the border?

3.1 Controling for the smooth eects of geographical location

Two methods have been used to undertake spatial RDD: the rst one consists in
coming down to a 1-dimensional forcing variable: distance to the border. The second
method, rst developed by Dell (2010), consists in acknowledging the data's spatial
nature and controling for a polynomial in latitude and longitude. This paper favors
the second approach. Contrary to the example of test scores, where distance from the
cuto point is correlated with the unobserved ability we want to control for, in the
case of spatial RDD, the eect of distance to the border on educational outcomes is
not really meaningful or interpretable. Another concern is that the eect of distance
to the border is likely to vary along the border: it could be that, in some regions,
enrolment decreases as we get away from the border and that, in others, it increases.
One solution to account for this is to divide the border in dierent segments and to
allow the eect of distance to the border to vary across segments. In this specication,
the estimated border eect will be a weighted average of the eects estimated on each
border segment. The higher the number of segmentss, the more exible the function
controling for the smooth eects of geographical location. Using a polynomial in
latitude and longitude appears to be a more ecient way of gaining exibility.
Controling for a polynomial in latitude and longitude amounts to estimating by
OLS the following model:

si = τ BRi + P (xi , yi ) + βBi + εi (1)

Where si is the educational variable of interest for individual i; BRi is a binary equal
to 1 if the birthplace of individual i lies on the western side of the border (colonized
by the British); P (xi , yi ) is a polynomial in xi and yi , respectively the longitude and
latitude of individual's i place of birth; Bi is a vector of border segment binaries

26
(Bki =1 if the place of birth of individual i is closer to border segment k than to
any other segment).
In order to increase the exibility of the function capturing the smooth eects
of geographical location, the (x, y) polynomial can be interacted with the vector of
segment dummies to estimate the following model:
X
si = τ BRi + Bk Pk (xi , yi ) + εi (2)
k

In this specication, the estimated border eect τ is a weighted average of the eects
estimated on the dierent border segments.
Since none of the covariates considered vary at the village level, equations (1)
g
and (2) are estimated on village averages s̄c,j (average educational variable in village
j for cohort c and gender g ):

s̄gc,j = τcg BRj + Pcg (xj , yj ) + βcg Bj + ugc,j (3)

X
s̄gc,j = τcg BRj + g
Bk Pk,c (xj , yj ) + βcg Bj + ugc,j (4)
k

and each observation is weighted by ngc,j (number of men (g = m) or women (g = f)

born in village j and cohort c for whom variable s 40
is observed) . This specication
is computationally more ecient and allows for reallocating the migrants in their
village of birth using the method described in part 2.3 p. 24.
Equations (3) and (4) are estimated on bands of dierent widths. There is a
tradeo between variance and bias of the estimated treatment eect: increasing the
width of the band will increase precision, but it will also increase bias. Another
choice to be made is the order of the polynomials in x and y capturing the smooth
eects of geographic location. The two choices have to be made together: the larger
the bandwidth is, the larger the order of the polynomial needs to be, as the eects
of geographic location to be captured become more complex. Controling for a linear
function of x and y might be enough on a small bandwidth, but it will arguably not
capture the complex eects of geographic location on a larger bandwidth.
One specication is appealing for its simplicity: the one where the bandwidth is
very small (10-km: 5-km on each side of the border) and the order of the polynomial
is zero: it amounts to a simple mean comparison (controling for border segment
dummies) on a sample of villages that are located very close to the border. When
increasing the bandwidth to gain power, the order of the polynomial in x and y is

40 In practice, I use probability weights in Stata, which is equivalent to using analytic weights
along with robust standard errors (Dupraz, 2013).

27
increased, up to a polynomial of order 5. Such a exible polynomial can be used
thanks to the high number of observations (the full sample). Increasing the order
ensures that the eects of geographical location are better captured, but it decreases
the number of degrees of freedom and increases the risk of overtting the discontinuity
at the border
41 . In the end, there is no universal solution, and convincing results are
the ones that are robust to a variety of specications (Lee and Lemieux, 2010).

3.2 The possibility of heterogenous eects along the border

In single dimension RDD, the eect of the treatment can be assessed visually: if
x is the forcing variable and s the outcome, the estimated function s = f (x) can
be represented in the (x, s) space. The eect of treatment can then be assessed by
the size of the jump at the cuto. In spatial RDD, the treatment eect can also
be assessed visually (Dell, 2010): we need to plot in 3 dimensions the surface of the
estimated function of s in function of longitude x and latitude y. The border eect
will appear as a cli at the border. If we estimate model (3), the height of the cli
will be identical at every point of the border: the estimated border eect will be
homogenous along the border
42 .
However, the border eect might be heterogenous and dier along the border:
Cameroon was colonized from the coast inwards, and the expansion of missions as
well as colonial administration followed this pattern. It might therefore be the case
that, for generations born early in the century, we observe an eect in the southern
part of the border, closer to the coast, but no eect in the northern part.
In order to capture potential heterogeneity in the treatment eect, we need to
divide the border into sections and estimate one dierent border eect per section.
The problem with such a strategy is the resulting loss of power, but once again, the
high number of villages allows to do this. The border between French-speaking and
English-speaking Cameroon was divided in 4 sections (see gure 6). Section 1, from
the coast to the point where the road from Douala to Buea crosses the border, was
excluded from the analysis because of the presence of Douala on the French part (to
avoid comparing rural regions with the suburbs of the biggest city in Cameroon).
Section 2 (the southern section) stretches to the edges of Melong district on the
French-speaking side: it corresponds to the zone of forest plains. Section 3 (the

41 Controling for a polynomial of order ve in x and y amount to adding 20 covariates: x + y +

x + xy + y 2 + x3 + x2 y + xy 2 + y 3 + x4 + x3 y + x2 y 2 + xy 3 + y 4 + x5 + x4 y + x3 y 2 + x2 y 3 + xy 4 + y 5 .
2

When we interact with border segment dummies, we need to multiply this number by the number
of border segments.
42 If we estimate model (4), the height of the cli will vary according to the border segment.

28
central section) corresponds to the highlands; it stops at the point where the border
starts delimiting the Noun department (former Bamoun kingdom); on the eastern
side of this border section lays the Bamileke region where the war against the UPC
was the most intense (see part 2.1). Finally, section 4 (the northern section) was
excluded from the analysis: rst because we cannot be entirely sure that this part of
the border did not correspond to a pre-existing border between the Bamoun kingdom
and its neighbors (see part 1.1); second, because in this region, the area on both sides
of the border is quite sparsely populated, which makes the identication of a border
eect very dicult: to identify a treatment eect in an RDD framework, we need to
have observations close enough to the cuto point
43 .

4 Results
4.1 Naive estimates
This part presents simple dierences in means using the four Cameroonian provinces
that lay on both sides of the border and collapsing information at the district level.
This naive estimates are a useful benchmark to consider before turning to a more
rigorous estimation of the causal eect of colonizer's identity. Collapsing information
at the district level alleviates the problem of migrations, as the district of birth is
given in the census. The drawback is that the number of districts is often not
enough to estimate eects with precision. Another reason for showing these results
is that they illustrate the working of RDD analysis. Whereas, in most of the spatial
disconinuity literature, carefully estimated border eects tend to conrm overall
dierences in means across the whole sample, in our case, results from a very crude
dierence in means are invalidated by a more careful estimation of the border eect.
1976 census data is restricted to individuals born in the Northwest and Southwest
provinces in the English-speaking part, and in the Ouest and Littoral provinces in
the French-speaking part (see gure 7). The district of Douala (Wouri district) is
excluded from all estimations (Douala was the rst capital and economic heart of
German Kamerun).
On average, the percentage of men who attended school is, for all cohorts, higher
in the French-speaking regions (table 3, columns (1) to (3)). However, this result
might be driven by dierences in the repartition of population: western-style edu-
cation penetrated Cameroon from the coast inwards, and, overall, the population of

43 In practise, the estimated treatment eect is very sensitive to changes in specications. Border
segment dummies are added to the regression on each border section : section 2 was divided in 3
equal parts and section 2 in 2 equal parts.

29
the French-speaking side is concentrated closer to the coast than the population of
the English-speaking side. Adding border segment dummies (the border is divided
in ten segments of equal size) diminishes the dierence, but the advantage of the
French-speaking side remains for all cohorts but one (table 3, column (4)).
However, comparing vast regions on both sides of the border amounts to compar-
ing regions that dier not only by the identity of the mandated power which ruled
them from World War I to 1960. While the Littoral and Ouest region constituted
the heart of German Kamerun, the western regions were peripheric. The fact that
we observe an advantage of the Eastern side for cohorts who were schooled before
the partition indicates that, on average, these regions were, for a variety of reasons,
favored by German missions and colonial government. In order to come closer to
identifying the true eect of colonizer's identity, the sample is restricted to bordering
district only (see gure 7), and border segment dummies are added as controls (table
3, column (5)): the border eect becomes very small and unsignicant for all cohorts
born before 1942, but it remains largely negative (favoring the French-speaking side)
and signicant for cohorts schooled in the late colonial period.
In column (6) of table 3, the sample is restricted to southern border districts (see
gure 7). This restriction is done for two reasons: the rst is the presence, in the
French-speaking part, of the Bamoun kingdom (see part 1.1)
44 . The second reason
is that, in both mandates, education, whether missionary or public, moved from the
coast inwards, so that us not observing any eect in the North for older cohorts
is likely. Restricting the sample increases the border eect for the 2 cohorts born
beween 1912 and 1931 (with eects of 4.6 and 5.9 percentage points). However, the
eect is not signicant, but this is not very surprising as the number of district is 19.
For cohorts schooled in the late colonial period, the eect remains negative, favoring
the French-speaking side, large (8 percentage points for the cohort born between
1942 and 1951) and signicant.
To alleviate the problem of low number of districts, the classical solution of the
RDD literature is to increase the sample by including districts away from the border,
but to control for the smooth eects of geographical location by a polynomial. When
including all district and controlling for a linear function of latitude and longitude,
results are roughly in line with what we observe when restricting the sample to
bordering districts: the border eect favors the English-speaking side for cohorts
schooled in the interwar period, it inverses and favors the French-speaking side for

44 One specicity of the Bamoun kingdom is that it had a lot of koranic schools very early in
the century. When I dene variable EBS as people having been to a western school, I nd, when
looking at the mean dierence on the sample of bordering districts, a higher border eect for cohorts
born between 1912 and 1931, even though it is still not signicant.

30
cohorts born in the late colonial period (table 3, column (7))
45 .
Results for the percentage of men who completed primary (table 4) are in line
with the results for male school attendance: when looking at averages over the whole
sample, French-speaking regions seem to fare better in all periods. Restricting the
sample to bordering districts or controlling for a geographical polynomial, the border
eect remains negative for the 2 younger cohorts, but it favors the English-speakig
side for cohorts who were of schooling age in the interwar period.
As we saw in part 1.2, there was no secondary school in British Cameroon before
1939, when the Catholic Mission opened a college in Sasse, and the rst secondary
school of French Cameroon opened in 1945. Therefore, as far as older cohorts are
concerned, the very tiny percentage of individual who completed secondary school
must have attended schools outside of Cameroon, in another African colony or in
Europe (table 5). The rst secondary school to open in French Cameroon was in
Yaoundé, outside of the area we are considering here. At this date, there were already
two secondary schools in British Cameroon, one in the present-day Southwest region,
the other in the Northwest region. It is therefore not very surprising to nd a positive
and signicant border eect for cohorts born between 1912 and 1941. The eect
might seem tenuous, but it is actually quite important considering the very small
percentage of these cohorts who completed secondary schooling. For the cohort born
between 1932 and 1941, the eect is about one percentage point. In this cohort, on
average, 1.24% of males completed secondary schooling in the French-speaking part
and 1.68% in the English-speaking part. The eect fades away in the late colonial
period, which saw the French build more and more secondary schools. It is never
signicant for the cohort born between 1942 and 1951 when considering bordering
district only or controling for latitude and longitude.

4.2 Results at the village level

This section presents results estimated on village-level observations. Working at the
village level means that migrants are allocated to their village of birth using the
strategy described in part 2.3, but it increases the estimations' power and it allows
to estimate border eects on thinner bandwidth.
Results presented here are estimated on the southern section of the border (section
2 on gure 6) for the percentage of men and women who attended school, completed
primary and secondary schooling (tables 6 to 11). As explained in part 3.1, in the

45 To be truly convincing, these results have to be robust to dierent specications of the ge-
ographical polynomial. I do not do these robustness checks here because I will do them when
presenting the results with data collapsed at the village level.

31
spatial RDD framework, convincing results are the ones that are robust to a variety
of specications: seven dierent specications are presented here, but similar results
are found with other combinations of bandwidth and polynomial orders. The rst
specication is a dierence in means on a 10-km banwidth across the border, control-
ing for 3 border segment dummies. This specication is particularly interesting, as
no functional form assumption is made, since there is no geographical control except
for the border segment dummies. In a sense, it is the closest to the original intuition
of RDD: compare individuals very close to the cuto (5 km on each side of the bor-
der). However, even on such a small bandwidth, one needs to ensure that the eect
is not the result of some smooth geographical variation: in specications (2) and (3)
a polynomial of order 2 in longitude (x) and latitude (y ) is added. The dierence
between specications (2) and (3) is that, in specication (3), segment dummies are
interacted with the function of x and y (allowing the geographical function to vary
from segment to segment) while in specication (2), they are not. In specication
(4) and (5), the bandwidth is increased to 25 km and the order of the polynomial to
3. In specication (6) and (7), the bandwidth is increased to 50 km and the order of
the polynomial to 5.
When conisdering the percentage of men who attended school, the eect is posi-
tive (favoring the English-speaking side), signicant and robust to a variety of spec-
ications for cohorts born between 1912 and 1931 (table 6). The eect is around 10
percentage points which is quite high considering average rates of school attendance
for these cohorts
46 . The eect fades away for later cohorts, who were of school age
in the late colonial period.
When considering the percentage of men who completed primary schooling (table
7), the eect is also strong, signicant and robust for cohort born between 1912
and 1931. It is around 4 percentage points for cohort 4 and around 7 percentage
points for cohort 5, which is important considering average attendance rates for
these cohorts
47 . The discontinuity does invert, favoring the French-speaking side, for
cohort 7 and 8 who were schooled during the late colonial period. The eect is around
−5 percentage points. We might wonder why we observe an inversion of the border
eect for primary completion but not for school attendance. It is very probably due
to a ceiling eect: on a 10-km bandwidth across the southern section of the border,

46 On a 10-km bandwidth across the southern section of the border, average male school atten-
dance for cohort 4 is 24% on the French-speaking side against 32% on the English-speaking side; it
is 44% against 51% for cohort 5.
47 On a 10-km bandwidth across the southern section of the border, average male primary com-
pletion for cohort 4 is 5% on the French-speaking side against 7% on the English-speaking side; it
is 13% against 19% for cohort 5.

32
average male school attendance for cohort 8 is 97% on both sides of the border. At
this date, school attendance was too high for the dierences in education policies to
have an eect on this variable. For male primary school completion, the average is
81% on the French-speaking side against 74% on the English-speaking side, so that
there is enough room for the dierent education policies to have an eect.
As far as the percentage of men who completed secondary school is concerned,
there is no border eect for the rst three cohorts (and actually, in the rst cohort,
nobody completed secondary schooling on both sides of the border  table 8). How-
ever, we observe a small (0.2 percentage points) but signicant eect for cohort 4,
born between 1912 and 1921. This is surprising, as when the older individuals of this
cohort were at the age when one usually starts secondary school, there was no sec-
ondary school yet neither in the British Cameroons, nor in French Cameroon. The
explanation for this small eect is probably the possibility for Southern Camerooni-
ans to pursue secondary schooling in Nigeria, whereas, in French Cameroon, pupils
had to go to France, which was more expensive. For cohorts born between 1922
and 1941, we observe an eect of about 1 percentage points, which is actually very
high: on a 10-km bandwidth across the southern section of the border, average male
secondary completion for cohort 5 is 0.5% on the French-speaking side against 1.4%
on the English-speaking side; it is 1.6% against 3% for cohort 6. As was already
explained, this is not surprising since there was a 7 year gap between the opening of
the rst secondary school in British and French Cameroon.
Results for women (tables 9 to 11) are less clear: for younger cohorts, results are
seldom signicant and never robust across specications. This is not very surpris-
ing, as the number of girls attending school before World War II was very low on
both sides of the border, not to mention the number of girls completing primary.
Therefore, even if colonizer's identity had an eect, it would be to small to be esti-
mated consistently. For cohorts who were of schooling age after the war the eect is
negative (favoring the French-speaking side) for both school attendance and primary
completion on cohort 7, but positive on cohort 8. The fact that the eect does not
have the same sign for girls and for boys is puzzling.
Border eects estimated on the central section of the border (section 2 on gure
6) are presented in appendix B. These results were established using the 1987 census
instead of the 1976 census, where villages are not precisely localised on the French
side of the border (in the Ouest region, the census village code, and hence localisation,
is at the level of the chiefdom, a grouping of villages), so that estimation of a border
eect is complicated
48 . One drawback with using the 1987 census is that, because
of missing districts, border eects are estimated on the southern half of the central

48 In practice, results are very sensitive to changes in specication.

33
border section only. Discontinuities estimated on the central border section are very
similar to the ones estimated on the southern section. However, the eect favoring
the British side, for cohorts born before WWII, is weaker, and the eect favoring
the French side, for cohorts born in the late colonial period, is stronger. This is
consistent with this region lagging behind the South in terms of education: in the
late colonial period, when the French started investing more in education, there was
still a lot of room for improvement, so that the gap with the British side widened
more.

4.3 Placebo borders

As a robustness test, placebo border regressions were run, shifting the border by 5
to 40 kilometers to the west and east and estimating corresponding discontinuities.
Figure 8 shows the results of such placebo border estimations for specication (3)
(10-km bandwidth, polynomial of order 2 in latitude and longitude interacted with
border dummies) and dependent variables male school attendance (cohort 5), male
primary completion (cohort 5 and 7) and male secondary completion. These gures
conrm that the discontinuities only hold at the actual border line. However, the
odd signicant discontinuity away from the border is sometimes found: this is usually
due to the presence of an important town near the placebo border; these placebo
disconinuities are never robust to varied specications.

4.4 Selection by mortality and the UPC war

As discussed in section 2.1, we need to be wary of the possible direct and indirect
eects of the UPC war, which took place near the border, mostly in the French-
speaking part. The rst problem is selection by mortality: if the war killed predomi-
nantly the more educated, it could explain the discontinuity favoring the British side
for older cohorts. There is actually no reason to suppose that the war's victims were
the more educated, but there is no denite proof that it was not the case. Three
arguments point in the direction of the eect observed for older cohorts not being
due to selection by war mortality.
Firstly, if the discontinuity is large and signicant for cohorts 4 and 5, who were
between 29 and 48 in 1960, a the peak of the war, no discontinuity is observed for
cohort 6, whose members were between 19 and 28. Fighters of the UPC war were
mostly young men of this age bracket, so if selection by war mortality explained the
discontinuity, it would certainly aect this cohort the most.
Secondly, the estimated discontinuity for cohorts born in the 1910s and 1920s is

34
not more important on the central segment of the border (see appendix B), which is
were the war was the most violent on the French-speaking side.
Thirdly, a back-of-the-enveloppe calculation shows that only a very high deathtoll
could explain the results: the estimated discontinuity for cohort 5 is about 10 per-
centage points. For this cohort, average male school attendance on the British side
of a 10-km bandwidth is about 50%. Let's assume that, in the absence of a war, this
rate would have been identical on both sides of the border. Let's also assume that
the war only killed the ones who attended school (extreme selection by mortality).
In order for selection by mortality to explain the discontinuity, we need that 33% of
the (male) population having attended school died during the conict (see gure 9).
It corresponds to 17% of total (male) population. Since, even if mortality did indeed
select the more educated, it was certainly not as drastic, the death toll needs to be
even higher for war mortality to explain the observed discontinuity.
One should also wonder whether the war had a direct eect on the observed
discontinuity. In the Bamileke region (corresponding to the central border section),
the war dirupted the provision of education. In the Bamboutos departement, schools
were closed for about a year (Tsoata, 1999). However, as can be seen in appendix
B, on the central border section, the discontinuity estimated for younger cohorts is
strongly at the advantage of the French-speaking side, even more so than on the
southern section. It could simply be that, since the region was lagging behind in
terms of education, there was more room for improvement when the government
started to invest. It could also be because of the methods used to curb the rebellion
in this country: villagers were regrouped in camps during the year 1960, and schools
were soon built around these camps (Tsoata, 1999; Deltombe et al., 2011). It is thus
not impossible that the war had a positive eect on education by grouping in camps
the very scattered population of the Ouest region.

4.5 Interpretation of the results as local average treatment

eect
Causal eects estimated using RDD analysis are to be interpreted as local average
treatment eects (LATE). They are valid only for those individuals who are close to
the cuto, and who might be systematically dierent from individuals away from it.
In the classical test score example, RDD estimates the causal eect of a merit award
for those individuals that were close to the cuto score. It says nothing about the
eect of the merit award for those pupils who scored very high or very low. In our
case, since there is no town across the border, those individuals close to the cuto
are individuals living in rural areas. Therefore, the estimated eects can only be

35
interpreted as the causal eect of colonizer's identity in rural areas.
Previous research has stressed that French favored administrative centralization
in their colonies, fostering the concentration of wealth and infrastructures in urban
areas and increasing the rural/urban dualism (Cogneau and Bossuroy, forthcoming).
We might therefore wonder whether the eect favoring the British side that we
observe for older cohorts is simply due to the French colonial education system
neglecting rural areas.
In order to investigate this question, village-level regressions are run with addi-
tional regressors U RBAN , a dummy equal to 1 if the locality was a town in 1976,
and an interaction between that dummy and BR, the dummy equal to 1 if the lo-
cality is located on the English-speaking side of the border
49 . Admittedly, adding
these regressors amounts to losing one of the most attractive features of RDD anal-
ysis, its semi-parametric nature, as one needs to make assumption about the way
urbanization impacted education (one could control linearly for population of the
locality, dene the U RBAN dummy dierently, etc.) However, such a specication
helps investigate whether the discontinuities estimated for rural areas are valid in
urban areas.
Table 12 present the results of such a regression for specication (7) (50-km band-
width, polynomial of order 5 in longitude and latitude and interaction with border
segment dummies) and independent variables male school attendance and primary
completion for cohorts 4 and 5, and primary completion for cohort 7 and 8. If the
border discontinuity was caused by the French system favoring towns and neglecting
urban areas, the coecient for BR.U RBAN would be negative. It is, however, al-
ways positive, and sometimes signicant. These results point in the direction of the
colonizer's identity eect not being conned to rural areas and applying to urban
areas as well. In the late colonial period, as the border eect inverses and starts
favoring the French-speaking side, the sign of BR.U RBAN remains positive, which
indicates that the discontinuity stems from increased access to education in French
Cameroon's rural areas.
The coecient for U RBAN is always positive and signicant, which is not sur-
prising as towns were both richer (demand eect) and received more investments,
including in education (supply eect). Even if, when comparing urban with urban
and rural with rural, the British part fared better in each category, it could be that
the French part was urbanized more rapidly, so that the global eect of French col-
onization, taking into account urbanization, would be positive, even in the interwar
period.
Indeed, in the region we are considering, there were more towns on the French

49 A town is dened as a locality whose population was larger than 5,000 in 1976.

36
side in 1976: on a 50-km bandwidth across the southern section of the border (that is,
excluding Douala), there were, in 1976, 10 towns (of more than 5,000 inhabitants) on
the French-speaking side against 4 on the English-speaking side. Table 13 presents
the results of border discontinuity analysis for district urbanization rates, using the
4 regions across the border, and excluding Douala. Although estimates are rarely
signicant at conventional levels, the border eect's size is quite high (around 10
percentage points). From gure 5, it does not seem that the partition of German
Kamerun particularly favored the French side in terms of urban centers or colonial
administrative posts, so that it is likely that the discontinuity is an eect of colonial
policies.
Even if it is uncertain whether the discontinuity in urbanization goes back to the
interwar period or is more recent, it could be that, taking into account the eect of
urbanization, the global eect of French colonialism was positive. However, when
estimating naive estimates in part 4.1, data was aggregated at the district level,
combining urban and rural localities, and results were similar to the village-level
ones. These results indicate that the British side's advantage for interwar cohorts
applied more generally to the whole border region.

5 Conclusion
This paper conrms that, in the interwar period, the British colonial education
system was more ecient than the French one. The natural experiment studied
is similar to the one used by Cogneau and Moradi (forthcoming) but in a setting
favoring the French colony, as the British Cameroons were mostly a periphery of
German Kamerun before WWI and became a periphery of British Nigeria after the
partition, receiving comparatively fewer grants-in-aid for private education. In this
very dierent setting, this paper nds a discontinuity favoring the British side of the
border for cohorts who were of schooling age in the interwar period.
However Cameroon did not witness the opposition between a heavily regulated
French system and a British laissez-faire in education: inspection of private schools
was more widespread in the British Cameroons, even though requirements were less
stringent. In French Cameroon, contrary to what happened in Togo, a large sector of
completely unregulated mission schools subsisted, but it seems that this sector was
mostly providing religious instruction. The Cameroons stood out from other British
colonies by the large number of Native Administration schools, locally managed and
locally nanced.
Like in the case of Togoland, investments in education were higher in the British
part, even though total expenditures were higher in French Cameroon. It might

37
therefore be the case that the British system's greater eciency was primarily ex-
plained by better nancing, even though we are left with wondering why education
was better nanced. In the wake of the Brazzaville conference, education expendi-
ture surged in French Cameroon, and, for cohorts that were of schooling age after
WWII, the estimated discontinuity favors the French-speaking side.
In Cameroon, it does not seem that the advantage of the British part subsisted in
the late colonial period, although an estimation fo contemporaneous discontinuities
is needed to assess whether the advantage of the French-speaking side subsisted after
decolonization and the budget cuts of the late 1980s/1990s.

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41
Figure 2: Dierence in gross primary enrollment rates between former French colonies
and former British colonies

Gross enrollment ratios before World War II are from Benavot and Riddle (1988). Figures for
1960 and 1965 are from World Bank (1993). Figures from 1971 to 2009 are from World Bank
(2013): a few countries miss gures for some years, linear extrapolation was used to ll in the
blanks. Means were weighted by population, using World Bank (1993, 2013) gures. 1960
population data was used to weight pre-World War II observations. Before World War II, the
sample used to compute means varies from year to year (German colonies that became French or
British after the First World War are not used to compute pre-WWI means). From 1960 on, the
sample is composed of the following countries. Former British colonies : Botswana, Ghana,
Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritius (missing from 1999 on), Malawi (missing in 1960), Namibia (missing
between 1960 and 1985), Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (missing from 1998 on). Former French colonies : Benin, Burkina
Faso (missing in 1960 and 1965), Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Congo,
Comores, Djibouti (missing in 1960 and 1965), Gabon (missing in 1960), Guinea, Madagascar,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo.

42
Figure 3: Preview of results: discontinuities estimated on the southern part of the
border

(a) Male school attendance

(b) Male primary completion

Discontinuities are estimated on a 10-km bandwidth of the southern part of the border using a
polynomial of order 2 in latitude and longitude and controlling for border segment dummies
this part of the border was divided in 3. Dependant variables are percentages at the village
level. Standard errors are robust. These results are also displayed in table form p. ??.
43
 Figure 4: A simplied map of ethnic groups in West Cameroon

Sources : Murdock (1959), Champaud (1973), Franqueville (1973), Courade (1974). This is a
simplied map, some groups are not represented. Towns are places of great diversity, particularly
in the South.

44
 Figure 5: The border region in 1922-23 and in 1976

(a) 1922-1923 (b) 1976

Sources : France, Ministère des Colonies (1922); Great Britain, Colonial Oce (1923); 1976 census
(from raw, uncorrected data, the size of Douala is underestimated).

45
Figure 6: Division of the border in 4 sections

46
Figure 7: Districts in the 1976 census

47
 Figure 8: Placebo borders

(a) male school attendance, cohort 4 (b) male primary completion, cohort 5

(c) male primary completion, cohort 7 (d) male secondary completion, cohort 6

48
Figure 9: Selection by mortality: a back-of-the-envelope calculation

49
Table 3: Naive estimates: dependent variable is percentage of men who attended
school

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

cohort mean mean adding bordering controling

bordering
born English French dierence segment districts, for lat.
districts
between speaking speaking dummies south and long.

N = 56 N = 56 N = 26 N = 19 N = 56

1882 & 1891 0.0588 0.1139 -0.0552*** -0.0400*** -0.0340 -0.0111 -0.00809

(0.001) (0.005) (0.124) (0.715) (0.647)

1892 & 1901 0.0666 0.1099 -0.0433* 0.00537 0.00598 0.0266 0.0487**

(0.065) (0.750) (0.810) (0.471) (0.022)

1902 & 1911 0.0897 0.1552 -0.0656** -0.0183 -0.0186 0.0225 0.0454

(0.019) (0.421) (0.629) (0.609) (0.125)

1912 & 1921 0.1527 0.2206 -0.0679* -0.0185 0.0121 0.0459 0.0923**

(0.041) (0.559) (0.696) (0.188) (0.011)

1922 & 1931 0.2442 0.3740 -0.130*** -0.0677 0.0127 0.0594 0.0874*

(0.003) (0.147) (0.764) (0.241) (0.091)

1932 & 1941 0.3922 0.5873 -0.195*** -0.129*** -0.0315 -0.00585 0.0360

(0.000) (0.008) (0.330) (0.885) (0.497)

1942 & 1951 0.6623 0.8656 -0.203*** -0.173*** -0.0949* -0.0800*** -0.0662

(0.000) (0.000) (0.060) (0.000) (0.199)

1952 & 1961 0.8440 0.9594 -0.115*** -0.0998*** -0.0641** -0.0350*** -0.0325

(0.000) (0.001) (0.037) (0.008) (0.377)

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level.

*** at the 1% level.

50
Table 4: Naive estimates: dependent variable is percentage of men who completed
primary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

cohort mean mean adding bordering controling

bordering
born English French dierence segment districts, for lat.
districts
between speaking speaking dummies south and long.

N = 56 N = 56 N = 26 N = 19 N = 56

1882 & 1891 0.0100 0.0285 -0.0185** -0.0159** -0.0132 -0.0147 -0.00677

(0.026) (0.018) (0.203) (0.326) (0.422)

1892 & 1901 0.0134 0.0189 -0.00552 -0.000778 -0.00465 -0.00551 0.00162

(0.266) (0.839) (0.538) (0.691) (0.756)

1902 & 1911 0.0170 0.0282 -0.0113* -0.00368 0.00148 0.00634 0.00709

(0.087) (0.500) (0.851) (0.600) (0.359)

1912 & 1921 0.0393 0.0450 -0.00563 0.00463 0.0175* 0.0248* 0.0199*

(0.575) (0.637) (0.081) (0.078) (0.093)

1922 & 1931 0.0874 0.1093 -0.0219 0.00166 0.0403* 0.0532 0.0519**

(0.265) (0.935) (0.067) (0.101) (0.043)

1932 & 1941 0.1668 0.2709 -0.104*** -0.0585* 0.00877 -0.000618 0.0275

(0.002) (0.086) (0.816) (0.993) (0.502)

1942 & 1951 0.3939 0.6376 -0.244*** -0.192*** -0.0840 -0.102 -0.0833

(0.000) (0.000) (0.116) (0.214) (0.119)

1952 & 1961 0.5122 0.7691 -0.257*** -0.223*** -0.158*** -0.124*** -0.145***

(0.000) (0.000) (0.001) (0.000) (0.005)

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level.

*** at the 1% level.

51
Table 5: Naive estimates: dependent variable is percentage of men who completed
secondary schooling

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

cohort mean mean adding bordering controling

bordering
born English French dierence segment districts, for lat.
districts
between speaking speaking dummies south and long.

N = 56 N = 56 N = 26 N = 19 N = 56

1882 & 1891 0 0.0021 -0.00214 -0.00343 no no -0.00186

(0.197) (0.175) variation variation (0.458)

1892 & 1901 0.0004 0.0006 -0.000218 -0.0000402 -0.000171 -0.000325 -0.00154*

(0.650) (0.873) (0.719) (0.729) (0.089)

1902 & 1911 0.0006 0.0012 -0.000531 -0.000477 -0.0000156 0.000564 -0.000103

(0.271) (0.193) (0.982) (0.272) (0.869)

1912 & 1921 0.0031 0.0016 0.00149** 0.00166** 0.00263*** 0.00307*** 0.00285***

(0.034) (0.040) (0.007) (0.005) (0.009)

1922 & 1931 0.0093 0.0040 0.00536*** 0.00636*** 0.00629** 0.00753* 0.00829***

(0.001) (0.000) (0.038) (0.079) (0.004)

1932 & 1941 0.0168 0.0124 0.00448* 0.00661** 0.00876** 0.0105 0.0119***

(0.086) (0.027) (0.047) (0.118) (0.010)

1942 & 1951 0.0238 0.0389 -0.0151*** -0.00931* -0.00324 -0.00489 -0.000441

(0.004) (0.097) (0.622) (0.658) (0.957)

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level.

*** at the 1% level.

52
Table 6: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who attended school

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes

cohort born
between

1 1882 & 1891 -0.0267 -0.0161 0.0659 -0.0252 -0.0131 0.0499 -0.0492
(0.572) (0.476) (0.502) (0.570) (0.643) (0.417) (0.506)
[30] [30] [30] [60] [60] [89] (0.506)
2 1892 & 1901 0.00232 -0.0155 -0.0672 0.0116 0.00950 -0.00845 -0.0207
(0.975) (0.870) (0.547) (0.888) (0.921) (0.906) (0.798)
[55] [55] [55] [123] [123] [185] [185]
3 1902 & 1911 0.0108 0.0492 0.0694 0.0280 0.0625 -0.0163 -0.0118
(0.840) (0.381) (0.249) (0.512) (0.181) (0.684) (0.804)
[71] [71] [71] [163] [163] [259] [259]
4 1912 & 1921 0.0892** 0.134*** 0.114** 0.0952** 0.123*** 0.0841** 0.0862**
(0.033) (0.003) (0.014) (0.013) (0.002) (0.026) (0.036)
[88] [88] [88] [191] [191] [307] [307]
5 1922 & 1931 0.0757* 0.108** 0.101** 0.0867** 0.123*** 0.0650* 0.0865**
(0.069) (0.021) (0.046) (0.020) (0.002) (0.097) (0.036)
[93] [93] [93] [203] [203] [324] [324]
6 1932 & 1941 0.00732 0.0443 0.0529 0.0473 0.0628* 0.0282 0.0109
(0.839) (0.205) (0.264) (0.125) (0.052) (0.360) (0.715)
[97] [97] [97] [209] [209] [328] [328]
7 1942 & 1951 -0.0498** -0.00553 -0.00548 -0.0153 -0.0192 -0.0229 -0.0309**
(0.015) (0.708) (0.799) (0.265) (0.135) (0.110) (0.020)
[101] [101] [101] [217] [217] [333] [333]
8 1952 & 1961 -0.000130 0.00146 0.00196 -0.000771 0.00122 -0.00639 -0.00512
(0.980) 0.00146 (0.801) (0.891) (0.848) (0.290) (0.346)
[104] [104] [104] [224] [224] [346] [346]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.

53
Table 7: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who completed primary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes

cohort born
between

1 1882 & 1891 -0.00111 -0.000803 0.00000387 -0.0192 0.0326 -0.000680 -0.00766
(0.637) (0.570) (0.486) (0.411) (0.372) (0.978) (0.816)
[30] [30] [30] [60] [60] [89] [89]
2 1892 & 1901 -0.00372 -0.000612 -0.0111 -0.00583 -0.0113 0.00519 -0.00287
(0.717) (0.959) (0.133) (0.738) (0.422) (0.770) (0.868)
[55] [55] [55] [122] [122] [184] [184]
3 1902 & 1911 0.00765 0.0163 0.0399*** 0.0143 0.0325** -0.000629 -0.00478
(0.583) (0.528) (0.002) (0.333) (0.030) (0.966) (0.795)
[71] [71] [71] [163] [163] [259] [259]
4 1912 & 1921 0.0246 0.0415*** 0.0293*** 0.0479*** 0.0423*** 0.0371*** 0.0343**
(0.167) (0.003) (0.007) (0.000) (0.002) (0.008) (0.037)
[88] [88] [88] [191] [191] [307] [307]
5 1922 & 1931 0.0672*** 0.0751*** 0.0607*** 0.0874*** 0.0934*** 0.0709*** 0.0740***
(0.002) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[93] [93] [93] [203] [203] [324] [324]
6 1932 & 1941 0.00526 0.0125 0.0305 0.0359 0.0532** -0.00206 -0.0214
(0.864) (0.647) (0.303) (0.218) (0.049) (0.944) (0.463)
[97] [97] [97] [209] [209] [328] [328]
7 1942 & 1951 -0.129*** -0.0513** -0.0453* -0.0529** -0.0528** -0.0817*** -0.0996***
(0.000) (0.033) (0.087) (0.021) (0.011) (0.001) (0.000)
[99] [99] [99] [215] [215] [331] [331]
8 1952 & 1961 -0.0586*** -0.0339* -0.0291 -0.0406*** -0.0165 -0.0676*** -0.0604***
(0.003) (0.075) (0.245) (0.010) (0.375) (0.000) (0.000)
[103] [103] [103] [223] [223] [345] [345]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.

54
Table 8: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who completed secondary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes
Urban areas
excluded no no no no no yes yes

cohort born
between

2 1892 & 1901 -0.000378 0.000260** -5.84e-08 0.000122 -0.0000700 -0.000249 0.00147
(0.186) (0.049) (0.850) (0.176) (0.200) (0.812) (0.223)
[55] [55] [55] [122] [122] [184] [184]
3 1902 & 1911 -0.000725* 0.000113 -0.0000784 0.000142 -0.000203 0.000127 -0.000781
(0.074) (0.659) (0.123) (0.417) (0.264) (0.629) (0.371)
[71] [71] [71] [163] [163] [259] [259]
4 1912 & 1921 0.00201*** 0.00247*** 0.00279*** 0.00219*** 0.00142 0.00297** 0.00387
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.001) (0.450) (0.037) (0.214)
[88] [88] [88] [191] [191] [307] [307]
5 1922 & 1931 0.00930*** 0.00650*** 0.00700** 0.00878* 0.00714** 0.0104*** 0.00620*
(0.004) (0.003) (0.033) (0.065) (0.037) (0.010) (0.085)
[93] [93] [93] [203] [203] [324] [324]
6 1932 & 1941 0.0152*** 0.0123*** 0.0114*** 0.0168*** 0.0147*** 0.0166*** 0.0139***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.001) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[97] [97] [97] [209] [209] [328] [328]
7 1942 & 1951 0.00583 0.0131*** 0.0144*** 0.0135*** 0.0270*** 0.0127*** 0.00451
(0.152) (0.000) (0.000) (0.001) (0.000) (0.009) (0.369)
[99] [99] [99] [215] [215] [331] [331]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level. Cohort 1 is not
displayed because there is no variation for this cohort. Cohort 8 is not displayed because some
individuals in that cohort were too young in 1976 to have completed secondary schooling.

55
Table 9: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who attended school

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes

cohort born
between

1 1882 & 1891 0.0789** 0.128 0.159 0.0525 0.145* 0.00887 0.0578
(0.029) (0.152) (0.268) (0.349) (0.054) (0.855) (0.405)
[24] [24] [24] [57] [57] [94] [94]
2 1892 & 1901 0.0259 0.0173 0.00314 0.0170 0.0470 -0.0162 0.0213
(0.171) (0.382) (0.867) (0.550) (0.172) (0.491) (0.353)
[51] [51] [51] [113] [113] [175] [175]
3 1902 & 1911 0.00935** 0.00842* 0.00840 0.00948 0.0126* -0.00115 0.00830
(0.038) (0.069) (0.356) (0.198) (0.052) (0.895) (0.228)
[73] [73] [73] [160] [160] [252] [252]
4 1912 & 1921 0.00928** 0.00616 0.0108 -0.00210 0.00885 -0.00760 -0.00814
(0.044) (0.282) (0.117) (0.765) (0.236) (0.379) (0.290)
[82] [82] [82] [183] [183] [295] [295]
5 1922 & 1931 -0.00603 -0.00480 0.00371 -0.0144 0.00756 -0.0220 -0.00935
(0.491) (0.454) (0.663) (0.236) (0.454) (0.104) (0.369)
[88] [88] [88] [195] [195] [317] [317]
6 1932 & 1941 -0.0189 -0.0223 -0.0176 -0.00000183 0.0108 -0.0292 -0.0367*
(0.397) (0.149) (0.134) (1.000) (0.491) (0.160) (0.086)
[97] [97] [97] [208] [208] [330] [330]
7 1942 & 1951 -0.121*** -0.0438 -0.0581* -0.0455 -0.0498** -0.0812** -0.107***
(0.006) (0.180) (0.062) (0.105) (0.045) (0.010) (0.000)
[101] [101] [101] [213] [213] [335] [335]
8 1952 & 1961 0.00866 0.0803*** 0.0831** 0.0653*** 0.0633*** 0.0302 0.0344**
(0.787) (0.002) (0.011) (0.005) (0.004) (0.138) (0.022)
[107] [107] [107] [228] [228] [350] [350]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.

56
Table 10: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who completed primary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes

cohort born
between

1 1882 & 1891 0.00767 0.000804 -0.00187 0.0117 0.00576 0.0208* 0.0354
(0.293) (0.782) (0.665) (0.229) (0.375) (0.064) (0.177)
[24] [24] [24] [57] [57] [94] [94]
2 1892 & 1901 0.00846 0.00823 -0.0120** 0.0164 0.0301 -0.00259 0.00761
(0.413) (0.588) (0.011) (0.507) (0.281) (0.882) (0.615)
[51] [51] [51] [113] [113] [175] [175]
3 1902 & 1911 0.00114* 0.000143 0.000233 0.000494 0.00134 0.0000273 0.00170**
(0.090) (0.808) (0.469) (0.565) (0.158) (0.975) (0.021)
[73] [73] [73] [160] [160] [252] [252]
4 1912 & 1921 0.00495* 0.00250 0.00481* 0.00513** 0.00607** 0.00351* 0.00362*
(0.0959) (0.219) (0.055) (0.043) (0.014) (0.070) (0.091)
[82] [82] [82] [183] [183] [295] [295]
5 1922 & 1931 0.00219 -0.00150 -0.000299 0.0000859 0.000710 -0.00153 -0.00336
(0.470) (0.419) (0.900) (0.985) (0.863) (0.693) (0.388)
[88] [88] [88] [195] [195] [317] [317]
6 1932 & 1941 0.00332 -0.00421 -0.00229 0.00584 0.0108* -0.00546 -0.00832
(0.625) (0.491) (0.642) (0.431) (0.071) (0.456) (0.340)
[97] [97] [97] [208] [208] [330] [330]
7 1942 & 1951 -0.0629** -0.0194 -0.0263* -0.0121 -0.0137 -0.0407* -0.0767***
(0.012) (0.267) (0.058) (0.505) (0.353) (0.056) (0.000)
[101] [101] [101] [213] [213] [335] [335]
8 1952 & 1961 -0.0126 0.0500* 0.0499 0.0626** 0.0660** 0.0263 -0.0129
(0.714) (0.075) (0.116) (0.035) (0.025) (0.387) (0.586)
[107] [107] [107] [228] [228] [350] [350]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.

57
Table 11: Village level results on the southern border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who completed secondary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 10-km 25-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 2 order 2 order 3 order 3 order 5 order 5
Interacted with
segment dummies no yes no yes no yes

cohort born
between

4 1912 & 1921 no no no -0.0000388 0.000269*** 0.000424 0.00100

variation variation variation (0.609) (0.002) (0.300) (0.281)
[183] [183] [295] [295]
5 1922 & 1931 -0.000143 -0.000514*** -0.000655*** -0.000519*** -0.000223 -0.000946*** -0.000347*
(0.477) (0.002) (0.000) (0.002) (0.197) (0.003) (0.076)
[88] [88] [88] [195] [195] [317] [317]
6 1932 & 1941 0.00470*** 0.000930 0.00329*** 0.00435*** 0.00432*** 0.00399*** 0.00279**
(0.003) (0.627) (0.002) (0.002) (0.002) (0.002) (0.024)
[97] [97] [97] [208] [208] [330] [330]
7 1942 & 1951 0.00790*** 0.00843*** 0.00887*** 0.00929*** 0.0105*** 0.00864*** 0.00622***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[101] [101] [101] [213] [213] [335] [335]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level. Cohorts 1 to 3 are
not displayed because there is no variation for these cohorts. Cohort 8 is not displayed because
some individuals in that cohort were too young in 1976 to have completed secondary schooling.

58
 Table 12: Investigating the eect for urban areas

dependent variable

male school male school male primary male primary male primary male primary
attendance attendance completion completion completion completion
cohort 4 cohort 5 cohort 4 cohort 5 cohort 7 cohort 8

BR 0.103** 0.105*** 0.0403** 0.0899*** -0.0911*** -0.0552***

(0.015) (0.008) (0.022) (0.000) (0.003) (0.006)

URBAN 0.129*** 0.108*** 0.0288** 0.0894*** 0.0597*** 0.0333***

(0.000) (0.000) (0.042) (0.003) (0.000) (0.000)

BR.URBAN 0.0902 0.0470 0.102** 0.0589 0.0603** 0.0124

(0.143) (0.121) (0.037) (0.146) (0.048) (0.318)

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level.
*** at the 1% level. Regressions are run on a 50-km bandwidth across the southern border
section, controling for a polynomial of order 5 in longitude and latitude, interacted with border
segment dummies.

Table 13: Discontinuity analysis for district-level urban rates

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

mean mean adding controling
bordering polynomial
English French dierence segment for lat.
districts of order 2
speaking speaking dummies and long.
N = 56 N = 56 N = 26 N = 56 N = 56

.2142 .3274 -.1133 -.1391* -.1925 -.1670256 -.0943

(0.109) (0.095) (0.249) (0.178) (0.480)

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level.
*** at the 1% level. Estimation on the 4 bordering provinces: Ouest, Littoral, South-West and
North-West. Douala is excluded from all estimation. District level urbanization rates weighted by
district population.

59
A Primary enrollment by type of school, French and
British Cameroon
Table 14 gives gross primary enrollment ratios in dierent types of schools in French
and British Cameroon. These gures do not allow much inference about the global
eciency of one system as compared to the other. One might be tempted to equate
the distinction between assisted and unassisted mission schools on the British side
with the distinction between government-approved and non government-approved
mission schools on the French side, but the categories do not match: unassisted
mission schools were inspected regularly by the British colonial government and had
to respect a number of requirements, while in French Cameroon, non government-
approved schools were entirely unregulated, and it is very likely that the quite fanciful
gures given by the missions encompassed a good share of parishioners attending
Sunday school.
I tried, whenever possible, to compare the Southern Cameroons with the South
of French Cameroon: there were huge geographical disparities within each mandate,
the main one being, in both territories, the dierence between the islamized North
and the South. In the Northern Cameroons (the areas of the British Cameroons
administered as part of the Nigerian provinces of Yola and Bornu) there were, before
the Second World War, no mission schools and only a handful of Native Adminis-
tration schools: enrolment rates were therefore very low. Missions schools were also
completely absent, at least prior to World War II, in the northern, islamized areas
of French Cameroon. Since the North represented a larger share of population in
the British Cameroons than in French Cameroon, we paint a dierent comparative
picture when we exclude the North from the statistics.

60
Table 14: Gross primary enrollment ratio by type of school, French and British
Cameroon

1925 1930 1935 1938 1950 1955

Government schools 1.16% 1.38% 1.85% 1.96% 4.36% 11.01%

French
Approved mission schools 2.14% 2.18% 2.00% 2.77%
Cameroon 17.34% 28.15%
Non approved mission schools 11.95% 14.88% 18.74% 19.02%
(1)
Government schools 1.44% 1.52% 1.27% 1.75% 3.12% 2.74%
British
Assisted mission schools 0 % 0.30% 1.12% 1.24% 9.37% 10.75%
Cameroons
Unassisted mission schools 2.80% 3.15% 2.44% 3.93% 1.98% 2.70%

French Government schools 1.30% 1.83% 2.47% 2.78%

Cameroon, Approved mission schools 2.10% 2.32% 2.04% 3.17%

(2)
South Non approved mission schools 14.54% 20.22% 25.18% 26.95%
(1)
British Government schools 2.71% 2.80% 2.49% 3.38%

Cameroons, Assisted mission schools 0% 0.61% 2.26% 2.39%

(2)
South Unassisted mission schools 5.21% 6.43% 4.91% 7.51%

Sources : France, Ministère des Colonies, 1921-38 and 1947-57; Great Britain, Colonial Oce, 1922-38 and 1949-59.
School-age population is assumed to be 20% of total population. (1) including Native Administration schools. (2):
the South corresponds to the Cameroons province for the British part; for the French part, the South excludes the
areas corresponding to the contemporaneous regions of Adamaoua, North and Extreme-North.

61
B Village level results on the central border section,
using the 1987 census
In this appendix are presented border eects estimated on the central section of the
border (section 2 on gure 6) using 1987 census data. The 1976 census was not used
because, in the southern part of the French-speaking Ouest region, localisation is
very imprecise: the code given in the census is not a village code, but a chiefdom
code. This makes estimation on narrow bandwidths very unstable. The problem
with using the 1987 census is that, because of missing districts, eects are estimated
on the southern part of the section only.
Tables 15 to 20 presents results estimated on the central section of the border
for the percentage of men and women who attended school, completed primary and
secondary schooling. Column (1) presents simple dierences in means on a 10-km
bandwidth. Column (2) controls for a linear function of longitude and latitude.
Column (3) presents discontinuities estimated on a 25-km bandwidth, controling for
a polynomial of order 3. Column (4) and (5) present discontinuities estimated on a
50-km bandwidth, controling for polynomials of order 5 and 7.

62
Table 15: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who attended school

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

1 1893 & 1902 -0.00557 -0.0108 0.0291 -0.0663 -0.0683

(0.727) (0.434) (0.519) (0.154) (0.143)
[37] [37] [112] [233] [233]
2 1903 & 1912 0.0252 -0.000306 0.00408 -0.00158 -0.00228
(0.176) (0.991) (0.871) (0.960) (0.943)
[82] [82] [228] [487] [487]
3 1913 & 1922 0.0530** 0.0173 0.0622** 0.0809*** 0.0810***
(0.022) (0.571) (0.022) (0.002) (0.002)
[134] [134] [368] [775] [775]
4 1923 & 1932 0.0434** -0.00992 0.0729*** 0.0762*** 0.0748***
(0.033) (0.750) (0.005) (0.003) (0.003)
[140] [140] [395] [828] [828]
5 1933 & 1942 0.00160 -0.0520 0.0196 0.0253 0.0252
(0.940) (0.206) (0.491) (0.377) (0.377)
[138] [138] [390] [821] [821]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.0869*** -0.155*** -0.0831*** -0.0783*** -0.0766***
(0.001) (0.001) (0.008) (0.003) (0.004)
[129] [129] [377] [807] [807]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.0385*** -0.0686*** -0.0492*** -0.0395*** -0.0384***
(0.002) (0.001) (0.001) (0.003) (0.003)
[132] [132] [375] [778] [778]
8 1963 & 1972 -0.0178 -0.0442* -0.0200 -0.0214 -0.0202
(0.106) (0.065) (0.206) (0.120) (0.138)
[137] [137] [391] [825] [825]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 63
5% level. *** at the 1% level.
Table 16: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who completed primary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

1 1893 & 1902 -0.00730*** -0.00730*** 0.0376 -0.00283 -0.00303

(0.000) (0.000) (0.246) (0.721) (0.705)
[37] [37] [112] [233] [233]
2 1903 & 1912 0.0149 0.0172 0.0223* 0.0190 0.0187
(0.140) (0.110) (0.076) (0.137) (0.145)
[82] [82] [228] [485] [485]
3 1913 & 1922 0.0298** 0.0135 0.0411*** 0.0231 0.0231
(0.035) (0.355) (0.003) (0.161) (0.165)
[134] [134] [368] [775] [775]
4 1923 & 1932 0.0190 0.00752 0.0391** 0.0432*** 0.0426***
(0.113) (0.654) (0.015) (0.006) (0.007)
[140] [140] [396] [828] [828]
5 1933 & 1942 0.0243 -0.0168 0.0604*** 0.0404** 0.0395**
(0.117) (0.510) (0.006) (0.040) (0.044)
[138] [138] [390] [822] [822]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.118*** -0.232*** -0.0959*** -0.101*** -0.100***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[129] [129] [376] [806] [806]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.132*** -0.265*** -0.143*** -0.127*** -0.125***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[132] [132] [376] [780] [780]
8 1963 & 1972 -0.0896*** -0.129** -0.0951** -0.0922** -0.0910**
(0.001) (0.028) (0.013) (0.015) (0.015)
[137] [137] [391] [825] [825]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.
64
Table 17: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of men who completed secondary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

2 1903 & 1912 0.00170** 0.00317** 0.00243*** 0.00118** 0.00117**

(0.015) (0.012) (0.002) (0.046) (0.045)
[82] [82] [228] [485] [485]
3 1913 & 1922 0.000999*** 0.000596*** 0.00215** 0.00286 0.00280
(0.000) (0.000) (0.022) (0.132) (0.147)
[134] [134] [368] [775] [775]
4 1923 & 1932 0.00572 -0.00172 0.00647* 0.00189 0.00182
(0.186) (0.610) (0.055) (0.632) (0.645)
[140] [140] [396] [828] [828]
5 1933 & 1942 0.0125*** 0.00855 0.0151*** 0.0125*** 0.0124***
(0.000) (0.222) (0.002) (0.001) (0.001)
[138] [138] [390] [822] [822]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.0176*** -0.0516*** -0.0220*** -0.0126* -0.0127*
(0.003) (0.000) (0.002) (0.051) (0.051)
[129] [129] [376] [806] [806]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.0496*** -0.0903*** -0.0555*** -0.0411*** -0.0411***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[132] [132] [376] [780] [780]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level. Cohort 1 is not
displayed because there is no variation for this cohort. Cohort 8 is not displayed because some
individuals in that cohort were too young in 1987 to have completed secondary schooling.

65
Table 18: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who attended school

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

1 1893 & 1902 -0.0128*** -0.0226*** -0.0120 -0.0148 -0.0152

(0.000) (0.000) (0.376) (0.249) (0.238)
[48] [48] [140] [310] [310]
2 1903 & 1912 -0.0247* 0.00833 -0.0184 -0.00993 -0.00976
(0.072) (0.769) (0.287) (0.509) (0.513)
[80] [80] [238] [525] [525]
3 1913 & 1922 0.00745 0.0221** 0.00862 0.0172* 0.0171*
(0.194) (0.041) (0.354) (0.053) (0.055)
[120] [120] [343] [740] [740]
4 1923 & 1932 -0.00821 -0.000494 -0.00221 -0.0000803 -0.000574
(0.237) (0.975) (0.798) (0.993) (0.947)
[139] [139] [381] [817] [817]
5 1933 & 1942 0.00817 -0.0121 0.0229** 0.0124 0.0117
(0.275) (0.253) (0.048) (0.143) (0.167)
[144] [144] [403] [856] [856]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.0384* -0.122*** -0.0227 -0.0319 -0.0329
(0.064) (0.000) (0.380) (0.159) (0.145)
[143] [143] [402] [858] [858]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.164*** -0.262*** -0.137*** -0.150*** -0.148***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[146] [146] [410] [858] [858]
8 1963 & 1972 -0.0806*** -0.105*** -0.0781*** -0.0737*** -0.0709***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[147] [147] [412] [864] [864]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.

66
Table 19: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who completed primary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

1 1893 & 1902 -0.00173 -0.00585*** 0.00315 -0.00696 -0.00721

(0.225) (0.000) (0.519) (0.543) (0.526)
[48] [48] [140] [310] [310]
2 1903 & 1912 -0.00320*** -0.00577*** -0.0154* -0.00863* -0.00836*
(0.000) (0.000) (0.080) (0.088) (0.092)
[80] [80] [238] [525] [525]
3 1913 & 1922 0.00481 0.00701 0.00891 0.0135 0.0134
(0.328) (0.158) (0.321) (0.108) (0.113)
[120] [120] [343] [740] [740]
4 1923 & 1932 -0.00516 0.00624 0.00199 0.00256 0.00240
(0.141) (0.317) (0.527) (0.474) (0.503)
[139] [139] [381] [817] [817]
5 1933 & 1942 0.00418 -0.000560 0.0123*** 0.00470 0.00433
(0.172) (0.889) (0.007) (0.178) (0.213)
[144] [144] [403] [856] [856]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.0451*** -0.0656*** -0.0259** -0.0366*** -0.0377***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.036) (0.000) (0.000)
[143] [143] [402] [858] [858]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.227*** -0.329*** -0.168*** -0.173*** -0.173***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[146] [146] [410] [858] [858]
8 1963 & 1972 -0.243*** -0.305*** -0.205*** -0.165*** -0.162***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[147] [147] [412] [864] [864]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level.
67
Table 20: Village level results on the central border section, dependent variable is
percentage of women who completed secondary

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Bandwidth 10-km 10-km 25-km 50-km 50-km

Geographical
polynomial no order 1 order 3 order 5 order 7
Interacted with
segment dummies no no no no

cohort born
between

3 1913 & 1922 no no -0.0000400 -0.000283*** -0.000287***

variation variation (0.311) (0.000) (0.000)
[343] [740] [740]
4 1923 & 1932 -0.000168*** -0.000229*** -0.000247*** -0.000174*** -0.000176***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[139] [139] [381] [817] [817]
5 1933 & 1942 -0.0000235 -0.000251 0.000103 -0.000512*** -0.000525***
(0.859) (0.301) (0.561) (0.000) (0.000)
[144] [144] [403] [856] [856]
6 1943 & 1952 -0.00438*** -0.00860*** -0.00402*** -0.00595*** -0.00603***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[143] [143] [402] [858] [858]
7 1953 & 1962 -0.0136*** -0.0237*** -0.0132*** -0.0147*** -0.0149***
(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000)
[146] [146] [410] [858] [858]

Robust standard errors. p values in parentheses. Number of villages in the regression between
braces. * signicant at the 10% level. ** at the 5% level. *** at the 1% level. Cohorts 1 and 2 are
not displayed because there is no variation for these cohorts. Cohort 8 is not displayed because
some individuals in that cohort were too young in 1987 to have completed secondary schooling.

68