The gendarme in French controlled African countries incarnates fear. Their red berets reflect terror and they unleash it unto every African population without any remorse. The history of the gendarmerie is one that brings to sharp focus its practices against the African people on behalf of the French state. Its method formerly shrouded in secrecy is constantly being unveiled by a mediatised world. It derives its name from members of an aristocratic order codenamed "Gens d'armes" otherwise known as ‘ gentlemen at arms’ or simply ‘men-in-arms’. These men solemnly pledged their action in reflection of law and liberty and a devotion of service to God and their country. The French men-in-arms remain one of the oldest of French political institutions and as a heir to the military forces or Maréchaussées de France, they have evolved to become one of the most coveted, ruthless and arbitrary force that has exported terror to distant nations and deviated allegiance from God and nation to Frances ideology of foreign dominion. The gentlemen at arms still remain the one force that has epitomized France’s presence in every country, big and small, rich and poor across the globe. The gendarmes remain the most lethal paramilitary force that still exacts its price from innocent African victims in French-controlled Africa. Its symbol, the flaming grenade has become the forces weapon of choice on unsuspecting victims. This will come into sharp focus in 1991 in Bamenda when pro-democracy activists were bombed from the air with life grenades causing the lost of arms and limbs of unarmed civilian protesters.

Since Paris was forced to relinquish direct rule in its former colonies, it left behind the gendarmes, its embassies and Cooperation ministry to subvert these countries. Its method have been ruthless, its purpose unrelentless and its mission unquestionably reoccupation. Torture has not only been used as an instrument of political recrimination, it has actually been the only form of persuasion that successive French regimes have employed to break the will of the people. Gendarmerie stations and streets remain the places where these dramas have unfolded and still unfold and every people caught in this Frances’ cat and mouse game of occupation and independence have felt these recrimination in a very ferocious way.