Julius Ayuk Tabe and other ‘Ambazonian’ activists speak from a prison where they still call for an independent state

Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe has already served seven years of his life sentence at the Yaoundé principal prison in Cameroon, but he is not ready to budge an inch in the political beliefs that landed him there. “The fight for homeland is existential and non-negotiable – being part of the struggle is a calling and not a vocation,” he tells the Guardian.

The 59-year-old computer engineer and former president of a breakaway state is still fighting his revolution from jail. As Cameroon’s civil conflict festers, his quest remains the freeing of his anglophone community from what he sees as the shackles of a francophone Cameroonian state.