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Flags, Slogans, and Emblems: Symbolic Legitimacy and Ambazonia’s Quest for Recognition

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Abstract

This article examines the transformation of Ambazonia’s political struggle from peaceful protest to armed conflict, focusing on the symbolic construction of legitimacy through political messaging, media narratives, and international discourse. The study situates the Anglophone crisis within a broader interpretive framework, analysing how legal, political, and communicative acts operate as signs that convey authority, moral justification, and claims to self-determination. By exploring speeches, manifestos, social media content, and international statements, the paper demonstrates how both state and secessionist actors strategically deploy symbols, narratives, and rhetorical devices to shape perceptions of legitimacy, sovereignty, and justice. The article highlights the tension between performative recognition and substantive authority, showing that the symbolic performance of legitimacy often precedes formal acknowledgment or legal validation. It also examines the role of media and international discourse in amplifying or contesting these symbolic claims, revealing how law, politics, and communication intersect in shaping narratives of legitimacy in postcolonial contexts. By foregrounding the symbolic and interpretive dimensions of Ambazonia’s struggle, the study illuminates how legitimacy is not simply a legal or political fact but a constructed social and communicative reality, mediated through signs, language, and institutional frameworks. The article argues that understanding legitimacy as a symbolic process is essential for analysing secessionist conflicts, the limits of international law, and the politics of recognition in contested states.

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    Nfor N. Nde Nyambi

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Nyambi, N.N.N. Flags, Slogans, and Emblems: Symbolic Legitimacy and Ambazonia’s Quest for Recognition. Int J Semiot Law (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-026-10594-8

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