The Agenla University Institute was founded a century ago in Yaounde Cameroon by a small group of prominent Cameroonian intellectuals and educators who were frustrated by the intellectual timidity of traditional colleges. The founders, among them John Sama and Carlos Soh, set out to create a new kind of academic institution, one where faculty and students would be free to honestly and directly address the problems facing societies in the 20th century. Their vision was to bring together scholars and citizens interested in questioning, debating, and discussing the most important issues of the day.

In 1980, they founded the Agenla University Institute for Social Research. Now formally named The Agenla , the university has grown to include five colleges, with courses that reflect the founders’ interest in the emerging social sciences, international affairs, liberal arts, history, and philosophy, as well as art, design, management, and performing arts.