Cameroonian activist André Blaise Essama has been on a decades-long mission to purge his country of colonial-era symbols, long before the issue came to international prominence in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, reports BBC News.
His main target has been French World War Two hero Gen Philippe Leclerc in the country's biggest city, Douala.
"I have decapitated Leclerc's head seven times and toppled the statue at least 20 times," Mr Essama told the BBC.
"I use my bare hands... but I make an incantation to the ancestors first," he said.
His aim is to replace them with Cameroonian and other African heroes, but he will make an exception for those who campaigned for "the good of humanity".
He is especially keen on erecting a statue of Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
"Diana was against racism and she stood for humanity. We loved her here in Cameroon," Mr Essama said.
Mr Essama has also targeted a statue of Gustav Nachtigal, who arrived in Cameroon in 1884 to establish a German empire.
During World War One, British and French troops forced the Germans out, later splitting the German-occupied territory between them.
The authorities see his activities as vandalism, arguing that African heroes can be celebrated without removing colonial symbols.
Mr Essama has been imprisoned several times for cutting the head off Gen Leclerc's statue - serving up to six months at a time.
Sometimes he has avoided a jail term by paying fines, with the money mostly raised by his supporters in Cameroon and in the diaspora.
Each time he has damaged Gen Leclerc's statue in the main square in Douala, the authorities have restored it.
With one hand on hip, the other holding a walking stick, the French hero stands on a plinth in front of a curved stone relief depicting the French World War Two military arsenal, including tanks and planes.
It was erected by the French colonisers in 1948, long before Cameroon became independent in 1960.