Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Makossa Original: A Blog Dedicated to Classic Makossa Music

By Dibussi Tande

Who was the founder of Black Styl, the greatest Makossa group of all time; Emil Kangue or Nkotti Francois? How did Makossa maestro Ben Decca look and sound like when he released Nyonga Mulema, his debut 12 inch 45 rpm maxi single, back in 1981?
 
The cover of the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed "Black Styl à Paris" album (1978)

Can you still remember the cover of Mbemba' Iyo, the 1980 album that confirmed Dina Bell as a bona fide Makossa star, and which included classics such as Nginya Mulema and Nyuwe?

Death Fog: Lake Nyos Gas Disaster Revisited

National Geogrpahic Channel, Friday Sept 3, 2010

"In a lakeside village in Cameroon, West Africa, 2,000 people mysteriously die in one night. Witnesses claim their neighbors were suffocated by a white fog as they slept. Without any other clues, the question remains, was this Death Fog natural or man-made? In this area of volcanic activity, could the deaths have been caused by toxic fumes? Or was something even more sinister at work?" National Geographic  Channel.

According to Lake Overturn Theory, an enormous volume of carbon dioxide bursts from a lake suffocating anyone in its path.

 A mysterious fog rises from Lake Nyos in Camaroon and unleashes death upon nearly 2,000 people in nearby villages.

Click here to read more about this program.

Click here for additional info about the disaster including the alleged "Israeli Connection".

The Economic Impact of MTN's Involvement in Cameroon

By Nathalie B. Chinje

ABSTRACT: The motive for this research was to provide clarity on the increasingly divergent opinions on the role and behaviour of South African companies in the rest of the African continent. The key question that can be asked is:  “Are South African investments, saviour or villain of African Development” (Thomas, 2007)? Are they “exporting Apartheid” (Mkhabela, 2007), or are the fears raised against South African companies unfounded?

Bridging Fact and Fiction: A Review of Nyamnjoh's Intimate Strangers

By Megan Greenwood

Francis B. Nyamnjoh. Intimate Strangers | 334 pages | 229 x 152 mm | 2010 | Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon | Paperback

I cannot help but reflect on what having a BSocSci in English and Social Anthropology offers me as I approach writing a review of Francis Nyamnjoh's (2010) Intimate Strangers. Both disciplines offer lenses through which to review literature. What sets them apart? The one concerns itself with character and plot development, literary techniques and thematic explorations. The other shows interest in methodological principles and the development and substantiation of arguments  - yet not at the exclusion of thematic exploration and literary aesthetics. Which lens is more appropriate for Nyamnjoh's book? Perhaps some of my hesitancy to settle for either is reflective of the way in which Intimate Strangers seems to traverse the boundary lines between fiction and ethnography.

Cote d'Ivoire: Theophile Kouamouo and Others Freed

The Verdict
Count 1: Theft of an administrative document. NOT GUILTY
Count 2: Resale of stolen documents: NOT GUILTY
Count 3: Releasing information from a legal record not yet made public: GUILTY ($10,000 USD fine and 15-day suspension of Le Nouveau Courrier newspaper)

Kouamouo and others defiant to the end. (C)Twitpic

Click here for additional details.

Cameroonian Blogger/Journalist & Two Others Arrested in Cote d'Ivoire for Publishing Report on Corruption

By Elia Varela Serra (Originally posted on Global Voices Advocacy)

According to the blog of Le Nouveau Courrier, three journalists from this Ivorian daily have been arrested since Tuesday July 13th for publishing a leaked report on alleged corruption in the cocoa and coffee trade in Côte d'Ivoire.

Theophile Kouamouo and Saint-Claver Oula on their way to court (c) twitpic

The three journalists – editor Saint Claver Oula, publisher Stéphane Guédé and managing editor Théophile Kouamouo were arrested by plain-clothes police on public prosecutor Raymond Tchimou Fehou’s orders and taken into custody after refusing to reveal their sources during a surprise visit at the Nouveau Courrier's offices. That morning Le Nouveau Courrier had published the first installment (see original in French here) in a series that was to last the whole week on the embezzlement investigation into 30 people in the coffe and cocoa national industry.

Rhodes Journalism Review: What is Missing from Journalism Education?

In the current issue of the Rhodes Journalism Review, 15 journalists, editors & new media specialists from around the world pinpoint what’s missing from journalism education. Includes a contribution from me.

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Click here to read or download article.

Obituary: Puis Njawe, the Beacon of Press Freedom is No More!

Pius Njawe, pioneer journalist and pre-eminent Cameroonian press freedom activist, died yesterday in Washington, D.C. in a car accident. He was in the United States to attend a conference organized by the Cameroonian Diaspora to discuss the country's future. Cameroon has lost a colussus who came the closest in establishing a veritable fourth estate in the country. May his soul rest in peace.

 (c) lemessager.net

Excerpt from Pius Njawe's 1998 Prison Diary 

My treatment in prison is highly humiliating. The objective is surely to break my morale, if I cannot be eliminated physically. I share Cell 15 with about a hundred other prisoners, almost all of whom are criminals convicted of murders, assassinations, hold-ups and so on. My bunkmate, for example, was the leader of a gang that emptied out my neighbour’s house.

Rosemary Ekosso's "House of Falling Women" Nominated for the Aidoo-Snyder Prize

House of Falling Women, the debut novel of Cameroonian writer Rosemary Ekosso has been nominated for the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize.

Other nominees include Kenyan novelist Wambui Githiora for her book Wanjira; Valerie Tagwira of Zimbabwe for The Uncertainty of Hope; Amma Darko of Ghana for Not Without Flowers; Kopano Matlwa of South Africa for Coconut.

The Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize is awarded annually by the Women’s Caucus of the African Studies Association (ASA) for an outstanding book published by a woman that prioritizes African women’s experiences. Named in honor of Ama Ata Aidoo, the celebrated Ghanaian novelist and short-story writer, and Margaret Snyder, the founding Director of UNIFEM, this award will be given during the 2010 ASA annual meetings in San Francisco at the Women’s Caucus Annual Lecture and Luncheon. Every fifth year the prize is given for a creative work, this year the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize will be awarded for a novel.

Photo Essay: Why Cameroon Shared the Last Place at the 2010 World Cup With North Korea

Dibussi Tande

A million reasons have been given to explain why Cameroon, supposedly one of the greatest football nations in the world, ended up sharing the last spot at the 2010 World Cup with - Oh! The humiliation! - North Korea. While conflicts within the national team and poor coaching may explain  Cameroon's South African debacle, the problem with the country's football is systemic and structural. Take a hard look at the following pictures; these are some of the stadiums where games for the MTN Elite One league (Cameroon's premier football championship) are played each week.

Cotonsport, Cameroon's Elite One Champions, playing at the Bamendzin "Stadium" in Bafoussam, homeground of Racing Bafoussam FC

Exactly what kind of talent do we expect to emerge from these potato fields? Isn't it time for Cameroon to go back to the basics - developing a coherent national football policy, establishing a credible youth prospection and development program, professionalizing the elite league, training local coaches in modern techniques and tactics, building stadiums that meet minimum FIFA standards, etc. - before aspiring to conquer the the African and world stage? There can be no cutting corners on this one!

Ambassador Mendouga, the Albatross Affair and Life in Kondengui

The Washington Diplomat - VOLUME 17, NUMBER 07. July 2010

“It’s not my official residence on Normanstone Drive, I can tell you that...I’m in a room built for 12 people, with three bunk beds, one on top of the other. For the time being, there are six or seven of us here. We have three boxes for showering and three toilets — one normal Western-style and two Turkish squat toilets.” Jerome Mendouga

After serving for 15 years as Cameroon’s ambassador to the United States, Jerome Mendouga has traded in the comfort of Embassy Row for the confines of Cameroon’s most notorious jail, as he fights to prove his innocence in a domestic scandal that has become the proverbial albatross around the disgraced diplomat’s neck.

Foreign ambassadors, once they finish their tours of duty in Wash ington, often go back home and write books or become private consultants. Others join the faculty of prestigious universities. If they’ve had an especially distinguished track record, they might be named foreign ministers by their country’s president, and — in a few cases — they end up as presidents themselves. Jerome Mendouga’s career took a very different path — taking him all the way
from the comfort of Washington’s Embassy Row to the squalor of Cameroon’s most notorious slammer.

Click here to download article in PDF format (3.62mb)

Memory Lane: June 28, 1990 - Biya Accepts “Eventual Competition”

"But, dear comrades, it should also be observed that one man's meat is another man's poison. It should also be considered that other reference values can exist... Our party is strong no doubt, but henceforth, it must be prepared to face possible competition." Paul Biya, CPDM Congress, June 28, 1990 

Exactly 20 years ago, on June 28, 1990, President Biya, in a memorable address to militants of the ruling party who were holding out against the reinstitution of multiparty politics in Cameroon, asked them to be ready for “eventual competition.” This was the culmination of a multiparty debate which began early that year with the Yondo affair, and reached its violent apogee with the death of six teenagers who were “trampled by bullets” in Bamenda during the launching of the Social Democratic Front (SDF).  After the May 26 launching of the SDF and the subsequent smear campaign against the party and its sympathizers, Cameroon seemed to be on the verge of a major conflagration which had been looming in the horizon since the Yondo affair.

BOOK REVIEW: Scribbles from the den: essays on politics and collective memory in Cameroon

Review of African Political Economy Vol. 37, No. 124, June 2010, 239–240

Scribbles from the den: essays on politics and collective memory in Cameroon, by Dibussi Tande, Bamenda, Cameroon, Langaa Publishers, 2009, 212 pp., £19.95, ISBN 978-9956558919

Dibussi Tande’s Scribbles from the den: essays on politics and collective memory in Cameroon definitely contains no ‘scribbles’. It is a collection of well articulated essays capturing the socio-cultural and political fabric of the nation state of Cameroon and of Africa in general. The 49 selected essays in this volume first appeared on ‘Scribbles from the den,’ Dibussi Tande’s award-winning blog, www.dibussi.com, between 2006 and 2009, a fact which has implications for the tone and texture of these essays. Tande is not oblivious to these implications. As he explains: 

SELLING AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE: Developing the Market for African Intellectual Property

ByDayo Ogunyemi

"Africans must lose any naïveté about how IP rights are managed and exploited in developed economies. Historically, African content creators have had a lack of awareness about the international market value of their IP creations as well as the complexities of copyright and contract law that govern their trade."

In the wake of the copyright / Intellectual Property controversy over the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, Scribbles from the Den republishes a very educaitonal article from 2003 in which Dayo Ogunyemi, who once ran an entertainment law practice in New York, argues that there is a dire need to raise awareness within Africa about the value of Intellectual Property (IP), and the remedies that are available when these rights have been violated. Read on...

World Cup 2010: Where Cameroon Will Play

Cameroon's games will take place in the following stadiums:

Free State Stadium - Mangaung/Bloemfontein (Cameroon-Japan)

Ngando Pickett vs. Puma: The Battle Moves on to South Africa

Ngando Pickett's controversial Puma advert on display in a shop in South Africa (c) anjalinayar

"On one hand, the global exposure has made Ngando really happy. His image has united Cameroonians for years and will now unite the world. But at the same time, he felt duped. "Those images belong to me," he explains, in an almost apologetic tone. "And it should be up to me to decide whether my image can be used for a film or advertisement"... Did Puma really put Ngando's half-naked image on posters around Paris without consent, or did Cameroon's Ministry of Sports OK the picture as part of the sponsorship deal for the Indomitable Lions? Finally, now that the publicity is out, what can a poor man like Ngando do to stand up for his rights against the government and a multinational corporation?"

Ngando, who always seems to have the right attitude, doesn't seem that fazed. With or without help - he says he'll always be there to support the Lions. His life path is born from passion rather than greed.

But it still bothers me that everyone but he and his family seems to eat from his love for the game, including his managers, his neighbourhood, his government, and now even Puma.

Anjali Nayer, Canadian journalist

 

Remembering the "Miracle of Milan": How Cameroon Beat Argentina and Changed the Face of World Football

By Dibussi Tande

This was supposed to be a vultures' banquet for world champion Argentina, feasting on the prime rack of Cameroon, but the curtain-raiser to Italia `90 World Cup produced arguably the greatest upset in soccer history with Cameroon absolutely deserving winners. Sun Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale June 10, 1990

Omam Biyik Scores his historic goal against world champions Argentina

Exactly 20 years ago on June 8, 1990 at the Giuseppe Maezza Stadium in Milan, Italy, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, “a humble team with an insignificant past” to quote the Miami Herald, defeated Argentina, the star-studded defending World Champions led by Diego Armando Maradona, in a thrilling Italia ’90 World Cup opening game that came to be known as the “Miracle of Milan.”

Cameroon: A country not measuring up to its vast potential

By HARRIET ISOM (former US ambassador to Cameroon - Originally published in the East Oregonian)

In May I went back for a week to my last posting in the Foreign Service - Cameroon in Central Africa. I served there as U.S. Ambassador from 1993 to 1996. I wanted to see how this country of such great potential had changed - or not - in the intervening 15 years.

I had forgotten how beautiful this country is. There are the white and black sand beaches, the volcanoes, the lakes and lush highlands, the tropical forests, the old grassland kingdoms bursting with history and art and the totally different north with its terrain similar to America's southwest and boasting a nice game park. Cameroon should be, but isn't yet, part of the tourist route in Africa.

Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights: Shakira, Zangalewa & the World Cup Anthem

By Dibussi Tande

During a tour of Cameroon in 1975, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, met Tala Andre Marie, a budding Cameroonian blind singer and guitarist who had just released a funk number titled  Hot Koki. Tala gave him a copy of the record "to give him an insight into the kind of music being made in Cameroon". According to the Boston Globe, “Two years later, Brown dropped “Hustle!!!’’ –  with the same melody, beat, and arrangements, only with English lyrics.” Tala and his music label, Fiesta Records, gathered a team of lawyers who filed a law suit in the United States. After a drawn out battle that lasted four years, an American court concluded that James Brown had indeed used Tala’s song without authorization. Tala says there was very little financial fallout from the case, with the bulk of the money going to the lawyers. Tala nonetheless contends that it was a huge moral victory and good PR.

Fourth Edition of Acclaimed Historical Dictionary of Cameroon Now Available

DeLancey, Mark D., Rebecca Neh Mbuh, and Mark DeLancey. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon (4th Edition). Historical Dictionaries of Africa, no. 113. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2010. 530 pages.  

Book Flyer from Scarecrow Press
Cameroon is a country endowed with a variety of climates and agricultural environments, numerous minerals, substantial forests, and a dynamic population. It is a country that should be a leader of Africa. Instead, we find a country almost paralyzed by corruption and poor management, a country with a low life expectancy and serious health problems, and a country from which the most talented and highly educated members of the population are emigrating in large numbers. Although Cameroon has made economic progress since independence, it has not been able to change the dependent nature of its economy. The economic situation combined with the dismal record of its political history, indicate that prospects for political stability, justice, and prosperity are dimmer than they have been for most of the country's independent existence.

Cameroon: The Historical Amnesia and Confusion Continues...

 

French Cameroons gained its independence from France on January 1, 1960 while the British Southern Cameroons gained its independence from Britain and (re)united with the French Cameroons on October 1, 1961. However, the Biya regime has decided to commemorate the "Fiftieth Anniversaries of the Independence and Reunification of Cameroon" on May 20, 2010 and not on January 1, 2010 and/or October 1, 2011. The historical confusion of generations of Cameroonians contnues unabated...

Click here to visit the official "fiftieth anniversaries (SIC)" webiste.

World Press Freedom Day 2010

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 3 May worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. In memory of Bibi Ngota

Designed by the World Association of Newspapers

World Cup 2010: 50 More Days!!!!!

Official video FIFA World Cup 2010 K'naan & David Bisbal

 

Cameroon: 2005 Census Results Finally Published

According to the government of Cameroon, the population of Cameroon is now officially 19.4 million (19,406,100) as of January 1, 2010. This figure is a projection derived from the Population & Housing Census of November 2005, and based on an estimated national population growth rate of 2.6% since then.

Given the important role that census figures play in national life, from the allocation of state finances to the of distribution social and other services such as hospitals, schools, roads, including the allocation of parliamentary seats, etc., it is no surprise that these results are already mired in controversy with some either questioning the accuracy of the projections for the last five years, or simply accusing the government of having manipulated the results with an eye on future elections...

Critics point out, for example, that the "opposition" NW province, which had a population of 1.7 million in 2005, is now projected to have increased by a mere 75,000 to about 1.8 million inhabitants, while the "pro-regime" North province with a population of 1.6 million in 2005 now has 2 million inhabitants - a startling increase of about 362,000 inhabitants - even more than that of the Littoral province, Cameroon's economic nerve center...). Government  officials have refuted these claims, pointing out that the projections were done by statisticians whose work has been validated by the Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

1. Regional breakdown of national population according to 2005 census results and 2010 projections

Interview : Dibussi Tande on Digital Media & Digital Activism

I was recently interviewed for an article that appeared on our company's news portal. Excerpts:

"I am motivated by the belief that Africa’s problems are not as intractable as they seem, and that Africa is in a perpetual state of take-off due to its largely untapped and/or mismanaged socio-economic and human potential. Digital technology with the unfettered freedom, flexibility and creativity, offers an incredible opportunity to bypass or even leap frog over many of the socio-economic, structural and political hurdles that obstruct Africa’s development." Dibussi Tande

1) How did you become interested in digital activism – and how it pertains to African social advocacy?

ANS: Since my college days in Africa, I’ve always been involved in political and social activism. So the movement towards digital activism was a natural one for me, especially with the emergence of Web 2.0, which offered the possibility of high quality and easy to create user-generated content which activists could use to establish virtual spaces, free from government control, to inform, engage, motivate and mobilize around their specific causes.  This intersection between civil society and the Internet is what has given birth to the Digital Civil Society, which uses the Internet in innovative ways to further the cause of social justice on the continent.

Bill Zimmerman: "Africa is at the cutting edge of mobile technology innovation"

Bill Zimmerman, founder of Limbe Labs, a Limbe-based startup incubator and outsourcing outfit, talks a about a new generation of IT entrepreneurs in Cameroon, the changing African ICT scene and cutting-edge mobile technology innovations from the continent. (Note: The intro is in Dutch but the actual interview in English)

Statistics on the Level of Education of Cameroonian/African Immigrants in the US

Some interesting statistics on the level of education of African/Cameroonian immigrants in the United States:

• Most current data suggest that between 43.8 and 48.9 percent of all African immigrants in the United States hold a college diploma (Charles, 2007; U.S. Census, 2000).
• This is slightly more than the percentage of Asian immigrants to the U.S., nearly “double” the rate of native-born white Americans, and nearly four times the rate of native-born African Americans (Williams, 2005; The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• Black immigrants from Africa have also been shown to have rates of college graduation that are “more” than double that of the U.S.-born population, in general (Williams, 2005). For example, in 1997, 19.4 percent of all adult African immigrants in the United States held a “graduate degree”, compared to 8.1 percent of adult whites (a difference of “more than” double) and 3.8 percent of adult blacks in the United States, respectively (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• This shows that America has an equally large achievement gap between white Americans and African born immigrants as between native born white and black Americans.

Source: African Immigrants exceed in ED

Where U.S. Workers Come From - Top Occupations for Immigrants Born in Cameroon

In "Remade in America - A series about the newest immigrants and their impact on American institutions,” today's online edition of The New York Times carries an interactive map listing the number of foreign-born workers in the US by occupation and country of origin.

According to the map, the top ranking occupations for Cameroonians in the US are (by order of importance), Nurses 1,800; Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants 1,000; Policemen and other protective service workers, 700; and Managers and administrators, 500, bringing the total number of workers of Cameroonian origin in all occupations to 10,300.

Camerounian Novelist Léonora Miano Blasts Her American Publishers

Originally published on Literary Saloon

Dear the Complete Review,

   Thank you for giving me some space to express myself, and to say why the foreword added to my novel should be removed.

In sub-Saharan Africa, we’re used to be despised by the rest of the world and to be treated as mere animals. I knew, when L’intérieur de la nuit (Dark Heart of the Night) was published, that some would use the novel in order to reinforce their views on Africa and its peoples. Really, I didn’t care and still don’t care about that. What I’m interested in, is the African point of view on the topics I work on. I think we’ve spent too much time hoping for understanding and recognition from people other than ourselves. It’s time we focus on our problems and deal with them, no matter how painful it is. I’m confident in our ability to do so. I’m confident in our desire to no more take lessons in humanity from people who created and used the atomic bomb, and who still have death penalty in their country. Things would be so cool if people could just clean their front door ... 

Migration in Cameroon: The 2009 Report of the International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has just released its 2009 report on Migration in Cameroon titled Migration au Cameroun : Profil National 2009. Among the key findings are the following:

• In 2000, 17 per cent of the Cameroonian population with a higher education emigrated;
• During the 1995–2005 period, 46 per cent of Cameroonian doctors and 19 per cent of nurses emigrated to selected countries;
• According to the World Bank, the amount of remittances from Cameroonian migrants was estimated at USD 103 million in 2005, that is, 2.5 per cent of official development aid;
• The amount of funds transferred is constantly increasing. Estimated at USD 11 million in 2000, it rose to USD 103 million in 2004 and USD 167 million in 2008. This amount represents 0.8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Find below an English version of the Executive summary of the Report which is in French:

Interview With Prof. Victor Mbarika, Pioneer President of The ICT University

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande

"A plethora of ICT experts and management scholars and practitioners have suggested the need for human capacity development in the ICT domain in developing economies. Empowering these economies to develop the right solutions with contextual and cultural relevance requires institutions to educate and train graduates to meet their contemporary needs." Prof. Mbarika

In most developing countries, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) programs and policies almost always center around issues of accessibility, availability and affordability, with not as much attention being paid to human capacity development, which is a critical, if not indispensable, element in  harnessing ICTs for development purposes. Without qualified and well trained ICT experts, it is virtually impossible for these countries to develop viable knowledge economies. It is in a bid to address this issue that a group of visionaries decided to establish The ICT University (ICT-U) is based in Louisiana, USA, which offers ICT-based degree programs that target Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

To find out more about this exciting initiative, Scribbles from the Den talked to Cameroon-born Professor Victor W. Mbarika, the pioneer President of ICT-U, who is also the founding and executive director of Southern University's International Center for Information Technology and Development in Louisiana, USA, and the Editor-in-Chief of The African Journal of Information Systems. Excerpts:

The Ghost of Um Nyobe (Musings from the Other Side of the Bridge)

By Dibussi Tande

(Originally published in Joyce Ashuntantang and Dibussi Tande. (eds.). 2008. Their champagne party will end!: poems in honor of Bate Besong. Cameroon: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG.)

They say you died in enemy territory
They say you died on the wrong side of THE BRIDGE
But what better place to die
- On the other side of the bridge -
Than in the Sanaga Maritime -
The sacred land of the Ngog Lituba*
The springboard of Cameroun nationalism
The heartland of the Cameroun resistance;
Purified with the blood of thousands of patriots
Who said NO! to the imperialists and neo-colonialists?

Is a Gabonese-type Transition Possible in Cameroon? Part II

By Dibussi Tande

2. “Fix as you go” Constitutional Clauses

Another issue that threatened to derail the Gabonese transition was the very vague nature of Article 13 of the constitution. The Article did not explain, for example, if the incumbent government was required to resign once the interim President was sworn in, or whether a cabinet minister or parliamentarian who was officially a candidate in the presidential election was required to relinquish his or her cabinet position or parliamentary seat.


Gabon's constitutional court in session

Gabon’s Interim President was therefore confronted with two issues; i.e., the constitutionality, or lack thereof, of Prime Minister Eyeghé Ndong's government, and the status of those government ministers who were candidates in the presidential race. Both issues threatened to derail the transition as political leaders, even within the ruling party, could not arrive at a consensus. Although the Prime Minister insisted that his resignation was not on the agenda, Interim President Rogombé thought otherwise and seized the Constitutional Court to clarify the issue.

Is a Gabonese-type Transition Possible in Cameroon? Part I

Dibussi Tande

On June 8, 2009, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s 73-year old president, died after a record 43 years in office. Political observers keenly watched the political transition not merely because after close to half a century of Bongo’s iron rule, Gabon was moving into uncharted territory with the potential for instability but also because like in many other Francophone African countries, Gabon did not have a constitutional successor – a dauphin – to the President.

 
Ali-Ben Bongo of Gabon with Paul Biya  (c) PRC
 
Among those watching the Gabonese situation closely were the ruling elite in neighboring Cameroon where 77-year President Biya was preparing for yet another seven-year presidential mandate in 2011, which would most likely eventually lead to a Gabonese-type situation in the country – the laws of nature being what they are, President Biya has less, not more time left at the helm of the state.

For Haiti: Palapala Magazine #9 Now Available Online

Palapala Magazine #9 is now available online. This first issue for 2010 opens with three tribute poems by Kenyan poet JKS Makokha dedicated to Haiti and to Mbella Sonne Dipoko and Dennis Brutus, two literary giants who passed away in 2009.

The issue also includes Rosemary Ekosso’s review of John Buchan’s Prester John and William Boyd's A Good Man in Africa, which serve as a backdrop for an in-depth discussion on European demeaning, paternalistic and racist discourse towards Africa; a discourse that is not just limited to colonial literature but also extends to other areas as well:

Memory Lane (19 February 1990): The Yondo Black Affair Revisited

Culled from Reform and Repression in Cameroon: A Chronicle of the Smoldering Years (1990-1992) by Dibussi Tande (Forthcoming).

On February 19, 1990, officers from the CENER, Cameroon’s national intelligence service, raided the law office of Yondo Mandengue Black in the city of Douala. They demanded that Black, a former President of the Cameroon Bar Association (CBA), hand over the bylaws and program of the political party that he was in the process of creating.  After a search of the office yielded nothing incriminating, Black took the officers to his residence where he handed over a draft document titled “Coordination Nationale pour la démocratie et le multipartisme” (National Coordination for Democracy and Multipartyism).

Addressed to the Cameroonian people, the document criticized the one party system and the Biya regime, lamented about the worsening economic situation in Cameroon, and called for the reinstitution of multiparty politics in the country:

The Southern Cameroons Origins of the Youth Day Celebrations

By Churchill Ewumbue-Monono (culled from Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon, 2009)

A policy advocacy initiative, the origins of the National Youth Day in Cameroon can be traced to the special days celebrated by youth organizations in the Southern Cameroons such as 22 February, the “Thinking Day”, celebrated by the Girl Guides and Brownies in commemoration of Lady Banden Powell. There was also the Commonwealth Youth Sunday marked by the reading of a Message from the Queen, Church services and a March-Past by youth groups such as the Boys Scouts, Girl Guides, Boy’s Brigades, Red Cross and other youth organizations. It was presided by His Honour the Commissioner of Southern Cameroons, or his Deputy Commissioner who took the salute and read the speech to the parades...

"Fey Me No More?" Donatien Koagne, the King of "Feymania", Allegedly Dies in a Yemeni Prison

According to newsreports, "King" Donatien Koagne, Cameroon's most notorious conman and the "father of Feymania" died in Yemen a couple of weeks ago. In the 1990s he conned many African Heads of State such as Mobutu and Eyadema out of millions of dollars before finally falling into the dragnet of Yemeni authorities who threw him in jail. In a fantastic twist to this already incredible story of crime, greed and duplicity, the French secret service tried unsuccessfully to rescue him from his Yemeni hell hole ostensibly in a bid to lay hands on his famous "black book".

One of the most definitive works on Feymania in Cameroon and on Donatien Koagne was written by Domique Malaquais titled "Anatomie d'une arnaque" Feymen et Feymania au Cameroun". An abridged english version titled "Death, Douala Style" is available online. (See excerpt below)

"Sovereignty Expenditures" and the Accountability of the Executive Branch

By Dibussi Tande

"As budget constraints have hardened, leaders have preferred to spend their money to keep their elite coalition together rather than invest in mundane activities like building schools or undertaking vaccine campaigns..." Van de Walle

While surfing through the Cameroonian blogosphere recently, I came across a blog post which gave a detailed breakdown of Cameroon’s 2010 budget. The first entry on the list was the budgetary allocation for the Presidency of the Republic which stands at 57,342 Billion Francs CFA – in fact over 63 Billion Francs CFA if you include the 6.677 Billion Francs CFA allocated to "Services attached to the Presidency of the Republic" – an annual budget greater than those of the Ministries of Higher Education (44 billion FCFA), Scientific Research and Innovation (13 billion FCFA), Energy and Power (44 Billion FCFA), just to name a few.

As I pondered over the Presidency’s budget, my mind went back to the controversy that erupted last year after the French media revealed that during a three-week trip to La Baule in France, President Biya and his entourage had allegedly spent $40,000 (£24,500) every single day at the five-star L'Hermitage Barriere hotel, bringing the total presidential bill to roughly half a million pounds.

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2010 Economic Freedom Index: Cameroon Ranked 132nd & Economy "Mostly Unfree”

Cameroon has been ranked 132nd (with 52.3 pts) out of 179 countries in the 2010 Economic Freedom Index: compiled by The Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation. Cameroon also ranked 25th among 46 African countries. According to the report on Cameroon,

"Cameroon faces challenges common to developing African nations: inefficient bureaucracy, an unreliable legal system, and poor infrastructure. Restrictive regulations hurt employment and productivity growth. Restrictions on trade are common, and the weak judicial system allows pervasive corruption and erodes the potential for long-term economic growth.”

Cameroon's lowest grade (40.5) was in Freedom from Corruption and its highest (74.2) was in Trade freedom.

Memory Lane - January 1971) The Bishop Ndongmo Affair

"Yaounde, Cameroon: A military tribunal Wednesday sentenced a black Roman Cathloc bishop to death before a firing squad for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate the Cameroon president. The Vatican expressed 'extreme suffering' over the verdict and appealed for clemency." Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jan 7, 1971

Culled from Gifford, Paul. 1998. African Christianity: its public role. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp.253-256

Albert Ndongmo was the first local bishop of Nkongsamba, appointed in 1964. At this time, the diocese of Nkongsamba covered all the Bamileke area. Beginning in the 1950s, the UPC conducted an armed uprising against the French, from whom it elicited a brutal response. -it was the era of the uprising in Algeria, and the French were in no mood to compromise. But even after Cameroon's independence, the UPC continued its revolt against Ahidjo, whom it regarded as a usurper, left by the French to perpetuate French control. Ndongmo claimed that he was asked by Ahidjo in 1965 to see if he could mediate with Ouandie, the last rebel leader still at large, in an attempt to conclude hostilities. His instructions were uttered in front of witnesses, important functionaries who he named.

(Memory Lane - January 1 1960) African Leaders at Independence Ceremonies for Cameroon

 Cameroon's Premier Ahmadou Ahidjo, right, chats with France's delegate to the Independence ceremonies Minister of State Louis Jacquinot, during the parade in this biggest port city of the new African Independent State.

Ceremonies and festivities were staged in the country 1st January to celebrate the independence of Kamerun, a former French protectorate. Violence broke out the day before between government forces and rebels, but no outbreak marred the ceremonies themselves.

(c) Corbis

( Memory Lane 1 January 1960 ) CAMEROON: Another New Flag

Time Magazine Monday, Jan. 11, 1960

The first of Africa's six new nations to get its independence in 1960 celebrated its beginnings last week with half the country in a state of emergency.

On the morning of the first day of independence, terrorists killed five people in the capital of Yaounde, and the foreign dignitaries who streamed in by air at Douala the day before could see the ruins of the control tower ransacked by another insurgent gang. In six months of struggle 22 whites have died—more than were killed in a similar period during the Mau Mau war in Kenya—and 500 or more Africans.

(Video) La Republique Du Cameroun - The Birth of a Nation (January 1, 1960)

A brief report and rare archival footage on the independence of the French Cameroons (La Republique du Cameroun) on January 1, 1960 (including Ahamadou Ahidjo's historic speech announcing independence (in French).