Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Boko Haram and the Fear of Islamic Extremism in Cameroon: Part 2 – The Changing Face of Islam in Cameroon

By Dibussi Tande

The evolution of Islam in Cameroon can be split into three major phases or generations; a the period of complete dominance by traditional Islam, followed by the era of the emergence of the “Arabized Intellectuals,” and finally, the period marked by the appearance of Islamic fundamentalism in the public sphere. Of course, this is not a linear trajectory since there is a certain amount of overlapping between these different periods.

The face of moderate traditional Islam in Cameroon:. Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, Muslim ruler of the Bamoun, at the ordination of a Catholic Priest, Father Mbouapegnigni, in Foumban.

Boko Haram and the Fear of Islamic Extremism in Cameroon: Part 1 – Boko Haram’s Cameroon Connection

By Dibussi Tande

“Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism.… He was beginning to worry about Islamic extremists infiltrating Cameroon from Nigeria and making inroads through Cameroonian mosques.” Wikileaks

The wave of Christmas Day bombings in Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram, the extremist Islamist sect which has its base in northeastern Nigeria, has once again raised the specter of religious extremism gaining a foothold in Cameroon.

The Bibi Ngota Award for Journalism Against Impunity in Africa Launched

A new $1000 USD annual African journalism award, named after the late Cameroonian journalist Bibi Ngota, has been launched. Read the award’s rationale along with submission guidelines and deadlines below.

Cameroonian Journalists Protesting the death of Bibi Ngota (c) AFP)

The Problem of Political Impunity in Africa
‘A deep, very serious problem is undermining Africa: political impunity’, writes Philippe Orou Sica. As a result, ‘Political life is sometimes asphyxiated and criminalized. As soon as a Head of State accedes to power, he feels that he is above all law. His political and ethnic groups are protected as a result. On the one hand, issues are suppressed, and on the other, one can kill, assassinate political opponents in total impunity, and wage war against the whole or a part of the population with a cynicism and peace of mind that is most peculiar. Nothing seems to dissuade this murderous form of ‘politics’.’

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part III: Why UEMOA and CEMAC should be merged.

By Nfor Nwayuke Susungi

"Is the CFAZONE ready to stand on its own by severing the umbilical cord with the Operations Account? Can a country such as Cameroon go it alone? My answer to both questions is a definite NO."

How should the CFAZONE be reformed?

Against the background of crisis in the Eurozone and the possible (but unlikely) collapse of the Euro and the stable economic and monetary situation which currently exists in the CFAZONE,  with extremely low inflation, the question is in what direction should the CFAZONE chart its future?  Is the CFAZONE ready to stand on its own by severing the umbilical cord with the Operations Account?  Can a country such as Cameroon go it alone? My answer to both questions is a definite NO.

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part II: The Maastricht Treaty and the CFA ZONE

By Nfor Nwayuke Susungi

The Maastricht Treaty of Economic and Monetary Union did not specifically address the relationship between France and the Franc Zone.  It merely recognized the national budget of each member state of the EC as a sovereign domain, subject to deficits being limited to less than 5% of GNP, which is one of the convergence criteria that must be met in order to qualify for EMU. However, since the convertibility of the FCFA was guaranteed through the budget of the French Treasury, which manages the Operations Account, the maintenance of the Franc Zone in its present form was not deemed to be in direct conflict with the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty.

What is the Future of the FCFA Zone in West and Central Africa? Part I: The Origins of the "Franc"

In a recent discussion on Facebook, spurred by recent rumors of a possible devaluation of the Franc CFA, the currency used by 14 Francophone African countries, I asked Dr. Nfor Susungi, a former senior official at the African Development Bank, the following question: "What do you make of the argument that governments in Francophone Africa are stubbornly clinging to the Franc CFA because of the (false) prestige factor (i.e., having a convertible currency), outright laziness, and risk aversion - too scared to go-it alone?" Here is the Part 1 of his three-part response.

The Epoch Times on Post-Election Cameroon

The Epoch Times, an international newspaper printed in several cities across the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, has published a series of articles on Cameroon this year, the most recent being two post-election articles which appeared online and in the US and UK print editions of the newspaper.

The first, which is partially based on a phone interview that I had with Epoch Times correspondent, Kremena Krumova, looks at prospects for political reform in Cameroon in spite of Biya's election victory.  [Click here to download article from UK print edition]

Rhodes Journalism Review: Cracking down on the Diaspora and Dissent

My article on the Cameroon government's attempts to crack down on diaspora and online dissent, which appeared in Rhodes Journalism Review No. 31 of September 2011, is now available online. Click here to read or download the article (pdf).

Click here for all the articles in RJR, no. 31.

Ba'bila Mutia's Play "The Road to Goma" Debuts in Cape Town

A "powerful and highly poignant" play on the Rwandan Genocide.

The Road to Goma by Ba’bila Mutia (Cameroon)
Directed by Tauriq Jenkins.
With Tshamano Sebe, Sticks Mdidimba, Mbulelo Grootboom, Roysten Stoffels, Glen Arendse, Phillip Cowie, and Ukhona Mlandu-Letsika.
Play Reading at Artscape, Cape Town, on October 29 at 2pm [Event Facebook Page]

Refugees from Rwanda in Goma, DRC, after the genocide in 1994. Photograph: Jon Jones/Sygma/Corbis

Excerpt of a review by Suzzy Bell
“The Road to Goma depicts the desolation of five characters who struggle to survive the havoc and atrocities of a people caught up in ethnic hatred and civil strife,” explains the Cameroonian playwright Babila Mutia, a sought after international storyteller who has performed his stories in Canada, Belgium, Germany, USA and South Africa. He currently lectures Creative Writing, African literature, and Research Methods in the English department at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon.

The Electoral Process in Cameroon: What Are the Lessons Learned?

Remarks by [US] Ambassador Robert P. Jackson at the Civil Society Post-Election Roundtable

"Democracy cannot exist in theory if it does not exist in practice.  It cannot exist on paper if it does not exist on the streets.  As I have said on several occasions, we cannot wait until the conditions for democracy are perfect before we start exercising our democratic rights.  We must create conditions for democracy by exercising our democratic rights."

Digital Video Conference between Yaounde and Washington, D.C.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Colleagues and friends,

Good afternoon.  It is a pleasure to host this digital video conference and to provide a forum to forge stronger ties between U.S. and Cameroonian civil society organizations.  I hope that through this event today, we can have a frank discussion about the October 9 presidential election -- with the understanding that the election will not be complete until Cameroon’s Supreme Court rules on requests for annulment and announces the results.  Today, we should take a comprehensive look at what lessons we can learn from the process -- not simply examining what ELECAM did well and where it could improve, but what we did well and where we could improve in terms of promoting democracy.  Ultimately, I hope that at the conclusion of today’s session, we will have a better sense of what role we can play in and between elections.

Commonwealth Statement on Cameroon Election

COMMONWEALTH EXPERT TEAM CAMEROON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9th October 2011

A peaceful election: some benchmarks for democratic elections have been met, although the playing field needs to be leveled to increase confidence in the electoral process.

PRESS RELEASE
by Mr. Frederick A. Mitchell MP, Chair of the Commonwealth Expert Team

The Commonwealth was invited by the Ministry of External Relations to observe the 9th October Presidential Election, and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth constituted a six person Expert Team supported by a professional staff team from the Secretariat in London.  I am honoured to have been invited to Chair the Team which has been present in the country since 3 October 2011.

Mr. Mitchell with his team of Commonwealth Observers which he chairs from left to right: Ambassador Bariyu Adekunle Adeyemi ( Nigeria); Gabrielle Giroday (Canada); Mr. Mitchell (Bahamas; Dr. Tumelontle Thiba (South Africa); Irfan Abdool Rahman ( Mauritius); Samuel Tembenu ( Malawi)

This statement is our initial view of the election.  It reflects largely our observations in the run up to the election, the polling day itself and the counting process.

Storyful - Curated Information about the 2011 Presidential Election in Cameroon

Although there is a proliferation of online sources with news and commentary about the 2011 presidential election in Cameroon, unearthing and checking out all of these sources to have a broad and balanced view of the election is a Herculean task. Fortunately, there are a number of social media tools which allow users to curate or catalogue information from a vast array of online sources.

One of these is Storyful, a social media news tool which allows the public to create interactive news timelines consisting of tweets, video, photos, links to websites, and other content.

The Cameroon 2011 Presidential Election page on Storyful, which is updated daily, is a one-stop shop for curated information about the election drawn from online newspapers, news and commentary on Twitter, videos onYouTube and other sources, images on Facebook, Flickr and elsewhere, blog posts, etc.

Click here to visit the Cameroon 2011 Presidential election page.

Enjoy!

Achille Mbembe: The Presidential Election in Cameroon is a Non-event

In this interview, Cameroon-born Achille Mbembe, research professor in history and politics at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, talks to Slate Afrique about the Biya regime and the forthcoming elections in Cameroon. A Scribbles from the Den translation.

SlateAfrique: Cameroonians go to the polls on October 9. Can they hope for regime change?

Achille Mbembe: Under the current circumstance, regime change is not possible through the ballot box. Change in this country will come through an armed rebellion spearheaded or not by a political organization or by foreign forces (as was the case in Cote d’Ivoire); through the natural death or assassination of the autocrat; or even through a coup de force by dissident elements within the army. Beyond that, all paths to a peaceful change initiated by Cameroonians themselves are blocked. From this perspective, the forthcoming election is a non event.

Full Text of Controversial Code of Conduct for Election Stakeholders in Cameroon

During the second National Consultation Forum between ELECAM and stakeholders in the electoral process (i.e., legalized political parties, candidates for presidential election, civil society organizations, private and public media) ELECAM introduced a Code of Conduct for Election Stakeholders in Cameroon.

According to ELECAM chairman, Fonkam Azu’u, the code of conduct is:

“a legal instrument the corpus of which should not be considered as a mere enumeration of principles for the organization of a good election but rather, and better still, as a set of rules which we have freely accepted and which we intend, first of all, to apply during the up-coming presidential elections and, later on, during other elections such as the twin legislative and council elections envisaged for 2012.”

2011 Presidential Election: How Candidates Are Navigating the Social Media Landscape

By Dibussi Tande

The use of social media for political campaigns received a major boost in 2008 thanks the Obama presidential campaign which used social media platforms in a creative way to engage and mobilize voters. Since then, practically all candidates running for political office have tried to replicate the Obama social media strategy, with more or less success. Recent events in North America and the Middle East have also helped to highlight the power of social media as a tool for building a community of supporters or voters, engaging your audience, reaching out to supporters, converting skeptics, generating much needed media buzz, and raising funds.

Major Publication on the Media in Africa Launched in Cape Town

Guy Berger (ed). MEDIA IN AFRICA: Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom. Media Institute of Southern Africa, 2011, 190 pages.

I am thrilled to be a contributor to one of the most comprehensive publications in the last decade on the state of the media in Africa, which was launched yesterday in Cape Town at the start of the Pan African Conference on Access to Information and the Highway Africa 15th conference.

Overview

 What has been the state-of-play for African media in  the 20 years since the historic Windhoek Declaration of 1991 which gave rise to World Press Freedom Day every 3 May? And what can be expected over the next decade? More than 70 commentators illuminate the trajectory in a range of contributions in this book - covering the issues of media freedom, pluralism, independence and access to information.

Cameroon Presidential Election: Opposition Coalitions Are Overrated...

1. If the 6 opposition parties that took part in the 1997 presidential election had formed a coalition, they would still  have been unable to unseat President  Biya with a mere 7.43% of total votes cast.
2. If all of the 15 opposition parties that took part in the 2004 presidential election had formed a coalition, they would still have been unable to unseat Biya with a mere 29.8% of total votes cast.
3. In 1997 only 1 of the 10 presidential candidates had more than 3% of votes cast.
4. In 2004 only 2 of the 16 candidates obtained more than 5% of votes.
5. In 2004 12 of the 16 candidates scored less than 1% of votes.
6. Of the 51 prospective candidates for the 2011 presidential elections (their candidacy still has to be validated), not more than 5 can reasonably aspire to up to 5% of total votes cast.

In short, opposition coalitions are not as important in presidential elections as we tend to believe (1992 being the exception...). Having every political party go it alone may actually be better (in terms of clarifying the political landscape) than creating a coalition of disparate political parties, many of which are moles of the regime in power.
 
Candidates for the 2004 Presidential Elections

(Podcast) BBC Panel Discussion on 2011 Presidential Election in Cameroon

On Wednesday August 31, 2011, the BBC World Service's Africa Have Your Say program organized a panel discussion on the viability of the forthcoming presidential election in Cameroon. Panelists included myself, Felix Bate of Reuters news agency, and Issa Tchiroma, Cameroon's minister of communications and government spokesperson, along with phone-ins from around the world, interviews conducted in Cameroon, and contributions from Twitter and Facebook.

I will be revisiting some of Issa Tchiroma's rather outlandish statements in a subsequent post. In the meantime, however, you can listen to the entire one-hour program by clicking on the player below.

BBC Discussion on Cameroon Elections by Dibussi

Cameroon Diaspora Voting Act: List of External Voting Sites Published

 Dibussi Tande

The Minister of External Relations has published the list of Cameroonian diplomatic missions and consular offices that will serve as polling stations during the forthcoming presidential elections. According to Arrêté n°001/DIPL/CAB of August 24, 2011, Cameroonians residing abroad will be able to vote in 33 countries spread across 4 continents – 16 countries in Africa, 10 in Europe, four in Asia, and 3 in the Americas.

(Video) Breathtaking Aerial View of Cameroon

Dazzling aerial view of Cameroon from a camera-equipped hexacopter 

 

Just (Re)Published: N.N Mbile's Memoir on Politics in (Southern) Cameroon(s)

N.N. Mbile. Cameroon Political Story: Memories of an Authentic Eye Witness | Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon | 2011 | 310 pages. Available from Amazon.com

In a 2007 article titled "Individual Memory and Collective Amnesia: Where are the Political Memoirs?", I lamented about "a long list of prominent Cameroonians on both sides of the Mungo who never bothered to write their memoirs thereby depriving future generations of Cameroonians of the right to know and understand their past."

Commenting specifically about the British Southern Cameroons, I pointed out that "of the original 13 Southern Cameroons representatives who sat in Nigeria’s Eastern House of Assembly in Enugu in 1952 (the Cameroon bloc), only one, Nerius Namaso Mbile, wrote his memoirs which were published in 1999."

Issues and Questions about Cameroon’s Diaspora Voting Act (Part II)

By Dibussi Tande

In Part 2 of our analysis of Law no. 2011/013 of 13 July 2011 relating to voting by Cameroonian citizens settled or residing abroad, we will look at the role of diplomatic missions in the electoral process, and at the logistical challenges in establishing a viable voting structure in time for the (October?) 2011 presidential elections. 
Cameroonians line up to register for the 2007 symbolic vote in Paris (c) Blog du Code

Diplomatic missions in charge of the process
According to Section 3 of the Diaspora voting law,

“On the proposal of government, polling stations shall set up in diplomatic representations and consular posts.”

Beyond the Partisan Rhetoric: Issues and Questions about Cameroon’s Diaspora Voting Act (I)

By Dibussi Tande

On July 9, 2011, Cameroon’s parliament adopted a bill granting Cameroonians abroad the right to vote in presidential elections and referendum organized in Cameroon.

 
Symbolic vote of the Cameroonian Diaspora at the Esplanade du Trocadéro in Paris in July 2007 (c) Le Code

On June 13, President Biya signed it into law, thereby complying with a demand, which along with calls for the recognition of dual citizenship, had been at the center of the political demands of Cameroonians abroad for years. The new political dispensation has been received with mixed feelings within the Diaspora community with many arguing that the law falls short of expectations  and does not resolve the systemic issues around organizing elections in Cameroon.

Law N° 2011/013 of 13 July 2011: Relating To Voting By Cameroonian Citizens

The National Assembly deliberated and adopted, the President of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below.

Section 1. Cameroonian citizens settled or resident abroad shall exercise their right to vote through their participation in the election of the President of the Republic and in referendums.

[Interview] Ngu Morcho: "Africa's Time is Now!"

Originally broadcast on the on The Businessmakers Radio Show (Houston)

Summary: He grew up in a Cameroon village in a family that valued education. He attended college in the U.K., and years later earned his M.B.A. at Rice University and studied entrepreneurship, hoping to one day return home to help his fellow Africans. As democracy has grown throughout the country, so has entrepreneurship. And Ngu Morcho is right in the middle of it, through his efforts with the Tagos Group. Russ interviews an entrepreneur with a remarkable story.

 

 

Ngu Morcho from The Businessmakers on Vimeo.

  Click here to listen to podcast

Just Published! "Tiko" - a Collection of Short Stories by Shandie Avwontom

Shandie Shing Avwontom.TIKO. AuthorHouse, June 20, 2011. 152 pages. Available on Amazon.com and other major online booksellers.

TIKO is a collection of four crisp and fast-pace short stories.

In a country (Cameroon) where one story is usually told in several languages at the same time, to an audience which speaks no less than four languages on a daily basis (usually English, French, Pidgin, and a local dialect) the author felt challenged by the simplicity and straighforward beauty in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Strange Maladies. He set out to express the beauty of his own urban African stories as they are told: a gripping flow of numerous languages and expressions harmonised into English that keeps the reader going and going.

Wikileaks: Cameroonian President Biya Gives Ambassador Political/Economic Overview

In this most revealing wikileaks document on Cameroon thus far, President Paul Biya makes a number of interesting revelations during a February 2010 discussion with (former) U.S. ambassador Janet Garvey – a rare window into the mind of Cameroon’s taciturn and inscrutable ruler. For example, during the discussion the President "confirmed that more corruption-related arrests were coming under his anti-corruption initiative Operation  Epervier" (Sparrowhawk), although (contrary to rumor) he thought this would not likely include former Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni because the evidence against him was thin and he didn´t steal much money".  The president also "professed frustration with China contrasts with the rising profile of Chinese investments in Cameroon..." Read on.

 

¶1. (C) Summary: On February 4 [2010], Ambassador met with President Paul Biya for a two-hour tour d´horizon of domestic and international issues. Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism. He praised growing Central African regional cooperation and improved relations with Nigeria. He was positive about the recent Copenhagen summit although frustrated with China´s role.

Memory Lane (15 June 1991): Opposition Parties Issue Yaounde Plan of Action, Paralyze Nation

By Dibussi Tande

On June 15, 1991, delegates from the 30 political parties and 10 associations that made up the National Coordination of Opposition Parties and Associations (NCOPA) held their first ever rally and meeting in Yaounde.

Leaders of the NCOPA  in the streets of Yaounde on June 15, 1991

They insisted that the national conference was “incontournable” (unavoidable), and unveiled the “Yaounde Plan of Action” aimed at paralyzing the country indefinitely until a Sovereign National Conference was convened.

Memory Lane (May 16 – 17, 1991): Opposition Parties Launch “Operation Ghost Town”

By Dibussi Tande

On May 12, 1991, 22 political parties and 10 human rights associations, including the Yaounde University Students' Parliament, met in Bamenda to discuss the political situation in the country. In their final communiqué, they gave  President Biya 14 days to reconsider his stand on the National Conference, and issued the Bamenda Plan of Action which announced a two-day nationwide Ghost Town campaign (also known as operation dead cities) on May 16 and 17.

Blick Bassy Releases Second Solo Album With a Strong Brazilian Flavor

Cameroonian singer/songwriter Blick Bassy's much-awaited sophomore album, Hongo Calling, is now available worldwide. According to an early review, "This album takes the slave route from Cameroon to Brazil, picking up musical directions along the way... particularly aligning the Brazilian samba with music and rhythms that he grew up with, such as Assiko, which originates from the Bassa people in Cameroon." The album is available for download on itunes and amazon.

 

Click here for a review of Hongo Calling.

 

Memory Lane (May 6, 1991): Bloody Crackdown on the University of Yaounde Student Movement

By Dibussi Tande

"In the days following the military crackdown, reports began to emerge of widespread looting and rape by soldiers, and of students killed and either dumped in a lake near the university or buried in mass graves outside of Yaounde."

20 years ago today, on May 6, 1991, elements from the Cameroonian security forces launched a brutal assault on the University of Yaounde student residential area called Bonamoussadi to decapitate the Parlement student movement.
 

The May 6 assault was the bloody culmination of a month-long confrontation between University of Yaoundé students and the Biya regime which quickly spread beyond the gates of the University, transforming itself into a nationwide civil disobedience campaign which was anything but civil.

The Biya Regime and Cameroon’s Diaspora-driven Cyberspace (Part 2)

By Dibussi Tande

In the Part 1 of this posting, we highlighted the fact that the Biya regime has never viewed the Cameroonian cyberspace as a viable space for civic engagement and public discourse, and instead sees it as a threat to the regime – a space that must be controlled, co-opted, contained, or simply coerced into submission.

In this second part, we continue with more landmark moments in the Biya regime’s decade-long attempts to control political discourse in the Diaspora and muzzle political activism on the Cameroonian virtual public sphere.

Cameroon’s Diaspora-driven Cyberspace: A Platform for Civic Engagement or a Threat to the Biya Regime?

By Dibussi Tande

Simply put, the Biya regime has never viewed Cameroonian cyberspace as a viable space for civic engagement and public discourse, instead, it sees it as a threat to the regime – a space that must either be controlled, co-opted, contained, or simply coerced into submission.

Why and how the Biya Regime is obsessed with controlling online speech and muzzling Diaspora political activism.

On February 22, 2011, Issa Tchiroma, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and the Government Spokesperson organized a press conference in which he lashed out at Cameroonians in the Diaspora for using Facebook and Twitter to try and launch Egypt-type protests in Cameroon:

Cote D’Ivoire - Weeping With Every Tear in My Body

A Guest Post by Georges Njamkepo 

"In Mr. Gbagbo's look, I saw the depths of his introspection into the recent history of his country; I saw the regret of having started this conflict, but most of all, for having accepted to play the escalation game which Africans have mastered so well..."

Full Text of Bill Amending Elections Cameroon (ELECAM)

Early this week, Cameroon's National Assembly was convened for an extraordinary session to review three government bills, two of which deal with the management of elections in Cameroon.

The first of these two bills amends key provisions in the 2006 law governing Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), most notably, ELECAM no longer has the authority to "publish presidential, legislative and senatorial election trends," this is now the job of the constitutional council.

Rare British Cameroons Colonial-Era Photos Available Online

The UK National Archives has created a collection of interesting African colonial era pictures on its Flickr page.
 
Can you identify these members of the Southern Cameroons House of Representatives (1956)? (c) National Archives UK

The pictures, taken mainly by colonial staff, are part of a collection titled "Africa Through a Lens". According to the archives, “ In many instances we know little about the people or contents of the photographs and this is one of the reasons why we have published them online and asked people to comment and share their knowledge."

Poetry - The Citadel (Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Yaounde University Students' Uprising)

By Dibussi Tande

Memory Lane: 20 years ago on April 2, 1991, the Yaounde University students' uprising began. Find below a commemorative poem..

I
The Mobilization:
The fiery speeches
The protest marches
The huge rallies
The call to arms

The angry cries:
la conférence nationale
il y'aura !!
Fait quoi fait quoi
il y'aura !!
Ça gâte, ça gâte !!
Campus Mort!!!

Twitter SMS Service Restored in Cameroon According to MTN and Twitter

According to Georges Ngole Mpoudi, CIO of the mobile network operator MTN, the company has restored its Twitter SMS service which was shut down 10 days ago on the orders of the Cameroon government, supposedly for reasons of "state security". He made the announcement via Twitter late this evening. [This information has also been confirmed by Twitter]

Although details about this government volte face are still emerging, observers point to the huge amount of international bad press ( Le Monde, Jeune Afrique, Foreign Policy/Washington Post, Committee to Protect Journalists, Global Voices, Yahoo News, etc.) that the Biya regime has received in recent days over its crackdown of a marginal service which is yet to gain a foothold in Cameroon.

The Digital Disconnect and Misconceptions about "Revolution 2.0"

By Dibussi Tande

Since the mass protests that led to the toppling of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, there has been lots of conjecture and discussion about the probability of similar protest movements spreading to sub-Saharan Africa.

(c) everyday ritual

There has also been a lot of hand-wringing over the fact that it may be difficult for these protest movement to catch on in this region with its fair share of sclerotic regimes that have long gone past their expiration date.

Cameroon Bans Twitter Via SMS to Insulate Itself Against Digital Activists

Dibussi Tande

In a bid to insulate Cameroon against popular uprisings similar to those that have toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt in recent months, the government of Cameroon has forced mobile operator MTN end its five-month old partnership with the microblogging giant Twitter, and to discontinue its Twitter short code service.
  
This service allowed MTN subscribers to receive tweets for free and send tweets at the standard SMS rates.

Kah Walla In Her Own Words: "We Now Have Extreme Clarity on the Absolute Need for Change"

Hello all,

The good news is: all who marched today are stronger morally and mentally than when we started the day.  In addition, there are no broken bones, or grave injuries. 
 
Kah Walla gives victory sign at police truck firing a water cannon

Most of the people participating in the protest were doing so for their first time.  In spite of the extreme and completely unnecessary brutality exhibited by the police, all of us feel stronger than ever in our resolve to bring about change in Cameroon.  We are also confirmed in our strategy of non-violence in spite of having very violent forces of law and (dis)order before us. 

So what happened?

February 23 Protests: Rapid Intervention Unit & Anti Riot Police Brutalize Demonstrators

Presidential aspirant Kah Walla and others attacked by police during peaceful protest in Douala.

 
Update on presidential aspirant Kah Walla after Police attack

According to a reliable source who has spoken with here, "she is shaken up but okay." This is how she was attacked:

The march was in process and when police approached, protesters sat down on the ground in the street in a non-violent posture .

Police immediately proceeded to beat the crowd with batons and when Kah stood up to say it was not necessary since the protesters were peaceful, the police commissioner yelled out directions to have her brought to him saying he would "teach her a lesson."

 She was dragged out and made to stand on the median in the middle of the street. The police commissioner then asked the truck containing water to turn around and focus on her. With the high-powered hoses directed at her, she was hosed down brutally for minutes and when she managed to escape she was grabbed, beaten on the back of her legs and dragged to a police detention truck. She had difficulty seeing and breathing due to the chemicals in the water. When she finally gained composure she was released. Many protesters with her were savagely beaten all over their bodies including the head with batons.

 More images of police brutality on presidential aspirant Kah Walla available on The Chia Report.

Kellogg School of Management Lecture: The State of ICTs in South Africa

Yesterday, February 16, 2011, I was at Northwestern University's Kellog School of Management in Evanston, IL, where I had been invited to give a lecture on the state of Information and Communications Technology in South Africa to the 2012 Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) South Africa program.

You can view the presentation which served as the basis of my lecture below. It is also available for viewing and downloading on Slideshare.

Information and communications technology in south africa slideshare version

View more presentations from Dibussi Tande.

 

Egypt: End Game Mubarak!

"In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic.He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor" - Vice President Omar Suleiman."

 

The Army As The Central Factor In The Success of "Street Revolutions"

By Dibussi Tande

In  a recent article on why the streets in sub-Saharan Africa have remained silent while massive anti-regime protests rock North Africa, the Christian Science Monitor posits that this is due to weak civil society organizations:
 

"Regime change is common in Africa, but it tends to come from the barrel of a gun and not because of street demonstrations, says Achille Mbembe, an historian at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. This means there are few organizations with the power to challenge the authority of rulers, to organize dissenters, and to articulate alternative ideas of government that ordinary people would be willing to give their lives for.