Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

A Response to Patrice Nganang's "Literature Apartheid"

 

Click here to read my response to novelist Patrice Nganang's argument that Anglophone writers are confining themselves in a literary ghetto by promoting a "minority Anglophone literature". My response was published by the French language daily, Le Jour. The English version will be published in this month’s issue of Palapala magazine.

Preface to "Scribbles from the Den" the Book

Dibussi Tande

The last decade has witnessed a dramatic surge in “citizen journalism” which has effectively asserted itself as a legitimate alternative voice to the mainstream media. Bowman and Willis describe citizen journalism as:

The act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.

A King with no Clothes On: Being a Prime Minister in Cameroon

During a 1998 discussion on the defunct Camnet listserv, one subscriber inquired about the powerlessness of Cameroonian Prime Ministers compared to their French counterparts:

In the French system of democracy, which is the inspiration for Cameroon’s 1996 constitution, there is an executive President and an executive Prime Minister with the latter still appointed by the President (in consultation if he is from the opposition party) yet there is no evidence of powerlessness in the system. Where then is the missing link of this type of democracy in the case of Cameroon, where the Prime Minister is supposed to be powerless?

My reply below from 11 years ago, which is still valid today, shows why the Cameroonian Prime Minister, unlike his French counterpart, is largely a figurehead:

Memory Lane Video (February 11, 1961): The British Cameroons Plebiscite

UPDATE: Click here to watch video. (Youtube video embed not working)
Video erroneously labeled as 20th May 1972 West Cameroon plebiscite...

CAMEROON: Independence plebiscite

Reuters - 15 February 1961: A West African country divided in two..... this is likely to be the result of a plebiscite held in the Cameroons, on Feb. 11 and 12. Final results have yet to be announced, but in Northern Cameroons there is already an unbeatable majority in favour of union with Nigeria, while in the Southern Cameroons, it is reported that a final majority in favour of union with the Cameroon Republic is already certain.

Memory Lane Video (Buea, May 17 1958): Dr. EML Endeley at the Governor's Lodge

Scenes from Buea, Southern Cameroons, as new House of Assembly set to open.

UPDATE: Click here to watch video on youtube (Video embed no longer working)

Description of video

 1.
 Inside Secretariat, Buea - "Berlin" nameplate on safe door
 
 2.
 Bismarck on Buea fountain. Shots 1 & 2 to emphasise remnants of German influence still remain (Cameroons was German colony until First World War). Shot 7 also.

U.S. Ambassador Janet E. Garvey: Cameroonians Should Take Ownership of their Country

"For the last several years, the Cameroonian Government has spent less than 75% of the money it has budgeted for investment.  The money is there, the needs exist, so why are these funds not being spent...?"

"The World Bank’s Doing Business report has shown that the business climate in Cameroon has gotten worse over each of the last few years, at the same time that Cameroon’s peers were making tremendous improvements.  This trend cannot be blamed on the economic crisis!"...

"...the biggest obstacle to Cameroon’s development, the biggest obstacle that prevents Cameroon from achieving its full potential, is Cameroonians’ lack of ownership for their own nation, their own government, their own communities."

"I am troubled by the spirit of resignation, almost of despair, that seems to prevail among many of my Cameroonian friends these days."

Joyce Ashuntantang: Foreign Publishers Determine the Nature of our Stories (Interview)

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande

“As long as foreign publishers remain the mid-wives of our stories, they will keep determining the nature of these stories.” Joyce Ashuntantang

Early this year, Joyce Ashuntantang published a book titled Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature which Bernth Lindfors describes as the "most comprehensive study of Anglophone Cameroon literature that has been published to date". In the book, Dr. Ashuntantang, who teaches literature at Hillyer College, University of Hartford, USA, demonstrates that contrary to widespread belief, literature from the English-speaking part of Cameroon is alive and well, in spite of a host of obstacles that have slowed its development and reduced its international visibility. In this interview, Dr. Ashuntantang discusses her ground-breaking book and the state of Anglophone Cameroon literature with Dibussi Tande. Excerpts:

Patience Dabany: The Forgotten Chapter in Omar Bongo's Storied Personal Life

For two decades, she was known as Josephine Bongo, the revered First Lady of the Republic of Gabon. Then in 1986, she and President Omar Bongo divorced. Josephine moved to Los Angeles and reinvented herself as a musician under the name Patience Dabany, collaborating along the way with the likes of Quincy Jones and James Brown.

Here is the former First Lady and mother of Ali Bongo, Omar's heir apparent, singing "C'est pour la vie”, one of her most popular songs which is a throwback to the golden era of Zairo-Congolese music of Pongo Love, Mbilia Bell, Abeti Masikini and others.

For more on Patience Dabany see her Wikipedia page and this RFI interview.

Cameroon: Our Future is Anglophone

By Patrice Nganang (Translated from French by Dibussi Tande)

Confronted with such a flurry of Cameroonian talent in English, how can we not breathe a sigh of relief? If our country's macabre present has become an unending one, we can at least proclaim today that Cameroon has a future, and it is Anglophone.

Our future is Anglophone. This should be obvious to anyone who is closely observing the evolution of Cameroonian intellectual output in the last few years. The reasons for this are not even linked to the fact that apart from their language of expression, Cameroonian writers in English have, without doubt, pulled the last chestnuts out of the fire that was colonization, with the language of Shakespeare giving them right away a global platform, with all the benefit that this has with regards to the dissemination of knowledge. No, there are other reasons, and here are five of them. 

Now Available! Scribbles from the Den

Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den: Essays on Politics and Collective Memory in Cameroon. Langaa publishers. 232 pages. Now available from African Books Collective, Oxford (£19.95), Michigan State University Press, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble ($29.95).

Charlotte Mbango: The Day the Music Died

Créer une playlist sur AfroMontreal.com >>

 

See also:
Thank you Ms. Charlotte Mbango

CAMEROONIANS MOURN CHARLOTTE MBANGO

Biting Dogs Don't Bark (A Response to Patrice Nganang)

Kangsen Feka Wakai

In a recent essay entitled “Literature Apartheid in Cameroon”, Patrice Nganang, author of Dog Days, begins by alerting his readers to an unfolding crime.

He writes:

“An intellectual crime is being committed in our country: that of segregation against Anglophone Cameroon Literature. The crime is unfolding before the very eyes of our national Intellectuals, with our consent as stakeholders and, often spurred by our most respected, yet conniving francophone Intellectuals.”

Available Soon... "Scribbles from the Den" the Book!

Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den: Essays on Politics and Collective Memory in Cameroon. Langaa publishers. Available in June 2009. 212 pages. Distributed in Europe by African Books Collective and in North America by Michigan State University Press.

This collection consists of 49 insightful essays by leading Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande, which originally appeared on his award-winning blog Scribbles from the Den. These essays tackle some of the most pressing and complex issues facing Cameroon today such as the stalled democratization process, the perennial Anglophone problem, the crisis of higher education, the absence of the rule of law, the lack of leadership renewal, a stifled collective memory, and a continued inability to harness technology for purposes of national development, among others. Scribbles from the Den goes beyond the news headlines to dispassionately analyze and unravel the complexities of Cameroonian politics and society.

(Press Release) New Anthology to Promote Anglophone Cameroonian Writing

New writing from Anglophone authors in Cameroon is featured in an anthology to be released in July. 
 
The Spirit Machine and other new short stories from Cameroon is the first in a new series of books aiming to promote emerging Anglophone writers unknown in the West but “whose writing tells wonderful new stories in wonderful new ways”.
 
Edited and introduced by Dr Emma Dawson, of Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, The Spirit Machine will be published on July 1 by Critical, Cultural and Communications Press in the World Englishes Literature Fiction series. 

(Memory Lane - May 26, 1990): The Launching of the SDF

Culled from Reform and Repression in Cameroon: A Chronicle of the Smoldering Years (1990-1992), a forthcoming book by Dibussi Tande commemorating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Cameroon’s tumultuous democratization process.

On March 16, 1990, barely six days after the Biya regime insisted that multipartyism was not illegal in Cameroon, John Fru Ndi, a Bamenda-based bookseller, and Dr. Siga Assanga, a lecturer at the University of Yaounde, submitted an application with the Mezam divisional office seeking authorization for a political party called the Social Democratic Front (SDF).

Although the application was in direct response to the government’s declaration that multipartyism was not prohibited in Cameroon, the SDF had actually been in gestation months before the Yondo affair...
[...]

Summit Magazine Exclusive: Prof Anomah Ngu on the Vanhivax AIDS Vaccine

Issue #08 of Summit Magazine is now available in newsstands in Cameroon. This issue includes an exclusive interview with Prof. Anomah Ngu, the one-time Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine in Ibadan, winner of the prestigious Lasker Award for his groundbreaking research on cancer, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Yaounde, and former Cameroonian Minister of Public Health, who is now under a cloud of controversy, and even ridicule, over his claims that he has found a vaccine for AIDS.  In what is his most extensive interview ever, Prof. Ngu outlines the scientific basis for his Vanhivax vaccine which he claims is both preventive and curative, takes on his critics who now refer to the once venerated medical doctor as a charlatan, and also walks down memory lane, revisiting his role in the (re)unification of the two Cameroons, his University of Ibadan days, his relationships with presidents Ahidjo and Biya, among other issues.

Literature Apartheid in Cameroon

Patrice Nganang (Translated from French by Emmanuel Ndeh Avwontom) 

“Anglophone writers appear to me akin to the Albatross in Baudelaire’s poetry. The English language that they acquired from their colonial past arms them with broad wings, but the Anglophone issue clips them in their impeding flight.”

An intellectual crime is being committed in our country: that of segregation against Anglophone Cameroon Literature. The crime is unfolding before the very eyes of our national Intellectuals, with our consent as stakeholders and, often spurred by our most respected, yet conniving francophone Intellectuals. Salient in mind are Achille Mbembe’s fumble in an article he published on the Anglophone issue.  The fact, therefore, that a francophone student can complete education, beginning at Nursery school right up to a University degree – twenty years in all – without so much as touching a poetry collection, a work of prose or a drama piece published by an Anglophone writer is illustrative of the magnitude of the literary apartheid which has been used by our educational system to brainwash us.

Cameroon’s 50 Most Influential Personalities According to Jeune Afrique

In this week's issue of Jeune Afrique (N°2520-2521 du 26 avril au 9 mai 2009), the Paris-based weekly magazine profiles 50 men and women whom it considers to be the most influential personalities in Cameroon.
 

Divided into four main categories - politics, business, civil society, culture and the media - the vast majority of these individuals are part of the technocracy, now in its twilight years, that came of age after Paul Biya became president in 1982 - “la generation des longs crayons” as Jeune Afriques puts it.

Top Ranking Cameroonian Blogs on Afrigator

Afrigator, the leading African blog aggregator, has a listing which ranks the top Cameroonian blogs. Although the Cameroonian blogosphere has grown in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, only 48 Cameroon-related blogs are listed on Afrigator (compared to 5387 South African blogs and 935 from Nigeria) – a fact which highlights the insularity of the Cameroonian blogosphere whose members do not  generally seem interested in reaching out to readers beyond the Cameroonian community.

In His Own Words: Biyiti Essam Explains How State Funds Ended Up in His Personal Bank Account

"I was expecting a treasury check [from the Minister of Finance]... instead, three brawny fellows came into my office with a bag containing 250 millions Fcfa... Tell me, where should I have kept this money? You wanted me to keep the money in my home… for them to to come and knock off my kids before stealing the money?" Biyiti Essam

Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and government spokesperson (whom his detractors like to refer to as "petit Goebbels") is in hot water. He is accused of diverting 140 million Fcfa, meant to prepare for the Pope’s visit, into his private bank account. There are also questions about the 70 million Fcfa paid to a Gabonese firm to supply four giant screens used during the Pope’s mass in Yaounde. The Minister has already appeared before the state prosecutor. Here are excerpts [in English] of an interview which he gave to the French language daily Le Messager (my translation).

This interview gives us a rare first-hand insight into how government works (or does not work) in Cameroon. Even more significant than the issue of embezzlement, is the realization that neither Cameroon nor the entire CEMAC region seem to have modern financial mechanisms to facilitate the transfer of funds within the country or the entire region - bags and bouncers play the role usually reserved for financial institutions… This story would have been quite hilarious had the stakes not been so high…

Obama: 100 Days, 100 Ways

By David Usborne (Originally published in The Independent)

From closing down Guantanamo and banishing lobbyists, to dressing down in the Oval Office and planting vegetables on the South Lawn, the Obama presidency is reshaping America. 

1 When presidents get invited to the annual Gridiron Dinner for a night of political skits among the Washington press corps, they always go. Not this one, who became the first sitting President politely to decline.

2 We have had lots of canine companions on the rugs of the Oval Office, but Obama's is the first first whose name, Bo, is also his master's initials. Better still, Portuguese water dogs come with fine Democrat credentials – Senator Ted Kennedy has litters of them.

Book Review - "No Turning Back" by Dibussi Tande

Reviewed by Lyombe Eko

Dibussi Tande. No Turning Back: Poems of Freedom 1990-1993. Langaa Research and Publishing (Bamenda, 2007).

   Writing is an existential act. To write is to proclaim loudly and clearly that one exists. From an historical perspective, those who would not have written something, anything, would not have existed!  However, writing is more than a mere proclamation of existence. Writers who have made their mark in life, whose proverbial pens have left strokes on the body politic of humanity are those who are engaged in the eternal struggles of human existence, ­the fight for justice, fairness, human dignity, as well as the right to appreciate the sacred and the aesthetically pleasing things of life.

25 Years Ago... Former First Lady Germaine Ahidjo on the 1984 Coup Attempt

In this final installment in our ongoing series on the April 6, 1984 coup attempt, we finally hear from former First Lady Germaine Ahidjo. In Part 1, she responds to long-standing claims that the April 1984 coup was the handiwork of her husband Ahmadou Ahidjo, Paul Biya's predecessor. And in Part 2 she talks about the life of the Ahidjo family immediately after the coup, of the Ahidjos being stripped of their Cameroonian nationality by the Biya regime, and the death and burial of the former president in Dakar, Senegal, in November 1989 (French).

See also: Repaid in his own Coins: Ahmadou Ahidjo and the Politics of Ostracism

25 Years Ago… Captain Guerandi Mbara on the 1984 Coup Attempt

25 years ago a 30-year old army Captain cast in the mold of the young African revolutionary soldiers of the 1980s rallied young officers in Cameroon in an attempt to overthrow the Biya regime. After the failure of the coup attempt, that soldier, Captain Guerandi Mbara, successfully evaded the massive security dragnet of loyalist forces and made his way to Burkina Faso where his friend and former classmate at the Yaounde Military Academy, a certain Blaise Compaore had just organized a successful coup less than a year earlier which brought Captain Thomas Sankara to power.

Upon arrival in the “land of the incorruptibles", Guerandi did not simply fade away, a bitter and frustrated former soldier unable to adapt to civilian life or to life in exile.

25 Years Ago... Tales of Ex-Leader's Role In Revolt Stun Cameroon

By Jonathan C. Randal (Washington Post Foreign Service)

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, April 14, 1984 -- A week after loyalist troops crushed a coup attempt by the elite palace guard here, shocked Cameroonians are assessing the damage to their once proud image as a rare example of African political stability and prosperity.

The official Cameroon Tribune summed up the gloomy mood in an editorial lamenting that now Cameroon had "joined the list of 32 out of 51 independent African states that have suffered at least 62 attempted, or successful, coups since 1960."

But perhaps the most disheartening aspect for residents here is the widespread belief that behind the episode is former president Ahmadou Ahidjo, the man who put Cameroon on a stable footing following independence in 1960 and voluntarily turned over power in 1981 to his hand-picked successor, President Paul Biya, to finish his term.

25 Years Ago... Gabriel Ebili: "How I Saved the Biya Regime"

Originally published in Le Jour, July 1, 2008.

  A technician at Radio Cameroun during the April 6, 1984 coup attempt, it is thanks to his actions that the mutineers’ coup proclamation was never heard beyond Yaounde. 24 years after his act of bravery, he is now a poor winemaker living in Bibondi in the Ocean division (South province).

The April 6 1984 coup failed in part because of this Radio Cameroon technician whom many Cameroonians believe is dead. Gabriel Ebili, the technician, is still alive.

The face of the man whom we met yesterday in Yaounde is marked by misery. With his hair unkempt hair and his clothes old and dirty, Gabriel Ebili was anxious to tell us about the crazy day of April 6 1984. His voice trembling with emotion, the former technician at the Department of Radio Operations is proud that he saved the institutions of the republic, particularly "the Biya regime" as he puts it. "But to what benefit?" he asks.

25 Years Ago... "Le 6 Avril": Ruminations on a Date with Destiny

Isaac Njoh Endeley*

On the 6th of April 1984, I was an ambitious and enthusiastic young student simultaneously enrolled in the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) and the Faculty of Law & Economics at the Université de Yaoundé in Cameroon. Like many others in my age group at the time, I was very optimistic about the future of my country, having previously witnessed what appeared like a smooth and peaceful transfer of power from President Ahmadou Ahidjo to his hand-picked successor, President Paul Biya.

25 Years Ago... The April 6, 1984 Coup Proclamation

Here is the English version of the April 6, 1984 coup proclamation, reportedly written by Issa Adoum, the civilian head of the coup and former CEO of Fonader, who was executed in Mbalmayo on May 2, 1984. The proclamation was read on the national radio station in Yaounde by 2d Lt Yaya Adoum.

25 Years Ago... The April 6, 1984 Coup Attempt in Cameroon

Shooting and tank movements were reported around Cameroon's presidential palace today in what appeared to be West Africa's second coup in three days - LA Times

On April 6, 1984, rogue elements from the Republican Guards, led by Colonel Saleh Ibrahim, tried to overthrow President Paul Biya who had succeeded President Ahmadou Ahidjo on November 6, 1982. Throughout this week, this blog will revisit this event which many believed changed the course of Cameroon's history. We begin with a video narrative of events leading up to the coup attempt, particularly the split between President Biya and his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo (French).

Memory Lane Video (March 13, 1962): President Kennedy Welcomes Ahmadou Ahidjo

President Kennedy welcomes President Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon at Washington National Airport - March 13, 1962.

Mr. President:
I want to welcome you to the United States and to this Capital on behalf of the American people. I think all of us, living as we do a great many thousand miles from your own country, having a different history, separated in time and space, are impressed by the efforts that you personally have made, and your people have made, to build a viable and strong economy and country. 
   

(TV) The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Debuts on HBO this Sunday

As a young girl growing up in the African nation of Botswana, Precious Ramotswe was encouraged by her father to follow her dreams, no matter what. Now in her mid-30s, Precious is doing just that — by opening her country's first and only female-owned detective agency for the benefit of those who need help the most.

The first major film/TV project to be shot entirely on location in Botswana, 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' is based on the best-selling novels by Alexander McCall Smith and co-written and executive produced by Richard Curtis and the late Anthony Minghella.

(Book Review) Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature

Joyce B. Ashuntantang. Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Langaa Publishers, 2009. 188 pages. Available on amazon.com and African Books Collective.

 Synopsis
This a foundational text on the production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature. The Republic of Cameroon is a bilingual country with English and French as the official languages.

Ashuntantang shows that the pattern of production and dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon literature is not only framed by the minority status of English and English-speaking Cameroonians within the Republic of Cameroon, but is also a refl ection of a postcolonial reality in Africa where mostly African literary texts published by western multi-national corporations are assured wide international accessibility and readership.

Cameroon Literature in English – Vibrant but Invisible

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published in Palapala Magazine)

Anglophone Cameroon writing... is too little known and much underrated... consequently, much that has been written in English in Cameroon and what has been written about writing in English in Cameroon must have the character of a first encounter with the unseen, a getting to know and shedding of light on a dark spot in the literary development of Africa - Ekhard Breitinger.

In 1978, Patrick Sam-Kubam published an article in Abbia (31/33, February 1978, 205-208) in which he lamented about “The paucity of literary creativity in Anglophone Cameroon". In 1997, Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi picked up on the same theme in her seminal book on gender when she also commented about “the paucity of Cameroonian Anglophone writing”. To a certain extent, these two statements, made some two decades apart, reflected and still reflect a reality on the ground. Literature in English speaking Cameroon has not developed at the same pace as other “national” African literatures.

(Memory Lane 1973): Afo-A-Kom the Lost Totem

Early this month, the Government of India unsuccessfully tried to stop the sale of Gandhi's belongings in New York on grounds that these were part of India's national heritage. The struggle over the Gandhi memorabilia was reminiscent of the epic battle between Cameroon and a Manhattan art dealer over the stolen Afo-a-Akom. Here is that story as reported by Time Magazine in 1973.

Lost Totem. Time Magazine, Nov. 05, 1973

The Afo-A-Kom is far from the world's greatest piece of art—or even Africa's. A 5-ft. 2½in. image of a king, it is rather crudely carved in iroko wood, the torso covered with sackcloth stitched with reddish-brown beads, the face masked in copper. But the Afo-A-Kom (literally, the Kom thing) is sacred to the approximately 30,000 people who constitute the Kom kingdom, a tribal enclave in the northwestern part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Congo: So You Too Can Cry Mr. President?

A Guest commentary by Cédric Kalonji (Translated from French by Scribbles from the Den)

It is hard to believe. To see the very strong and powerful President of the Republic of Congo crying, supported by two women, is proof that he is a human being after all, made of flesh and blood.
 

Mr. Sassou Nguesso is crying for his daughter, Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, wife of Gabonese president Omar Bongo Ondimba, who died on Saturday, March 14, 2009 in Rabat, Morocco.

(Rejoinder) Gerontocracy: An Indigenous Constitution of Cameroon

A provocative rejoinder to the Gerontocracy in Cameroon debate from Emmanuel Konde (Associate Professor of History Albany State University,(Georgia, USA) 

"Why should the President of Cameroon be expected to relinquish power by election if his counterparts everywhere in the country, including those who preceded his rise to power in 1982 in the various ethnic polities, have not done the same in their fondoms, lamidats, chiefdoms, and villages?” 

It is a truly vexing question, particularly for ambitious young Cameroonians whose access to political power is being delayed by those who were born before them and have controlled the levers of power for a little too long. What’s to be done about this situation is a question, has been a question, and will be a question for much longer than we can imagine.  In the meantime, however, the hazy heads amongst us will find time to castigate gerontocracy by recourse to inconsequential and irrelevant abstract ideas, even as they wait in the wings for their turns.

Memory lane (March 13 1962): Kennedy Welcomes Young President of Cameroon

 
New York Times, March 14 1962

WASHINGTON, March 13 - Ahmadou Ahidjo, President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, arrived today for a two-day state visit. The 38-year old leader of the West African republic was greeted at the Washington National Airport by President Kennedy.

A Women’s Day Tribute to Cameroonian Female Bloggers

While Cameroonian male bloggers focus almost exclusively on politics, Cameroonian female bloggers generally shy away from la chose politique to focus on culture – no surprise here, given that many of them are dedicated “cultural entrepreneurs”.  Here is a sample of some of the most popular blogs maintained by Cameroonian women in no particular order.

Here is a quick look at some Cameroonian women on the blogosphere on this International Women's Day.

Gerontocracy in Cameroon – These Old Men Who Govern Us

 By Dibussi Tande

It is extremely important to frequently renew political leadership in every country so new leaders can bring a fresh perspective to global trends and developments, and help move their countries in ways that may differ from previously long held typical and traditional approaches. Christopher Fomunyoh, NDIIA

Last February 13, President Paul Biya of Cameroon celebrated his 76th birthday. This septuagenarian who has been Cameroon’s president for the last for 27 years is the leader of a gerontocracy which has ruled the country for half a century – old men and women way past their prime but desperately clinging on to power. The result? Cameroon is increasingly looking like the pre-Gorbatchev Soviet Union whose entire leadership was made up of the infirm, senile and “walking dead” of the Politburo.

Human Rights Report Condemns February 2008 Repression in Cameroon

Yaoundé: Rights campaigners in Cameroon accused authorities of covering up for the security forces during a string of killings in the country's political unrest in February 2008, said a report obtained on Monday by Agence France Presse (AFP).
 

Members of the security forces opened fire indiscriminately on civilians, using automatic rifles and even light-machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks, said the report by National Observatory of Human Rights (ONDH).

But the authorities put pressure on hospital directors to cover up crimes committed by the security forces by hiding evidence, it alleged.

Book Review: The Travail of Dieudonné by Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Reviewer: Peter Wuteh Vakunta, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

The Travail of Dieudonné is the tale of a triple estrangement. Nyamnjoh’s protagonist is physically separated from his homeland (Warzone), beloved wife (Tsanga) and opulence associated with materialism. The writer adumbrates: “Dieudonné misses his home village to the point of tears…” (153). Mimboland, his country of choice, is a dichotomized world where the haves and have-nots cohabitate. While Beverly Hills swims in the niceties of life, Swine Quarter—home to the underprivileged—is likened to a “bleeding ghetto” reputed for its “muddy meanders of footpaths and shacks whose walls were delicately sustained by ant-infested wood, human excrement, dog shit…multitudes of rats and cockroaches that celebrated impunity.”(149)

Cameroon Ranks Very Poorly on 2008 Global Integrity Report

Cameroon faces serious problems with its governance and anti-corruption framework according to the Global Integrity Report released today.

Cameroon received a “very weak” (55 pts) overall ranking on the 2008 Integrity Indicator Scorecard.  It scored “very weak” in four categories; Elections (58 pts), Government Accountability (44), Administration and Civil Service (48) and Oversight and Regulation (49). It scored “weak” in two categories; Civil Society, Public Information and Media (61 pts) and Anti-corruption and Rule of law (69).

Book Review - “This is Bonamoussadi”: A Poetic Foray into the Valley of Despair

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published in Palapala Magazine)

Oscar Chenyi Labang. This is Bonamoussadi. Lulu.com, 2008, 60 pages.

What is it that we did
Mother of the earth
That we have remained this cursed (56)

It is still not clear how Bonamoussadi, the popular student residential area on the outskirts of the University of Yaounde campus in Ngoa-Ekele came into being. When students returned in September 1987 for the beginning of a new academic year, they discovered that houses had sprung up ex nihilo on the vast wasteland between Regional Centre for Labor Administration (CRADAT), the University Restaurant no. 2 and the football field. It was rumored that university lecturers whose trade in dog-eared polycopies had become less profitable with the proliferation of photocopy machines on campus had decided to grab state-owned land on which they constructed mini cités (student housing) for rent. Before long, high ranking government officials, the military top brass, friends and relatives of the well connected, and other hangers-on joined in for a piece of the action.

Palapala Magazine # 4 Now Available Online

The fourth issue of Palapala Magazine is now available online. This issue is rich with literary goodies - feature articles, poems, book reviews, short stories, interviews, etc., for literature enthusiasts and the general public. 

Contributors include Joyce Ashuntantang who tells us of the long journey to find her voice and identity, from the foot of Mt. Fako in Buea, Cameroon, to New York; poet Viola Allo who explains in a very delightful poem why she prefers to be married to her poetry than to her suitor in Cameroon ("I do not know what it means to be a Cameroonian wife”); Tolu Ogunlesi, the man form Lagos, who writes about exile in "we will set forth at midnight; Poet Barfee Gideon Wirndzerem who gives us an insight into the future of African and Cameroonian literature in an interview with Kangsen Wakai; Chenyi Labang and Dibussi Tande who both take us on a colorful and heart wrenching poetic journey to Bonamoussadi, the infamous neighborhood on the fringes of the university of Yaounde; Benna Sayyed who writes about marching bands in historical Black colleges and universities in the United States; Dipita Kwa who concludes his story on the wages of plunder, etc.

A must-read issue indeed!

Click here to read Palapala Magazine #4.

Memory Lane (Video): Foncha, Ahidjo & the Cameroons Unification

A brief report on the unification of the British and French Cameroons. What expectations did Southern Cameroons leaders have of unification? What promises did the leaders of the French Cameroons make with regards to unification? How did the erstwhile equal relationship between Premier Foncha and President Ahidjo become be a subaltern one? Documentary contains very rare archival video footage and audio clips from the 1960s and 1970s. (In French).