Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Culled from HBO

Spike Lee (2006). When the Levees Broke. A Requiem in Four Parts. (All four acts will be seen Tuesday, Aug. 29 [8:00 p.m.-midnight], the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina).

As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world. The result is WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS. The film is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina's catastrophic passage through New Orleans.

TSOTSI: A Tale of Redemption

Tsotsi (2005). Academy Award Winner - Best Foreign Language Film. Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto. Director: Gavin Hood Rating (R). 94 mins. Now available on DVD.

Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto - where survival is the primary objective - TSOTSI traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped during a car-jacking.

TSOTSI is a gritty and moving portrait of an angry young man living in a state of extreme urban deprivation. His world pumps with the raw energy of "Kwaito music" - the modern beat of the ghetto that reflects his troubled state of mind.

Lake Nyos 20 Years After (IV): A Tale of Two Survivors

Culled from Smithsonian Magazine, September 2003

ON THE NIGHT OF THE APOCALYPSE, Ephriam Che was in his mud-brick house on a cliff above Nyos, a crater lake in the volcanic highlands of northwest Cameroon. A half-moon lit the water and the hills and valleys beyond. Around 9 p.m., Che, a subsistence farmer with four children, heard a rumbling that sounded like a rockslide. Then a strange white mist rose from the lake. He told his children that it looked as if rain were on the way and went to bed, feeling ill.

Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (III): Is the Thermonuclear Device Theory Plausible?

Culled from Anthony D'Amato & Kirsten Engel (eds.). International Environmental Law Anthology (Chapter 10).

(2) Manipulation of Land/Water Systems

Possible manipulations of land and its water systems for military or hostile purposes will include: triggering earthquakes, tsunamis (seismic sea waves), landslides, quiescent volcanoes or lakes; destruction of water containments, nuclear plants, oil wells, etc.; and torching land, forest, vegetation, etc.

The Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (II):Explaining Death by Toxic Carbon Dioxide Cloud

Culled from  Securitas Volume #4, Issue #6  (November/December 2005)

The acute health effects of carbon dioxide vary with its concentration in the air and the length of time a person breathes the gas. The usual carbon dioxide content in fresh air is only 0.03%, and in exhaled air approximately 4.5%.

Persons (and animals) breathing 17-30% (or greater) carbon dioxide concentration for less than a minute will have sudden loss of controlled and purposeful activity, unconsciousness, convulsions, coma, and death, according to Environmental Protection Agency data (accessed December 8, 2005).

The Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (I): Revisiting Israeli Connection

By Dibussi Tande

On August 16, 1984, a gas eruption in Lake Monoun in the Western province of Cameroon killed 37 people. Reports revealed that "victims suffered vomiting, paralysis, and very rapid death; some lost the outer layer of their skin."

Two years later on August 21, 1986, a similar but more deadly incident occurred in Lake Nyos in the Northwest province. Toxic gas emanating from the lake killed some 1834 people along with 3500 livestock within a 12-mile radius.

Martin Nkemngu: I Was the First Journalist to Visit Lake Nyos after the Disaster

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

On August 21, 1986 when the Lake Nyos disaster occurred, I was serving in Bamenda as Provincial Chief of SOPECAM for the North West. I heard the news on Friday August 22, 1986 from one Mr. Titang Richard who was at the time the Superintendent in charge of the Bamenda Prison. Although on annual leave, I had to cut short and rush to the Governor’s Office where initial reports indicated that 40 persons had lost their lives in a strange gas disaster in Nyos, Menchum Division.

Bakassi: The Nigerian Withdrawal Begins

A Nigerian soldier lowers the Nigerian flag while two Cameroonian soldiers hoist the country's flag, signifing the transfer of authority of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroonian government in Archibong.

The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon

By Dibussi Tande

Although Pidgin English is the most widely-spoken language in English-speaking Cameroon, and rivals French as the language of choice in some parts of French-speaking Cameroon (particularly in the Littoral and Western Provinces), it is still treated with scorn and disdain by the Elite who consider it a language for the illiterate masses.

Cameroon English: "Polluted" by Pidgin or French?

Web Polls by Vizu

Dr. Nfah-Abbenyi: The Anti-Pidgin Campaign or the "Cancerous Embrace of National Integration"

Culled from Women's Connection (Volume XXVII, Number 1, pp. 9-10)

A Report from the conference on Africa and the African Diaspora: Agents for Change held at the University at Albany on March 24th, 2006.

Dr. Eloise Briere introduced Keynote speaker, Dr. Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi, feminist, professor, writer and literary critic. ... In Dr. Nfah-Abbenyi’s lecture "English Is Your Friend: Cameroon Anglophone Postcolonial Narratives" she spoke to the audience about post-colonial identities in Africa and the African Diaspora. Drawing on theories of language, she focused on language as a carrier of culture and how it can be used to justify hierarchies.

Ghost Workers Spirit Away $10m a Month in Debt-ridden Cameroon

From the BBC World Service

The authorities in Cameroon have discovered that they are paying civil service salaries to 45,000 employees who do not actually exist.
The "ghost workers" were uncovered by a census of public servants as part of a drive to stamp out corruption.

Book Review: "Wizard of the Crow" by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Culled from The Independent

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Wizard of the Crow. London; Harvill Secker. August 2006, 784 pages.

Set in the fictional African republic of Aburiria, the novel conjures a ruler who has surrounded himself with comically sycophantic cabinet ministers. One has surgically enlarged his ears to prove he always has an ear to the ground; another has had plastic surgery on his eyes to show that he has his eyes on the public. For the ruler's birthday, this group suggests building a tower up to heaven so that the ruler can speak directly to God.

Louis Etongwe: Fighting Against Domestic Slavery in the Cameroonian Community

Culled from Renew America

Louis Etongwe helped free domestic slaves in the Washington, D.C., area. "I was horrified because I thought — not in this day and age that there could be some who would trick someone's child into slavery — not like this." Louis points out how even the smallest action to fight slavery can make a big difference.