Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Manu Dibango: A Musical Tribute to New Orleans

Manu Dibango «Manu Joue Sidney Bechet, Hommage à la Nouvelle Orléans » featuring Dany Doriz. Cristal Records, March 2007.

In his teenage years, black American jazz icons such as Louis Armstrong and Sydney Bechet had been a powerful motivating force in Manu's life. And in March 2007, the Cameroonian musician paid his own tribute to Bechet, the renowned composer and musician from New Orleans, with a pure jazz opus entitled "Manu Dibango joue Sydney Bechet." RFI

Cristal Records Presentation
Symbol of the World-Music since he travelled all around the world, as well for his music as for his humanitarian actions, Manu Dibango represents the emergence of the World-Music. He likes Gospel which reminds him his childhood and which is the ambassador of the Acid-jazz birth. Lately, his musical nomadism brought him to cooperate with classical orchestras such as the Metropole orchestra of Rotterdam, and more recently with the orchestra of Paris.

A Sample of Autobiographies, Biographies, Memoirs and from Cameroon

In spite of the paucity of memoirs, autobiographies and biographies by and about prominent Cameroonians, a number of personalities (politicians, political activists, musicians, sportsmen, etc.) have written their memoirs and autobiographies. For example, Albert Mukong and Christian Tobie Kuo both wrote two volumes of their memoirs. Same with Jean Martin Tchaptchet (who shared that infamous last meal with nationalist leader Felix Moumie in Geneva in 1960), who has published two autobiographical volumes, and promises more. Footballer Roger Milla and musician Manu Dibango both have autobiographies.

“A Dream Come True”: Summit Magazine Hits the Stands!

A Most Welcome Addition to the Cameroonian Media Landscape

In the early 1990s, the media landscape in English speaking Cameroon was dominated by a plethora of newspapers which focused primarily, if not entirely, on politics. The exception was Cameroon Life Magazine which dwelt on culture, the arts, and literature and health issues, although it’s main focus was on the fiery politics of the time. Since the demise of CAMLIFE in the mid nineties, there has been an increasing public demand in the Englishspeaking parts of the country for magazines that deal primarily in non-political and human interest issues. For example, a magazine that goes beyond the news headlines to put a human face on the key socio-political actors of the country, and showcases Cameroonians who are excelling in their respective fields of endeavor or making a difference to their communities.

French Elections: Nicolas Sarkozy & Ségolène Royal in Second Round Run-off

Source: Le Monde

Zimbabwe Cartoons

Cartoon by Sokwanele Civil Action Group, Zimbabwe

Click here to view additional Sokwanele cartoons on Flickr.

Zimbabwe at 27: When a Fairy Tale Becomes a Gory Nightmare…

Dibussi Tande (Originally published on African Path)

The year was 1979 and on Radio Cameroon (there was no TV then) Zimbabwe was a permanent if not dominant fixture on the international news. The racist IanSmith regime had been replaced by the black government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa – a suspect government which for all intents and purposes was merely an extension of the racist Smith regime. Zimbabwean nationalists in exile led by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe fiercely challenged the farce. And the rest of the world agreed. In the end, Muzorewa was dragged kicking and screaming to London for talks at Lancaster House under the auspices of Lord Carrington.

One didn’t need to be a grown up back then to understand what was at stake; white supremacist rule (hiding behind Muzorewa’s black face) vs. black majority rule represented by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. How we envied Zimbabwe when the Lancaster talks ended with an agreement for new internationally supervised elections!

April 18, 1980: Bob Marley Celebrating Zimbabwe

On April 19, 1980, Bob Marley performed in front of 100,000 fans at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare. A day earlier, on April 18th, he sang Zimbabwe, which some have not hesitated to call "his most important single composition", during the actual independence ceremony. Here is a video of that event.

Individual Memory and Collective Amnesia: Where are the Political Memoirs?

Dibussi Tande

Andze Tsoungui, one time Vice Prime Minister and one of the longest serving cabinet Ministers in both the Ahidjo and Biya governments died early last week in Brussels, Belgium. Andze’s career spanned close to half a century, beginning in 1958 when he was appointed assistant to the sub-divisional officer of Nanga Eboko. That same year, he was transferred to Douala as assistant to the head of the Wouri region. This was at the height of the UPC insurgency of which Wouri, along with the Sanaga maritime was a hotbed. After a brief stint in the East, he was appointed the Divisional officer for Mungo in 1961.By this time, the UPC insurgency had ended in the Sanaga Maritime, and the area of operations moved further west to the Mungo and Bamileke regions.

Is South Africa Living Up to Its Responsibility as Africa's Leader? An Online Debate

Discussants: Francis Kornegay & Tom Wheeler

South Africa, the African continent’s richest country, is also its most influential. President Thabo Mbeki mediated conflicts in Burundi and Congo, and propelled the creation of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa ’s Development. Yet South Africa has come under fire for its policy of “quiet diplomacy” toward neighboring Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe presides over an unraveling economy and has increasingly resorted to violence to maintain power. Some also criticize the South African government’s recent actions on the UN Security Council and its HIV/AIDS policy.

The Writer as a Citizen, a Rejoinder

By Rogers Tabe Egbe Orock (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Helsinki)

Now, I just have a few observations and additional reflections to make on the public role of the intellectual as seen by Soyinka, with special reference to Cameroon.

First, it is good that most Nigerian intellectuals understand that the intellectual is only valid in his connection to the people and place of his time. Indeed Claude Ake (1994)in his reflections on the erosion of academic freedom in Africa incisively pointed out that oft we take too much of a state-centrist approach, wherein we criticise the state for all the troubles within the university institution, ignoring the self-selling which African intellectuals wantonly subject themselves to. For Ake (ibid.)

Wole Soyinka - The Writer as a Citizen

International Herald Tribune

LAGOS, Nigeria: When Nigerian Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka contemplates the role of a writer in society, he defines it in terms of action.

In 1965, upset that a politician who had rigged the vote was about to claim victory in a radio broadcast, Soyinka, then 31 and already a famous writer, stormed the radio station armed with a pistol, and substituted the politician's tape with one denouncing the usurper.

Once Upon a Time… Osende Afana (II)

Dibussi Tande

On March 15, 1966 at 10:30 am, comrade Osende Afana, Secretary General of the bureau of the Steering Committee of the UPC gloriously fell at the battlefront, his heart cowardly pierced by bullets of the imperial armed forces and their Kamerunian lackeys… French imperialism, along with its sinister manservant Ahidjo, has perpetrated a horrible crime against the Kamerunian people…. Editorial of l’Etudiant d’Afrique noire

The Death of Moumie and the UPC Split
Following the assassination of UPC President Felix Moumie in Geneva, Switzerland in November 1960, cracks began to appear in the hitherto solid edifice of the UPC in exile. This ultimately led to a split within the party.