Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Summit Magazine: Still Going Strong

The fourth issue of Summit Magazine, which recently won the award for the best English language magazine in Cameroon, is now available in news stands in Cameroon and to readers in the United States.

Click here to view, print or download sample pages from this issue in PDF format

The magazine is distributed in the United States by Shrine of Africa. Click here for details.

EU Declaration on the Situation in Cameroon

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the situation in Cameroon

Brussels, 27 March 2008: The European Union is watching closely the discussion concerning the revision of the Constitution, while noting that any changes to the Constitution have to be decided by the people and the institutions of Cameroon.

The European Union recalls that the Constitution adopted in 1996 was the outcome of political dialogue and the democratic expression of the will of the people. It emphasises the importance of the proposals for constitutional revision being subjected to a broad, free and open debate that involves all elements of Cameroonian society.

In their Own Words - An interview with Dibussi Tande

Originally Published in Success Story E-Magazine no 006, February 2008

In this major interview with Success Story E-Magazine, Dibussi Tande talks about a variety of hot-button issues including:

• The role of the Diaspora in national development
• The role of political parties in the political process in Cameroon
• The fallout from Cameroon's outdated and colonial educational system
• The state of Anglophone Literature today
• What the future holds for Cameroon's youth
• The link between good governance, democracy and sustainable development
• The risks and possibilities of the “bushfaller” phenomenon, etc.

Excerpts:

Now Available! Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong

Joyce Ashuntantang & Dibussi Tande (eds). Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong. Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon, 2008. 76 pages. Paperback. Available from African Books Collective (UK) £12.95 and amazon.com and affiliates (international) $19.95

 

Indeed, they have sworn fealty to their masonic lodges
& to each other to bankrupt our national coffers
The curse on the heads of the corrupt banditti.
There is evidence that evil still survives absolutely
And the only good is a cripple, chained to the dungeon of
Mockery and dust.

But their champagne party will end…

(Bate Besong - Culled from “Their Champagne Party Will End” in The Grain of Bobe Ngom Jua, 1997)

Driving in the City of Douala, Cameroon - Not For the Faint-hearted!

Who's In Charge of Cameroon - The IMF or the Biya Regime?

"While reductions in tariffs and duties are not likely to disturb the IMF... it is more likely to be concerned about Biya’s pledge to review fuel price policies... A “benchmark” under the plan for evaluating Cameroon’s compliance with IMF conditions is price hikes for gasoline, oil, and diesel."

In her book on Development and Good Governance in Africa, Rita Abrahamsen argues that in Africa, "economic liberalization creates problem for the majority - who democracy seeks to serve. Leaders therefore are confused about whether to satisfy external donors or to satisfy the aspirations of its people for both are irreconcilable constituencies".

She adds that "Demands of economic liberalization by donor institutions have eroded democratic standards because they bring poverty to the people through SAP. SAP denies the masses benefits from the government, thereby threatening 'the consolidation of democracy by exacerbating social conflict and differentiation, while at the same time undermining the state's capacity to respond to domestic demands'" (Cited in African Studies Quarterly ).

Cameroon Embassy Official Blames Protesters for Riots

By Andy Matthews (The Mount Airy News)

(Exclusive story on Cameroon protests in Washington, D.C. and interview with Cameroon Embassy)

Cameroonians Demonstrating in Washington DC on March 14, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.: A spokesperson for the Cameroon Embassy said on Friday that anti-government protesters are not looking for a peaceful resolution to their quarrels with President Biya’s administration, suggesting that they prefer instead to incite riots and civil unrest that have led to the country’s worst violence in the last 15 years.

Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong

Coming soon to Amazon.com, Michigan State University Press and African Books Collective - The celebration in verse of the life and works of Bate Besong, Cameroon's most influential and controversial poet, playwright and scholar. Published by Langaa RPCIG.

With Contributions from 27 poets from Cameroon and Africa and a forward by Ba'bila Mutia

Success Story Magazine - A New Addition to the Cameroonian Media Scene

After years of being inundated with political magazines and newspapers, the Cameroonian media scene has recently witnessed the emergence of "image magazines" that focus primarily on people and places.

The most recent addition to this increasingly popular journalistic genre is Success Story magazine; a monthly publication which has the distinction of being Cameroon's first exclusively online magazine. According to its publishers, Success Story is about “celebrating [the] success [of] talented Cameroonians at home and abroad".

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CONTINENTAL DRIFT: The Angry and Desperate Generation

By Binyavanga Wainaina (Originally published in Mail & Guardian Online) 

If you walk through the streets of Dakar or Nairobi or Douala, there they are. Well dressed, in well-selected second-hand clothes... They own nothing and have no prospects. Most have only high-school education or less. They cannot afford to marry or to live in any meaningful way on their own... [Their] life is focused around dealing with all [their] pent-up anger.

I was in Senegal for a few weeks, and was assisted by an able and creative young man. For a while, I wondered why he did not react to my text messages. His French was good. He dressed well, if rather flashily in my Anglophone view. We had a fight when I asked him for receipts and I realised he could not read.

The Ghost of Um Nyobe (In Memory of Bate Besong, One Year After)

By Dibussi Tande

Culled from Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor Bate Besong (Forthcoming Langaa Publishers / Michigan State University Press)

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?

Cameroonians Demonstrate in Washington, DC

Cameroonians in Washington, DC yesterday took part in demonstrations at the Cameroon embassy and the White House organized by the "Civil Society Platform for Democracy in Cameroon".

According to organizers, the goal of the demonstrations was to draw attention to what the organization describes as the "systemic corruption and embezzlement, and public mismanagement that has crippled our country's economy and stunted its growth" and the "human rights violations, undemocratic practices and other actions that threaten the peace in Cameroon."

The Call To Arms of the Mfoundi Elite (English Translation)

No chaos will happen again in Mfoundi... From now hence; an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth... We are strongly requesting those forces of destruction from wherever, to immediately leave our land because it is no longer secure for them... the living forces of Mfoundi have donned the war gear of their ancestors who fought against the Europeans.

It was not as brazen as the "ennemis dans la maison" declaration of May 1990 by the former mayor of Yaounde, Emah Basile, which was directed against Anglophone Cameroonians. Neither was it as incendiary as the anti-“Anglo-Bami” tracts distributed by Beti militia groups at the height of the “war of tracts” of 1991 such as the one below from the «Front National de la Libération du Peuple Beti» : 

Cameroon: Another President Who Won't Go

From The Economist print edition

Many Cameroonians are angry because their president refuses to retire

THE MAN who has presided over Cameroon for 25 years touts a simple slogan: “Paul Biya for peace”. But it no longer rings true. On February 24th and 25th, in Douala, Cameroon's commercial capital on the Atlantic coast, protesters lit fires on the streets, shooting broke out, and looters ran amok. Taxi drivers went on strike and many other people stopped work too. Shops and petrol stations were ransacked, cars burnt. Black clouds of smoke and the noise of gunfire enveloped the residential area along the main road out of Douala towards the capital, Yaoundé, where police later tear-gassed stone-throwing youths who had set up burning barricades.

Act Before It’s Too Late! - Cameroonian and African Intellectuals Write to CPDM Members of Parliament

“Our future is precious, please don’t waste it for one man… changing article 6.2 of the Cameroonian Constitution will only help weaken the country’s institutions which stand as the only barriers against barbarism”.

 
A group of Cameroonian intellectuals, writers, artists and journalists, joined by a number of their African colleagues have criticized attempts by President Paul Biya to scrap presidential term limits. They have called on CPDM members of Parliament who have a majority in Parliament to act “before its too late”.

Crisis in Cameroon - What Cameroonian Bloggers are Saying

Dibussi Tande

Although the Cameroonian blogosphere is not as vibrant or as organized as the Kenyan blogosphere, and lacks tools such as Ushahidi which Kenyans used to keep the world updated on events in the country at the height of the post election violence, a number of Cameroonian bloggers at home and abroad have nonetheless stood out this past week thanks to their on-the-spot reporting or analyses of the ongoing crisis in Cameroon.

Le Blog de Nino and Media City lead the pack in terms of videos and images of the rioting. Le blog de Nino goes a step further by updating his blog with SMS updates from eyewitnesses on the ground. Others such as Le Blog de Tamba run by Le Messager reporter Edouard Tamba, have provided on-the-spot reporting of events that occurred in Yaounde.

Crisis In Cameroon: Eyewitness Reports from the Expatriate Community

Dibussi Tande

Although the recent riots in Cameroon received widespread coverage on the alternative media (videos on Youtube, pictures amateur photographers, etc.,) what has been noticeably missing (unlike the Kenyan situation) is an indigenous Cameroonian blogging community providing running commentaries of events and eyewitness reports of what has been going on in different parts of the country.

Fortunately, the Cameroonian expatriate community (Peace Corps and VSO volunteers, students, missionaries, etc) has stepped up to fill up this void. This is a review of some of these postings that help give a personal touch to this week’s events in Cameroon.

Cameroon Crisis: Statement by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson

Daily Press Briefing:

Q - Cameroon has experienced a wave of violence over the last six days? What’s your position? (…)

We are paying close attention to events in Cameroon.

After the rioting of the last few days, a relative calm seems to have returned today to the main cities in Cameroon. Our consulates in Douala and Yaounde continue to keep in touch with our compatriots whom we are advising not to move around at this stage.

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that our advice to travelers is unchanged: we advise against travel to Cameroon and we urge travelers to exercise extreme caution.