Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

1961 House of Commons Debates on Southern Cameroons - John Tinley, Conservative MP, Liverpool

"Perhaps the Southern Cameroonian made the decision to join up with the Cameroon Republic through fear of the Ibo, or because of lack of finance or lack of leadership by the United Kingdom in the past, for we have tried our best to remain neutral; or was it because he had no third choice offered to him?" John Tilney, House of Commons, February 20, 1961.

I am not sure what time it is now in the Cameroons, but I am quite sure that it is high time that thought was given by some Ministers and by the United Nations to the very urgent affairs of that territory. I ought, at the outset, to declare an interest in that I am a director of a company which, among many other interests, has for over seventy years operated in Victoria and elsewhere in the territory, albeit of recent years with declining success. It has a venture also in Bamenda.

The battle of the plebiscite is now over. I pay tribute to the men, many of them from the United Kingdom, who have worked hard to make the administration of that democratic decision a success. Though they were unable to put the pros and cons of the results of the choice before the electorate, they tried to make a very nearly totally illiterate electorate aware of what the choices were.

48 Years Ago - Southern Cameroons and The Republic of Cameroun Form the Federal Republic

Exactly 48 years ago on October 1, 1961, the Federal Republic of Cameroon was born after the  United Nations Trust territory of (British) Southern Cameroons merged with the French-speaking Republic of Cameroun - this, in accordance with the results of the UN-sponsored plebiscite of February 11, 1961.

On this anniversary day, we will not be looking at the ground covered or not covered by both territories since 1961 - that will be a task for the 50th anniversary. Rather, we will walk down memory lane to revisit some of the interesting post-plebiscite debates about the fate of Southern Cameroons in the British House of Commons; debates which indicated that the decolonization of Southern Cameroons was not as straightforward as it seemed to the uninitiated. One of such debates was between John Tilney, Conservate MP from Liverpool, an unapolgetic proponent of Southern Cameroons independence, and David Ormsby Gore, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, defending the new reality which emerged from the Plebiscite. We will post both of their declations in their entirety.

Later, we will use the case of John Tilney to demonstrate that the competing political and economic interests within the British political establishment over the fate of Southern Cameroons  had little or nothing to do with actual Southern Cameroons  interests - - even when they favored South Cameroons independence without "integrating" or "joining' either Nigeria or Cameroon 

New Issue of Palapala Magazine Available Online

The seventh issue of Palapala magazine, the Cameroonian/Pan-African literary Magazine is now available online. This issue features exciting essays, short stories and poems from budding and established writers from around  the continent.

In this issue's lead article, Denja Abdullahi writes about Abuja, "The City of Poets" which was extolled in verse by the late Mamman Vatsa, executed by the Babaginda regime for allegedly planning a coup:

"If the new overlords of Abuja thought they had silenced poetry after silencing Vatsa, then they were ignorant of the fact that some stowaway poets berthed in Abuja with the ship of government when it moved from Lagos with Babangida’s hurried departure…. The City of Lagos lost the seat of power to Abuja and I dare say it is on the way of losing the fountain of creativity to Abuja. Come to think of it, Abuja … is a more likely place for a poet to fall in love with. Mamman Vatsa was the first poet laureate of Abuja and many more poets have come to love Abuja like Vatsa did in his poems."

Travel Diary: A Journey into the Heart of South Africa’s Frontier Country

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published in Palapala magazine)

“The Route will remind you that you are travelling through an extraordinary country, chiselled out of the horrors of racial and social dispossession to become a dynamic monument to human dignity.” Makana Pocket Guide.

After a grueling 18 hour journey from Chicago to Johannesburg where I spent the night, I boarded a South African Airways flight bound for the Indian Ocean port city of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province.

Port Elizabeth was founded in 1820 as a gateway for the 4000 British settlers, the so-called 1820 settlers, who were brought in by the British government in a bid to strengthen the crown’s grip on the Cape Colony’s strife-torn eastern frontier – the Frontier Country – where the Xhosas were violently resisting British occupation of their lands – In 1996, Nelson Mandela described the settlers as "Pawns in a larger game" who "were nevertheless caught up on the wrong side of history, unable or unwilling to acknowledge as equals those into whose homeland they had been implanted." From 1779 to 1879, the British and the Xhosa’s fought nine Frontier Wars which left an indelible mark on modern South Africa.

Creative Appropriation of New Technologies: Dibussi Tande at the Forefront of Cameroonian and African Blogging

By Francis B. Nyamnjoh*

"The current context of globalization facilitated by the ICTs offers exciting new prospects not only for Cameroonian citizens and journalists to compete and complement one another, but also an opportunity for new solidarities to challenge undemocratic forces, ideologies and practices that stand in the way of social progress in Cameroon and globally."

When Dibussi Tande sent me an email requesting a preface to this collection of essays on politics and collective memory scribbled from his blogging den since 2006, I readily agreed in recognition of the outstanding contributions he has made in promoting the creative appropriation of ICTs by Cameroonian journalists, intellectuals and the blogging public. In three years Dibussi Tande has established himself not only as a leading and award-winning blogger, but also as a critical reviewer of African blogging in a weekly Pambazuka News column titled “Blogging Africa”. As I write this afternoon of March 20th 2009, his blog, Scribbles from the Den, has registered 305,045 page hits.

Cameroon - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband & Forecasts

Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd., Sep 2009, Pages: 30 (Research & Markets)

The Cameroon - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband & Forecasts report includes all research data and analysis on this country. Covering trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, internet, broadband, infrastructure and regulation.

Despite its oil resources and favourable agricultural conditions, Cameroon’s GDP growth of between 2% and 4% over the past several years has lagged behind other countries in the region, mainly as a result of a generally unfavourable climate for business enterprise and a high level of corruption. The International Monetary Fund is pressing for more reforms, including increased budget transparency, privatisation, and poverty reduction programs.

World Cup 2010: Port Elizabeth is Ready!

On Sunday Sept. 6, I was among the privileged Highway Africa participants who were given a tour of the newly-constructed Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, in the beautiful seaside city of Port Elizabeth, during a reception organized in the stadium's VIP foyer by MTN and the South African World Cup Organizing Committee.

 
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth

The reception was an opportunity for World Cup 2010 officials to showcase SA's level of preparation for next year's world cup to media practitioners from all over Africa.

Ahmadou Ahidjo: An Interactive Timeline

An interactive historical timeline by Philip Kisob

The Presentation - State of Social Justice & Digital Media in Africa

The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

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The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

Summary of a Keynote address delivered by Dibussi Tande at the Highway Africa Conference's "Digital Citizen Indaba", Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Republic of South Africa - September 5, 2009 (Orginally published on the Highway Africa Blog)

We just heard the opening keynote talk by Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande (he blogs at Scribbles from the den), who talked about “The state of social justice and digital media in Africa”. Below is a summary of his talk from the Digital Citizen Indaba website: