Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

2010 Economic Freedom Index: Cameroon Ranked 132nd & Economy "Mostly Unfree”

Cameroon has been ranked 132nd (with 52.3 pts) out of 179 countries in the 2010 Economic Freedom Index: compiled by The Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation. Cameroon also ranked 25th among 46 African countries. According to the report on Cameroon,

"Cameroon faces challenges common to developing African nations: inefficient bureaucracy, an unreliable legal system, and poor infrastructure. Restrictive regulations hurt employment and productivity growth. Restrictions on trade are common, and the weak judicial system allows pervasive corruption and erodes the potential for long-term economic growth.”

Cameroon's lowest grade (40.5) was in Freedom from Corruption and its highest (74.2) was in Trade freedom.

Memory Lane - January 1971) The Bishop Ndongmo Affair

"Yaounde, Cameroon: A military tribunal Wednesday sentenced a black Roman Cathloc bishop to death before a firing squad for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate the Cameroon president. The Vatican expressed 'extreme suffering' over the verdict and appealed for clemency." Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jan 7, 1971

Culled from Gifford, Paul. 1998. African Christianity: its public role. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp.253-256

Albert Ndongmo was the first local bishop of Nkongsamba, appointed in 1964. At this time, the diocese of Nkongsamba covered all the Bamileke area. Beginning in the 1950s, the UPC conducted an armed uprising against the French, from whom it elicited a brutal response. -it was the era of the uprising in Algeria, and the French were in no mood to compromise. But even after Cameroon's independence, the UPC continued its revolt against Ahidjo, whom it regarded as a usurper, left by the French to perpetuate French control. Ndongmo claimed that he was asked by Ahidjo in 1965 to see if he could mediate with Ouandie, the last rebel leader still at large, in an attempt to conclude hostilities. His instructions were uttered in front of witnesses, important functionaries who he named.

(Memory Lane - January 1 1960) African Leaders at Independence Ceremonies for Cameroon

 Cameroon's Premier Ahmadou Ahidjo, right, chats with France's delegate to the Independence ceremonies Minister of State Louis Jacquinot, during the parade in this biggest port city of the new African Independent State.

Ceremonies and festivities were staged in the country 1st January to celebrate the independence of Kamerun, a former French protectorate. Violence broke out the day before between government forces and rebels, but no outbreak marred the ceremonies themselves.

(c) Corbis

( Memory Lane 1 January 1960 ) CAMEROON: Another New Flag

Time Magazine Monday, Jan. 11, 1960

The first of Africa's six new nations to get its independence in 1960 celebrated its beginnings last week with half the country in a state of emergency.

On the morning of the first day of independence, terrorists killed five people in the capital of Yaounde, and the foreign dignitaries who streamed in by air at Douala the day before could see the ruins of the control tower ransacked by another insurgent gang. In six months of struggle 22 whites have died—more than were killed in a similar period during the Mau Mau war in Kenya—and 500 or more Africans.

(Video) La Republique Du Cameroun - The Birth of a Nation (January 1, 1960)

A brief report and rare archival footage on the independence of the French Cameroons (La Republique du Cameroun) on January 1, 1960 (including Ahamadou Ahidjo's historic speech announcing independence (in French). 
 

 

(Music) "Independance Cha Cha" - The African Independence Anthem

Composed in 1960 by Joseph Kabasele Tshamala (Grand Kalle), the father of Congolese music, Independance Cha cha, became the anthem of not only the nationalist movement in the Belgian Congo, but also the newly independent states of Africa. The song was was first played at the Hotel Plaza in Brussels on January 27 1960 during the round table talks that set the date for Congolose independence.

 Today we can opnly look back wistfully and that golden age of buoyant optimism and hope of a better future for Africa...

Indépendance cha cha tozui e
Oh! Kimpuanza cha cha tubakidi
Oh! Table Ronde cha cha ba gagné o
Oh! Dipanda cha cha tozui e

(Independence cha cha, we've won it
Oh! Independence cha cha, we've achieved it
Oh! The round table cha cha, we've pulled it off
Oh! Independence cha cha, we've won it)