Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Top Ranking Cameroonian Blogs on Afrigator

Afrigator, the leading African blog aggregator, has a listing which ranks the top Cameroonian blogs. Although the Cameroonian blogosphere has grown in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, only 48 Cameroon-related blogs are listed on Afrigator (compared to 5387 South African blogs and 935 from Nigeria) – a fact which highlights the insularity of the Cameroonian blogosphere whose members do not  generally seem interested in reaching out to readers beyond the Cameroonian community.

A Women’s Day Tribute to Cameroonian Female Bloggers

While Cameroonian male bloggers focus almost exclusively on politics, Cameroonian female bloggers generally shy away from la chose politique to focus on culture – no surprise here, given that many of them are dedicated “cultural entrepreneurs”.  Here is a sample of some of the most popular blogs maintained by Cameroonian women in no particular order.

Here is a quick look at some Cameroonian women on the blogosphere on this International Women's Day.

Creative Disruption: Citizen Voices (African Bloggers on the Cutting Edge)

Originally published in Forbes Magazine

A Kenyan blogger found a way to get information from the crowd. Now she wants to take the idea to other parts of the world in trouble.

"For us to be featured in Forbes magazine is a big deal for many reasons - it speaks to our entrepreneurial approach to social problems, it speaks to the incredible talent we have in Africa that often doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves in the international media, and it says to me that we are on to something." Ory Okolloh, Ushahidi founder.

On a recent day in November 15,000 people were pushing up against the barbed wire outside the United Nation's mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Goma.

2008 Black Weblog Awards - "Scribbles from the Den" Wins in Best International Blog Category

Although this year's winners were announced some seven weeks ago, it is only yesterday that I became aware that Scribbles from the Den was one of the laureates of the 2008 Black Weblog Awards.

Scribbles won the judges' vote in the Best International Blog category. This year, there were over 9,400+ nominations in 30 different categories and over 1,500 votes.

How The Obama Campaign Harnessed the Power of the Internet

By Matthew Fraser & Soumitra Dutta (Originally published in The Guardian)

He may be older than most Facebook users, but Barack Obama understood the potential of social media to communicate and to raise funds - and left his 72-year-old opponent floundering

As the musician Brian Eno noted on the BBC's Question Time this week, Barack Obama's triumph was the first US presidential election that was won on the internet. While most pundits focused on the question of race, one largely overlooked factor was his powerful techno-demographic appeal.

US-Based Nigerian Blogger Arrested in Abuja

The press freedom watchdog, Reporters without Borders, is reporting the arrest of Us-based blogger Jonathan Elendu by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS). Elendu was arrested on October 17 at the Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. Although the SSS spokesman Kenechuks Onyegogu has been quoted as saying that Elendu was simply “invited” by the SSS to explain certain matters involving “national security, he is apparently being held incommunicado with no access to lawyers.

According to Reporters without Borders,

A Review of Three Cameroonian Blogs and Bloggers

In my continuing series on Cameroonian blogs, I will take a quick look at three English language blogs that are steadily carving a place for themselves on the African blogosphere.

The first of these blogs is  GEF’s Outlook maintained by former CRTV journalist, George Esunge Fominyen who currently heads the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal.

Hidden Treasure: Blog on Cameroon Literature in English

The Cameroonian blogosphere has grown considerably since I wrote an article in 2006 titled "Where are the Cameroonian bloggers?" Today, there are numerous online diaries, political, general interest and specialized blogs created by Cameroonians. Unfortunately, most of these very interesting blogs remain largely unknown to the general public.

One of these is the blog on Cameroon Literature in English which showcases literary works by English-speaking Cameroonian writers.

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.

"France 24" Webnews: Cameroonian Bloggers and the Ongoing Crisis

France 24: "President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, announced that he would like to modify the constitution in order to be re-elected one 'last' time. The announcement lit the powder keg in the streets of Yaounde. The opposition is organizing itself on the web." (My translation).

 

Internet Activism: Bloggers are Africa's New Rebels

By Paul Salopek (Originally published in the Chicago Tribune)

The Web has become a powerful tool for democratization.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: The man was nervous. He was afraid, he said, of the secret police. So he advised me to hire a random taxi. I was to park at a certain church. And there, I was to wait. A few minutes later he called again, this time on a different cell phone. He gave me directions to a nondescript house with an iron gate.

"Sorry about these procedures," he apologized, tapping away at a laptop in a shuttered room. "But I could spend years in prison for what I do."

Such spy-movie shenanigans in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, weren't required to meet a gangster or terrorist. Instead, Dagem, as he chose to be called, was a new type of African revolutionary: a blogger.

Internet Activism Within the Southern Cameroons Movement

Originally published in The Frontier Telegraph

The Internet and search engines have become a very powerful tool in research by policy makers, analysts and academics. The viral nature of the Internet or cyberspace has also made it a great tool for communication and activism, for better or for worse...

While surfing the net this past week, two websites of interest caught our attention. These websites stood out because of their activist orientation and simplicity in eliciting the desired action from visitors.

Mounting Calls for Release of Jailed Egyptian Blogger

"The Egyptian authorities must repeal legislation that, in violation of international standards, stipulates prison sentences for acts which constitute nothing more than the peaceful exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion." Amnesty International.

On February 22, 2007, Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Soliman was sentenced to four years in prison for spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country's reputation", "incitement to hate Islam" and "defaming the president of the republic".

African Path: Filling a Huge Void in African Cyberspace

One of the most exciting events in the African cyberspace this year has undoubtedlty been the launching on January 1, 2007 of African Path, an innovative and ambitious news and blog aggregator dedicated exclusively to African affairs.

According to Joshua Wanyama, one of the brains behind African Path initiative, the site was created “to fill a void in the marketplace for a strong Pan-African web site where news content and blogging can be merged into a unified voice.”

Grahamstown to Host Africa's First Conference on Blogging

Africa's first conference on blogging, the Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging, will take place at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa from September 14 - 15, 2006. According to the organizers, "the aim of the Indaba is to equip Africans with skills relating to new media so as to empower them and the organizations they work for by creating an effective digital voice."

The Indaba will bring together bloggers, citizen journalists, media practitioners, industry experts and representatives from civil society from all over Africa and beyond.

Introducing the Imhotep Blog (Contributors Wanted)

By Emil I Mondoa, M.D. (Culled from JimbiMedia)

You  most likely  do not know the distinguished looking man on the right, but perhaps you should. If you are a Nigerian or English-speaking Cameroonian who has tried to exercise academic excellence, he has influenced you directly or indirectly through people whom he has influenced. He is the legendary Nigerian mathematician, Chike Obi. Growing up, the name Chike Obi was synonymous with superhuman mathematical ability. I did not even believe that he was a real person until my aunt and I went to visit the late Professor Obenson at his office at the University of Lagos. Next door or a few doors down were the magical words: "Professor Chike Obi, Head of Department of Mathematics". I nearly fainted.

New Blog on the Block: www.ekosso.com

Sometime last week, I wrote about the virtual absence of Cameroonian bloggers in the African bloggosphere. I am happy to report that since that posting, the Cameroonian blogging community has been enriched with a new blog, www.ekosso.com, which is maintained by Rosemary Ekosso, a translator and courtroom interpreter at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.

Creative Appropriation of the Internet by Africans

By Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Culled from Africa's Media, Democracy and the Politics of Belonging. London: Zed Books. (May 2005). 320 pages. Cost: Hardback: £ 60.00 $85.00; Paperback: £ 18.95 $29.95

1. Africa and the Information Superhighway: What Future? (pp. 14-15)
Politically and socially, the Internet once fully developed and widely installed, could indeed offer Africans many avenues to address current predicaments and promote good governance (Berger 1998; Jensen 2000; Leslie 2002).

Blogging among Africans: Is a Revolution Really at Hand?

For next few days, we will take a look how Africans at home and in the Diaspora are harnessing the Internet (particularly the power of weblogs) to build vibrant cyber-communities, provide alternative analyses of events in the continent, challenge oppressive national regimes, and express personal views on a variety of issues.

We will also attempt to look at the future of African blogging. Can the African blogosphere become as influential and dynamic as that of the United States where leading political blogs have become part of the mainstream media, and where leading political bloggers play a major role in shaping political discourse?

In Search of the Elusive “BigFoot”: Where are the Cameroonian Bloggers?

By Dibussi Tande

In March 2006, South Africa organized its second annual South African Blog Award to recognize and celebrate the best of the South African blogs. The vibrancy of the South African blogging community was evident from the wide range of blog categories that were short-listed.

On June 1, 2006, Kenyan bloggers celebrated the first ever Kenyan Bloggers Day during which Kenyan bloggers around the world wrote about the state of Kenyan society, presented their vision of Kenya, and celebrated the ties that bind the tight-knit Kenyan blogging community.