Review of African Political Economy Vol. 37, No. 124, June 2010, 239–240
Scribbles from the den: essays on politics and collective memory in Cameroon, by Dibussi Tande, Bamenda, Cameroon, Langaa Publishers, 2009, 212 pp., £19.95, ISBN 978-9956558919
Dibussi Tande’s Scribbles from the den: essays on politics and collective memory in Cameroon definitely contains no ‘scribbles’. It is a collection of well articulated essays capturing the socio-cultural and political fabric of the nation state of Cameroon and of Africa in general. The 49 selected essays in this volume first appeared on ‘Scribbles from the den,’ Dibussi Tande’s award-winning blog, www.dibussi.com, between 2006 and 2009, a fact which has implications for the tone and texture of these essays. Tande is not oblivious to these implications. As he explains:
Exactly 50 years ago, on 13 September 1958, Ruben Um Nyobe, leader of the nationalist Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) was assassinated by French forces in the outskirts of Boumnyebel in the Sanaga Maritime division. Um Nyobe’s death set in motion a series of events that culminated in the elimination of the UPC as a political force in Cameroon, the exiling and/or assassination of its entire leadership, and the establishment of a French-controlled neo-colonial police state in Cameroon led by individuals who either played a marginal role in the struggle for independence or were even opposed to that struggle. 
After nearly half a century of institutional attempts to erase Ruben Um Nyobe from Cameroon's collective memory, the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) began the slow process of redefining the nationalist leader's legacy by constructing a monument in his honor in the town of Eseka where he is buried. 
has been awarded the first-ever Felix Moumie prize, named after the 
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.
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. 
On November 30, 1989, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s first President, died in exile in Dakar, Senegal, far away from the country that he had ruled with an iron and bloody fist for over two decades. 
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