This weblog is based on DIBUSSI TANDE's personal views on people, places, issues and events in Cameroon, Africa and the world - Citizen Journalism at its finest!
Culled from Reform and Repression in Cameroon: A Chronicle of the Smoldering Years (1990-1992) by Dibussi Tande (Forthcoming).
On February 19, 1990, officers from the CENER, Cameroon’s national intelligence service, raided the law office of Yondo Mandengue Black in the city of Douala. They demanded that Black, a former President of the Cameroon Bar Association (CBA), hand over the bylaws and program of the political party that he was in the process of creating. After a search of the office yielded nothing incriminating, Black took the officers to his residence where he handed over a draft document titled “Coordination Nationale pour la démocratie et le multipartisme” (National Coordination for Democracy and Multipartyism).
Addressed to the Cameroonian people, the document criticized the one party system and the Biya regime, lamented about the worsening economic situation in Cameroon, and called for the reinstitution of multiparty politics in the country:
"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.
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.
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.
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).
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)
This week was the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, an event which symbolically marked the end of the cold war. Today, the memory of that event has faded, becoming a blur even to those who witnessed it. To my generation, the collapse of the wall was a momentous event, some would even say the most momentous one. In fact, it is easy to make a distinction between the world BEFORE and AFTER the wall;
UPDATE: Click here to watch video. (Youtube video embed not working) Video erroneously labeled as 20th May 1972 West Cameroon plebiscite...
CAMEROON: Independence plebiscite
Reuters - 15 February 1961: A West African country divided in two..... this is likely to be the result of a plebiscite held in the Cameroons, on Feb. 11 and 12. Final results have yet to be announced, but in Northern Cameroons there is already an unbeatable majority in favour of union with Nigeria, while in the Southern Cameroons, it is reported that a final majority in favour of union with the Cameroon Republic is already certain.
1. Inside Secretariat, Buea - "Berlin" nameplate on safe door
2. Bismarck on Buea fountain. Shots 1 & 2 to emphasise remnants of German influence still remain (Cameroons was German colony until First World War). Shot 7 also.
Culled from Reform and Repression in Cameroon: A Chronicle of the Smoldering Years (1990-1992), a forthcoming book by Dibussi Tande commemorating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Cameroon’s tumultuous democratization process.
On March 16, 1990, barely six days after the Biya regime insisted that multipartyism was not illegal in Cameroon, John Fru Ndi, a Bamenda-based bookseller, and Dr. Siga Assanga, a lecturer at the University of Yaounde, submitted an application with the Mezam divisional office seeking authorization for a political party called the Social Democratic Front (SDF).
Although the application was in direct response to the government’s declaration that multipartyism was not prohibited in Cameroon, the SDF had actually been in gestation months before the Yondo affair... [...]
Here is the English version of the April 6, 1984 coup proclamation, reportedly written by Issa Adoum, the civilian head of the coup and former CEO of Fonader, who was executed in Mbalmayo on May 2, 1984. The proclamation was read on the national radio station in Yaounde by 2d Lt Yaya Adoum.
Shooting and tank movements were reported around Cameroon's presidential palace today in what appeared to be West Africa's second coup in three days - LA Times
On April 6, 1984, rogue elements from the Republican Guards, led by Colonel Saleh Ibrahim, tried to overthrow President Paul Biya who had succeeded President Ahmadou Ahidjo on November 6, 1982. Throughout this week, this blog will revisit this event which many believed changed the course of Cameroon's history. We begin with a video narrative of events leading up to the coup attempt, particularly the split between President Biya and his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo (French).
President Kennedy welcomes President Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon at Washington National Airport - March 13, 1962.
Mr. President: I want to welcome you to the United States and to this Capital on behalf of the American people. I think all of us, living as we do a great many thousand miles from your own country, having a different history, separated in time and space, are impressed by the efforts that you personally have made, and your people have made, to build a viable and strong economy and country.
Early this month, the Government of India unsuccessfully tried to stop the sale of Gandhi's belongings in New York on grounds that these were part of India's national heritage. The struggle over the Gandhi memorabilia was reminiscent of the epic battle between Cameroon and a Manhattan art dealer over the stolen Afo-a-Akom. Here is that story as reported by Time Magazine in 1973.
Lost Totem. Time Magazine, Nov. 05, 1973
The Afo-A-Kom is far from the world's greatest piece of art—or even Africa's. A 5-ft. 2½in. image of a king, it is rather crudely carved in iroko wood, the torso covered with sackcloth stitched with reddish-brown beads, the face masked in copper. But the Afo-A-Kom (literally, the Kom thing) is sacred to the approximately 30,000 people who constitute the Kom kingdom, a tribal enclave in the northwestern part of the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
A brief report on the unification of the British and French Cameroons. What expectations did Southern Cameroons leaders have of unification? What promises did the leaders of the French Cameroons make with regards to unification? How did the erstwhile equal relationship between Premier Foncha and President Ahidjo become be a subaltern one? Documentary contains very rare archival video footage and audio clips from the 1960s and 1970s. (In French).
Rare video footage and report (in French) on Ahmadou Ahidjo's resignation as President of Cameroon on November 4, 1982 and Paul Biya's swearing-in on November 6, 1982 - at least some of us had the opportunity to witness, in our lifetime a (peaceful) transfer of power in Cameroon...
Poem read by Maya Angelou at the Clinton Inaugural on January 20, 1993
A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
For those who have always wondered where and how Dr. John Ngu Foncha, the former Premier of the Southern Cameroons, earned his doctorate...
The New York Times, June 3, 1964.
Vice President John N. Foncha of Cameroon received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws yesterday from St. John's University at a special ceremony on the campus in Jamaica, Queens [New York].
The Very Rev. Edward J. Burke, president of the university, conferred the degree. He said that Mr. Foncha was " a distinguished statesman and diplomat who has shown rare qualities of leadership and dedication in helping to guide the young West African federal republic in the international community of states."
Mr. Foncha was educated in Nigeria and served several years as headmaster of the Catholic Mission School in Bamenda before entering politics in 1954.
A piece of historical trivia as President Paul Biya of Cameroon travels to New York for the 63rd United Nations General Assembly.
POLICE ASSAILED BY NEGRO AT U.N.; Cameroon Delegate Says He Was Stopped on Street Because of Color
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Oct. 13 1960 -- Ferdinand Oyono, permanent delegate of the Cameroon to the United Nations, maintained today that his detention yesterday by the city police for failing to show his United Nations pass had been caused solely because of his color.
The permanent delegate to the United Nations from Cameroon said he was "singled out of a crowd of white persons walking on the west side of First Avenue near the UN building.
By James Brooke (Originally published in the New York Times)
September 7, 1987
They are called ''Pajero-crats'' - a proud caste of bureaucrats who ride around town in luxurious Jeep-like vans made by Japanese auto makers.
In Cameroon's oil boom years of the early 1980's, these enterprising public servants borrowed small fleets of Government-owned Mitsubishis and put them to use as inter-city taxis. It was hard to lose money: Government chauffeurs drove Government cars fueled by Government-issued gasoline coupons.
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Oct. 13 1960 -- Ferdinand Oyono, permanent delegate of the Cameroon to the United Nations, maintained today that his detention yesterday by the city police for failing to show his United Nations pass had been caused solely because of his color. 
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