Radio France International. “Ahmadou Ahidjo: The First President of Cameroon”. Archives d'Afrique – a program on contemporary African history based on archival material and eyewitness accounts.
Radio France International (RFI) has just wrapped up a 10-part five-hour series on the life and times of Cameroon’s first Head of State, Ahmadou Ahidjo - from his ascension to power in 1958 as Prime Minister of the French Cameroons, to his resignation as President of Cameroon in November 1982, to his death in exile in Dakar, Senegal in November 1989. Since Ahidjo's life is basically the history of Cameroon for the period in question, this is in essence an audio history of the bilingual Cameroon republic.
Produced by one of RFI’s leading “Africanists”, Alain Foka as part of the “Archives d’Afrique” series, the program on Ahmadou Ahidjo neither seeks to glorify the former President nor does it attempt to trash him. It is an exciting, revelatory but dispassionate look at everything Ahidjo - the good the bad and the ugly.
This is without doubt the most detailed audio piece done on Cameroonian history. It contains archival material such as Ahidjo declaring the Independence of Cameroun on January 1 1960, Foncha addressing Southern Cameroonians after the plebiscite, Ahidjo's resignation speech, etc.
It also has great interviews with the likes of the notorious Pierre Messmer whose voice is now barely a whisper, Ahidjo’s henchman Samuel Eboa, Ahidjo’s biographer Philip Gaillard, etc. However the most fascinating person in the series is none other than Germaine Ahidjo, the former President’s widow who puts up a most feisty defense of the Ahidjo regime, and gives an inside look at some of the major events in Cameroon's history such as the clash between Ahidjo and Biya or the Ndongmo Affair – “Ahidjo despised Bishop Ndongo but set him free; he had a lot of respect for Ernest Ouandie but executed him”…
In this series, we discover a Germaine Ahidjo who is witty, alert and sometimes funny – an image totally at odds with the withdrawn, serious, silent and mysterious First Lady that Cameroonians remember. If her performance in the series is anything to go by, then it would be a major loss if she dies without writing her memoirs.
The series is also spiced with classic tunes from the pioneers of modern Cameroonian music - Francis Bebey, Manu Dibango, Eboua Lotin, Nele Eyoum, Charles Lembe, Rachel Tchoungui, etc.
The 10-part radio program is downloadable from the RFI website in either Windows Media or Real Audio format. RFI radio archives are taken offline after a while so interested parties should download the entire series (roughly 20 mb in size) as soon as possible and save it either as a digital file on their computers or as audio files on a CD.
Click here for the 10-part series on Ahmadou Ahidjo.
When will they do a series on french massacres in africa?
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Posted by: Elisa (italia) | January 05, 2007 at 03:26 AM
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Posted by: suzan | March 23, 2007 at 06:43 AM
Where can I buy this series on Amadou Ahidjo
Posted by: Keats | March 05, 2008 at 06:35 PM
The entire series is available on icicemac.com at:
http://icicemac.com/musique/index.php?id=23
and
http://icicemac.com/musique/index.php?id=24
Posted by: justin | March 06, 2008 at 08:38 PM