Lapiro de Mbanga - Death Most Foul

"Lapiro de Mbanga Ndinga Man e mandat don bolè today for Etaz! Erreur or no erreur die na ndos! Waka nayo Ndinga man. We go di follow ya 4 chapters di listen ya mutumbu until we own mandat bolè. We go di mimba you tara! All man must go one day ... RIP." Sarli Sardou Nana.

Originally published by Freemuse

Singer and musician Lapiro de Mbanga from Cameroon – the “unceremonial sheriff of the backyards” – has died, 56 years old.

Lapiro de Mbanga was a musical “freedom fighter” who articulated the daily injustices he witnessed in his songs – and was punished hard for his right to express them.


On 16 March 2014, Lapiro de Mbanga died of cancer in USA, the country which gave him asylum in 2012 at a time when he had to leave Cameroon under dramatic circumstances.

“Authorities in Cameroon continued to harass and threaten Lapiro even after he was released. He needed to get out of the country, and we needed to find an urgent solution,” told Freemuse Director Ole Reitov. With the help of Freedom Now, Lapiro was given refugee asylum in the United States.

“Lapiro said that Freemuse ‘saved his life’. He often told us that he ‘was ready to die’, but we never felt we were ready to loose him,” said Ole Reitov. “His songs will never die. He will always be remembered as ‘the people’s voice’ against corruption and power abuse.”

A few hours after his death, newspapers in Cameroon described his death as “a huge loss to Cameroonian music.”

Three years in prison
Freemuse in collaboration with International Pen started campaigning for the release of Lapiro in 2008, but on 9 September 2009, Lapiro was sentenced three years imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of 280 million CFA francs (640,000 US dollars) as compensation for damage caused during riots where protesters had taken to the streets, angered by high living costs and a constitutional change that would allow the country’s president to stay in power indefinitely.

Lapiro’s crime allegedly was that the amid nationwide strikes and mass demonstrations in 2008, he had composed and recorded the song ‘Constitution Constipée’, (Constipated Constitution), in which he describes the country’s president, Paul Biya, as “caught in the trap of networks that oblige him to stay in power even though he is tired.” The song became an unofficial anthem of the protests, and Lapiro was arrested and charged of inciting youth unrest.

“My struggle has always been to denounce inequalities, and danger is part of that mission,” said Lapiro de Mbanga when he was interviewed in 2010 during his unfair imprisonment where he shared a cell with 50 other prisoners.

Global award
In 2009, Freemuse nominated Lapiro for the Freedom to Create Award, and in November 2009 at a ceremony in London, Freemuse received the award on the behalf of Lapiro – ‘The Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artist Prize’. The jury panel, which included renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim, argued that “his songs constitute a cultural megaphone by which the disenfranchised and politically endangered can vicariously exercise free speech.”

The news was conveyed to Lapiro in his prison cell in Cameroon a few hours before the prize ceremony took place Wednesday evening at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in attendance of international luminaries such as the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Time Out founder Tony Elliot and Human rights activist Bianca Jagger.

A month later, Lapiro contracted typhoid fever and nearly died of that disorder and respiratory complications. In addition to Freemuse’s world-wide campaign for his release, Mondomix compiled a CD in support of Lapiro and campaigned actively in France for his release, the U.S.-based lawyers’ organization Freedom Now monitored Mbanga’s case throughout his incarceration, and in April 2010, the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN also launched a campaign to help win Mbanga’s freedom.

In 2011, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that Mbanga’s arrest was an infringement of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He was released from prison on 8 April 2011, one day before the official end of his sentence.

Long list of biting texts
Already one year leater, Lapiro surprised the Cameroon government with the release of yet another anti-Biya music album calling on the president to resign, ‘Demissionnez’.

In September 2012, Mbanga, his wife, and five of their six children left Cameroon for the United States, where they had been granted asylum after receiving threats on this life. His exile was described by one newspaper as a major loss for the Cameroonian music scene.

Lapiro de Mbanga – his real name was Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger – composed and recorded what Index on Censorship has described as “a long list of biting texts on the socio-economic realities in his beleaguered country.”

His hit songs during the 1980s and 1990s were regularly censored by the Cameroonian government, and he was seen as a spokesman for the youth of his country, using the power of popular music to campaign for social reforms in his native Cameroon during three decades.

Since 2010, a book detailing Mbanga’s trial and the reasons for his exile (Cabale Politico-Judiciaire Ou La Mort Programmée D’Un Combatant De La Liberté) has been said to be “due for release soon”.

Cameroon has still not paid compensation to Lapiro and his family.

 

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Comments

[LAPIRO FOR EVER]

HOW THE BIYA REGIME KILLED LAPIRO (Excerpt from a May 2013 interview):

CAMEROUN| Extrait d'une interview au quotidien Mutations (31 mai 2013) :

Question: «Comment Lapiro de Mbanga s'occupe-t-il aux États-Unis d'Amérique?

Réponse: «Pour une fois dans ma vie, j'ai beaucoup plus du temps à m'occuper de mes enfants et je suis très heureux. En plus je m'occupe de ma santé car je suis sorti de prison pratiquement foutu. Il vous souvient que le médecin de la prison centrale de Douala, Amougou Elo Benjamin, avait reçu mission de me tuer méthodiquement, et m'avait empêché d'aller me faire soigner à l'hôpital Laquintinie. Ma maladie s'est empirée et je tiens à dire ici que si j'étais resté au Cameroun je suis sûr que mes obsèques auraient déjà eu lieu.»
http://cameroon-info.net/stories/0,46794,@,lapiro-de-mbanga-je-serais-deja-mort-si-j-etais-reste-au-cameroun.html

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Question: How does Lapiro keep busy in the United States?

Answer: For the first time in my life, I have ample time to take care of my kids, and I am very happy. Also, I take care of my health because I came out of prison completely messed up. Remember that the Medical Doctor of the Douala central prison, Amougou Elo Benjamin, was given the mission to kill me slowly, and he prevented me from going for treatment at the Laquintinie Hospital. My illness has worsened. I would like to state here that if I had remained in Cameroon, I am sure that my funeral would have already taken place.

[Marie Abanga]

So sad indeed. In 2009, I did a lot of probono work at the New bell prison both legal and social wise. l was privileged to be trusted enough to be let into the famous celule 18 for the VIPs who included Ndinga Man now of blessed memory. He in particular was keeping his cheer and the moral of the other VIPs and even their 'bodyguards' (other fortunate prisoners who got those jobs) cool. He took some liking to me and facilitated for me to interview some of the VIPs and to get a better insight into that world. l also knew one of his core lawyers and did some research work for the latter too.
May he truly rest in peace, yes erreur for nboutoukou na dame for ndos>

[Bandolo]

Goodbye my bro, you have the guarantee that all those dreaded masons who orchestrated your demise will see you soon. The good thing is you get to help the almighty judge point them out for their judgement to netted out. Till we all the oppressed meet again keep heaven smiling and dancing with rhythmic tunes. Enjoy your eternal peace and intervene for all the oppressed.

[Miky mouse jean don frere]

Ndinga Man Mola, we di miss you so much tara, make yu waka fine greet Pa Bob Marley, Peter Toush, Miriam Makeba, Tom Yoms, charlotte Mbango and the rest fo we don whey dem done waka. Make Etudi know say he Mbiya too no go sleep fine becaus say chakara he chakara sick di come whey i own complice them go finish he. Fever dey at hand fo he better all thing them mbole for this pays because Massa John for Ntarikon with all people for UN People organisation them go tell he say No Make Erreur because we to Savoir say Savoir yu know go use we again We di go too for we own place for secteur fo form we own Union Government or better say we complice tooo for UN go gi we waitti we don suffer for all years.
Bro. yur spirit no go die he di live for we memory Constitution for Cameroon na constiper time don ripe weh we too go say Ninja them too go follow we for waitti them do for waka with he and he complice them weh them di chop a chop and suveuter them di cry for get small gari whissa we di go for new generation make we siyam. Rest yu fine Grand tarra we too go mash fire for follow your talk.

[Ofege]

We may also wish to remember that...to be lapiroed is a neologism invented by Prof Bole Butake in memoriam of Lapiro.

[tarnteh cater]

i really wonder if Lapiros corpse was actually brought and burried in his home.pls . Ngimga man in our hearts forever. we misss u grand tarra

[Dee]

Thank you Dibussi.
I also wrote 2 articles about the death of Lapiro de Mbanga:

http://afrolegends.com/2014/03/18/lapiro-de-mbanga-the-voice-of-the-voiceless-is-gone/

http://afrolegends.com/2014/03/19/lapiro-de-mbanga-in-his-own-words/