Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Cameroon Diaspora Voting Act: List of External Voting Sites Published

 Dibussi Tande

The Minister of External Relations has published the list of Cameroonian diplomatic missions and consular offices that will serve as polling stations during the forthcoming presidential elections. According to Arrêté n°001/DIPL/CAB of August 24, 2011, Cameroonians residing abroad will be able to vote in 33 countries spread across 4 continents – 16 countries in Africa, 10 in Europe, four in Asia, and 3 in the Americas.

Issues and Questions about Cameroon’s Diaspora Voting Act (Part II)

By Dibussi Tande

In Part 2 of our analysis of Law no. 2011/013 of 13 July 2011 relating to voting by Cameroonian citizens settled or residing abroad, we will look at the role of diplomatic missions in the electoral process, and at the logistical challenges in establishing a viable voting structure in time for the (October?) 2011 presidential elections. 
Cameroonians line up to register for the 2007 symbolic vote in Paris (c) Blog du Code

Diplomatic missions in charge of the process
According to Section 3 of the Diaspora voting law,

“On the proposal of government, polling stations shall set up in diplomatic representations and consular posts.”

Beyond the Partisan Rhetoric: Issues and Questions about Cameroon’s Diaspora Voting Act (I)

By Dibussi Tande

On July 9, 2011, Cameroon’s parliament adopted a bill granting Cameroonians abroad the right to vote in presidential elections and referendum organized in Cameroon.

 
Symbolic vote of the Cameroonian Diaspora at the Esplanade du Trocadéro in Paris in July 2007 (c) Le Code

On June 13, President Biya signed it into law, thereby complying with a demand, which along with calls for the recognition of dual citizenship, had been at the center of the political demands of Cameroonians abroad for years. The new political dispensation has been received with mixed feelings within the Diaspora community with many arguing that the law falls short of expectations  and does not resolve the systemic issues around organizing elections in Cameroon.

Law N° 2011/013 of 13 July 2011: Relating To Voting By Cameroonian Citizens

The National Assembly deliberated and adopted, the President of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below.

Section 1. Cameroonian citizens settled or resident abroad shall exercise their right to vote through their participation in the election of the President of the Republic and in referendums.

The Biya Regime and Cameroon’s Diaspora-driven Cyberspace (Part 2)

By Dibussi Tande

In the Part 1 of this posting, we highlighted the fact that the Biya regime has never viewed the Cameroonian cyberspace as a viable space for civic engagement and public discourse, and instead sees it as a threat to the regime – a space that must be controlled, co-opted, contained, or simply coerced into submission.

In this second part, we continue with more landmark moments in the Biya regime’s decade-long attempts to control political discourse in the Diaspora and muzzle political activism on the Cameroonian virtual public sphere.

Cameroon’s Diaspora-driven Cyberspace: A Platform for Civic Engagement or a Threat to the Biya Regime?

By Dibussi Tande

Simply put, the Biya regime has never viewed Cameroonian cyberspace as a viable space for civic engagement and public discourse, instead, it sees it as a threat to the regime – a space that must either be controlled, co-opted, contained, or simply coerced into submission.

Why and how the Biya Regime is obsessed with controlling online speech and muzzling Diaspora political activism.

On February 22, 2011, Issa Tchiroma, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and the Government Spokesperson organized a press conference in which he lashed out at Cameroonians in the Diaspora for using Facebook and Twitter to try and launch Egypt-type protests in Cameroon:

Ambassador Mendouga, the Albatross Affair and Life in Kondengui

The Washington Diplomat - VOLUME 17, NUMBER 07. July 2010

“It’s not my official residence on Normanstone Drive, I can tell you that...I’m in a room built for 12 people, with three bunk beds, one on top of the other. For the time being, there are six or seven of us here. We have three boxes for showering and three toilets — one normal Western-style and two Turkish squat toilets.” Jerome Mendouga

After serving for 15 years as Cameroon’s ambassador to the United States, Jerome Mendouga has traded in the comfort of Embassy Row for the confines of Cameroon’s most notorious jail, as he fights to prove his innocence in a domestic scandal that has become the proverbial albatross around the disgraced diplomat’s neck.

Foreign ambassadors, once they finish their tours of duty in Wash ington, often go back home and write books or become private consultants. Others join the faculty of prestigious universities. If they’ve had an especially distinguished track record, they might be named foreign ministers by their country’s president, and — in a few cases — they end up as presidents themselves. Jerome Mendouga’s career took a very different path — taking him all the way
from the comfort of Washington’s Embassy Row to the squalor of Cameroon’s most notorious slammer.

Click here to download article in PDF format (3.62mb)

Statistics on the Level of Education of Cameroonian/African Immigrants in the US

Some interesting statistics on the level of education of African/Cameroonian immigrants in the United States:

• Most current data suggest that between 43.8 and 48.9 percent of all African immigrants in the United States hold a college diploma (Charles, 2007; U.S. Census, 2000).
• This is slightly more than the percentage of Asian immigrants to the U.S., nearly “double” the rate of native-born white Americans, and nearly four times the rate of native-born African Americans (Williams, 2005; The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• Black immigrants from Africa have also been shown to have rates of college graduation that are “more” than double that of the U.S.-born population, in general (Williams, 2005). For example, in 1997, 19.4 percent of all adult African immigrants in the United States held a “graduate degree”, compared to 8.1 percent of adult whites (a difference of “more than” double) and 3.8 percent of adult blacks in the United States, respectively (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1999-2000).
• This shows that America has an equally large achievement gap between white Americans and African born immigrants as between native born white and black Americans.

Source: African Immigrants exceed in ED

Where U.S. Workers Come From - Top Occupations for Immigrants Born in Cameroon

In "Remade in America - A series about the newest immigrants and their impact on American institutions,” today's online edition of The New York Times carries an interactive map listing the number of foreign-born workers in the US by occupation and country of origin.

According to the map, the top ranking occupations for Cameroonians in the US are (by order of importance), Nurses 1,800; Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants 1,000; Policemen and other protective service workers, 700; and Managers and administrators, 500, bringing the total number of workers of Cameroonian origin in all occupations to 10,300.

Cameroonian-born Professor Receives US Homeland Security Grant for Food Security Study

Culled from ASU News

Dr. William Nganje receives a quarter of a million dollars from the US Department of Homeland Security for his landmark study on food security.

Many of us remember or may have been affected by a recent nationwide salmonella outbreak originally thought to be caused by tainted tomatoes that was then later determined to be caused by jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico. By the time the cause was determined, it ended up costing both industries millions, and causing many unsuspecting consumers much discomfort.

“Such incidents illustrate the potential vulnerability in the security of imported food products,” said William Nganje, associate professor in the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, “and the need to develop a better tracking system.”

Controversy over Ebenizer Folefack Sontsa’s death: Was His Alleged Suicide a Cover-up?

Was Folefack a victim of police brutality or did he really take his own life?

• Friends say Folefack was so beat-up after the first expulsion attempt that he could barely walk straight, let alone be able to hang himself
• Those who examined his corpse at the morgue claim that there was no sign of trauma around his neck
• Inmates at the detention center say it is virtually impossible to hang oneself in the bathrooms
• Authorities at the Merksplas refugee center insist it was suicide, and that Folefack left a couple of suicide notes
• An autopsy is ordered as lawyers file suit against X.

Two news reports from Belgian TV (in French):

Free Stuff For New & Expectant parents!

Macabre Turn in the Brussels Airlines / Serge Fosso Affair: Deportee Commits Suicide

Belgian Politicians Call for a Moratorium on Expulsions

32-year old Ebenizer Folefack Sontsa, the Cameroonian national whose violent repatriation caused a mini revolt last Saturday on a Brussels Airline flight to Douala and led to the arrest of Serge Fosso, a passenger on the flight, committed suicide yesterday at the Merksplas refugee center (picture) in Belgium.

According to news reports, Ebenizer, who was placed in isolation after Saturday’s failed expulsion attempt, used bedsheets to hang himself in a bathroom. Police had to be brought in to quell the ensuing riot by other detainees.

Cameroon Embassy Official Blames Protesters for Riots

By Andy Matthews (The Mount Airy News)

(Exclusive story on Cameroon protests in Washington, D.C. and interview with Cameroon Embassy)

Cameroonians Demonstrating in Washington DC on March 14, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.: A spokesperson for the Cameroon Embassy said on Friday that anti-government protesters are not looking for a peaceful resolution to their quarrels with President Biya’s administration, suggesting that they prefer instead to incite riots and civil unrest that have led to the country’s worst violence in the last 15 years.

Cameroonians Demonstrate in Washington, DC

Cameroonians in Washington, DC yesterday took part in demonstrations at the Cameroon embassy and the White House organized by the "Civil Society Platform for Democracy in Cameroon".

According to organizers, the goal of the demonstrations was to draw attention to what the organization describes as the "systemic corruption and embezzlement, and public mismanagement that has crippled our country's economy and stunted its growth" and the "human rights violations, undemocratic practices and other actions that threaten the peace in Cameroon."

Jem Spectar Inaugurated as President of University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown

Cameroonian-born Jem Spectar was today inaugurated as President of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in a grandiose ceremony which included congratulatory messages from former US President Bill Clinton, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu, and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Jem Spectar is the first Cameroonian (and probably the first African) to hold such a distinguished position in a major US university. Congratulations for keeping the dream alive!

"From one West African visionary and leader to another, I would like to extend my congratulations to you for your achievements in academia... As a person of African descent in the U.S., you have shown our continental compatriots here and abroad that hard work and dedication do pay off. Your passion and professional contributions to scholarly work focused on international human rights and the rule of law are indeed an asset to the entire University. The nation of Cameroon will undoubtedly boast of your achievements as a child of their soil."

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - President of Liberia

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Petition for the Release of Mr. Ignatius Foncham after Tragic Loss of his Entire Family

Source: Foncham Petition Website

In the early morning of Thursday June 28th, 2007, copious amounts of gas swept through the Silver Spring, Maryland apartment of Mr. Ignatius Foncham, killing all three of his daughters (aged 4 years, 2 years and just 4 months old). The mother of the children survived the fire in critical condition, but unfortunately succumbed to the cold hands of death about two weeks later on July 12th, 2007.  Within the span of two weeks, Mr. Foncham’s life was turned upside down. It is impossible to imagine how one can recover from such a catastrophic loss. In light of this, it is even more devastating to consider that the loss of all of Mr. Foncham’s children happened in his absence, as he was then being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Diaspora to the Rescue, Cameroonians Online

By Lilian Ndangam (Rhodes Journalism Review, No 26 September 2006)

The story behind The Post newspaper's online presence.

Despite the proliferation of African newspapers online, many newsrooms around the continent still grapple with some difficult questions: How does a newspaper with no access to a computer linked to a modem create and maintain a website?

Why and how do you start publishing online when the print run of your hard copy ranges between 3 000 and 4 000, and your target audience is an urban-based, literate minority? In fact, why bother with online publishing in a country where computer ownership is very low and few people have regular access to the Internet? Enthusiastic about going online, yet challenged by these questions, Cameroon’s The Post– a private bi-weekly, English-language newspaper with a print run of 4 000, found one answer: the Cameroonian Diaspora.

Kingsley's Crossing: A Documentary of One Man's Journey In Search of Greener Pastures

By Olivier Jobard

"Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's willingness to abandon everything—his family, his country, and his friends—in the hopes of finding a better life abroad. Award-winning French photojournalist Olivier Jobard documents the passage."

[Click on the image above to view the documentary of Kingsley's "excruciating six-month journey across half of Africa".]

Click here for a report on Kingsley's journey published in The Independent (UK)

Bushfallers: How Cameroonians Live in the Diaspora

The cover story of the September issue of Post Newsmagazine, which is now available online, focuses on the trials and tribulations of Cameroonian bushfallers living in Western Europe, Asia and America. The cover story is based on the personal experiences of Cameroonians living in China, Austria, England, Germany and the United States. They write about everything from the regular pangs of homsickness to the challenges of integration and racism, including immigration and employment difficulties.

Dual Citizenship (II): A Win-Win Situation

By Dibussi Tande

"Worldwide, arguments against dual citizenship have become less compelling, over time, while arguments in favour of dual citizenship have become stronger, and especially over the last 10 to 15 years…"

As we saw in the first part of this article, globalization has dramatically altered the dual citizenship debate in many countries. The political reasons that were once used to reject dual citizenship in the 20th century are today steadily giving way to powerful economic and cultural arguments in favor of dual citizenship.