AFRICAphonie AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Bakwerirama Spotlight on Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Bate Besong Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Bernard Fonlon Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
Fonlon-Nichols Award Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
France Watcher Purpose of this advocacy site: To aggregate all available information about French terror, exploitation and manipulation of Africa
Jacob Nguni Virtuoso guitarist, writer and humorist. Former lead guitarist of Rocafil, led by Prince Nico Mbarga.
Martin Jumbam The refreshingly, unique, incisive and generally hilarous writings about the foibles of African society and politics by former Cameroon Life Magazine columnist Martin Jumbam.
Nowa Omoigui Professor of Medicine and interventional cardiologist, Nowa Omoigui is also one of the foremost experts and scholars on the history of the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Civil War. This site contains many of his writings and comments on military subjects and history.
Postwatch Magazine A UMI (United Media Incorporated) publication. Specializing in well researched investigative reports, it focuses on the Cameroonian scene, particular issues of interest to the former British Southern Cameroons.
Simon Mol Cameroonian poet, writer, journalist and Human Rights activist living in Warsaw, Poland
Victor Mbarika ICT Weblog Victor Wacham Agwe Mbarika is one of Africa's foremost experts on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Dr. Mbarika's research interests are in the areas of information infrastructure diffusion in developing countries and multimedia learning.
Tunduzi A West African in Arusha at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the angst, contradictions and rewards of that process.
Dr Godfrey Tangwa (Gobata) Renaissance man, philosophy professor, actor and newspaper columnist, Godfrey Tangwa aka Rotcod Gobata touches a wide array of subjects. Always entertaining and eminently readable. Visit for frequent updates.
Francis Nyamnjoh Prolific writer, social and political commentator, he was a professor at University of Buea and University of Botswana. Currently he is Head of Publications and Dissemination at CODESRIA in Dakar, Senegal. His writings are socially relevant and engaging even to the non specialist.
Ilongo Sphere: Writer and Poet Novelist and poet Ilongo Fritz Ngalle, long concealed his artist's wings behind the firm exterior of a University administrator and guidance counsellor. No longer. Enjoy his unique poems and glimpses of upcoming novels and short stories.
Scribbles from the Den The award-winning blog of Dibussi Tande, Cameroon's leading blogger.
Enanga's POV Rosemary Ekosso, a Cameroonian novelist and blogger who lives and works in Cambodia.
GEF's Outlook Blog of George Esunge Fominyen, former CRTV journalist and currently Coordinator of the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal.
The Chia Report The incisive commentary of Chicago-based former CRTV journalist Chia Innocent
Voice Of The Oppressed Stephen Neba-Fuh is a political and social critic, human rights activist and poet who lives in Norway.
Bate Besong Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Bakwerirama Spotlight on the Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Fonlon-Nichols Award Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
Bernard Fonlon Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
AFRICAphonie AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland Professional translator, freelance writer and a regular contributor to THE POST newspaper. Lives in Douala, Cameroon
They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
At almost every funeral that I can remember attending, there has been at least one person whose eulogy has been a reminder that “we are here to celebrate the life of …” I know I said it at my mother’s passing in December 2000.
But this statement, which evokes fond memories of our loved one, has also not prohibited me from wondering ever so often whether those of us from the developing world, particularly Africa, are not exaggeratedly misplacing priorities by how much is spent and sacrificed for the dead over the living. I am wondering how much we are spending when our loved one is sick and dying on a hospital bed or at home? Is that cost more than or less than the funeral costs?
Cameroon has ratified most of the core international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Cameroon, like much of Africa actively participated in the deliberations and negotiations leading to the creation of the ICC and featured among the first countries to sign the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court on the 17 July, 1998. Ironically, this early enthusiasm towards the ICC has been blighted by a prolonged reluctance to ratify the ICC statute earning Cameroon the status of an ‘ICC hesitant’ country.
The Kapayas in Lusaka boast all the hallmarks of a middle-class lifestyle but try to maintain their rural family values. Photograph: Georgina Smith
At the end of another of Kinshasa's potholed roads, lined with shacks and crumbling matchbox houses, comes a sudden clearing. It is a sandy patch of land surrounded by water in which bare-chested boys in dugout canoes paddle among the hyacinths. A giant pump is working day and night, reclaiming land from the sandbanks and river beds, expanding the city in defiance of nature.
By Innocent Chia Following the pre-ballot victory of President Biya at the October 9th elections, the octogenarian, entering his 30th year of autocratic rule in the banana Republique du Cameroun, reshuffled his cabinet. One week after the Ministerial appointments, political pundits and many interested parties are dumbfounded, finding neither rhyme nor reason to the 34th cabinet. The Chia Report takes note of the black ink on white paper and steps further afield, even as three women win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, to look at Biya’s consistent message to his daughters and women in general – study Women’s affairs and /or culture. It a message in dissonance with what the late first lady, Jeanne Irene Biya stood for as a nurse practitioner.
By Hinsley Njila for The Chia Report Recent persistent and unchallenged rumors about the imminent devaluation of the CFA Franc have left many who do business and/or hold long cash positions in Central and West Africa unsettled about the potential consequences to their interests. In the November 22nd issue of the Frontier Telegraph, Dr. Gary Busch alleges that the agreement to devalue the currency has already been reached by the Africans and the French. Furthermore, he alleges that Alassane Ouattara has been dispatched to make the rounds to all 14 CFA zone member countries to help them prepare for this eventual change.
Yes, small-scale adaptation actions should be widely adopted as a way of addressing recurring food crises in the Horn of Africa, says Dr. Richard Munang of the UN’s Climate Change Adaptation and Development (CC DARE) programme. Large-scale, top down commercial agriculture fails to build the resilience needed in the Horn of Africa to avoid crisis after crisis.
By Innocent Chia It costs a minimum $12,000 (6 million CFA frs) to transport a corpse from the United States to Cameroon. The majority of Cameroonians who are neither home owners nor car owners list the death of a loved one in America as their largest single expenditure - other than a trip to the emergency room…. But that may be over now. An association has come to the rescue with a scheme where members spend a maximum of $15.00 and the corpse is taken all the way to the village in Cameroon.
If anyone had lingering doubts about Obama's inaugural promise to unclinch the fists of dictators across Africa, he served another reminder in a pre-taped interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The spate of dictatorships that have crumbled within the last 10 months - Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya - provides more than a sneak-preview of prevailing anxieties in surviving dictatorships - Paul Biya of Cameroon and Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.
While Cameroon's CPDM has uncharacteristically not celebrated its "People's choice" "victory" from the elections of October 9th, Obiang is beginning to feel some ground shifting from underneath...If the dictator will not crumble on his own, his collaborators do not have the same security in the respective villages and neighborhoods... If the collaborators crumble, the dictator cannot replace them fast enough... The Obama doctrine is that there is no safe haven for dictators, their kids or collaborators...at home in Cameroon or abroad in the US!
By Roland Abeng - Barrister at Law The stage had long been prepared for the outcome of the October 9th presidential elections in Cameroon. The Law creating Elections Cameroon and its subsequent modifications which diluted the powers of the institution; the 2008 constitutional amendment removing presidential mandate limits; and, of course, the “PEOPLE’S CALL” for president Biya to stand as candidate for the elections are just some of the acts that helped seal the outcome of the October 9th event.
By Innocent Chia When the UN authorized Military Action against Libya’s Muammar Kaddafi over 7 months ago on March 17, 2011 there was fierce opposition to yet “another Western invasion of an African and Muslim country”- (my paraphrase). African proponents of this anti-Western rhetoric viewed it in black and white terms – the invasion was all about Libyan oil and little to do with the freedom of Libyan people. With reports confirming the killing of Kaddafi in his home town of Sirte, there is much to consider about the claims that only the West wanted Kaddafi gone. But today, The Chia Report makes the argument that when African leaders begin respecting the wisdom of limited terms in office, it will guarantee Africa and Africans the beginning of truly fair treatment from peers and the rest of the World.
By Innocent Chia Beyond midway from voting on Sunday, October 9, 2011 and next Sunday, October 23 when results of Cameroon’s Presidential elections are expected, credit has to be given to the Biya rigging machine – in cahoots with the non-descript and hollow ELECAM – for the wholesale bribery of opposition leaders. The scheme that advanced 50 percent of campaign funds before elections, and a promissory note to pay the other half post electorally, not only pinched most of the already cash-strapped opposition; it guaranteed a staying power for the mendicant and sucked the oxygen out of any pipedreams for a united opposition front. But the greatest coup yet by the Biya camp may be the messianic victories that he is getting, thanks to simulated citizens like Lady Kate Njeuma, from the recently enfranchised and controversial Diaspora.
By Innocent Chia Sources close to the security detail of the 29 years old regime of President Paul Biya are intimating intense planning for possible escape routes in case of escalating violence post October 9th, 2011 Presidential elections. Unlike the1984 coup d’état in which then Captain Ivo took Biya into hiding - thus guaranteeing the Presidency that has become today’s surviving dictatorship - there is recognition within the security apparatchiks that the Etoudi Unity Palace is not labyrinth enough for the anger that will fuel the next popular uprising in Cameroon.
Equities in the US are on track for their worse quarter since 2008 even as many investors fear that economic data from China and Europe is pointing toward a global slowdown. My focus in this article is on the current financial nightmare in Europe that is the catalyst of the current bearishness, and more importantly the potential short and long-term consequences to African economies regardless of the fix.
Dr Mal Fobi’s much coveted endorsement has been won by Kah Walla, Presidential candidate at the upcoming October 9th elections in Cameroon. In the shell shocking move particularly rebuking of erstwhile Cameroon opposition front leader, Ni John Fru Ndi - said to be mimicking President Biya’s every move to eternalize himself at the head of the party and the nation – the US and world renown surgeon touts Kah Walla as a "tool for Devine Intervention" by which Cameroon will be spared of the Arab spring bloodbath.
It is not only an endorsement that revitalizes a campaign that many see as doomed to fail on the merits of geopolitics and limited knowledge of the candidate outside her stronghold of Douala and a couple other cosmopolitan areas. The campaign is in dire need of financial support, a boon that the California based Dr. MAL Fobi brought to the SDF in 1992. Even more than inviting the rest of the Cameroon Diaspora, and possibly some Hollywood heavy-hitters, to support financially and otherwise, the endorsement also turns the lights on President Paul Biya’s charade as much as on Kah Walla and the Cameroon People’s Party to deliver.
It does not surprise many Cameroonians and avid observers - as much as it is discombobulating to the greater majority, defying commonsense and the prospect for a peaceful transition in Cameroon - that Biya is hanging on for another term in power. Barely two days after setting the date for the much anticipated 2011 elections on October 9th, Biya's team moved swiftly, depositing his registration fee into the treasury before dateline at end of business on Wednesday 8/31. The dateline for contenders to be registered is Sunday, September 4th. His mere registration as CPDM candidate and incumbent guarantees him victory - even before the ballot is cast - and hands disheartening defeat on a golden platter both to the citizens of La Republique du Cameroon who are yearning for a fresh start and, especially, to some foreign nationals of Southern Cameroons who are arguably far too eager to trade personal power for the perpetual enslavement of their masses.
Robert Ndifor Tamukong has been ushered in as the new President of Minnesota Cameroonians following elections on Saturday August 13, 20011 at 5801 John Martins Dr in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Winning over 60 percent of the vote of registered MINCAM members, the incoming President acknowledged his rival and pioneer outgoing President, Esq. Michael Fondungallah and his team for their vision and leadership over the last three years. Beyond the acknowledgement however, concerned Cameroonians within proximity that have been monitoring the otherwise remote election heaved a sigh of relief when the incoming President extended an olive branch to the outgoing team. Both campaign teams were accusing each other of crossing over the fine line of political civility and linguistic probity on the last stretch of the campaign.
In the first open election of its three year history, an acrimonious rift is engulfing members of the association of Cameroonians in Minnesota (MINCAM) who are expressing loyalties to two main rival teams. At best, there is a discussion going on as to the needs of Cameroonians in Minnesota and what it takes to meet those needs.
At worst, and currently overshadowing the best, there has been overzealousness by some within the campaign teams to capitalize and win sympathies through fueling fires along ethnic divisions and tensions against the elections that take place on 8/13/2011. But tonight, esteemed Cameroon journalist Eric Chinje will be having a town hall type meeeting with members of MINCAM on the eve of their elections.
By Innocent Chia, first published in Dunia Magazine print – issue 4
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love-child affair has sent reverberations the world over not only because it happened right under the nose of wife Maria Shriver with a trusted maid of over 20 years, but also because the drama highlights a contemporary challenge for spouses – babysitting and housekeeping. Far from the melodrama in Hollywood, almost every family with kids in America confronts the difficult choices of finding affordable childcare for the family. Within immigrant communities the challenge of affordability is often compounded by nostalgic cultural affinities.
An extrapolation from the latest British Medical Journal, the Lancet, indicates that diabetes is on par to be the leading killing disease among Cameroonian women. According to the study that spans almost three decades, from 1980-2008, there has been a 60% increase in the prevalence of diabetes in the Cameroon female population. Compare this number to the 15-30 % increase during the identical timeframe among the male population. In the following piece, Hinsley Njila speaks his heart through his mind, imploring the government and Cameroon media to spring to live before the clock runs out of the ticking timebomb. The call for a sense of urgency stifles popular cliches that "Black men love their women fat".
Summer time in North America is Convention Season for most every immigrant group - ethnic, alma maters and professional organizations alike. Indeed, because of these conventions there is an inordinate number of immigrants who plan their annual vacation time to coincide with these events that typically alternate from State to State, depending on the ability and willingness of the local chapters to host. And so it is that former students of the all female secondary school located in Cameroon's Northwest Regional city of Bamenda, Our Lady of Lourdes College, are meeting in the midwest brewing Capital of Milwaukee, Wisconsin to celebrate and refocus following a year of serious hot flashes... Meantime, proud sons and daughters of Kom - village of the renown Afoakom - will not only be showing off juju styles in Minneapolis-Minnesota...
By Philip Acha Much like his surreptitious act of changing the name of the country from United Republic of Cameroon to Republic of Cameroon has come back to haunt annexationists and empowered secessionists, Biya cronies are working overtime to figure out a self-inflicted constitutional conundrum created by over maneuvering and overzealousness. According to Alain Didier Olinga, the former Deputy Director of the school of International Relations (IRIC), who recently intimated the constitutional hara-kiri and got fired from his job, amending Article 6(2) of 1996 Constitution in April 2008 disqualified President Biya from the 2011 race. Some constitutional experts made their arguments to The Chia Report on condition of anonymity…
By Hinsley Njila for The Chia Report In the increasingly growing and, in my opinion, critically important relationship between Africa and China, Africa is by far the loser on almost any bilateral indicator you may want to examine. Of course I’m willing to concede that there are some very smart people who look at the same data like me and point to a slightly different conclusion that benefits Africa; for instance the fact that China currently has a trade deficit with Africa, and that China presents an almost friction-free marketplace for African goods that would otherwise be unavailable are two of the most often talked about reasons.
Regardless of this honest difference in opinion, there’s overwhelming agreement that Africa will benefit many folds if a little leverage was exercised. In this piece, I take you through a fact finding journey talking to some powerful Chinese businessmen, and I offer a few experienced-based insights for African businesses and governments to exploit.
Fact: the only way Biya does not win the 2011 Presidential elections in Cameroon is if he decides not to run for the office. Indeed, for the first time since 1992 President Biya, although the statutory presidential candidate for CPDM (since he is party leader) is yet to announce his candidacy for October 2011 elections. At first this may look normal till you realize that the usual suspects on the opposition bench are also delaying presidential campaign kick-off. Could they be privy to “hidden” information? Or maybe they want to identify whom they are running against in the CPDM.
By Innocent Chia In the course of the several weeks and months of loyal partisan rage and carnage in Cote d’Ivoire, it needed a lot of restraint to not jump into the fascinating vociferousness for or against President Laurent Gbagbo and Allasane Ouattara that soared on cyber forums. I would be a bold faced liar not to express my consternation for those opinions that not only embraced Gbagbo’s mid-game changing rules; they eagerly threaded the nonsense that Ouattara’s French-wife sealed the deal. Such anti-Western feelings, a staple for Muammar Kaddafi, equally garnered support and sympathy for Libya’s strongman as the international community finally came to the rescue of a defiant opposition. Be it in the Cote d’Ivoire case or the unfolding drama in Libya, it is disturbing, albeit unsurprising, that a substantial number within the vocal Cameroonian Diaspora eschewed democracy.
Someone recently quipped that if we were to go by the numerous motions of support addressed to President Paul Biya and read every day over CRTV, there will be no need to hold elections in Cameroon. As I write this there is a debate raging in Cameroon over whether university lecturers and intellectuals can send motions of support to the president. According to Professor Jacque Fame Ndongo, Minister of Higher Education, there is no reason why they shouldn’t.
Since I authored a piece in The Chia Report a few weeks ago there have been a significant outpouring of commentaries and expectations. I essentially drew two conclusions from all the commentaries I received. The first is an expressed need for immediate action that will bring change to Cameroon.The second point I deduced is that people are yearning for a decisive strategy that will lead to eventual change. This follow up is intended to call on every Cameroonian to join the dialogue and take action that will bring positive change to Cameroon. We are no longer entitled to stand by as idle spectators while others make decisions that define who we are and where we are headed.
With a spark of the match from whence revolutionary flames have been burning dramatically for the last two months in North Africa and the wider Middle East, President Biya of Cameroon began throwing teaspoons of water at his bubbling hot house. Two months to date on Cameroon’s annual national youth day, February 11th (2011), CEO Biya announced that his Pineapple Farm – the Cameroon Public Service - was going to be hiring 25000 Cameroonians. The tax-payer sponsored media – CRTV and Cameroon Tribune – have been all over heaping praises at his lordship for his foresight, benevolence, and visionary leadership. Even before the World Bank’s recent dismissal of Biya’s prank based on capacity and solvency, there are commonsensical questions that expose the propaganda for what it is.
MyGlobalPay, Ltd, a subsidiary of Chartered Diversified Holdings Limited Liability Company, and TreasureCom Financial Holdings, Inc. (TreasureCom) announced (4/4/11) that MyGlobalPay will become the exclusive representative of TreasureCom in Africa. MyGlobalPay acquired exclusive representation rights in Africa after purchasing TreasureCom’s licenses previously issued to two other African companies based in Cameroon and Kenya. In addition to reaching separate agreements with these companies, MyGlobalPay then sought rights to represent TreasureCom throughout the African continent.
By Innocent Chia - Courtesy Dunia Magazine – issue 3(Feb – May 2011)
I cannot remember thinking much about why my parents named me Innocent until I was an old twenty nine year old man in grad school in Madison, Wisconsin. One of my professors was certain – as if he knew something that I did not – that it was not by happenstance that I had been given the name. I decided that I wanted to know whether there was a story behind it, and if there was a story, what was it? Why did my parents name me Innocent? In fact, why are you called Grace or Nicoline, Valentine or Paul, Alice or Prudence, George or Kolkman, Eva or Albert, Angel or Kenneth, Laura or Simon …?
By Innocent Chia As night broke into dawn this morning, most of the world was waking up to President Barack Obama’s defense of US intervention in Libya to save it from itself. But even more significantly, dictators who may have been praying for American inaction to inform their future brutish repression of civilian uprisings are waking up to a forewarning that natural and supernatural forces may have been in collusion when Obama promised to “un-clinch” those fists that perceive freedom and change as the enemy. Without taking the eye off of Paul Biya and his ilk of dictators and armed robbers who reduce the citizenry to pulp while pilfering from the national coffers, this write up, on the heels of last week’s piece (If not Biya, Who?), shines a flashlight at how Cameroonians, in organizations at home and abroad, behave almost in identical fashion to Biya. As generation Y continues kicking out rulers across the Middle-East and other areas get the jitters, it is no longer safe to cling onto elitist power paradigms that have held authority at arms-length from the young and poor.
I was at a wake over the weekend. A friend lost the mother and the community was visiting with his family to express condolences and support. As it generally happens at these events, solemn conversation and prayer eventually turned into animated discussions about the political theater that has been unfolding in the Middle East, culminating as it were in the “No fly Zone” resolution at the UN Security Council and its enforcement largely by the British, French and American tripartite. While there was no disputing the brutality and savage cruelty of Gaddafi’s regime vis a vis Libyans, I was surprised by the readiness of some to defend a self-conceited bully who has referred to fellow citizens as “rats and dogs” for denying the magnanimity of a “beloved despot”. I have been asking myself why many oppressors across the world, including miscreants like Gaddafi and Paul Biya of Cameroon, invariably get sympathies from the very ones they oppress. This concern is more often than not encapsulated in the following question: who will fill the vacuum (after Biya/Gaddafi…)? My all time favorite is “what next”?
In an amateur video shoot circulating on Cameroon cyber groups, Cameroon’s Ambassador to the United States, Joseph Bienvenue Charles Foe-Atangana has been inviting Cameroonians in and around the D.C metropolis to a cultural evening at a popular Cameroon joint on Friday night, March 18th, 2011. The video of talking-heads predominantly features traditional chiefs - supposedly custodians of the culture and traditions – of villages mostly from the grass field regions of Cameroon.
As a son whose early childhood was squarely steeped in my Kom culture, traditions and history, the mockery of seeing people who are, otherwise, no more than palace guards introduce themselves as chiefs in America speaks volumes about the extent to which the government has compromised the authority of real traditional rulers in Cameroon to effect its divide and rule policy.
A soldier without political education is a potential criminal - Thomas Sankara 1985
In a presidential decree reorganizing Cameroon’s Armed Forces, Commander-in-Chief, Paul Biya retired four generals and promoted ten others to varying posts of responsibility. This is the culmination of military reforms announced by President Biya a decade ago in 2001. The four slated for retirement are Generals Pierre Semengue 76yrs, Oumaroudjam Yaya 73yrs, Nganso Sunji 75yrs and Tataw James 78yrs. Keen observers of Cameroon’s military may not be surprised that Biya retires James Tataw (legally blind) and Pierre Semengue (suffering from a partial stroke). Actually, these presidential decrees attempt to mask a huge malaise within Cameroon’s Armed Forces.
By Arrey Obenson *** and edited by Innocent Chia I have been pondering the words of the National Anthem of Cameroon for quite some time now. It is true every word pays homage to the past, cherishes the present and inspires the future. These choice words were intended, rightfully so, to inspire citizens of Cameroon to become actors in the destiny of their beloved country, not mere spectators of it as the case arguably may be for the unhealthy majority. The words of the National anthem paint a picture in our minds of many who gave of their blood and sweat, of many who toiled for the independence and freedom our country – Cameroon. It is a painful regret that their dreams, now long forgotten, have been watered down by years of growing disregard to the sense of nationhood.
As Cameroon's veteran journalist, Henriette Ekwe Ebongo earned her time in the spotlight (March 8th) at the 2011 Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the US State Department - presided over by First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - I could not help but think of it as a bitter sweet moment for her.
The award crowns her personal dedication, often at the risk of her life, to a profession that has given her license to stand up for the oppressed and stand up to the oppressor. Even while on US soil for the Awards, stories of threats to her life have been pervasive within the Cameroon online community...springing back memories of Pius Njawe, another Cameroonian voice for the disenfranchised, whose untimely death on a US highway nine months ago was anything but accidental.
A couple of weeks ago I received a mail from my kid brother that sent me thinking. He had just returned to Cameroon from Doha, Qatar, where he spent a week attending a conference. This is what he said: “What is bothering me now is that I cannot reconcile that side [Doha] with this so much dirt I do see around. Really wish to spend a longer part of my life that way. Even on no beer”.
In the second part of this write-up, I will revisit why replicating a Jasmine Revolution in Cameroon has fell on deaf ears. It is definitely not the absence of ingredients for an all out massive protest.
Nobody, with the probable exception of the Minister of Finance, could predict or warn against the looming bankruptcy of the fastest growing micro-finance institution in Cameroon; Cofinest (Compagnie Financiere de l’Estuaire). The social extent of this development can be gauged from the 850,000 savings accounts run by Cofinest. On the street level, this translates to 85,000 people per region in Cameroon. Beyond the numbers, Cofinest touches the soul of Cameroon - football. Originally, Cofinest was a common initiative group created by supporters of Union Douala. From 1996 it became a micro-finance institution with 508 shareholders and up to 850,000 accounts by December 2010. In the following piece, Philip Acha layers-up on a crumbling house of cards.
Like an amputation without anesthesia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown African French puppet Presidents under the proverbial bus as popular risings pick up momentum from the typhoon winds blowing down on the rest of Africa from the North.
A shortlist of measures contained in a new French Foreign Policy towards former French colonies in Africa specifically warns Paul Biya against running for another term in October 2011. Not only is Sarkozy acknowledging the disenfranchised, he is winking at them by making known his plans to withdraw French military support so that drug-heads of Biya’s ilk do not resort to deploying French resources against the masses a la drowning Ghadafi of Libya. Will French Cameroonians take the cue from this huge shift in policy?
By Innocent Chia Ever since life was squeezed out of protest marches several days ago on February 23rd in Cameroon, perpetual sideliners have gone on the offensive second guessing Kah Walla and co-organizers. While critics have, for the most part, focused on the failing strategy or lack thereof, a few other things have caught my attention as an avid observer and analyst of the political, particularly what is happening in Cameroon.
This piece will not focus exclusively on obvious questions that deserve to be asked: How could a woman take a beating for Cameroonian men? This piece will also be focusing on the strategic miscalculation by the government; the victory that Kah Walla scored; and how the failed protests magnify the strength of the people known as Southern Cameroonians.
The Chia Report has just received some of the first pictures to be published by any International media depicting the brutalization of peaceful protesters by forces of Biya's Special Intervention Brigade. In these exclusive pictures, our source captures Presidential aspirant, activist and leader of Cameroon O'bosso, Kah Walla in a face-off with the Biya's killing machines. From a safe location and with a phone camera, our source witnessed the snake beating of Kah Walla with batons, kicking her on her sides with their heavy duty boots, and literally undressing her in the public square before sympathisers dragged her away and hauled her to a nearby hospital. Let these pictures speak for themselves...
Reports trickling in from Cameroon confirm that Cameroon O'bosso leader and 2011 Presidential candidate, Kah Walla has been hospitalized with major injuries following confrontations at which the military is pummelling and dispersing protest marchers with lightening speed across Douala, arterial towns and combustible Regions. Other leaders, including Nitcheu and Mbuoa Massock - arguably the most visible co-sponsors of the protest marches against the 28 year old regime of President Biya – were arrested by forces of the Special Intervention Brigade (BIR) and later dropped off several miles in the bushes away from the city of Douala.The Cameroon Minister of Communication, meantime, has been on an all out offensive a la Muammar Gaddafi, accusing Cameroonians in the Diaspora of using social media websites to sow discord at home while hiding abroad.
In my mind there are more questions on the lips of many across the world today than there are answers to the falling house of cards all across the Middle East or North Africa. The Western world is overly worried, as it ought to, about its varied interests in the region - the security of Israel other treaties.
Demonstrators, however, have other democratic aspirations that may be at odds with the expressed interests of a Western world that preaches people power with the same mouth with which it supports stability enshrined in autocracies. In this piece, Philip Acha ponders some more on the revolutionary threads.
It is my informed opinion that President Biya of Cameroon and his entourage, much like other dictators the world over and particularly African compradors, have been watching developments in Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia and Egypt with heightened interest and great anxiety. After the tip-off by inside sources on Biya’s plan to not seek re-election in October 2011, The Chia Report now takes on Biya loyalists that have argued over the years, and continue even now with the writing so clear on the wall, that Cameroon will crumble into anarchy. What is Cameroon other than an anarchical State now, I ask? This piece highlights decadent institutions that Biya has cultivated to preserve power. Any serious contender to the Presidency ought to address them to earn the consideration of the Cameroonian people or even a modest, albeit inconsequential, Chia Report endorsement.
It is a rat race within the highest echelon of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) as to who succeeds Paul Biya as party leader and candidate at the upcoming Presidential elections. Unimpeachable sources close to the President confirm that Biya called a secret meeting at the Unity Palace in which he literally threw in the towel, citing uprisings in the Mideast that have seen the ousting of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and the fall of Egypt’s Mubarak. “La salle etait comme un tombeau” (there was graveyard silence in the room) our source said.
As afternoon aged into evening, marking the end of another weekday last year in Haiti on January 12th, a quaking earth buried with it some of the most precious life and damaged property older than many lives. At the Chia Report, I mourned not only for the people of Haiti that I have come to love through my great friend, Richard Fish and his mom – I panicked because I knew not of the condition or whereabouts of some people dear at heart, including our very own Julius Nyamkimah Fondong. A year after surviving the perils of Haiti he revisits a country that is almost antonymous to brightening superlatives.
If it comes as a surprise to any, the building of the Bamenda Military Hospital remains top secret, until now that The Chia Report is breaking this story. Billed to be unveiled during the Commander-in-chief’s two day visit to Bamenda (Nov. 28-29) this end of month, the Biya camp has earmarked the portion of his speech where he makes the announcement as the hallmark of celebrations marking 50 years of Cameroons Armed Forces.
While enthusiastic Biya supporters, like the short-lived former Minister of Transport John Begheni Ndeh, are putting their money where their mouths are, popular sentiments, especially Southern Cameroons nationalists are decrying the celebrations as the braggadocio of a colonizer.
The predictions are not very positive for Africa: Africa has contributed the least to climate change, but it is expected to be hit the hardest by the consequences of climate change. Africa is going to get drier. Rainfall will become more erratic and the consequences may include a decline in agricultural production in many areas that could trigger a migration from rural regions to African cities and to countries outside the continent. We will be seeing further reduced economic growth prospects as a result of the climate changes, thereby compounding what already is a very difficult development challenge. This mid-November 2010, delegates from around the world will gather for the UN climate change talks in Mexico. As debate lumps over how emissions can be curbed, there is one area where the entire world needs to agree: We definitely have to adapt.
“…where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous”. (Tacitus – Rome AD56-AD117)
The latest report from Transparency International (TI) breezed through Cameroon with the obvious criminal silence that is characteristic of the guilty. Highly ranked at 9.3 on 10, are Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore. Cameroon ranks 146 on 178 alongside Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Nepal, Paraguay and Yemen with a score of 2.2 on 10. As a rule-of-thumb in Cameroon, such reports are spun by apparatchiks to demonstrate external conspiracies to destabilize Cameroon. They prove a point unintentionally! Institutionally unreliable and structurally weak states do get easily manipulated by external reports. What is TI’s methodology and which countries rank alongside Cameroon?
Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist
Email: innochia@gmail.com
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