Bernard Fonlon

The Geography of Republic of Cameroon
Cameroon is a country in west Central Africa; officially known as the Republic of Cameroon. The country is bordered by Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The highest elevation of the country is Mount Cameroon near the coast (height=4,069 m; 13,350 feet). Major rivers include Benue, Sanaga and Nyong.

The Government of Republic of Cameroon
After a 1972 plebiscite, the unitary republic had been formed out of the West and East Cameroon in order to replace the former federal republic.

The brief history of Republic of Cameroon
Baka People were probably the first dwelled in the land of Cameroon. They still dwell in the forest of east and south. Bantu language speakers were among the fist groups to settle Cameroon. In the year of 1884 all the Cameroon and some of its neighbored part became a German colony, having the German Dominion. At the end of the First World War, the League of Nations gave the British a mandate over 20 percent adjacent to Nigeria and the French 80 percent of the area. And after the Second World War, the Cameroon People’s Union appeared as dominant party campaigning for independence.

Becoming an independent republic
In the year of 1957, France set up the Cameroon as an independent state and in 1959, Cameroon formed its fully independent government. Cameroon became an autonomous republic in the very first day of 1960. And finally, the southern part under the British territory joined the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Because of the expansion of oil and coffee exports, the economy of the Cameroon has significantly improved, but corruption and environmental degradation remains a great concern. With the great investment of the World Bank, Cameroon began the transmission of oil by June 2000.

The great professor, Bernard Fonlon died on Aug 26, 1986, but his memory remains at the hearts of the people in Cameroon. This year is the 26th anniversary of the dead of this great man. He was not only a noble man, but also a teacher, an advisor, writer, nationalist, Africanist, a leader and a mentor.

It was a real sad that he could not do whatever he intended to do. He went to Canada to receive a Doctorate degree in Literature and then he intended to stay USA during the time of Fulbright programme, but before he could leave Canada, the Life-Giver decided to take him back.

After the dead, his body was brought back to Cameroon and buried where he was born in sixty two years ago. The time when he was brought to home was a real tragedy in the history of Cameroon because of an unexpected event, namely, Lake Nyos gas disaster that claimed the lives of hundreds and hundreds of the country men and women within minutes.

Because of this horror tragedy, the dead of this great man was fully overshadowed. Perhaps God managed the situation precisely as he wanted as he never sought the limelight for himself. He has never been interested to expose himself as a hero. He labored for the country patiently, effectively and potentially where other successful countrymen worked and exposed themselves as hero. But Bernard Fonlon never did that.

Bernard Fonlon was one of the most successful ministers who build an airline and telecommunication network for the country, a health and welfare system, and a public transport service. Indeed, his contribution for the country cannot be summarized in this short article. His deeds have made him immortal and he will remain so.

Cameroon’s national soccer team captain, Samuel Eto’o has been handed a fifteen match ban for inciting his team mates to revolt against how the team is managed. The players refused to travel to Algeria for a friendly game, in what the Anzhi striker described as a protest action along the lines of the “Arab Spring” revolutions that led to fall of the Presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) said in a statement on Friday.

Samuel Eto’o at a press conference in Dakar
Samuel Eto’o incited his team mates to revolt says Fecafoot

Eto’o told a disciplinary hearing on Monday 12 December that incompetence, dishonesty and injustice were the hallmarks of football managers in Cameroon. He said the players were treated like “kids” and their refusal to play against Algeria was a sign of protest against this state of affairs.

The players who were in Marrakech, Morocco for a friendly tournament, had insisted that they would not travel to Algeria except authorities pay up a customary appearance fee of FCFA 500,000 each they get at every national team camp, which had not been handed them on that occasion.

Fecafoot says its officials and those of the Ministry of Sport held several meetings with the players, particularly the captain, his deputy Enoh Eyong Takang and other senior players: Idriss Kameni, Jean Makoun and Alexandre Song but the players refused to budge.

The Federation says Eto’o failed to explain why the players refused to travel although the Algerian Federation offered to pay $30,000 once the team arrived in Algeria while the Cameroon Ministry of Sport dispatched FCFA 15 million.

DEMANDS

From the statement issued by the disciplinary council, it appears that the players, under the leadership of their captain, had made other demands which they…

Read the full article here:
Cameroon Hand Eto’o 15-Match Ban for Inciting “Arab Spring-like” Protest

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 as a nurse practitioner.

Read the full article here:
The Biya Government: Old Wine in New Skin…Women still relegated to sinecure

Philemon Yang has been maintained as Cameroon’s Prime Minister. President Paul Biya re-shuffled the government which was announced on state radio (CRTV) late on Friday.

Biya was expected to re-shuffle his cabinet after he was declared winner of an October Presidential poll in the Central African nation. The government remains very big with more than 50 members including 37 full ministers. There are about a dozen new faces but several ministers maintain their portfolio or simply switch departments.

The most noteworthy new member is the Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, who comes from the private sector. He was head of Afriland First Bank. His predecessor Essimi Menye is now in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Biya also named Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh as the new Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic. He was permanent secretary at the ministry of external relations.

Read the full article here:
Biya Re-shuffles Cameroon Government, Marafa dropped, Ahidjo appointed

“…the trouble with my own age of writers. We have no story; no drama, simply because we have lived in diapers all our lives, secluded from the messier details of real power; sheltered by the romantic view that writers are isolate figures, shielded from the rest of society by their moral sensibilities.”

See the rest of the essay below, but here is my take on the piece.
Nwakanma’s goal is to rouse his generation of writers from their creative slumber. I love that project. In fact,the more Nwakanmas and Ikhides we have, the better for Nigerian writing. Anyway, for a better judgment, I trim Nwakanma’s arguments to their basic logical form.

Read the full article here:
New Nigerian writers are in need of spirit

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

Read the full article here:
Re-tooling for the food crisis in the Horn of Africa

Colin Gardner lovesPius Adesanmi’s
“YOU’RE Not a Country, Africa: A Personal History of the African Present”

“The picture that he paints is in many ways very grim. Yet his writing is buoyant and he is not without hope; hope that Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, will pull itself together and use its best instincts to devise a valid ideal and workable political and economic policies. This book helps one to entertain such a hope.

Read the full article here:
Insights from an insider and outsider

History is replete with events that have defined a people. The American Civil War, for example-an event that almost tore the nation permanently into two halves-witnessed the indefatigable efforts by Abraham Lincoln who pulled the Union back together. Ironically, in another civil war almost a century later, the United States attempt- beginning in 1962-to prop up the South Vietnamese government against its neighbor, was defiantly repelled by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, culminating in the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Read the full article here:
Our Collective Shame

Orature as an academic discipline and tool of resistance has made giant strides in its evolution over the years. This transformation manifests itself in the form of musical productivity and scholarship on the subject matter. Among those who have contributed significantly to emerging perspectives on the discipline are musicians themselves. Cameroonian songwriters are township bards who double as entertainers and freedom fighters. Orality is the tool they wield with dexterity in their relentless vendetta against the establishment’s endemic corruption, bad governance, abuse of power, influence peddling, impunity, misappropriation of public funds and other forms of dereliction of duty that plague the post-colony. The lyrics of Donny Elwood, and Valsero a.k.a ‘Le Général’ and Lapiro de Mbanga alias Ndinga Man are telling. This trio has carved out a niche for themselves as valiant human rights activists in Cameroon.

Read the full article here:
Voices of Valsero, Elwood and Lapiro