Up Station Mountain Club

Nameless Wreath for Ndeh Ntumazah

By Christopher Fon Achobang

The State burial for Winston Ndeh Ntumazah, mythical terrorist and President of the Union of Populations of Cameroon, UPC, took place in Cameroon from 25 to 27 March 2010. His mortal remains, flown in from London, were received at the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport, and after inspection the coffin was draped in the Camerounian national flag.

 
From the arrival of the corpse in Yaounde, government hijacked and whisked it off to the Cite Verte parish church for an all night vigil.

Buea Mountain Club

Honoring Pa Ndeh Ntumazah: Window-Dressing or Honest Move to National Reconciliation?

By Asonglefac Nkemleke
 
Something seems to be changing in Cameroon ; or is it President Paul Biya that is changing? Given the context, if something changed in Mr. Biya, it would be the whole country that changes. After all, leaders like Mr. Biya are not just human managers of societies; they are usually the very embodiment of the societies they lead. Thus, an action by the leader necessarily becomes the action of the nation.

 
Police Commissioners convey Ntumaza's Casket to the grave (c) CAMNET

On March 1, the Cameroonian leader decreed a state funeral for Pa Winston Ndeh Ntumazah, the UPC leader who had passed on in London , England on February 21. Soon after the decree was published, a committee was put in place to prepare the ground for the funeral service in Bamenda , North West Region. As the preparations gathered momentum, the national media, led by Cameroon Tribune and CRTV (Radio) began a media blitz in memory of the fallen leader.

Incorporating Diaspora Inputs into Home country Socio-economic Development Policymaking

A Concept Paper by Victor Anjeh*

"It is thus incumbent on the Governments and those in the Diaspora to adopt a collaborative posture designed to improve the domestic investment climate and better attract active participation by the elements outside of the country. This will begin with the reduction of unfriendly business regulations, lack of transparency in the judicial enforcement of contracts, bureaucracy, corruption, which are all factors that make the local business environment less attractive to foreign, Diaspora and even domestic investors."

While Diaspora inflows into the domestic and regional economy can include tangible and intangible inputs, historically, this has been mostly cash transfers or remittances. However, the shifting trends indicate a preference for equity investments in the corporate sector, as well as portfolio investments in budding financial markets. The paradigm shift now is to channel Diaspora inflows into income and employment generating sectors of the home economy like Energy, Financial services, Natural resources, Infrastructure, and Information & Communications technology projects.

Cameroon opposition accuse Biya of poll rigging bid

* Anger over gov't move to control election preparations

* Bill could be signed into law within two weeks

By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, March 29 (Reuters) - Cameroon opposition leaders accused President Paul Biya on Monday of preparing to steal the 2011 election in the central African state by seizing control of vote preparations from a specially created independent body.

Cameroon has been under pressure from Western donors and domestic critics to make its government more transparent, and a bill passed last week adds to a string of setbacks for democracy on a continent notorious for flawed or disputed votes.

"Paul Biya doesn't want change. He wants to die in power," Elizabeth Tamanjong, head of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), said of Biya, 77 in power since 1982.

Armed group seizes weapons from Cameroon security outpost

YAOUNDE (AFP) — An armed group attacked a security outpost in Cameroon's southwest Bakassi peninsula and made off with weapons although no one was killed in the raid, sources said.

The unidentified group, which was "heavily armed and came in a pirogue" attacked the brigade of security forces in the early hours of Monday, a well-informed source close to security services said on condition of anonymity.

"All of the brigade's weapons were taken away" by the attackers as the officers manning the outpost fled, the source said, specifying that 12 weapons had been seized.

Nigerian boat hijacked off Cameroon coast

Monday, March 29, 2010; 2:56 PM

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Attackers hijacked a Nigerian boat carrying goods off the coast of Cameroon and are demanding a $1.5 million ransom for the release of its captain and one member of crew, local officials said on Monday.

The attack on Sunday was the latest in the Bakassi peninsula, coming two weeks after a previously unknown group calling themselves the African Marine Commando hijacked a Chinese fishing vessel there with seven crew on board.

Local military and administrative officials said they believed the same group was responsible for the latest attack and a subsequent raid on a local gendarmerie early on Monday in which they made off with firearms and ammunition.

The Chinese fishermen, a common sight in West African waters, were held for a few days and released unharmed after Chinese and Cameroonian officials negotiated with their kidnappers.

Picture of the Day: The Legendary Oryx Club of Douala With Mbappe Leppe

 
ORYX Douala - 1967 (Standing: Djo maurice, Jean-Pierre Tokoto, samuel mbappè leppé, Rodolphe tokoto, djoki roger, essomba Bell; Squating: Ebelle  moumi walter, koum Emmanuel, sylvain vittoz,ndoumbè toko Maurice, Eleme ricardo)

Oryx Douala (1965?): 1-Ebell'a Moumi, 2-Djo Maurice, 3-Mbappè Léppé "Le Maréchal", 4-Tokoto Jean-Pierre, 5- Ndoumb'a Koum "Loba", 6-Tokoto Rodofphe (goalie), 7-Moukoko "Confiance" (with the ball), 8-Epétè Maurice, 9-Makembe, 11-Essomba Samuel "Essomba Bell"

Decentralization and Minority Rights in Cameroon

By Julius Nyamkimah Fondong

It is exactly thirteen years to day (night of the 27th breaking the 28th of March 1997) when a band of young men belonging to the Southern Cameroon’s National Council (SCNC), in an act of near fiendish military bravura, launched a series of attacks in Elak, headquarters of Oku Subdivision.  The Divisional Officer, the Gendarmerie Brigade Commandant and all six gendarmes serving in the subdivision at the time were captured and incarcerated for 15 hours. The insurgents later made away with six automatic assault rifles and about forty-five rounds of ammunition before razing the brigade to the ground.  Before the year ran out, Oku Subdivision would again be caught up in another ferocious inter-ethnic dispute with its Din neighbours, this time around over the right to control and exploit the rich farmlands of Balu

Continue reading "Decentralization and Minority Rights in Cameroon" » at www.chiareport.com

It is exactly thirteen years to day (night of the 27th breaking the 28th of March 1997) when a band of young men belonging to the Southern Cameroon’s National Council (SCNC), in an act of near fiendish military bravura, launched a series of attacks in Elak, headquarters of Oku Subdivision.  The Divisional Officer, the Gendarmerie Brigade Commandant and all six gendarmes serving in the subdivision at the time were captured and incarcerated for 15 hours. The insurgents later made away with six automatic assault rifles and about forty-five rounds of ammunition before razing the brigade to the ground.  Before the year ran out, Oku Subdivision would again be caught up in another ferocious inter-ethnic dispute with its Din neighbours, this time around over the right to control and exploit the rich farmlands of Balu

Music Video: "Hooked" by Andy Allo

First video from Unfresh, the debut album of Cameroon born and raised singer-songwriter Andy Allo.

 

4 & 5 Star European Hotels at a 2 Star Price from $49

Precious Green

Spelling Victory

Flowing   from   those   taps   by  the  Mungo

Framed circuits, farms on which slowly grow

Fossilizing  dead brains  renowned  drunk

And stuck with stinking fart from skunks

Skunks use to mark their territory

Staggering with feverish victory

Sending the stench of dead rat

Hitting   hard  all  little  brat

Taking pride in night flight

Apprehensive    of    trite

Choir masters intone

With hammers on stone

Racking brains

Pouring rains

From eyes

On   ice

G r i p

Drip

I

I

!

!

Want to see liquid

Or you should just quit

So none would see mimbo in a cup

That has been giving us the hiccup.

Take no leave of this pidgin English song,

One that I would could right such big wrong.

By Dr Bill F. NDI.

A New Book by Dr Bill F. NDI

Chinese bus plant in Cameroon: An alert to the west.

Few years of economic partnership against decades of economic “aid”

By Aloysius AGENDIA. Originally published on Participating in Positive Change

News of the opening of a Chinese bus factory in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, is more a fruit of reciprocal relationship and a big lesson to the hitherto “old-time partners” of Cameroon .  It shows that Cameroon and Africa is not only a place for raw material but equally, a place where finished goods can be made, a myth that has been propagated by colonial partners for the past 5 decades.

PARADISE OF IDIOTS

Basking in oxymoronic solace/

Of mediocrity, ineptitude and lethal myopia/

Self-styled ‘People’s Representatives’/

Metamorphosed nitwits/

Chatter like demented hoodlums/

In the abyss of the Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House:

Motion au Président de la République!/

The Do

Poems by Hope Kale Ewusi

SANKOFA

Restless spirit of impetuous youth-
Seeker of fortune in alien climes;
I’m lost, stranded in this metropolis.
Caught in a labyrinth of churches
And stone faced structures with-
Gargoyles giving me the evil eye….
So far away from the ant hills of my savannah;
Far from the Kilimanjaro from whence
The Blue Nile flows…..quick – quick!
I need a drink of palm wine and some kola nuts.

Camerounian Novelist Léonora Miano Blasts Her American Publishers

A furious Léonora Miano lashes out at her American publishers for including a foreward in the English version of her novel "L'interieur de la nuit" which is replete with misconceptions about Cameroon and Africa.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, we’re used to be despised by the rest of the world and to be treated as mere animals. I knew, when L’intérieur de la nuit (Dark Heart of the Night) was published, that some would use the novel in order to reinforce their views on Africa and its peoples. Really, I didn’t care and still don’t care about that. What I’m interested in, is the African point of view on the topics I work on. I think we’ve spent too much time hoping for understanding and recognition from people other than ourselves. It’s time we focus on our problems and deal with them, no matter how painful it is. I’m confident in our ability to do so. I’m confident in our desire to no more take lessons in humanity from people who created and used the atomic bomb, and who still have death penalty in their country. Things would be so cool if people could just clean their front door ..."

Click here to read Miano's fiery protest letter in its entirety on Scribbles from the Den.

Cameroonian killed in one-car wreck near Katy, Texas

Orginally published in Ultimate Fort Bend

March 22. A man was killed in a one-car wreck Sunday morning on Katy-Flewellen Road near the intersection of Gaston Road in Fort Bend County.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said Abongwa Ndita Ndumu, 39, of Katy was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The DPS spokeswoman said Ndumu was driving a 2002 BMW southbound on Katy-Flewellen near the Katy city limits around 8:45 a.m. when “he entered a curve at an unsafe speed,” left the roadway to the right, and entered a ditch. The vehicle rolled multiple times before stopping.

Ndumu was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.

Trooper Edwin Lara of the Rosenberg DPS office investigated the scene.

Cameroon-Haiti Money Saga: Doubts persist after minister’s outburst

By Aloysius AGENDIA: Originally  published on Participating in Positive Change

 Almost two weeks after Cameroon’s Minister of Communication ferociously attacked Le Messager and claimed the Cameroon government had issued a cheque for Haiti following the 12 January earthquake; there still seem to be more doubts as to whether any effective payments have been made. 

 From information recently published by the UN on all financial issues related to the disaster, the contribution of Cameroon still seem to have been omitted. Nevertheless, on March 16, Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary declared that on February 08, cheque No 2796 worth USD 1 million, was prepared  by  the Cameroon Mission at the UN under CHASE Bank and  for the benefit of Haiti Central Bank.  

 

 

Roundabout

RETOUR AU PAYS NATAL

Un jour je retournerai à cette terre mienne

Qui m’attend bras ouverts

Je lui dirai—

Embrasse-moi sans peur—

Je lui affirmerai :

Si je ne sais que hurler,

C’est pour toi que je hurlerai.

Ma bouche sera ta bouche,

Celle des laissés-pour-compte de mon pays natal,

Ma voix sera la voix des sans-voix,

Celle des opprimés de mon pays de naissance.

Citizen Democracy in Cameroon

By Mwalimu George Ngwane (Originally published on Ngwane)

The 19th December 1990 Law of Association that opened the floodgates of multiparty politics has resulted, close to twenty years after, in mixed fortunes especially in the areas of citizen election participation and democratic development dividends. With hindsight the July 22nd  and September 30th   2007 twin elections in Cameroon confirmed an earlier appraisal of our electoral democracy-one characterized by the increasing rate of voter apathy in our elections.

From a 60.6 % voter turn out in the Parliamentary elections in 1992, through a less than 45 % in the twin elections of July 2007 to a ridiculous 20% participation in the twin re-run of September 30th 2007 the electorate seems to be now voting with their feet. Analysts have been quick at advancing reasons for this downward trend some of which vary from lack of an effective neutral and independent election body, selective disenfranchisement, insensitive international community, mass rigging, to sterile political debates occasioned by the trading of accusations of illegitimacy between the ruling party and the Opposition parties and the collective lethargy of the civil society.

Yet another very fundamental reason for voter apathy in Cameroon is the loss of faith in the party system by Cameroonians.  This is leading our country to a dominant party state reminiscent of the one party system and the disconnection of a large percentage of citizen stakeholders wary of party politics.

Buea Coffin Riders

By Christopher Fon Achobang, Originally Published on Prince Report

Every Friday, a horde of young folks troupe into Buea from adjoining villages on buses and on noisy motorcycles (bendskin).

 
Their mission to Buea is for the weekly business of coffining a deceased friend or relative at the Buea Regional Hospital Annex mortuary. Weekends are generally favoured as they provide three days in a stretch to mourners. These mourners come into town riding on coffins.

Breast ironing, a painful practice for Cameroon's girls

By Jamie Rich (Originally published in the Washington Post)

DOUALA, CAMEROON -- A small pack of elementary-school-age kids surrounded me every time I left my favorite lunch spot, Chez Noura. They held up old wine bottles filled with fried groundnuts. "Madame, please, I need to eat," they shouted. 
 Breast Ironing "tools" (c) Washington Post

I never bought the nuts. I ran the eight-foot gantlet from the Lebanese restaurant's entrance to my parked Toyota SUV, with my 2-year-old daughter, Elle, slung over my hip. Sometimes I gave the kids taffy or leftover shawarma. Usually, I quickly strapped Elle into her car seat and, like many expatriate wives in this poor West African nation, tried to avoid the swirl of desperate children.