Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den: Essays on Politics and Collective Memory in Cameroon. Langaa publishers. 232 pages. Now available from African Books Collective, Oxford (£19.95), Michigan State University Press, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble ($29.95).
This collection consists of 49 insightful essays by leading Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande, which originally appeared on his award-winning blog Scribbles from the Den. These essays tackle some of the most pressing and complex issues facing Cameroon today such as the stalled democratization process, the perennial Anglophone problem, the crisis of higher education, the absence of the rule of law, the lack of leadership renewal, a stifled collective memory, and a continued inability to harness technology for purposes of national development, among others.
Scribbles from the Den goes beyond the news headlines to dispassionately analyze and unravel the complexities of Cameroonian politics and society.
“Dibussi Tande serves up a rich, highly relevant, intellectual smorgasbord of wellcrafted critical refl ections, nay spirited submissions, on the politico-cultural, economic and social components of what can be called the ‘Cameroon Question’. Scribbles from the Den is indeed a highly stimulating and rewarding intellectual banquet.”
Lyombe “Leo” Eko, Associate Professor of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Iowa, USA.
“Dibussi Tande, in this collection, shares with us a bumper harvest of essays that are instructive on how we could begin to go about the process of harnessing blogging and the ICTs in the interest of positive social change in Cameroon.”
Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Professor of Anthropology, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Author of Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging.
About the Author
Dibussi Tande was born in Buea, Cameroon in 1968. A poet, journalist, essayist and blogger, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Law and a post-graduate diploma in Political Science from the University of Yaounde, and Masters degrees in Political Science and Instructional Technology from Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago) and Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) respectively. He is author of No Turning Back (2007) and co-editor of the poetry anthology, Their Champagne Party Will End! (2008). In recent years, he has established himself as Cameroon’s preeminent blogger, and his award-winning blog, Scribbles from the Den, is ranked among the top 100 African blogs.
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