Up Station Mountain Club

Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights: Shakira, Zangalewa & the World Cup Anthem

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published on Scribbles from the Den)

During a tour of Cameroon in 1975, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, met Tala Andre Marie, a budding Cameroonian blind singer and guitarist who had just released a funk number titled  Hot Koki. Tala gave him a copy of the record "to give him an insight into the kind of music being made in Cameroon". According to the Boston Globe, “Two years later, Brown dropped “Hustle!!!’’ –  with the same melody, beat, and arrangements, only with English lyrics.” Tala and his music label, Fiesta Records, gathered a team of lawyers who filed a law suit in the United States. After a drawn out battle that lasted four years, an American court concluded that James Brown had indeed used Tala’s song without authorization. According to Tala, there was very little financial fallout from the case, with the bulk of the money going to the lawyers. Tala however contends that it was nonetheless a moral victory and good PR.

Manu and the King of Pop
In 1982, it was turn of Manu Dibango, the King of Soul Makossa, to deal with plagiarism. 10 years earlier, Manu had recorded a hit song called “Soul Makossa” which was nominated for the Grammy awards.  According to The New Yorker, Soul Makossa, which was the B side of Mouvement Ewondo, a single composed for the 1972 African Nations Cup in Cameroon, was ...
 
Click here to read the rest of the story on Scribbles from the Den.

"Cameroon at 50": The Historical Amnesia and Confusion Continues...

 

French Cameroons gained its independence from France on January 1, 1960 while the British Southern Cameroons gained its independence from Britain and (re)united with the French Cameroons on October 1, 1961. However, the Biya regime has decided to commemorate the "Fiftieth Anniversaries of the Independence and Reunification of Cameroon" on May 20, 2010 and not on January 1, 2010 and/or October 1, 2011. The historical confusion of generations of Cameroonians contnues unabated...

Click here to visit the official "fiftieth anniversaries (SIC)" webiste.

World Press Freedom Day 2010

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 3 May worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. In memory of Bibi Ngota

Designed by the World Association of Newspapers

Cameroon: 2005 Census Results Finally Published - How Credible?

According to the government of Cameroon, the population of Cameroon is now officially 19.4 million (19,406,100) as of January 1, 2010. This figure is a projection derived from the Population & Housing Census of November 2005, and based on an estimated national population growth rate of 2.6% since then.

Given the important role that census figures play in national life, from the allocation of state finances to the of distribution social and other services such as hospitals, schools, roads, including the allocation of parliamentary seats, etc., it is no surprise that these results are already mired in controversy with some either questioning the accuracy of the projections for the last five years, or simply accusing the government of having manipulated the results with an eye on future elections...

Critics point out, for example, that the "opposition" NW province, which had a population of 1.7 million in 2005, is now projected to have increased by a mere 75,000 to about 1.8 million inhabitants, while the "pro-regime" North province with a population of 1.6 million in 2005 now has 2 million inhabitants - a startling increase of about 362,000 inhabitants - even more than that of the Littoral province, Cameroon's economic nerve center...). Government  officials have refuted these claims, pointing out that the projections were done by statisticians whose work has been validated by the Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). [Any statisticians here to clear the air on this one?]

1. Regional breakdown of national population according to 2005 census results and 2010 projections

Go to Scribbles from the Den for the detailed regional breakdown of census results.

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

Originally published on Scribbles from Den.

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.

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.

Migration in Cameroon: The 2009 Report of the International Organization for Migration

Originally published on Scribbles from the Den

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has just released its 2009 report on Migration in Cameroon titled Migration au Cameroun : Profil National 2009. Among the key findings are the following:

• In 2000, 17 per cent of the Cameroonian population with a higher education emigrated;
• During the 1995–2005 period, 46 per cent of Cameroonian doctors and 19 per cent of nurses emigrated to selected countries;
• According to the World Bank, the amount of remittances from Cameroonian migrants was estimated at USD 103 million in 2005, that is, 2.5 per cent of official development aid;
• The amount of funds transferred is constantly increasing. Estimated at USD 11 million in 2000, it rose to USD 103 million in 2004 and USD 167 million in 2008. This amount represents 0.8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Click here to read an English version of the Executive Summary of the Report along with a link to the full report which is in French.

Interview With Prof. Victor Mbarika, Pioneer President of The ICT University

Interviewed by Dibussi Tande (Originally published on Scribbles from the Den)

"A plethora of ICT experts and management scholars and practitioners have suggested the need for human capacity development in the ICT domain in developing economies. Empowering these economies to develop the right solutions with contextual and cultural relevance requires institutions to educate and train graduates to meet their contemporary needs." Prof. Mbarika

In most developing countries, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) programs and policies almost always center around issues of accessibility, availability and affordability, with not as much attention being paid to human capacity development, which is a critical, if not indispensable, element in  harnessing ICTs for development purposes. Without qualified and well trained ICT experts, it is virtually impossible for these countries to develop viable knowledge economies. It is in a bid to address this issue that a group of visionaries decided to establish The ICT University (ICT-U) is based in Louisiana, USA, which offers ICT-based degree programs that target Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

To find out more about this exciting initiative, Scribbles from the Den talked to Cameroon-born Professor Victor W. Mbarika, the pioneer President of ICT-U, who is also the founding and executive director of Southern University's International Center for Information Technology and Development in Louisiana, USA, and the Editor-in-Chief of The African Journal of Information Systems. Excerpts:

Click here to read the complete article on Scribbles from the Den.

Is a Gabonese-type Transition Possible in Cameroon? Part I

Dibussi Tande (Originally published on Scribbles from the Den)

On June 8, 2009, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s 73-year old president, died after a record 43 years in office. Political observers keenly watched the political transition not merely because after close to half a century of Bongo’s iron rule, Gabon was moving into uncharted territory with the potential for instability but also because like in many other Francophone African countries, Gabon did not have a constitutional successor – a dauphin – to the President.

 
Ali-Ben Bongo of Gabon with Paul Biya  (c) PRC
 
Among those watching the Gabonese situation closely were the ruling elite in neighboring Cameroon where 77-year President Biya was preparing for yet another seven-year presidential mandate in 2011, which would most likely eventually lead to a Gabonese-type situation in the country – the laws of nature being what they are, 77-year old Paul Biya has less, not more, time left at the helm of the state. He either dies in power just like Omar Bongo, or ends up a senile and pathetic figure like Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia or Houphouet Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire in their last days in power. Cameroon’s political elite therefore viewed the post-Omar Bongo transition process in Gabon as a testing board for the no-constitutional-successor political system which most constitutional scholars and political analysts believe would be  “a definite recipe for acrimony, chaos and disaster down the road...”  for Cameroon.
[...] 

The Cameroonian ruling elite were quite pleased with the relatively peaceful transition in Gabon which confirmed the continuity of the “système Bongo” and preserved the privileges and powers of members of the ancien regime who would have been swept away and even persecuted had anti-Bongo forces taken control of the transition process.  The outcome of the Gabonese transition therefore comforted Cameroon’s ruling elite in their belief that the no-automatic-successor system of government remained the best option for Cameroon.
[...] 

Nonetheless, while the ruling elite in Cameroon may have reason to jubilate over the Gabonese transition, they are most likely drawing the wrong lessons from the said transition, and/or not paying enough attention to the actual details of that transition which reveal a number of disquieting issues that could be potentially destabilizing for Cameroon in the same circumstances. Let’s look at just three of these key issues.

Click here to read the complete article on Scribbles from the Den.

(Movie Review) Mount Cameroon Race: "Volcanic Sprint"

Reviewed by Dibussi Tande (Originally published on Scribbles form the Den in 2008)

“The epic story of Africa’s most grueling mountain race, and the local athletes who risk all for glory.”

Dorst Mediaworks Presents Volcanic Sprint. A Film by Steve Dorst and Dan Evans. 2007. Filmed on location in Buea, Cameroon. 52 mins. $19.99

After about a year of online teasers on Youtube and elsewhere, Volcanic Sprint, the long-awaited film on the Mount Cameroon race by Steve Dorst and Dan Evans is now available on DVD. Extreme sports enthusiasts and fans of the Mount Cameroon race will not regret the long wait. The final product is a beautifully produced, visually stunning and compelling hour-long film built around the trials and tribulations of a handful of athletes trying to conquer “The Chariot of the Gods” or Mount Fako, as the locals call it.

One of the individuals that the film  profiles is John Ekema, winner of the inaugural race in 1971, who is trying to recapture some of the past glory through his 17-year old son. We discover Bart VanDoorne, a Belgian military officer who met his Cameroonian wife during the 2002 edition of the race and has returned with a one-year old son in tow, for another shot at the mountain.

Memory Lane (19 February 1990): The Yondo Black Affair Revisited

Culled from Reform and Repression in Cameroon: A Chronicle of the Smoldering Years (1990-1992) by Dibussi Tande (Forthcoming).

On February 19, 1990, officers from the CENER, Cameroon’s national intelligence service, raided the law office of Yondo Mandengue Black in the city of Douala. They demanded that Black, a former President of the Cameroon Bar Association (CBA), hand over the bylaws and program of the political party that he was in the process of creating.  After a search of the office yielded nothing incriminating, Black took the officers to his residence where he handed over a draft document titled “Coordination Nationale pour la démocratie et le multipartisme” (National Coordination for Democracy and Multipartyism).

Addressed to the Cameroonian people, the document criticized the one party system and the Biya regime, lamented about the worsening economic situation in Cameroon, and called for the reinstitution of multiparty politics in the country:

After a quarter of a century of the AHIDJO era, characterized on the political front by a drift towards monarchy and on the economic front by a state of perpetual take-off which never gained altitude, the Cameroonians – all Cameroonians – took it for granted that the man of rigor, of order, the new master of Cameroon’s destiny, would turn this painful page in our country’s history once and for all, and make possible the progress we have waited for so long.

Continue reading about the Yondo Black Affair on Scribbles from the Den

The Southern Cameroons Origins of the Youth Day Celebrations

By Churchill Ewumbue-Monono (culled from Youth and Nation-Building in Cameroon, 2009)

A policy advocacy initiative, the origins of the National Youth Day in Cameroon can be traced to the special days celebrated by youth organizations in the Southern Cameroons such as 22 February, the “Thinking Day”, celebrated by the Girl Guides and Brownies in commemoration of Lady Banden Powell. There was also the Commonwealth Youth Sunday marked by the reading of a Message from the Queen, Church services and a March-Past by youth groups such as the Boys Scouts, Girl Guides, Boy’s Brigades, Red Cross and other youth organizations. It was presided by His Honour the Commissioner of Southern Cameroons, or his Deputy Commissioner who took the salute and read the speech to the parades...

The “Thinking Day” and the “Commonwealth Youth Sundays” were however limited to members of youth movements, most of who were in Victoria and Kumba Divisions. It did not have a very important territorial impact like the “National Days” which were celebrated throughout the territory. In colonial Southern Cameroons, there were two of such important national days. First was the “Empire Day”, which was celebrated in the territory for the first time in 1949 and featured sporting and cultural events, as well as by a march past. Then was the Southern Cameroons Day, celebrated every 26 October to commemorate the creation of a quasi-region for Southern Cameroons in 1954.

Following the 11 February 1961 and the formal reunification of Southern Cameroons and the French Cameroons on 1st October 1961, Southern Cameroons was replaced by the federated state of West Cameroon, which made its continuous celebration irrelevant, especially as the KNDP propagandists saw in the day a mark of Dr. Endeley’s success. In acknowledging both the importance and irrelevance of the day, the Prime Minister, Dr. John Ngu Foncha argued that:

Continue reading article on Scribbles from the Den

"Fey Me No More?" Donatien Koagne, the King of "Feymania", Allegedly Dies in a Yemeni Prison

Originally posted on Scribbles from the Den

According to newsreports, "King" Donatien Koagne, Cameroon's most notorious conman and the "father of Feymania" is dead. In the 1990s he conned many African Heads of State such as Mobutu and Eyadema out of millions of dollars before finally falling into the dragnet of Yemeni authorities who threw him in jail. In a fantastic twist to this already incredible story of crime, greed and duplicity, the French secret service tried unsuccessfully to rescue him from his Yemeni hell hole ostensibly in a bid to lay hands on his famous "black book".

One of the most definitive works on Feymania in Cameroon and on Donatien Koagne was written by Domique Malaquais titled "Anatomie d'une arnaque: Feymen et Feymania au Cameroun". An abridged english version titled "Death, Douala Style" is also available online. (See excerpt below):

The King's New Clothes
 
Pretoria, 1994.   Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe is in South Africa to interview members of Nelson Mandela's fledgling cabinet.  First stop, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   Njawe is no novice:  he expects little assistance; a secretary, an aide to an aide perhaps, will present him with a general interest press release, answer a question or two, then send him on his way.   So it is with some surprise that he finds himself ushered in to see the Minister himself. 
 
The Minister has a problem.   He has just received a fax from one of the poshest hotels in Sandton.  A guest is announced, the hotel's manager writes, whose rank poses questions of diplomatic protocol:   the King of Cameroon.  Who, the Minister inquires of Njawe, might this monarch be?  The journalist explains that there is no such thing as "the king of Cameroon."   Puzzlement all around. 
 

Click here to continue reading the Donatien Kouagne story on Scribbles from the Den.

"Sovereignty Expenditures" and the Accountability of the Executive Branch

By Dibussi Tande (Originally posted on Scribbles from the Den)

"As budget constraints have hardened, leaders have preferred to spend their money to keep their elite coalition together rather than invest in mundane activities like building schools or undertaking vaccine campaigns..." Van de Walle

While surfing through the Cameroonian blogosphere recently, I came across a blog post which gave a detailed breakdown of Cameroon’s 2010 budget. The first entry on the list was the budgetary allocation for the Presidency of the Republic which stands at 57,342 Billion Francs CFA – in fact over 63 Billion Francs CFA if you include the 6.677 Billion Francs CFA allocated to "Services attached to the Presidency of the Republic" – an annual budget greater than those of the Ministries of Higher Education (44 billion FCFA), Scientific Research and Innovation (13 billion FCFA), Energy and Power (44 Billion FCFA), just to name a few.

As I pondered over the Presidency’s budget, my mind went back to the controversy that erupted last year after the French media revealed that during a three-week trip to La Baule in France, President Biya and his entourage had allegedly spent $40,000 (£24,500) every single day at the five-star L'Hermitage Barriere hotel, bringing the total presidential bill to roughly half a million pounds.

The controversy instantly etched itself onto the well-known political/partisan fault lines in Cameroon with the president’s supporters crying foul and regime opponents virtually demanding that the president be burnt on the stakes for the crime of squandermania.

Expectedly, the Biya regime’s response to the revelations of the French press (relayed by the international media) and the ensuing outrage was swift, angry and defiant. In a strongly worded communiqué, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and the Government Spokesperson, Issa Bakary Tchiroma, lashed out at manipulators working behind the scenes to tarnish the image of the President and insisted that:

Continue reading "'Sovereignty Expenditures and the Accountability of the Executive Branch' on Scribbles from the Den.

The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon

By Dibussi Tande

Culled from Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den: Essays on Politics and Collective Memory in Cameroon. Langaa publishers. 232 pages. Available from African Books Collective, Oxford (£19.95), Michigan State University Press, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble ($29.95).

Although Pidgin English is the most widely-spoken language in English-speaking Cameroon, and rivals French as the language of choice in some parts of French-speaking Cameroon (particularly in the Littoral and Western Provinces), it is still treated with scorn and disdain by the Elite who consider it a language for the illiterate masses.

Cameroon English: "Polluted" by Pidgin or French?

Memory Lane: January 15, 1971- UPC Leader, Ernest Ouandie, Executed

Originally posted on Scribbles from the Den

As soon as the first salvo is fired, he shouts: "Long live Cameroon" and then falls to the ground. A European officer detaches himself from the group of spectators, walks toward the dying man, puts his hand on his holster, leans forward and shoots... [cited in Jean Ziegler, Les Rebelles: Contre l'Ordre du Monde: Mouvements Armes de Liberation Nationale du Tiers Monde]

Ernest Ouandie, the last historic leader of the nationalist Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) under heavy guard.

Saturday, January 16, 1971: YAOUNDE. CAMEROON. A firing squad publicly executed three men in a public square in Bafoussam Friday on charges of plotting rebellion against the government. The men had been sentenced to death with Roman Catholic bishop Albert Nkongmo. But the bishop's sentence was commuted to life in prison by President Ahmadou Ahidjo.

In Memoriam: Mbella Sonne Dipoko - The Bard Who Dared To Be Different

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published in Palapala Magazine)

“No African novel has described copulation in such feminine terms as Mr. Dipoko's. It is not only a feminine novel written by a man, it is also a novel with a country; that is, France. An African novel about France? No. A French novel about France by a man who writes like a European woman.” Paul Theroux, 1966.

Mbella Sonne Dipoko, one of the leading first generation Cameroonian writers and, without doubt, the most internationally recognized Anglophone writer, died on December 5, 2009 in his hometown of Tiko. His death not only leaves a huge void on the Cameroonian literary landscape, but also marks the end of a most storied and colorful life that began 73 years ago on the banks of the River Mungo and continued through the Southern Cameroons, Nigeria, Europe and then back to the banks of the Mungo. 

Dipoko began writing very early on in his life. In 1960, he left for France at age 24, after a brief stint as an accounts clerk with the Cameroon Development Corporation and a news reporter for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.

Click here to read the rest of the article in Palapala Mgazine.

Death of a Bard: Mbella Sonne Dipoko is No More!

Novelist, poet and painter Mbella Sonne Dipoko died this weekend in Tiko. Dipoko, one of the leading first generation Anglophone writers, was the author of the critically acclaimed A few nights and days, Because of Women, and Black and White in Love (published under the famous African Writers' Series).

"So let them be scared of my look, of my beard, of my head of hair. They are just philistines who are afraid of originality. They wish to be caricatures of Europeans. When they are scared of a mere beard, what would these people do when war comes, when the horizon suddenly begins to sneeze smoke and spit flames? Who will save the nation? For only the courageous can defend the colors of a country." Mbella Sonne Dipoko, May 1990

 

Repaid in his own Coins: Ahmadou Ahidjo and the Politics of Ostracism

By Dibussi Tande (culled from Scribbles from the Den: Essays on Politics and Collective Memory in Cameroon, 2009)

"Let me state it loud and clear: The past is what it is. We are on our part determined to look toward the future... Let's refrain from throwing an armful of wood into a fire which is about to go out … We have forgotten. Why do they want us to remember again? Ahmadou Ahidjo (responding to calls to rehabilitate UPC exiles) - February 25, 1959.

On November 30, 1989, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s first President, died in exile in Dakar, Senegal, far away from the country that he had ruled with an iron and bloody fist for over two decades.

Ostracized by the Biya regime which considered him public enemy number one, scorned by Cameroonians for his alleged role in the bloody 1984 coup attempt against his successor; and banished from official Cameroonian discourse and memory (bank notes with his image were withdrawn from circulation, public spaces that bore his name - such as the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium - were renamed, his name a taboo in the official media, etc.), Ahidjo like the UPC exiles of the 50s and 60s, became, in his final years, a sad and lonely figure in exile, moving from Morocco, to France, and then finally to Senegal.

Memory Lane: Remembering the Collapse of the Berlin Wall 20 Years After

By Dibussi Tande (Originally published on Scribbles from the Den)

This week was the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, an event which symbolically marked the end of the cold war. Today, the memory of that event has faded, becoming a blur even to those who witnessed it. To my generation, the collapse of the wall was a momentous event, some would even say the most momentous one. In fact, it is easy to make a distinction between the world BEFORE and AFTER the wall;

The African Commission on Human Rights Rules on Southern Cameroons vs. La Republique du Cameroun

Dibussi Tande

“The Commission, however, finds also that the Respondent State violated various rights protected by the African Charter in respect of Southern Cameroonians. It urges the Respondent State to address the grievances expressed by the Southern Cameroonians through its democratic institutions." African Commission on Human Peoples' Rights

In a communiqué read on state-run media on October 1, 2009 – the 48th anniversary of the (re)unification of Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun – Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications, informed the public that the African Commission on  Human and Peoples' Rights had ruled on the case filed by  SCAPO and the SCNC. He stated that  “In its final decision, the commission has rejected all the secessionist claims made by the representatives of SCNC and SCAPO. The commission has also rejected allegations that the Anglophone community is victim of violence and discrimination.”

Not surprisingly, the Minister did not make public actual text of the ruling which was not as clear-cut as the communiqué claimed, and which listed a litany of violations committed by the Cameroonian state against the former British Southern Cameroons. As the Commission unequivocally states in its ruling, “The Commission, however, finds also that the Respondent State violated various rights protected by the African Charter in respect of Southern Cameroonians”. Specifically, the Commission found that “the Republic of Cameroon has violated Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7(1), 11, 19 and 26 of the Charter.”

Click here to continue reading this article.

48 Years Ago - Southern Cameroons and The Republic of Cameroun Form the Federal Republic

Originally published on Scribbles from the Den

Exactly 48 years ago on October 1, 1961, the Federal Republic of Cameroon was born after the  United Nations Trust territory of (British) Southern Cameroons merged with the French-speaking Republic of Cameroun - this, in accordance with the results of the UN-sponsored plebiscite of February 11, 1961.

On this anniversary day, we will not be looking at the ground covered or not covered by both territories since 1961 - that will be a task for the 50th anniversary. Rather, we will walk down memory lane to revisit some of the interesting post-plebiscite debates about the fate of Southern Cameroons in the British House of Commons; debates which indicated that the decolonization of Southern Cameroons was not as straightforward as it seemed to the uninitiated. One of such debates was between John Tilney, Conservate MP from Liverpool, an unapolgetic proponent of Southern Cameroons independence, and David Ormsby Gore, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, defending the new reality which emerged from the Plebiscite. We will post both of their declations in their entirety.

Later, we will use the case of John Tilney to demonstrate that the competing political and economic interests within the British political establishment over the fate of Southern Cameroons  had little or nothing to do with actual Southern Cameroons  interests - - even when they favored South Cameroons independence without "integrating" or "joining' either Nigeria or Cameroon.

New Issue of Palapala Magazine Available Online

From www.dibussi.com

The seventh issue of Palapala magazine, the Cameroonian/Pan-African literary Magazine is now available online. This issue features exciting essays, short stories and poems from budding and established writers from around  the continent.

In this issue's lead article, Denja Abdullahi writes about Abuja, "The City of Poets" which was extolled in verse by the late Mamman Vatsa, executed by the Babaginda regime for allegedly planning a coup:

"If the new overlords of Abuja thought they had silenced poetry after silencing Vatsa, then they were ignorant of the fact that some stowaway poets berthed in Abuja with the ship of government when it moved from Lagos with Babangida’s hurried departure…. The City of Lagos lost the seat of power to Abuja and I dare say it is on the way of losing the fountain of creativity to Abuja. Come to think of it, Abuja … is a more likely place for a poet to fall in love with. Mamman Vatsa was the first poet laureate of Abuja and many more poets have come to love Abuja like Vatsa did in his poems."

The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

Summary of a Keynote address delivered by Dibussi Tande at the Highway Africa Conference's "Digital Citizen Indaba", Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Republic of South Africa - September 5, 2009 (Orginally published on the Highway Africa Blog)

We just heard the opening keynote talk by Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande (he blogs at Scribbles from the den), who talked about “The state of social justice and digital media in Africa”. Below is a summary of his talk from the Digital Citizen Indaba website:

Presentation - The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

A keynote address by Dibussi Tande at Rhodes University, South Africa

The State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa

View more presentations from Dibuss Tande.