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[Video] Striking Tole Tea Workers Block Main Road to Buea

 

More details on the AFRICAphonie and Zofem and Twitpic websites

Ethnic Twist to Clashes between Youths and Motorbike taximen in Cameroon City? (Updated)

*UPDATED with quotes from chief of Deido

There have been clashes between motor-bike taxi riders and residents of Deido neighbourhood for five days leaving at least two people dead in Douala, Cameroon's largest city, media reports said.

This spate of violence erupted on New Year's Eve when Deido residents accused motor-bike taxi riders (known as Benskinneur) of stabbing a Deido native to death. The residents retaliated by attacking benskinneurs and setting their motorcycles on fire.

The violence escalated on Tuesday 3 January, as shown in the report below by Douala-based Equinoxe Television channel, after a woman's home was burnt down in Deido on Monday night. Some Deido residents blamed the benskinneurs for the action leading to further clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

ETHNIC ISSUES

While local media have suggested that the situation is increasingly developing into a tribal conflict between mainly ethnic Bamileke benskinneurs and largely ethnic Duala (Sawa) Deido youth groups, Sawa community leaders refuted such allegations on Equinoxe TV on Wednesday.

"Why do you want to suggest that there is a problem between Deidos (Dualas) and Bamileke or benskinneurs?" Essaka Ekwalla the paramount chief of the Deido asked on Equinoxe TV news on Wednesday night. "Are all benskinneur in Douala Bamileke?" he asked. "Do you know that there are natives of Deido who lost property because they are also benskinneurs?"

 

Government officials and politicians have not directly said the violence is turning to an ethnic issue but they have called for calm and insisted on unity.

"The head of state has repeatedly said that we have only one ethnicity which is the Cameroon nation," Issa Tchiroma, the Minister of Communication said on TV. "Douala has to remain that melting pot that it has always been where all ethnic groups be they Bakoko, Bassa, Bamileke, Duala, Hausa, live in harmony," he said.

A statement by the Provincial Bureau of the country's leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), also touched on the issue.

"It should be noted that Douala is a cosmopolitan city. No one has the right to create a state of lawlessness in any of its neighbourhoods or areas. Douala is the common property of all who live there," said the statement signed by Gervais Nintcheu, SDF district chairman for the Littoral Region.

 "If it is clear that we have to respect Douala traditions and values (culture) and those who represent such (traditions and culture), all who live in the city, without exception, must recognise and integrate the notions of a Republic," the SDF added. 

Continue reading "Ethnic Twist to Clashes between Youths and Motorbike taximen in Cameroon City?" »

American Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph Proud of Her Cameroon Ancestry

An American actress, Sheryl Lee Ralph, has praised an initiative to help African-Americans reconnect with their ancestry by visiting the countries, such as Cameroon, where their forefathers originally came from.

Sheryl Lee Ralph and her husband Senator Vincent Hughes are among a group of 90 people visiting Cameroon as part of an ancestry reconnection programme where African-Americans whose origins have been traced to that country via DNA tests are invited back in a tour hosted by ARK Jammers, Inc., accordding to AtlasFamily.org.  

"...that I can sit here in this New Year and say I am a Cameroonian-American is a wonderful thing," Sheryl Lee Ralph, said on Cameroon national television (CRTV).

DNA tests showed that the ancestors of the actress, who was nominated for Broadway's 1982 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Dreamgirls and starred in the movie Sister Act 2, were from the Tikar ethnic group in Cameroon (read more about the Tikar of Cameroon in this article by anthropologist, Francis Nyamnjoh). 

Watch an excerpt of her statement in the video below and click here to read more about the reconnection programme, which is in its 2nd edition.

 

Paul Biya's Re-election: A CRTV Perspective

Paul Biya has been re-elected for another 7-year-term as President of Cameroon, according results published by the Supreme Court (sitting in lieu of the Constitutional Council) on Friday 21 Oct 2011. He won 77.98 percent of the votes cast.

After the proclamation of the results, George Ewane, the correspondent who covers presidential affairs for the country's government-run broadcaster (CRTV), analysed the electoral process for viewers of the national newscast (see video below).

He spoke about the transparency of the poll and the "Yaounde Declaration" by seven opposition candidates who want the poll to be annulled.

 

Jacob Nguni - Tribute to Bebey Manga

Lead guitarist Jacob Nguni performing at the Celebration of the life of the late BEBE MANGA in DC , USA on July 15, 2011.

Perils of Globalization: How Dole Food Co. Impoverished the Mungo Region of Cameroon

Trailer for "Big Banana", a documentary by Franck Bieleu about the impact of a transnational fruit company on the agricultural community of Njombe, in Cameroon...

Big Banana Trailer from Franck on Vimeo.

Video - The Men Who Control Cameroon

These men met to discuss Cameroon's national security on 14 July 2011.

Do schools stifle creativity?

Khan Academy: Using videos to reinvent education

Do you know Khan Academy? You should, for the sake of your children. What is needed is a vast investment in information technology in Cameroon. If that happens, the country will be transformed in less than 20 years into a developed country.

Sugata Mitra's new experiments in self-teaching

 

 

 

 

We must be part of this experiment: all educators take note!

Elliott Krane: The Mystery of chronic pain

Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes

Video: Vital Voices Global Leadership Honoree: Kah Walla

 

Kah Walla is the recipient of the 2011 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for Leadership in Public Life. The Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards honor and celebrate women leaders who are working to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity and protect human rights around the world. Kah is the founder and owner of STRATEGIES!, a consulting firm based in Douala, Cameroon. Elected to City Council, Kah applied her entrepreneurial talents to social change advocacy by organizing women sellers in Douala's Sandaga Market. Now she is making change at the national level - as a presidential candidate in the fall 2011 elections. Vital Voices honored Kah in recognition of her work to create positive change in the lives of women and of all Cameroonians.

A Report on African Migrant Workers Trapped in Libya

Eye witness report about "Cameroonian rastaman" arbitrarily killed.

February 23 Protests: Rapid Intervention Unit Brutalizers Demonstrators

The BIR at work again...

 
More images of police brutality on presidential aspirant Kah Wallah available on The Chia Report.

Cameroon on Twitter - Live Updates

Cameroon: Police Crackdown on Anti-Biya Demonstrators in Douala

 

Issa Tchiroma to Cameroon Diaspora: "You Are Holding The Nation Hostage!"

Cameroon Information Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary reacts to the political activism of the Cameroon Diaspora: "Change will come through the ballot box not through upheaval."

 

Julian Assange: Why the world needs Wikileaks

Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut

Thulasiraj Ravilla: How low-cost eye care can be world-class

Model of affordable, high quality eye-care developed in India, could be useful in other developing nations and even in developed countries with poor access.

WikiLeaks Cables: Pfizer Targeted Nigerian Attorney General to Undermine Suit over Fatal Drug Tests

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general to pressure him to drop a $6 billion lawsuit over fraudulent drug tests on Nigerian children. Researchers did not obtain signed consent forms, and medical personnel said Pfizer did not tell parents their children were getting the experimental drug. Eleven children died, and others suffered disabling injuries including deafness, muteness, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sight, slurred speech. We speak to Washington Post reporter Joe Stephens, who helped break the story in 2000, and Musikilu Mojeed, a Nigerian journalist who has worked on this story for the NEXT newspaper in Lagos.

------From Democracy Now

This video is a must see. This can occur anywhere in Africa, and go unreported. It also points to the necessity to maintain wellness in self, family and society in order to reduce the need to use the poisons that these dangerous corporations peddle.

The Highway of Death - The Douala-Yaounde Road

 

Breaking News! Yves Michel Fotso Under Arrest

Cameroon's state broadcaster (CRTV) announced the arrest of Yves-Michel Fotso one of the country's top businessmen and former director general of the now defunct Cameroon Airlines, on December 1, 2010.

 

Chilean Economist Manfred Max-Neef on Barefoot Economics and Poverty

Democracy Now speaks with the acclaimed Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef. He won the Right Livelihood Award in 1983, two years after the publication of his book Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics. "Economists study and analyze poverty in their nice offices, have all the statistics, make all the models, and are convinced that they know everything that you can know about poverty. But they don’t understand poverty," Max-Neef says. Max-Neef contends that the present economic model based on "growth" and greed, is really a neoliberal religion and will doom mankind in the very short run.