GEF's Outlook

Why the Death of President Mwanawasa Troubles Me

By George Esunge Fominyen

Zambia's President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa died on 19 August 2008 in Paris. He had been in a critical condition since June 29 when he suffered a stroke while attending the African Union Summit in Egypt. Like all Presidents he was not loved by all, but most accounts by Zambians in blogs, radio shows and comments on internet sites (such as the BBC) show that he was highly regarded by most of his countrymen. I would like to express my deepest condolences to the Zambian nation at this trying moment in their history. However, I must admit that President Mwanawasa's death in office has re-ignited troubling thoughts about what happens when a seemingly stable African country loses its chief executive before his term expires. 

Mbango's Gold Medal and the Paradox of Cameroon's Sports Success Stories

By George Esunge Fominyen

The word legend which generally refers to a literary genre consisting of stories between myth and history, is also used in our every day conversation to describe someone with larger –than-life accomplishments whose fame is well-known. With back-to-back gold medal wins at the Olympics (2004 and 2008) Francoise Mbango Etone, has surely made it into that select club of Cameroonian legends. The story of the hurdles she skipped on the way to golden glory is an epitome of the unpredictability and paradox of Cameroonian sporting successes and failures.

A SWOT Analysis of Cub Lions' Performance at Beijing Olympics

By George Esunge Fominyen

Cameroon’s hopes of repeating their gold winning exploit at the Olympic Games in China ended on 16 August 2008. The cub indomitable Lions were beaten 2-0 by Brazil. The South Americans were led by Ronaldinho who was aged 20 when Cameroon knocked Brazil out at the very quarter finals stage of the competition eight years ago in Sydney, Australia. Having followed the qualifiers to this competition and the All Africa Games in which the U-23 Lions won their third consecutive gold medal, I had hoped they would give us much more pleasure with their vibrant football. Instead of pulling out knives to finish-off this pack of cub lions after (as I observed some commentators do on Cameroon TV channels); I propose a SWOT analysis of their performance.

What Can We Do About Africa's Electrical Power Problems?

The neighbor’s generator had just stopped rumbling. My lights blipped and the darkness I was engulfed in turned into light. I decided to turn –on the TV to watch news from Cameroon. Guess what? I stumbled on a report on CRTV about the Chief Executive Officer of AES Corporation being received by President Paul Biya. This CEO had announced to President Biya that they were creating an African power company with headquarters in Douala, Cameroon.

Football, Ethnic Identity and Nationhood:Beti against Bamileke Violence After A Cameroon Cup Game

Only last June, I posted an article on this blog (Man from Somewhere in-between) in which I suggested that the black South African on Black African violence that rocked South Africa in in April and May 2008, was merely hate generated by who we define ourselves to be and it had happened elsewhere and could happen anywhere.

 

Well, it happened on 15, 16, 17 and 18 July in my dear Cameroon. The “indigenous” inhabitants of Akonolinga (a small town situated 180 Km from the capital Yaounde), attacked the homes and businesses of “strangers” mainly ethnic Bamiléké living in “their town”, leading to the death of at least one person and the displacement of many “Bami” strangers. The spark that generated the outburst happens to be football, supposedly the rallying force of Cameroonians.

A Letter to Charly Ndi Chia: President of the Cameroon Union of Journalists

By George Esunge Fominyen

Dear Uncle Charly,

I gather congratulations are in order! On 12 July 2008 you became the president of the Cameroon Union of Journalists (CUJ)! Accept, dear Uncle, my hearty albeit belated wishes of success. I am sure you would remember that we whiffed over this possibility the last time we met face-to-face. Based on the ideas you espoused, my friends from overseas had felt you could be the man for the job. I shall do well to inform them that you finally docked your reservations and took the plunge into this boiling water.

Poetry: All because Gwangwa’a is dead ?

By George Esunge Fominyen

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So English-speaking cultural programmes are dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So no more English-speaking drama on TV?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So no more English language poetry on TV?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So Focus on Art will remain dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead,

So City Masks is dead?

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So Creative English-language television on CRTV is dead? 

Because Gwangwa’a is dead?

So Anglophone television is dead!

All because Gwangwa’a is dead?

No, is it because this anglo-franco union is dead?

Cameroon: Implications of the Rise in the Price of Newspapers

By George Esunge Fominyen

Regular buyers of daily newspapers in Cameroon noticed on 1 July 2008 that they had to spend an extra 100 FCFA at the newsstands for their favourite paper. Instead of 300 FCFA a copy of Mutations, Messager or Le Jour now sells at 400 FCFA.

This decision by newspaper publishers is supposed to help them measure up to the costs of production.  In fact, since the 2007 finance law that cut the little existing exonerations on imports for material for media production, newspaper owners had consistently threatened to increase the price of their product. The current morose world economic situation and the steep rise in the cost of production surely got them to match words with action.

African Water and Sanitation Needs Remain Despite AU Summit on that Theme

By George Esunge Fominyen

African leaders met on 30 June to 3 July at Sharm El Schiek in Egypt for the eleventh Ordinary Session of the African Union ostensibly to discuss ways of Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation. Apart from a paragraph in the speech of Jean Ping, the chairman of the AU Commission, there was little more that was heard about the main team.

In the meantime, poor Africans in rural and urban areas continue to go without potable water and face health risks from drinking contaminated water or living in slums without pipe-borne water facilities. With the effects of a changing climate already hitting some countries, rivers are drying up and water sources are becoming even scarcer. In the Far North of Cameroon, people have to dig 50 metres now to find water for a well, where they used to dig for 20 metres.

Reviving Traditional Wrestling in Cameroon

By George Esunge Fominyen

Traditional African wrestlers have been girding their loins for weeks, each having the ambition of emerging champion at the African Traditional Wrestling Championships hosted on 2 to 10 July 2008 by Senegal. A review of press articles on the event reveals that Senegal are the hot favourites with Niger, Mali, Togo, Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso , Nigeria and Mauritania as the other participants. Painfully, Cameroon is absent from the list although there is a tradition of wrestling especially amongs the coastal ethnic groups and the Bakweris in particular.

Wesua or Traditional Wrestling in Bakweri land (2) Watch out for the Girls!

A film by George Esunge Fominyen

Wesua or Traditional Wrestling in Bakweri land (1)

A film by George Esunge Fominyen

China in Africa: Invasion or the New Face of Globalisation?

By George Esunge Fominyen

I was perusing Cameroonian papers on the web when I fell on this story in “Eden newspaper” of 2 June 2008: “Two Chinese fishermen have been seriously injured following clashes with local fishmongers the Chinese are alleged to have been using twin trawlers to fish along the Atlantic coast of Limbe. The incident occurred on Thursday 29 May 2008 in Kange Fishing Port, along the Limbe- Tiko creeks.”

According to the report, “six unidentified boats, allegedly owned by local fishermen attacked the Chinese in their twin trawler at sea, subjected them to torture, severely wounded two and carted away about 300 bags of fish, estimated to be five tons in scientific terms. The radio communication equipment, mobile phones and other valuables belonging to the Chinese fishermen were also seized.”

Football: Is Cameroon Using a Hammer to Kill a Fly?

By George Esunge Fominyen

Cameroon’s national football team is currently cruising through the initial stage of the two-phase qualifiers to the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted in 2010 by South Africa and Angola respectively.


Looking at the Lions’ group that includes football minnows like Tanzania, Cape Verde and Mauritius some observers contend that Cameroon would emerge overall group winners even if they were to use a third rate side. So why are the Indomitable Lions playing their strongest men?

Up Mount Kupe with British Sailors

By George Esunge Fominyen (Originally published on the website of the British High Commission in Cameroon)

The crew of the HMS Enterprise, one of the UK's most modern hydrographic and oceanographic vessels is used to stopping over at ports on the West African coastline and visiting places around. During a visit (in 2007) of the HMS Enterprise to Cameroon, some of the ship’s company took time off to discover the beautiful natural landscape of the country. While some attempted to reach the top of the 2400 m high mount Kupe, others toured villages around Mount Cameroon in Buea. George Esunge Fominyen accompanied the seven of them who went up Mount Kupe, in the South West Province of Cameroon. It was a breath-taking experience that also demonstrated the lack touristic infrastructure in Cameroon.

Eto’o, the Indomitable Lions, Cameroonian Journalists and Journalism

By George Esunge Fominyen

  The African qualifiers to the 2010 World Cup have started. In their opening match, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions beat the Cape Verde national team 2-0. This victory was over-shadowed by the row between the Cameroonian players and sports reporters. The height of which saw Samuel Eto’o physically assault Bony Phillipe (a reporter working for RTS radio) at a bungled press conference in Yaounde. There are two ways of analyzing this fracas between the star “Lion” and the press. Route 1: Eto’o was wrong and should be punished. Route 2: Cameroonian journalists merit such disrespect because they brought this upon themselves.

Man from Somewhere in-between

By George Esunge Fominyen

During the violent two weeks in May 2008 when Black South Africans attacked Black African migrants in South Africa, a friend of mine sent me a number of pictures depicting men being hacked or charred to death by other men.  Under shock, she wrote to me saying, “Happiness is not always where you think you would find it.” She went on, “how could our brothers do this to us? How could blacks do this to blacks? How could South Africans do this other Africans?”

Contact

Contact:

George Esunge Fominyen

PANOS Institute West Africa

6, Rue Calmette Dakar, Senegal

Email: esungeft@gmail.com

Who’s GEF?

GEF is short for George Esunge Fominyen.

I am currently Coordinator (Manager) of the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal. PIWA is a regional organization whose mission is to contribute to the construction of a democratic space of communication for change and social justice in Africa. Before joining PIWA, I was Press, Public Diplomacy and Political Officer at the British High Commission (Embassy) in Yaounde (2005-2008).