George Esunge Fominyen is currently Coordinator of the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal.
PANOS Institute West Africa
6, Rue Calmette Dakar, Senegal
Email: esungeft@gmail.com
AFRICAphonie AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Bakwerirama Spotlight on Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Bate Besong Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Bernard Fonlon Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
Fonlon-Nichols Award Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
France Watcher Purpose of this advocacy site: To aggregate all available information about French terror, exploitation and manipulation of Africa
Jacob Nguni Virtuoso guitarist, writer and humorist. Former lead guitarist of Rocafil, led by Prince Nico Mbarga.
Martin Jumbam The refreshingly, unique, incisive and generally hilarous writings about the foibles of African society and politics by former Cameroon Life Magazine columnist Martin Jumbam.
Nowa Omoigui Professor of Medicine and interventional cardiologist, Nowa Omoigui is also one of the foremost experts and scholars on the history of the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Civil War. This site contains many of his writings and comments on military subjects and history.
Postwatch Magazine A UMI (United Media Incorporated) publication. Specializing in well researched investigative reports, it focuses on the Cameroonian scene, particular issues of interest to the former British Southern Cameroons.
Simon Mol Cameroonian poet, writer, journalist and Human Rights activist living in Warsaw, Poland
Victor Mbarika ICT Weblog Victor Wacham Agwe Mbarika is one of Africa's foremost experts on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Dr. Mbarika's research interests are in the areas of information infrastructure diffusion in developing countries and multimedia learning.
Tunduzi A West African in Arusha at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the angst, contradictions and rewards of that process.
Dr Godfrey Tangwa (Gobata) Renaissance man, philosophy professor, actor and newspaper columnist, Godfrey Tangwa aka Rotcod Gobata touches a wide array of subjects. Always entertaining and eminently readable. Visit for frequent updates.
Francis Nyamnjoh Prolific writer, social and political commentator, he was a professor at University of Buea and University of Botswana. Currently he is Head of Publications and Dissemination at CODESRIA in Dakar, Senegal. His writings are socially relevant and engaging even to the non specialist.
Ilongo Sphere: Writer and Poet Novelist and poet Ilongo Fritz Ngalle, long concealed his artist's wings behind the firm exterior of a University administrator and guidance counsellor. No longer. Enjoy his unique poems and glimpses of upcoming novels and short stories.
Scribbles from the Den The award-winning blog of Dibussi Tande, Cameroon's leading blogger.
Enanga's POV Rosemary Ekosso, a Cameroonian novelist and blogger who lives and works in Cambodia.
GEF's Outlook Blog of George Esunge Fominyen, former CRTV journalist and currently Coordinator of the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal.
The Chia Report The incisive commentary of Chicago-based former CRTV journalist Chia Innocent
Voice Of The Oppressed Stephen Neba-Fuh is a political and social critic, human rights activist and poet who lives in Norway.
Bate Besong Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Bakwerirama Spotlight on the Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Fonlon-Nichols Award Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
Bernard Fonlon Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
AFRICAphonie AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland Professional translator, freelance writer and a regular contributor to THE POST newspaper. Lives in Douala, Cameroon
In the past, the government of Niger refused to admit that the country suffered from a famine, which meant no aid or assistance for starving people.
A new government took over in February of this year — leading to a rather bizarre bit of good news. George Fominyen, a humanitarian affairs correspondent with Reuters AlertNet based in Dakar, Senegal, explains the change to host Peggy Wehmeyer.
With a $1 million alleged fraud case in Liberia, World Vision has become the latest aid agency to be embroiled in a corruption scandal. The Christian organisation has rushed to implement new systems to prevent such abuse in the future, but analysts say fear of negative publicity, lack of external monitoring and a degree of complacency are hampering efforts to stamp out corruption in the aid world.
The Liberian case involves three former World Vision officials who are accused of stealing food and construction materials meant to help people recover from the country's 14-year-long civil war. They allegedly masterminded a scam in which food aid was sold for profit in local markets.
President Hu Jintao on 14th February 2009 visited the site on which the Chinese would be constructing a Grand National theatre for the Senegalese capital. What one cannot tell is if he was warned by local officials that the residents of that neighbourhood were not too pleased to have their stadium demolished in exchange for a theatre (listen to the voices in the video clip below).
The romance between China and Africa tastes really sweet for Senegal on this Valentine’s Day 2009. China is reported to have offered Senegal aid and loans worth 45.8 billion FCFA (approximately 90 million USD). Happening on (or the eve of) a day when most persons in the Western hemisphere are celebrating love, the additional Chinese promise to purchase 10 thousand tons of groundnut oil from Senegal could be likened to a declaration of love from China. President Hu Jintao was in the West African country on the second-leg of his African tour. What would the Chinese get in return?
By George Esunge Fominyen (originally published in Flame of Africa)
African civil society representatives have warned that the signing of Interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the European Union and some African countries will undermine the fledgling processes of regional integration on the continent. They held this position at a seminar organised under the banner of the African Trade network (ATN) during the 2009 Social Forum in Belem
The British based poverty alleviation organisation War on Want is campaigning for legislation to enable local communities in Africa and other Third World countries hold trans-national mining companies to account in their home countries for human rights abuses perpetrated in countries where they operate.
A national movement for the defence of women’s Interests in Brazil has called for the end of the expansion of single-crop industrial farming (monocropping) in the Amazon. Sylvia Camusa and her 4000 member strong association made the call during a display on sovereignty and food security on the Pan-Amazonian Day at the World Social Forum in Belem.
We were warned on arrival in Belem, that it rained here each day between 2 and 4pm local time. We were advised to buy umbrellas which we didn’t do. We learnt a bitter lesson on the opening march of the 2009 World Social Forum. However, that torrential downpour was unable to prevent the groupspresent from marching. Samba after the rain at Belem - George Esunge Fominyen
The World Social Forum (WSF) 2009 opens 'officially' on 27 January with a March. The Amazonian city of Belem in the Brazilian State of Para is teeming with thousands of guests who have converged here to make a statement about the other world that they would like to see.
Organisers say they are expecting about 80 to 100 thousand people in this town situated in the very north of Brazil. The queues at the registration centre for associations and individuals are so long and winding. The regular tropical rain, coupled with the humid atmosphere and temperatures revolving around 29°C to 32°C do not give room for comfort. At the tent where youths are gathered to register for their forum some have chosen to wait for their turn by learning a few dance steps. Watch this...
After a gruelling journey that took us exactly 24 hours – we made it to Belem Para in Brazil. We late into the night of the 25th or early in the morning of the 26th January 2009. At the Belem airport it was getting really social. A band was on site spewing some very South American tunes and a two dancing couples paced to their music. That should put a smile on the faces of the hundreds who were waiting for their luggage – having crossed oceans, forests and icecaps to attend this World Social Forum in the middle of the Amazon.
Forget Obama now. Look at the picture below. Take a really hard look at the picture below and tell me what you see…
Let me help out. What you see is not an abandoned latrine. That is a school: Government School Pomla near Figuil in the North Region of Cameroon. That building is the same classroom for all the different grades of the school. I saw the different blackboards (or what passes for that) per grade (class) at different wall angles. Now that’s the face of poverty on our side of the world.
After a brief lull, the Barack Obamania is back into full gear in Africa and among many of African descent. Today (20 January 2009) is his 'Inauguration Day' as President of the United States of America. Given the way some are excited in Africa, one might misconstrue him for the President of another USA: United States of Africa?!
I tuned in to Cameroon Television (CRTV) this morning and the breakfast show was wholly dedicated to Obama's coming into office. The set was decorated with American flags and Obama campaign gadgets. But what struck me was this musical piece on Barack Obama, stipped in Bakweri folklore. A rythm hatched by the up and coming Tata Kingue...
It is the end of the year and many persons are trying to make some fast money to celebrate properly. Like it or not, one means of getting rich quickly is setting up a scam through the Internet. Of course, 4-1-9 and fey-men do not only wait for this moment but you surely receive more intriguing emails at this time of the year... A Cameroonian blogger - Kamer Stories - weaved an interesting post entitled "see me trouble" based on a letter sent to the author's email box by one of these scammers. She told off the scammer: "My man think again, I'm not that gullible. Better luck next time ya". Evidently she thought the author was definitely Nigerian.
True. Our Nigerian neighbours have made themselves infamous through racketeering via the Internet and other tools... BUT, it could have just been another Cameroonian. We are not so clean either! Our fey-mania has grown (or crossed?) from fake money-doubling deals to selling dogs and monkeys on the net and now we are offering abandoned babies for adoption. There is even a view that this is new capitalist model...
I spent part of the day Americans elected their 44th President in the Ivory Coast.
A beautiful country torn by a rebellion whose genesis involves issues of identity. Amidst all the euphoria (T-shirts and all), that was evident as Ivorians enjoyed the feeling of having a first black President in the US, I wondred what diffrence it could make in their country.
Could the rise to power in the US of a man born of a Kenyan father cause politicians in this country to rethink divisive concepts like Ivoirité, which has fuelled the long precarious political situation in the country. I spoke to some Ivorians and here's what they think (in French).
I often remember one of my lecturers at the department of journalism and mass communication of the University of Buea saying, if ever we heard that CNN's Christiane Amanpour (Chief International Correspondent) was in Cameroon with a crew of reporters, we should consider that the country had collapsed. The class was about major news organisations and conflict/war reporting.
It was a humorous bit of learning but the message stuck.
That is why I suspect there is big trouble in the offing when news organisations like France 24 and BBC World Service start having top headlines on Cameroon. Especially if it is not about a plane crash but about "rebels" taking persons hostage and threatening to kill them if the government does not react within a three days.
ABUJA, 24 October 2008 (IRIN) - A 18 October rebel attack on the Bakassi peninsula exposes the region’s continued vulnerability to “insurgency, piracy and unruliness,” according to a UN senior officer who coordinates the Cameroon Nigeria Mixed Commission that oversaw the handover of the peninsula from Nigerian to Cameroonian authorities on 14 August.
I have written here about the relations between China and Africa. But two things pushed me into posting a sequel. Firstly, I read the troubles of a British volunteer in Cameroon who realised that Bamenda, (Cameroon, Africa?) was "where the products that China makes, and the West doesn’t want, end up". Secondly, I met one of the authors of the growing library of books on China-Africa relations. I could not help interviewing Michel Beuret, the foreign news editor of the Swiss news magazine "l'Hebdo" born journalist who recently published a book entitled "La ChineAfrique". The following podcast has interesting insights into the reasons behind this book, tit-bits on the book and this China-Africa relationship.
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.
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.
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.”
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. 
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.”
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