GEF's Outlook

Cameroon in Trouble?

By George Esunge Fominyen

  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.

CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Bakassi’s displaced in flux, peninsula vulnerable

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.

China in Africa: Invasion or the New Face of Globalisation?Part 2

By George Esunge Fominyen

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 podcasts have interesting insights into the reasons behind this book and this China-Africa relationship.

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. 

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.

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.”