GEF's Outlook

Of Charlotte Dipanda, Majoie Asse and the Canal D'Or

Charlotte Dipanda. Does that ring a bell? The 24-year-old singer with a soulful touch has captured the hearts of Cameroonians since the release of her first album "Mispa" in 2009. They paid her for bringing some bliss into their lives by voting her as the Best Female Artiste of that year,through the Cameroon music and culture awards, Canal D'or.

She carved her niche in the hearts of many with poignant vocals that accompanied the late Jeannot Hens' guitar in songs like Ndando, Longue and Cathy. For connaisseurs who remember her early days as a vocalist in Douala cabarets before she was fished out by Congolese songster - Lokua Kanza, her current success is well deserved.

She was performing on the night of her victory (part of a tour of Cameroon) thus failing to attend the ceremony.

The Male Artiste of the Year - Longue Longue - was at the event. He walked to the stage in a priest's cassock, which he dropped to unveil a stylish suit as he received his prize. According to votes via SMS and the web, he came ahead of Tsimi Tsoro whose lead track  "Merci" was voted best  song of the year.

Lapiro Honoured at Cameroon Music Awards

Organisers of the Cameroon music and cultural awards, CANAL D'Or, have honoured jailed singer Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger aka Lapiro de Mbanga with a a Life time Achievement Award.

The special tribute presented to his wife Louisette Lambo Sandjo on Friday is in recognition of the artiste's work, especially his engaging lyrics on the social, political and economic situation of his countrymen, often delivered in the "mboko" variant of the country's lingua franca, Pidgin-English.

"I dedicate this award to my husband and to all who are with him in cell number 18," the emotional Louisette told the audience made up of politicians, senior civil servants, top class businessmen, musicians, comedians and journalists.

Lapiro de Mbanga was arrested in April 2008 after the violent riots that rocked Cameroon in protest of high prices of basic commodities and popular discontent over a change in the country's constitution to drop the restriction of Presidential terms.

"I WON'T CRY"

He was convicted in September 2008 to three years imprisonment for looting, unlawful gathering and blocking the public highway at Mbanga, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Douala, the economic capital and one of several towns swept by riots that claimed more than 40 lives according to the official toll.

The Woes of a People Enslaved by Alcohol: A review of Francis Nyamnjoh’s: the Travail of Dieudonné

By George Esunge Fominyen

When a social science researcher takes to fictional literature, it is hard to draw the line between reality and imagination. It is the case with Cameroon’s Francis Nyamnjoh; a sound academic  who knows how to tell a story simply and vividly. Apart from deliberate exaggerations by the author, any Cameroonian who has lived in the country for the past quarter of a century reading The Travail of Dieudonné, could easily find their space or that of a person they know in the colourful characters in the novel’s setting of Mimboland.

What’s in a name? Mimbo in Cameroonian pidgin means a drink (from palm wine to champagne). So doped of this potent nectar, are the characters of The Travail of Dieudonné that, they readily accept their unfortunate fate. Theirs is a world of misery in which insultingly rich and corrupt officials reap of an undemocratic government in which poor governance thrives, while the masses abandon themselves to sexual perversity and self-pity with the help of alcohol. In many ways, it is Cameroon seen through a glass of beer and Cameroonians locked inside a bottle of lager.

Poetry: Lines of Broken Contact

By George Esunge Fominyen
 
I thought I could move you
Until I discovered something new
You do not give a damn
Between You and I now is a dam
Whose construction order I still can't construe.

My Reading of Fritz Ilongo's: Lost Heritage

By George Esunge Fominyen

Recently, an Eden newspaper report that "about 300 inhabitants of Esele in the Limbe III subdivision have been asked to quit their village and cede land for the construction of a military barrack" stirred virulent reactions among members of the Fako (South West, Cameroon) diaspora. They mostly worried about how vulnerable their kinsmen had become in terms of losing their ancestral lands. As I followed the heated debates on the issue, I reflected on my interpretation of "The Lost Heritage", a story by Cameroonian writer, Fritz Ilongo.   

This is a short story. True. With a very catchy theme - if (like Fritz Ilongo) you hail from the land that spans the slopes of great Fako Mountain to the "Mwaanja" (ocean). It is a depiction of an intense reality that has political and social ramifications which may supersede comprehension.Bakweris have a problem about their ancestral land. Sold privately or at a state level (i.e CDC)...

 

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?