GEF's Outlook

Indomitable Lions: Remember 27 March 1988

By George Esunge Fominyen

Does the date 27 March 1988 mean anything to you? If you are a fan of the Indomitable Lions it should. This day 21 years ago at the Mohammed V stadium in Casablanca-Morocco the Cameroon national football team won the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time. They beat Nigeria 1-0 in the final (listen to highlights below). As fate would have it, it was against the same Nigeria that they won their first trophy in 1984  and their third in 2000.

Cameroon v Nigeria 1988 final - Commentary:Boh Herbert/Ayissi Essomba

Timothy Kasolo: Journalists Need to be Trained to Blog

By George Esunge Fominyen

Timothy Kasolo is a Zambian journalist cum entrepreneur cum blogger. He was recently in Dakar to collect an award (coupled with a $2000 cheque) on behalf of lusakatimes.com. This online/citizen media  project had won the prize for the Best African Civil Society Organization’s Blog in the Waxal Blogging Africa Awards.

The ceremony included a debate on the marriage between blogging and journalism. So how do the likes of Timothy deal with this union? I stole into Timothy's time at the reception (with clicking plates and spoons in the background) for a conversation on the matter. One thing he said was that journalists need to be trained to be good bloggers but started by introducing lusakatimes.com...

Timothy Waxal Award Winner.mp3 -

Conversation With...Rosebell kagumire -Award Winning Journalist-Blogger

By George Esunge Fominyen

Rosebell Kagumire, winner of the  Waxal Award for Best English-Speaking African journalist's blog, says ordinary Africans can use blogging to change people's perception of Africa. She spoke to me after receiving her award in Dakar, Senegal on Monday, 9 March 2009.

This investigative journalist for "The Independent" news magazine in Kampala - Uganda thinks if blogging is made close to everyone in Africa it could serve as a counterweight to the depiction of Africa by international media like the CNN and the BBC as a place of suffering, despair and poverty. She supposes it might even make these media view Africa differently.

My conversation with Rosebell also delved into the difference between blogging and journalism and how she copes with both caps...

Best English Journalist Blogger - Rosabell Kagumire

ICASA 2008: An Encounter with the Condom Project

By George Esunge Fominyen

One of the more captivating instances of the five days I spent covering the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa is the moment I stumbled on this outfit wholly made of condoms. As I struggled to take out my camera to capture this work of art, I noticed there were people surrounding a lady who was involved in a kind of demonstration with gels and oils on a table that also had some condoms which people were smelling...

Just that day, one of the journalists on my team had spoken of the growing misconception in Mali that condoms were at the cause of the rising rate of HIV prevalence in the country. Could these persons clarify me on the issue? First, I took out my recorder, fitted my microphone and here is what I learnt talking to Joy Lynn Alegarbes, director of Global Operations, The Condom Project....

ICASA 2008 Lessons: The Role of Schools in this World with HIV

By George Esunge Fominyen

For many years programmes to tackle the spread of HIV and AIDS missed out on a vital and vulnerable member of the society: children. This was particularly so in African countries where discussing issues to do with with sexuality and reproduction have been a taboo for ages. As most policy makers as well as adults perceived HIV and AIDS as a very "sexual" problem, it became almost impossible to factor this sizeable group of persons: children.

Could Cote d'Ivoire Learn From Obama's Election

By George Esunge Fominyen

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). 

Power Cuts, football Defeats and Riots in Dakar

By George Esunge Fominyen

The week of 6-12 October 2008 was tough in Dakar, the capital of the West African country of Senegal. City dwellers took to the streets on 9 October to protest against the frequent and long power outages. They were at it again on Saturday, 11 October when the national football (soccer) team was knocked out of the race to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup tournaments. They drew 1-1 with neighbours Gambia when they needed to win. The players were pelted with rocks, cars were burnt and some offices destroyed by disgusted youths.

Senegal crisis.mp3 - Gefs Outlook Podcast

I learnt of the first protests while on duty in Bamako, Mali. I could have lived the second riots had I not been abandoned in the Malian capital by a sorry airline called Air Senegal International. This podcast (in French) was produced as a cab driver briefed me on the week's events. Like a good number of Senegalese, he believes Saturday's violence was more than just an expression of disgust against the Teranga Lions.

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.

Bright Spots in Cameroonian Higher Education

George Esunge Fominyen

The other day I learnt that the University of Buea had won a multi-million grant on tuberculosis research offered by the NEPAD. That was really good news from Cameroon where you would usually have items on corruption, arrests, and robberies. This success story reminded me of a smaller scale success obtained by that same university four years ago at the the Inter-University Brain Trust Contest (IUBTC). The students representing the University of Buea won in the emerging diseases category after proposing a project on the management of tuberculosis in Fako division.

The Inter-University Brain Trust Contest (Universiades Academique in French) is the intellectual equivalent of the annual university games organised by the Ministry of Higher Education. It  seeks to promote the ability of Cameroonian university students to present concrete and marketable solutions to existing problems. I dug down my archive of programmes produced in the days when I was Education News Correspondent (Editor) for the CRTV National Station and re-edited the following piece on the IUBTC (2004) which demonstrates the usefulness of that unsung contest and UB's good performance in TB research. Needless to say the programme Education Switchboard died after I quit CRTV! The position I used to hold was also scrapped. Good listening though.

University Contest podcast - GEF (

Can Citizen Journalists Change the Face of Journalism in Africa?

By George Esunge Fominyen

The African blogosphere is growing each day. Citizens are using cyberspace to report about issues relevant to their lives and breaking news events. They are occupying a space which mainstream media professionals are still to take advantage of. People are increasingly depending on weblogs to satisfy their thirst for information and the need to communicate (interact).

Will this citizen journalism kill the trade as we know? Does this new breed of journalists need to be trained? Is there need to regulate their practice? Some ICT experts, communication researchers, bloggers, journalists and media managers discussed these issues at a workshop that held in Dakar in September 2008.

On the sidelines of the workshop, I discussed the matter in a conversation with Ndesanjo Macha, the sub-saharan Africa editor of Global Voices Online . Click below to listen to excerpts...