GEF's Outlook

Ethnic Twist to Clashes between Youths and Motorbike taximen in Cameroon City?

*Article updated from the original to include quotes from the chief of Deido and Kah Walla.

There have been clashes between motor-bike taxi riders and residents of Deido neighbourhood for five days leaving at least two people dead in Douala, Cameroon's largest city, media reports said.

 This spate of violence erupted on New Year's Eve when Deido residents accused motor-bike taxi riders (known as Benskinneur) of stabbing a Deido native to death. The residents retaliated by attacking benskinneurs and setting their motorcycles on fire.

The violence escalated on Tuesday 3 January, as shown in the report below by Douala-based Equinoxe Television channel, after a woman's home was burnt down in Deido on Monday night. Some Deido residents blamed the benskinneurs for the action leading to further clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

ETHNIC ISSUES

While local media have suggested that the situation is increasingly developing into a tribal conflict between mainly ethnic Bamileke benskinneurs and largely ethnic Duala (Sawa) Deido youth groups, Sawa community leaders refuted such allegations on Equinoxe TV on Wednesday.

"Why do you want to suggest that there is a problem between Deidos (Dualas) and Bamileke or benskinneurs?" Essaka Ekwalla the paramount chief of the Deido asked on Equinoxe TV news on Wednesday night. "Are all benskinneur in Douala Bamileke?" he asked. "Do you know that there are natives of Deido who lost property because they are also benskinneurs?"

   

Government officials and politicians have not directly said the violence is turning to an ethnic issue but they have called for calm and insisted on unity.

"The head of state has repeatedly said that we have only one ethnicity which is the Cameroon nation," Issa Tchiroma, the Minister of Communication said on TV. "Douala has to remain that melting pot that it has always been where all ethnic groups be they Bakoko, Bassa, Bamileke, Duala, Hausa, live in harmony," he said.

A statement by the Provincial Bureau of the country's leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), touched on the issue.

"It should be noted that Douala is a cosmopolitan city. No one has the right to create a state of lawlessness in any of its neighbourhoods or areas. Douala is the common property of all who live there," said the statement signed by Gervais Nintcheu, SDF district chairman for the Littoral Region.

Should Explicit Content in Cameroon Bikutsi be Condemned?

Cameroon's popular musical genre Bikutsi does not need foul language and explicit content to thrive, a former Cameroon TV (CRTV) presenter, Nadine Patricia Mengue, has said. 

Bikutsi has been criticised over the years for the perceived sexual content of its lyrics and the dance styles performed on stage and in videos. 

"In Europe when you say you are a Cameroonian (artiste) and you play Bikutsi people have the impression that you are doing pornography," the France-based broadcaster said. (see video below)

"We can talk about happiness and fun but we don't need to get into trash," she added while co-presenting Tam-Tam Weekend, the CRTV show that is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

But should this be an issue at all? Shouldn't it be left to people to choose what they want or don't want to listen to? And aren't such lyrics part of Bikutsi from its inception?

 

Bikutsi started as a means for women in various Beti and Fang people of central and southern Cameroon to speak out about the trials and tribulations of everyday life, love and relationships with their men including sexual taboos. 

This was accompanied by singing, clapping and stamping of their feet on the earth. It later became a part of traditional song and dance events with the men playing the balafon and drums while the women sang. 

"The improvised and usually erotic female choruses are at the heart of the Beti’s bikut-si tradition," Hortense and Charles Fuller wrote in their History of Bikutsi Music.

Notes from Watching Cameroon v Mauritius on TV

Just over 20 minutes into the first half of the Cameroon against Mauritius game there was a blip on the telly and off went the images of lumbering Lions at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde. In came pictures of studio guests and presenters rushing to their seats for an impromptu chit-chat. 

The discussion went on for more than 30 minutes -  ranging from Orange Cameroon's latest  products to the absolute need for more international friendly matches for Cameroon.

But no one really explained to the millions of Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) viewers in Cameroon and elsewhere why we were unable to see the rest of the first-half of the game. 

When the pictures from €nhthe stadium returned to our screens Cameroon were leading 1-0 in the second-half of the game.

There were no commentaries from the field so the studio presenters took over. One of them saw Henri Bedimo everywhere on the pitch whereas the Montpellier left-back had been replaced by Leonard (Leonie) Kweuke who had scored the curtain raiser.

OLD MACHINES

Transmission failures occur everywhere but CRTV seems to have made them the norm in their live broadcasts.

A fellow Cameroonian watching the game in Dakar asked me (as an ex-CRTV man) why in this 21st Century the national TV station should have problems transmitting a game taking place barely 5km from its production centre!

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.