Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland

Al Qaeda Suspect Was In Cameroon!

By Canute Tangwa

Apparently, in the year 2005 or thereabouts, the alleged Al Qaeda petrel, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in the company of about ten classmates made a trip up the 4070 metre high Mount Cameroon! Probably, they were final year students at the British International School in Lomé, Togo.

I Weep For Bamenda

By Canute Tangwa

Apparently, as a Buea boy I have no business weeping for Bamenda aka Abakwa. I should not weep more than the bereaved! However, two things took me up country: one that entailed weeping, pain and sorrow - the death of one of our best and brightest, Peter Terence Awa alias Peter T (Binot) and a joyous event in far-off Fundong - the traditional and 'whiteman' wedding of my friend in need and in deed, Ivo Lysinge or simply Papin or Marvé to friends.
 
I used a stone to shoot two birds! We hit the road from Douala in the evening of Friday, October 16. It was bound to be interesting because I was in the company of friends I have known for over 35 years!

Guinea-Conakry: From Glory To Decadence

BY CANUTE TANGWA

On October 2, 1958, Ahmed Sekou Toure said ‘NON’ to General De Gaulle and wrested independence from France. “We prefer freedom in poverty than wealth in bondage”, he thundered to the face of the insufferable French and his bemused peers like Leopold Sedar Senghor and Houphouet Boigny. French reaction was swift and telling (economic sanctions) but Guineans clung to their dignity.

IF THERE IS BLOOD IN MY EYES (PART I)

By CANUTE TANGWA

After three gulps of afo-fo, J. Safour smacked his lips and continued our story. The fog was quite heavy and visibility was almost nil. The cold went right into the bones. This was Buea in August of the late 70s. It was also the month of fear. The fear of the nyongo man, a senior cop who owned a beetle with license number 999.

SECURITY CONCERNS IN THE GULF OF GUINEA: AMERICAN, REGIONAL AND COUNTRY RESPONSE

By CANUTE C.N. TANGWA

According to Chester Crocker, former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, “there is more piracy in the Gulf of Guinea than anywhere else in the world”.¹ Thus, the Gulf of Guinea (GG) is as insecure as the Straits of Malacca² and the maritime domain that covers the territorial waters (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24 nautical miles) and exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles) from the Somalian coast.

Revisiting Pope John Paul II: A Priest Par Excellence

By Canute Tangwa (Originally published on thepostwebedition.com )

Roman Catholic history is replete with the good, the bad, the ugly and the controversial: popes, priests, religious and the laity inclusive. The spotlight would be on popes, Pope John Paul II in particular, and to a lesser extent Bishops, since they are the so-called elite or princes of the Church.

 

Pope John Paul II

Translation: Source of Dispute-Conflict and Perpetuation of Socio-Political and Political Hegemony

By CANUTE C.N. TANGWA

In trying to build bridges between cultures, the translator sometimes assists, in no small measure, in tearing them down. The upshot: disputes-conflicts ensue between parties or actors with, at times, dire consequences.

A dispute-conflict may arise from a wrongly placed comma, semi-colon to an outright mistranslation. This is quite common with legal texts.

Thus, the battle for the apt phrase, word or punctuation mark shifts from the translator to the law courts, arbitration centres or the field. Hence, belying some heated debates and disputes is a misplaced comma, colon or a mistranslation. Surely, most of us have not forgotten the translation of lettre d’intention as letter of intention over Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) when Cameroon decided to join the infamous IMF club in the early 90s.

Writing Autobiographies, Biographies And Treatises: Case Of Anglophone Cameroon Statesmen

By Canute Tangwa

The late Hon. Nerius Nemaso Mbile and Ndeh Ntumazah are exceptions to an unenviable rule unconsciously laid down by past and present Anglophone statesmen: do not leave any written document for posterity lest generations would pry into our actions! Rather let generations of Anglophones continue to quarrel, bicker, speculate and tear each other over who did what, where and when long after our deaths.
  
Dr E.M.L. Endeley (with folder), first Premier of the British Southern Cameroons, did not write his memoirs. Behind him is Nerius N Mbile (left) who wrote his.

Bate Besong And The Apparent Death Of Critical Thought At The University

By Canute Tangwa

Indeed, these are trying times. But what are the men and women in our university and intellectual circles doing to conscientize, energize, create awareness, proffer solutions and chart a course of action? The answer is not far-fetched.

It is in the very essence of a university i.e. critical thought that has been smashed to smithereens at the University.There is no longer a "revolutionary manière" at the academy. The deafening silence from a cross-section of eggheads in times as these is a cause for concern. A university is an integral part of its socio-economic and political environment.

Reminiscing about the Death of Of A Literary Baobab, Teacher And Counsellor: Bate Besong aka BB

By Canute Tangwa (Originally published in The Post after the death of BB on March 8, 2007)

Prologue: Thanks to Auntie Becky Ndive, the late Teh Che Augustine and I used to present a Literary Half Hour programme over CRTV Buea. We invited writers and freethinkers from within and without the academy. When Teh Che left, I ran the programme alone with the assistance of Edward Aminkeng.I decided to invite my teacher, friend and counsellor, Bate Besong alias BB, the Obasinjom Warrior and The Writer As Tiger! It was vintage BB.

Cameroon: The Old Guard Caught Off-Guard By Generation '90

Canute Tangwa

Most of the young men that burned, ransacked, pillaged and grounded Cameroon for almost a week (23, 25, 26, 27 and 28 February, 2008) are below voting age but are ripe enough, by our statute books, to get married.
 

In other words, our governors consider politics too serious a business for them and matrimony a social affair with no political trappings. By this, our leadership is oblivious of the fact that all actors in a society are often buffeted by internal and external forces that inevitably unleash a chain of actions and reactions that usually take on a non-partisan political coloration.

Book Review: Collection of Poems Entitled "No Turning Back" (2007)

Reviewed by Canute Tangwa

Dibussi Tande. No Turning Back. Langaa Publishers, 2007

Reading through Dibussi Tande's collection of poems NO TURNING BACK (2007), I  could not but recall Wole Soyinka's one point five billion naira question: "How did creativity survive under such arbitrary exercise of power? How did Art survive in a climate of fear?"(2004 Reith Lecture).

Dibussi Tande wrote most of his poems in an atmosphere (the turbulent and fiery 1990s; clamor for political change in Cameroon and the coming to the fore of the so called Anglophone Cameroon self-determination) of fear, uncertainty and expectation.

At the time something apparently of import but that went without much notice happened; the manhandling and belittling of the much heralded and celebrated writer Mongo Beti in the streets of Yaounde by policemen as the prince was moving out of town. Thus, the line between ART as vision cum commitment and ART as emotion and spectacle was drawn.

NO TURNING BACK encapsulates the Christian eschatological trinity of Vision, Tribulation and Hope; all these subsumed into the quest for freedom and political space that the poet skilfully handles as if to the manner born.

And If Obama Doesn't Go After African Tyrants?

By Canute Tangwa

We would not say he merely blew hot air on January 20. We must look at our backyard, wrack our brains, examine our consciences and ascertain whether we said yes, we can or depended on Barack Obama to work miracles for us or spent precious time blaming our ills on the West.

Indeed, we have acted out the victim for too long and thus played into the hands of our distasteful, bloodthirsty, visionless leaders and intellectuals who speak with both sides of their mouth.

"Why Don't you Go After the Big Man?”: Reminiscences on the Kenyan Crisis

BY CANUTE TANGWA (Originally published on African Path in February 2008)

“Why don’t you go after the big man?” were the last words of Nahashon Njenga Njoroge, the Kikuyu alleged assassin of the celebrated but unsung Kenyan foremost nationalist icon Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya a.k.a Tom Mboya, as he supposedly went to the gallows.

Tom Mboya, a Luo, was shot to dead in a Nairobi street on July 5, 1969. His death ripped open latent ethnic rivalries and bitterness between the Kikuyus and the Luos. The bloody clashes that ensued did not spare the revered Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu. He was pelted with stones as he alighted from his presidential limousine to attend Mboya’s requiem mass. Yet, from all indications Kenyatta had earmarked the charismatic Mboya as his successor. However, a big man thought otherwise.

The Two Bueas: Buea North (Then) Buea South (Now)

By Canute Tangwa (Originally published in The Post, June 2, 2005)

I spent the long 20th May weekend in Buea. It was both exciting and chilling. Exciting because every time I visit Buea, the town and land of my birth, I go down memory lane. I always look forward to meeting good old friends; savour the warmth and hospitality of the indigenous people (the Bakweri); think about or visit the prestigious schools we attended, popular joints (Holiday Inn, Cybel, Olivia, Mobutu) where we used to sit and crack jokes over bottles of beer; envelope myself in the refreshing mountain climate; take in the beautiful landscape and drink copiously the sparkling and tasteless water (Buea wata); gulp fresh palm wine at Bweku (a hamlet tucked away on the western fringe of the mountain); enjoy black soup, bush meat and cocoa yam around Moli. 

Notes from Douala

By Canute Tangwa

Douala-Mbeng also has a number of historical monuments. For obvious reasons, I do not mean German or French monuments. I mean authentic visible and invisible Cameroonian historical monuments.

Though Douala-Mbeng saw the Portuguese, English, Germans and French, it witnessed over and above all the real fight for our independence! I do not know how many Cameroonians or Doualans, especially, bother to ask the right questions. Really, if you ask the right questions, as they say, you will get the right answers: questions about who we are, where we come from and where we are heading to.

Cameroon: The Fear of China Should Be the Beginning of Wisdom

By Canute Tangwa (The Post, 26 November 2007)

Today, the Chinese economy is growing too fast for Western and to a greater extent African comfort.

There are several reasons to feel uneasy about China: the sheer size of its population, a billion and more people; the fourth largest economy in the world; a remarkable economic growth rate, from 3.8 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2007; its economic output for 2006 stood at $ 2.6 trillion; a trade surplus with the USA of $170 billion in 2004; China graduates 300,000 engineers per year compared with America's 80,000; three-quarters of all Chinese Bachelors degrees are in Mathematics, the Sciences and engineering fields.

Psychological Barrier In The Arab-Israeli Conflict Resolution

By Canute Tangwa (The Post 24 August, 2006)

In a November 20, 1977 address to the Israeli Knesset (parliament), the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said, "we should have the courage to make determining decisions that are consonant with the magnitude of the circumstances".

Apparently, the Arab and Jewish world is presently bereft of bold statesmen like Sadat "known for their wisdom and clarity of vision to survey (a) problem, with all its complexities, in a bold drive towards new horizons".

Zimbabwe Shoes And School Blues

By Canute Tangwa (The Post, 25 July 2008)

I do not know of anyone who still has a pair of Zimbabwe shoes. Since Zimbabwe is on the spotlight, a pair of Zimbabwe for auction at say Lloyds (Bob Mugabe would for sure clinch his fist and curse) would fetch billions of worthless Zimbabwean dollars.

Worthless indeed, because Zimbabwe is the home of the world's poorest billionaires! The top bidder would go home with a pair of Zimbabwe shoes that even at the height of its popularity was a source of derision.

Cameroon: The New Patriotism

By Canute Tangwa

On the eve of February 11, 2006, President Paul Biya, told the youths that there was need for a new patriotism; Cameroon has to reinvent itself. It was a subtle admission of failure, an inability to forge a nation after forty-five years of independence.

When there is no zeal, no dream, no motivation, no values, no models and no willingness to die for one's country, nothing works; inertia sets in. The President identified inertia as one of the ills plaguing Cameroon in his 2005 New Year message.

A Virtual Mola In The Heart Of Bui

By Canute Tangwa

I traveled to Bui Division after a 12-year or so absence. Do not wince. Prince Nico Mbarga once sang, home be home, though certain developments make me wary about the notion of home.

We are now in Kumbo Town where the late Bernard Fonlon lies in peace. Indeed, just as the first glowing yellowish sun rays pierced the dry pitch-cold morning air at the Njavnyuy Motor Park, I muttered something to Verla Victor that came straight from the recesses of my heart.

French Revisionism: Case Of Positive Role Of French Colonisation

By Canute Tangwa (The Post, March 2, 2006)

What positive role did colonisation play in Africa and Cameroon in particular? On June 30, 1960, late Patrice Lumumba declared loud and clear to the newborn Congolese nation and the world: "We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.

The Lord's Prayer

By Canute Tangwa

At a come together in Douala, the coordinator invited me to lead the group in prayer. I intoned The Lord's Prayer. At the end there was a burst of laughter and surprise. A youngman walked up to me and said, "So you do not know how to say common prayer!" "But we have just said The Lord's Prayer", I thundered.

Say your own prayer and do not say prayers that we already know seemed to be the general refrain.As kids we learnt by rote The Lord's Prayer. As adults we assume a certain understanding of The Lord's Prayer. A reading of Rabbi Marc Gellman's commentary of Psalm 23 jolted me.

John Garang De Mabior: The Last of Africa's Big Men Passes On

By Canute Tangwa (The Post, August 11, 2005)

John Garang de Mabior, a dark-skinned, burly, physically-intimidating Dinka from Southern Sudan, was a big man indeed. He was the quintessential member of the club of Africa's Big Men who sought justice for their people through the barrel of the gun in the bush, neighbourhoods or countryside.

A holder of a Ph.D in Agricultural Economics from the Iowa State University, USA and a product of one of America's finest military academies, Fort Benning in Georgia, John Garang spurned orders from his superiors in the Sudanese army to crush mutinous southern soldiers.

WAITING FOR BARACK OBAMA IN FRONT OF AN AFRICAN VERANDA

By Canute Tangwa

Around Carrefour EMIA in Yaounde, I spotted a plush car with a sticker: Obama 08. It was packed a few meters from the road. Beside the car was a cute and expensively dressed gentleman who was constantly on the phone. The car and the gentleman contrasted vividly with the surrounding immediate environment that was littered with dirt, rubbish, crumbling buildings and rubbles left behind by Yaoundeans and bulldozing caterpillars of the Yaounde City Council; a way of making the city clean!

Cameroon: 26 Years in Power - What Biya Got Right

By Canute Tangwa (Originally published in Cameroon Post (November 10 2008)

In a paper titled What Bush Got Right of August 9, 2008, Fareed Zakaria analysed and dissected the positive points of President George Bush's two-terms in office.

When I was invited to write on Biya's 26 years of stewardship, I thought aloud: does anybody have to wait for 26 years and more to get it right?

Bernard Fonlon Through Today's Lens

BY CANUTE TANGWA*

Professor Bernard Fonlon died on August 26, 1986. This year marks the 22nd anniversary of the death of a “teacher, advisor, sage, writer, philosopher, academic, Africanist, nationalist, essayist, leader, and mentor”. Much has been written and said on the impeccable qualities of Fonlon.

I am beginning this encounter with a point or two less because I never met Fonlon nor was he my teacher. The only weapon I have is an intellectual baggage! I also draw inspiration from Bate Besong’s soul searching question, “what would Professor Bernard Fonlon had (sic) done had he been confronted with the present national tragedy?” in THE BERNARD FONLON REVOLUTION: IF GOLD SHOULD RUST, WHAT WILL IRON DO? (2005).

When A Teacher Dies: Remembering Femi Oyewole

By Canute Tangwa (The Post, November 17, 2006)

I am not a celebrated pamphleteer/essayist like Kevin Mbayu who wrote a matchless-stellar tribute to Bernard Fonlon, the teacher and Mbayu's intellectual sparring partner.

Arguably, the late Mbayu was the one and only Cameroonian who took Fonlon to task in a philosophical debate on morality and the Godhead. Did the revered Fonlon buckle? That is another matter for polemicists.

XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA

By CANUTE TANGWA(First published on June 2, 2008 in The POST newspaper)

For the first time, since black majority rule became a reality in South Africa, South Africans sang the famous N’kosi Sikélélé Africa (God Save Africa) as God Damn Fellow Africans! Within a week, a minority of South Africans rubbished the philosophy of Ubuntu (humanity to others), African unity and African renaissance. Understandably, such xenophobic violence towards fellow Africans places the ANC leadership and party between a rock and a hard place. 

FON DOH’S INDICTMENT AS METAPHOR OF THE EROSION OF TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY

BY CANUTE TANGWA (February 16, 2008)

Traditional authority in Cameroon and elsewhere is shrouded in myths. The Fon, Chief or King never dies. He disappears! The King is dead, long live the King!  A Fon eating in public is as rare as the tear of a dog. Shaking hands with the Fon in public is an abomination, to say the least. This explains why Fon Achirimbi of Bafut allegedly had reservations shaking hands with a female British royalty! Everywhere a Fon goes, his subjects and those who know prostrate. The King is God’s representative on earth. Almost all peoples extol the divine right of Kings. This notion has been abusively stretched in Africa to include sanguinary dictators.

JOTTINGS FROM DOUALA: ANGLOPHONES IN DOUALA-MBENG

BY CANUTE TANGWA (First published on 02/01/2008)

Douala-Mbengers like other Cameroonians are worried about the state of preparedness of the Indomitable Lions at the upcoming 2008 African Cup of Nations. They have temporarily forgotten about their litany of sorrows that begin and end with poor this, poor that.

ERNESTO « CHE » GUEVARA: EVERYBODY’S REVOLUTIONARY HERO AND NOBODY’S BUTCHER?

BY CANUTE TANGWA (First published on 09/10/2007)

Ernesto “Che” Guevara is probably everybody’s revolutionary hero. He was our hero when as students thumbing through news magazines we set our eyes for the first time on this dashingly handsome-determined-angelic face with a well-fitting beret marked with a lone star. He looked boyishly uncouth but so attractive in his wavy dark hair and unkempt moustache.

WHERE HAVE THE GREAT MEN OF AFRICA GONE TO?

BY CANUTE TANGWA (First published in 26/06/2007)

Africa used to have real great men. Men, who changed the course of history, shaped our reasoning and made life worth living. Almost every facet of human endeavour threw up men of timber and stature. In politics, sports, sciences, humanities, media, business, religion and entertainment there were personalities who made our hearts beat, made us feel like borrowing wings, kept us on our toes, made us wonder and dream (the dream of kings), and made us marvel at the way they  unravelled knotty issues.

THE FEAR OF CHINA SHOULD BE THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM

BY CANUTE TANGWA (First published in THE POST on 14/03/2007)

On May 13, 2004, The Economist sounded a jarring note, “a fascinating drama is about to be played out in the world’s biggest country. China’s economy is growing too fast for comfort, and the country’s leaders know it. In recent weeks they have promised forceful measures to cool things down, but it is not clear what they will or can do”.

RAMIFICATIONS OF A THIRD TERM PRESIDENTIAL MANDATE FOR OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

By Canute Tangwa (published May 5, 2006)

Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo knows more than all the anti-third term mandate drum beaters how to relinquish power. History and a track record are on his side: in 1979 he stepped down, not aside like the maradona of Nigerian politics (Ibrahim Babangida) and handed power to a Shehu Shagari-led government that made a mess of governance until Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon marched in brandishing the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) baton.

THE STAYING POWER OF JOHN FRU NDI

By CANUTE TANGWA(published March 30, 2006)

What explains the staying power of Chairman John Fru Ndi and his so-called gang of “illiterates” in spite of a spate of desertions from the intellectual fringe of the SDF that perceptibly constitutes its think tank? This commentary attempts to answer this question. 

FRENCH REVISIONISM: CASE OF POSITIVE ROLE OF FRENCH COLONIZATION

By Canute Tangwa (December 16, 2005)

In November 2005, three events occurred in France and Martinique that got seemingly lost to impoverished African masses. These events will in the not too distant future affect Franco-African relations.

GEN. YAKUBU (JACK) GOWON IN YAOUNDE

BY CANUTE TANGWA (published on November 21, 2005)

The International Conference on Malaria (Roll Back Malaria) that held on November 18 to 19, 2005 in Yaounde, Cameroon was a rainbow gathering. Researchers, medics, diplomats, politicians, musicians like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, UNICEF antimalaria ambassador, representatives of NGOs and other top-flight personalities rolled up their sleeves  in  two days to roll back malaria! One of such personalities was Gen. Yakubu (Jack) Gowon.

RANDOM NOTES ON KATRINA, AMERICA, AND AFRICAN AMERICANS

BY  CANUTE  TANGWA (published on October 17, 2005)

Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans and left 1000 persons mostly African Americans dead. Hurricane Rita swept through the Gulf Coast and wreaked comparatively less havoc. Katrina damaged property worth 30 billion US dollars. Though there were lapses here and there on early warning, relief effort and overall management of the catastrophe, the United States would definitely come out stronger as it did during a similar catastrophe that almost wiped off Texas from planet earth in the early 20s.

WHY IS YAOUNDE I AND UB STUDENTS ON STRIKE?

By Canute Tangwa (April 28, 2005)

Because the Government and university authorities were waiting for the barbarians!
Aside: Waiting For The Barbarians is the title of a poem written by the Greek poet CP Cavafy. Once upon a time the celebrated Nigerian journalist Ray Ekpu used Cavafy’s strong poetic and poignant lines to capture vividly the posture and wait-and-see attitude of those who could make or mar in Nigerian varsities.