Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland

Sam Nuvala Fonkem: From Mile 17 to GRA Buea

By Canute Tangwa

There is a lie and a crocodile tear in every and any eulogy. Since dead men don't bite (though the dead are not dead according to African cosmology), the living in a rare show of verbal and emotional grandstanding pour buckets of encomiums on so called departed loved ones.

The late lamented multi-talented flamboyant journalist, Sam Nuvala Fonkem is no stranger to this unwritten hypocritical rule. In fact, 'monkies' have come to parley: chattering, busybodying and jumping about. 'Ole' or Uncle Sam as he was fondly called never suffered monkies lightly.

Willy Nfor: Bass Guitarist As If To The Manner Born

By Canute Tangwa

When he died on February 11, 1998, the gurgling rivulets cascading and tumbling down the undulated hills of Ndu in Donga Mantung did not stand still nor did the incessant drumming of the Mentchum Falls!
 
Neither did the timeless tidal hush of the Atlantic breeze on the simmering palms of Victoria were he was born in 1956! Yet, when a count down is made of bass guitar greats in Cameroon, Willy Nfor, stands head and shoulders above a good many who have a very good press stringing on the bass guitar.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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. 

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.