Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland

Celebrating 50 Years Of Reunification In Our Own Way

By Canute Tangwa

Should we as Anglophones celebrate in our own way fifty years of reunification come 2011? This was the question I put to Sam-Nuvala Fonkem, current Public Information Officer for ONUCI in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. He shot back: Is there cause to celebrate? No but we could showcase the best and brightest of Anglophone brains and brawn in various fields 50 years running. He retorted: but do not forget those who have brought us shame! Our collective psyche is the sum total of our good, our bad and our ugly.

Why in our own way? I have never had cause to call any newsroom in Cameroon to react to a publication. This I did when I stumbled on a copy of Les Cahiers De Mutations titled PALMARES - LES GRANDES FIGURES DU FOOTBALL CAMEROUNAIS (Février 2010). I got Emmanuel Gustave Samnick on the line and asked him whether the likes of Raymond Fobete, Mark Nibo, Peter Essoka, Zachary Nkwo, Michael Wacka and so on did not have a place in his publication. First, I was impressed with his sound knowledge of the actors in question. Then the usual you-see-we-had-to-make-do excuse because of space and…a firm promise that part two would come out soon!

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

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.