GEF's Outlook

Witchcraft and Justice 2: The Case of Cameroon

By George Esunge Fominyen

In December 2008, the  American newspaper Star Tribune reported that a woman of Cameroon origin  had filed a lawsuit in a US Federal Court accusing another woman for using voodoo to steal her man and ruin her life. By February the woman had withdrawn the case citing the power of prayer as the final sword in her battle to regain "her man". This affair drew a mix of contempt, ridicule and sympathy for her, as it seemed  absurd that one would dare to file such a case in a court of law.

 If this woman had been well advised she would have simply taken the case to the land of her forefathers. Article 251 of the Cameroon penal code  provides that anyone found guilty of practising sorcery could be punished with imprisonment for up to 10 years and fined 100,000 FCFA ($200). All she needed to do would have been to prove her allegations. Well, that's where things become awkward. How do you prove the existence of what is essentially supernatural? 

Witchcraft and Justice 1: Should Witchcraft be Punishable by the Law?

By George Esunge Fominyen

The Al Jazeera television programme People and Power recently broadcast an investigative report by Sorious Samura on the penal implications of witchcraft in the Central African Republic. I shared the version published on Youtube (below) with some friends. It sparked a debate over the presence of the occult in the minds and lives of Africans. Is this whole thing about witchcraft a figment of people's imagination? Are some African governments right to maintain witchcraft as a crime punishable by law? Where does one draw the line between a true para-normal occurence and idle and defamatory accusations?

Beachside Wrestling in Tourist Haven called Mbour

A Wrestling Competition to Start-off 2009 in Cameroon

By George Esunge Fominyen

The traditional wrestling season has re-started in Senegal. As the crowds roared at the Demba Diop Stadium as one wrestler fell and another stood the ground, I must admit there was a fleeting bit of envy that crossed my mind.

Why can't we have such a huge event in Cameroon?

I am pleased to say at least one traditional wrestling festival will hold in Buea, Cameroon.

My Reading of Fritz Ilongo's: Lost Heritage

By George Esunge Fominyen

Recently, an Eden newspaper report that "about 300 inhabitants of Esele in the Limbe III subdivision have been asked to quit their village and cede land for the construction of a military barrack" stirred virulent reactions among members of the Fako (South West, Cameroon) diaspora. They mostly worried about how vulnerable their kinsmen had become in terms of losing their ancestral lands. As I followed the heated debates on the issue, I reflected on my interpretation of "The Lost Heritage", a story by Cameroonian writer, Fritz Ilongo.   

This is a short story. True. With a very catchy theme - if (like Fritz Ilongo) you hail from the land that spans the slopes of great Fako Mountain to the "Mwaanja" (ocean). It is a depiction of an intense reality that has political and social ramifications which may supersede comprehension.Bakweris have a problem about their ancestral land. Sold privately or at a state level (i.e CDC)...

 

Football, Ethnic Identity and Nationhood:Beti against Bamileke Violence After A Cameroon Cup Game

Only last June, I posted an article on this blog (Man from Somewhere in-between) in which I suggested that the black South African on Black African violence that rocked South Africa in in April and May 2008, was merely hate generated by who we define ourselves to be and it had happened elsewhere and could happen anywhere.

 

Well, it happened on 15, 16, 17 and 18 July in my dear Cameroon. The “indigenous” inhabitants of Akonolinga (a small town situated 180 Km from the capital Yaounde), attacked the homes and businesses of “strangers” mainly ethnic Bamiléké living in “their town”, leading to the death of at least one person and the displacement of many “Bami” strangers. The spark that generated the outburst happens to be football, supposedly the rallying force of Cameroonians.

Man from Somewhere in-between

By George Esunge Fominyen

During the violent two weeks in May 2008 when Black South Africans attacked Black African migrants in South Africa, a friend of mine sent me a number of pictures depicting men being hacked or charred to death by other men.  Under shock, she wrote to me saying, “Happiness is not always where you think you would find it.” She went on, “how could our brothers do this to us? How could blacks do this to blacks? How could South Africans do this other Africans?”