first "white lady "mayor in cameroon!

I had a chat over phone with my friend in cameroon and he told me about this nice story and decided to find out about this "white lady,Marie Helène Ngoa" who has penetrated the hearts of many cameroonians,amongst all odds.Read this interview i succeeded to track from IPS news.

YAOUNDE, Aug 23 (IPS) - It's a long way from the north of France to West Africa -- and from studying mathematics at the University of Lille to becoming a mayor in central Cameroon. But Marie-Hélène Ngoa has successfully undertaken both these journeys.

This 66-year-old, originally from the region of Nogent-sur-marne, was recently elected mayor of Akono district in a poll that challenged taboos about race and gender (the area had previously been the preserve of men). Before entering politics, Ngoa -- who obtained a doctorate in applied mathematics in 1967 -- taught at the University of Yaoundé in the Cameroonian capital of the same name, and at the Catholic University of Central Africa, also in Yaoundé.

IPS correspondent Raphaël Mvogo sat down with the new mayor recently to find out more about her life story.

IPS: Tell us something about yourself...

Marie-Hélène Ngoa (MHN): My maiden name was Marie-Hélène Guislain -- a very French name. I am originally from the north of France, where I did my secondary and tertiary studies. I met Henri Ngoa, a Cameroonian student in sociology, at the University of Lille. Very quickly, we decided to get married and live in Cameroon, to have a family and to devote ourselves to tertiary education.

IPS: What motivated you to remain in Cameroon after the death of your husband, 32 years ago?

MHN: Having arrived in Cameroon in 1968, we lived very happily for seven years and had several children (five). Unfortunately, Henri died in 1975. But, I was already well established in Cameroon, happy, surrounded by family and by my colleagues at the Faculty of Science at the University of Yaoundé. In addition, it must be said, you really have more assistance in Cameroon with bringing up children...So, I decided to stay in Cameroon. At any rate, I'm also a woman of commitment and loyalty (and) I had undertaken to work in and give my best to Cameroon.

IPS: When did your involvement in politics start?

MHN: It came a lot later. From the 1970s to the 1990s, I was preoccupied with educating my children and with my work. I gave a lot of myself (to education); I trained several generations of students. The first students that I trained, from 1968 to 1970, became my colleagues, who in their turn trained students who (also) became colleagues. I was the very first in Cameroon to give courses in techniques of computation and programming. Actually this was computer science, even if it wasn't called that at the time.

IPS: And, how did you come to politics?

MHN: In 1996 I was asked to join the Municipal Council of the Akono district, and I was elected as the second assistant to the former mayor. I have always been concerned with development in Akono. I took part voluntarily in development committees...under the auspices of the Association of Elites of Akono.

IPS: Was your election to the post of mayor easy?

MHN: Ah no, it was not at all easy! There were elites that opposed it fiercely. But ultimately the team that I led, made up of young people, (managed to have me) elected...by consensus.

IPS: Did the difficulties come because people saw you as a foreigner?

MHN: Yes, indeed. During the campaign, the word "Ntangan" (white) was thrown at me several times. But, I must say this: people at the grass roots had wanted me (in office) for several years. After the primaries in the party, the RDPC (the ruling Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People -- Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais), the elections of July the 22nd confirmed this. (Both municipal and legislative polls were held Jul. 22).

IPS: What are your plans for Akono, as mayor?

MHN: Since 1996, I have regularly worked in education, health projects...I have ideas for things that need to be done in all social sectors. Year after year, communities repeatedly complain about access to potable water, village electrification (and) the construction of roads. There is a problem of inaccessibility. During the campaign, there were certain villages where we went on foot because there were no roads to get there. While we are just 50 minutes from Yaoundé as the bird flies, there are some villages where there is unbelievable hardship -- people who are completely isolated. Our priorities for action are there. Our goal is to create income generating activities and micro enterprises...In Akono, there is no bakery, carpentry workshop, car mechanic (or) brickworks.

watch BIG MANU in "onguele mba"

MANU DIBANGO
Caricato da doumah

MANU DIBANGO,THE FATHER OF SOUL -MAKOSSA

I'm presently working on my new blog which will focus cameroonian musicians on the international scene.The cultural baggage is fabulous and you won't imagine there are artists of this calibre in Africa.I'll start by presenting to you the"BIG" Manu Dibango the father of soul makossa.
It is almost impossible to find a fitting description for a musician such as Manu Dibango who has made such an enormous contribution to African music as a whole. He is a saxophonist, nicknamed 'The lion of Cameroon', from a track on The Very Best of African Soul album. Originally trained in classical piano, his musical career began in Brussels and Paris in the 1950s. 1960 finds him in Congo as a member of African Jazz led by Joseph Kabasele (Le Grand Kalle)! He formed his own band in Cameroon in 1963, moving to Paris in 1965. His international breakthrough came in 1972 with Soul Makossa.
Manu Dibango is extraordinarily versatile, having played almost every style of music you care to mention: soul, reggae, jazz, spirituals, blues... Dibango features on albums by Angelique Kidjo, Anne-Marie Nzié, Meiway and Kékélé (Kinavana, 2006) and, on his Wakafrika album of 1994, many top African and international musicians contribute (see CDs), In 1985 Manu raised funds for famine-striken Ethiopia through his successful 'Tam-Tams for Ethiopia' project with Mory Kante and others.
Manu's first album was recorded in 1969 and in 1970 he accompanied Franklin Boukaka on a classic 12-track album (see CDs). In 2000 two were released: Anthology, a boxed set of 3 CDs (see CDs) and Mboa' Su (see CDs) which includes a new arrangement of Franklin Boukaka's track 'Aye Africa' (Le Bucheron), made for the millennium celebrations on Robben Island in the presence of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Listening to the Anthology CDs you will find some amazing contrasts from one track to the next. An album with a difference was released in 2002: entitled B Sides, most of the tracks are remastered from recordings in the 1970s where Manu plays, not sax, but the marimba and vibraphone. There are Rough Guides tothe music of whole countries but Manu warrants one all to himself: the 13-track album The Rough Guide to Manu Dibango (2004) has the full range of his songs, classics and rarities (see CDs).
Manu's autobiography was originally published in French in 1989 with the English translation,Three Kilos of Coffee, published in 1994 (see Reading). The book makes fascinating reading as Manu describes his experiences personally. In 1984 he originated the word 'negropolitain'.
Manu performed alongside Cuban Clave Y Guaguanco at the Barbican in London in 1999 and played there again in April 2001 with the spectacular Afro-Funk Big Band including Richard Bona, Claude Deppa and Tony Allen. In 2003 he was on stage with Ray Lema at WOMAD Reading (see photo above)! In September that same year Manu was in London, where he had a brand new collaboration with the Soweto String Quartet for an evening of songs of struggle and liberation. To celebrate his 70th birthday Manu had a unique concert with special guests at London's Barbican in October 2004.
A major event for 2007 is Manu's celebration of his 50 years in music, coinciding with the release of a CD/DVD 'The Lion of Africa'.

what a sad story!

Dad Tries to Avoid Deportation After Family Dies in Fire

August 8, 2007 - 2:09pm

By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer

BURTONSVILLE, Md. - Of all the horrors Ignatius Foncham suffered from a June fire that killed his three young girls, one that haunts him is a photograph that fire officials showed him of his 4-year-old's body. One eye was open, her mouth agape, as if she was still trying to speak.

"I believe she was trying to say, 'Daddy, daddy, help me,'" Foncham said.

But Foncham wasn't there to know for sure. He was in jail, awaiting deportation back to his native Cameroon for immigration violations, when the fire sparked by an unattended bottle sterilizer ate through his Burtonsville apartment early June 28, killing the girls and their mother. Had he been there, Foncham is convinced he could have saved his family.

Foncham and leaders of the Washington area Cameroonian community are now asking the federal government to allow him to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. Foncham is currently out on a short-term release to settle his family affairs.

Those included burying the three children; 4-month-old Makenzie Foncham, 2-year-old Megan and 4-year-old Chanelle. He was able to see their mother, Elsie Nuka, 30, but she never came out of a coma before she died July 11. Her body was flown back to Cameroon for burial. Foncham said he and Nuka lived together and planned to marry.

Foncham visits his daughters at least three times a week at the Suitland cemetery where they are buried. And he doesn't want to leave his family again.

"If they take him to Cameroon, he is totally separated from any close memory of his children," said Christmas Ebini, a board member of the All Cameroonian Cultural Festival Foundation, which is trying to help him stay in the country.

Leaders of the group circulated a petition last month to Maryland's delegation in Congress and local politicians calling on Immigration and Customers Enforcement to reopen the case. His attorney, Ronald Richey, planned to meet this week with ICE officials. If the case is reopened, Richey hopes to seek a green card for Foncham. Such a move would be unusual, the lawyer said, but the bid could succeed because of the extraordinary nature of the case.

Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said Foncham is under a removal order, meaning he is ready for deportation. He is under close supervision during the temporary release, and after it expires, "a decision will be made regarding the court order," Fobbs said, noting it will be up to a judge to make the final call.

Foncham, 39, came to the United States in late 1999. He worked as a carpenter, first for a builder, later on his own. He applied for political asylum, based on his membership in an English-speaking separatist party in the largely French Cameroon. Foncham said some of his friends were arrested because of their ties to the movement, prompting him to leave.

His sister, Alice Ashu, said Foncham's lawyers bungled his asylum case, missing deadlines. A removal order was first filed in 2001, according to ICE, and Foncham appealed. He eventually ran out of money for appeals, Ashu said. Foncham was detained May 31 as his family moved to the apartment where the fire later occurred.

Foncham was sent to a detention center on the Eastern Shore to await deportation. His family visited him, but could only speak to him through a glass partition.

The morning of the fire, investigators believe Nuka placed a plastic device used to sterilize baby bottles near the stove, then went to sleep. Awoken by the fire alarm, she threw the burning materials into a bathtub in an attempt to douse the flames, but was overcome by smoke. When firefighters arrived, the three children were not breathing and Nuka was in critical condition.

News of their deaths crippled Foncham, Richey said. He collapsed when shown the photos to identify his children, screaming on the floor.

He was deeply involved in their care and the girls were devoted to him, Foncham said. He took them swimming and to the zoo. The eldest girl loved to dance. He took care of their basic needs, like bathing and feeding. It would have been him who prepared the bottles for the children the morning that they died.

"If I was there, it could not have happened," Foncham said. "I could have smelled the smoke."

Returning to Cameroon would expose him to persecution, Foncham said, a major reason that he left. And most importantly, it would cut him off from his children. He said he wants to be near them to make up for the fact he wasn't there when they needed him most.

"I want to be close to my girls," Foncham said. "I wasn't there before they died. But I am still here to put down flowers for them and pray for them."

(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer

BURTONSVILLE, Md. - Of all the horrors Ignatius Foncham suffered from a June fire that killed his three young girls, one that haunts him is a photograph that fire officials showed him of his 4-year-old's body. One eye was open, her mouth agape, as if she was still trying to speak.

"I believe she was trying to say, 'Daddy, daddy, help me,'" Foncham said.

But Foncham wasn't there to know for sure. He was in jail, awaiting deportation back to his native Cameroon for immigration violations, when the fire sparked by an unattended bottle sterilizer ate through his Burtonsville apartment early June 28, killing the girls and their mother. Had he been there, Foncham is convinced he could have saved his family.

Foncham and leaders of the Washington area Cameroonian community are now asking the federal government to allow him to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. Foncham is currently out on a short-term release to settle his family affairs.

Those included burying the three children; 4-month-old Makenzie Foncham, 2-year-old Megan and 4-year-old Chanelle. He was able to see their mother, Elsie Nuka, 30, but she never came out of a coma before she died July 11. Her body was flown back to Cameroon for burial. Foncham said he and Nuka lived together and planned to marry.

Foncham visits his daughters at least three times a week at the Suitland cemetery where they are buried. And he doesn't want to leave his family again.

"If they take him to Cameroon, he is totally separated from any close memory of his children," said Christmas Ebini, a board member of the All Cameroonian Cultural Festival Foundation, which is trying to help him stay in the country.

Leaders of the group circulated a petition last month to Maryland's delegation in Congress and local politicians calling on Immigration and Customers Enforcement to reopen the case. His attorney, Ronald Richey, planned to meet this week with ICE officials. If the case is reopened, Richey hopes to seek a green card for Foncham. Such a move would be unusual, the lawyer said, but the bid could succeed because of the extraordinary nature of the case.

Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said Foncham is under a removal order, meaning he is ready for deportation. He is under close supervision during the temporary release, and after it expires, "a decision will be made regarding the court order," Fobbs said, noting it will be up to a judge to make the final call.

Foncham, 39, came to the United States in late 1999. He worked as a carpenter, first for a builder, later on his own. He applied for political asylum, based on his membership in an English-speaking separatist party in the largely French Cameroon. Foncham said some of his friends were arrested because of their ties to the movement, prompting him to leave.

His sister, Alice Ashu, said Foncham's lawyers bungled his asylum case, missing deadlines. A removal order was first filed in 2001, according to ICE, and Foncham appealed. He eventually ran out of money for appeals, Ashu said. Foncham was detained May 31 as his family moved to the apartment where the fire later occurred.

Foncham was sent to a detention center on the Eastern Shore to await deportation. His family visited him, but could only speak to him through a glass partition.

The morning of the fire, investigators believe Nuka placed a plastic device used to sterilize baby bottles near the stove, then went to sleep. Awoken by the fire alarm, she threw the burning materials into a bathtub in an attempt to douse the flames, but was overcome by smoke. When firefighters arrived, the three children were not breathing and Nuka was in critical condition.

News of their deaths crippled Foncham, Richey said. He collapsed when shown the photos to identify his children, screaming on the floor.

He was deeply involved in their care and the girls were devoted to him, Foncham said. He took them swimming and to the zoo. The eldest girl loved to dance. He took care of their basic needs, like bathing and feeding. It would have been him who prepared the bottles for the children the morning that they died.

"If I was there, it could not have happened," Foncham said. "I could have smelled the smoke."

Returning to Cameroon would expose him to persecution, Foncham said, a major reason that he left. And most importantly, it would cut him off from his children. He said he wants to be near them to make up for the fact he wasn't there when they needed him most.

"I want to be close to my girls," Foncham said. "I wasn't there before they died. But I am still here to put down flowers for them and pray for them."

(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press)

Poor roads cost Cameroon cocoa farmers dear

By Tansa Musa

KUMBA, Cameroon (Reuters) - Farmer Lawrence Mekoli has just sold eight 60-kg sacks of cocoa and earned the equivalent of hundreds of dollars. But he is far from happy.

"My brother, how can I smile with what I've gone through," Mekoli said after striking the deal with a buyer at Kumba in South-West Province, the main cocoa zone in Cameroon, the world's fourth biggest grower of the commodity.

"This cocoa was delayed in my village for about three weeks," he said.

Mekoli's farm in Kumbe-Balondo village is only around 50 km (30 miles) from Kumba. But when heavy rains come and the roads become potholed quagmires, many private transporters refuse to drive here to collect cocoa for fear of damaging their vehicles.

Mekoli eventually found someone prepared to bring his cocoa to Kumba, but had to pay 2,000 CFA francs ($4.17) for each sack, way over the 500-1,000 CFA he usually pays in the dry season.

Worse, by the time he came, the market price had dropped.

"I called vehicle owners in Kumba to come and evacuate my cocoa to the market, but they told me they could not come because the bad state of the road will ruin their vehicles," he said.

"At the time, cocoa was selling in Kumba at 800-900 CFA francs per kg. Now that I have managed to bring my cocoa here today, the price has gone down to 720 CFA francs. Just see for yourself how much I've lost," he said.

Poor transport infrastructure is one of the greatest obstacles to trade in Africa, making it hard for poor farmers to get their produce to market in good enough condition to fetch the highest prices, and driving up overheads.

The World Bank said in June it would provide $201 million in loans and grants to improve road and rail links between Cameroon and neighboring Chad and Central African Republic -- countries it said had "some of the least functional traffic connections of any area in the world".

As the link to the Atlantic coast for both the other countries, Cameroon will get the lion's share of the World Bank cash. But such investments for major traffic arteries are unlikely to trickle down to the level of small roads linking farms and villages to provincial trading towns like Kumba.

RAIN, DELAYS HURT QUALITY

"I've been to most remote villages where farmers produce a lot of cocoa, but can't evacuate them to market centers. Sometimes they get stuck in mud during evacuation and the beans become humid, attracting a low price," said retired banker Agnes Mambe, who is trying to help farmers here improve their lot.

The rainy season in the southwest lasts most of the year and keeps the lush landscape wet enough for cocoa trees.

But too much rain brings its own problems, creating the perfect environment for humidity-loving fungal diseases and making bean drying a struggle against the elements.

The European Union provided 2,500 drying ovens in 2001, helping eliminate the contamination of beans sometimes caused by locally made wood or coal-fired ovens, or by roadside drying.

Use of the ovens is important as the European Union -- which buys 86 percent of Cameroon's output, mainly for grinding in the Netherlands -- has set maximum levels for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), created by partial burning of carbon fuels.

But many farmers say there are not enough new ovens to go round, making it hard to deliver well-dried beans to buyers.

Repeated rains can also wash off pesticides and fungicides, forcing farmers to spray trees more frequently to keep black pod and other diseases at bay, Kumba Mayor Caven Nnoko Mbele said.

"The period of cocoa harvesting coincides with the period of intense rains," he said.

Apart from the weather, farmers complain they are also squeezed by buying agencies, to whom many growers are perpetually in debt for fertilizers and pesticides advanced on credit.

"The cocoa farmer ... is not a rich man, in spite of his labor," said Mayor Mbele. "Experience has clearly shown that if you desire to be a prosperous man in the cocoa business, you should rather be a cocoa buyer than a cocoa farmer."

Cameroonian striker ETO'O injured.

Eto'o out for two months

Samuel Eto'o will be out of action for two months with a thigh injury

Cameroon and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o will be out of action for at least two months after suffering a partial tear of a tendon in his right thigh.

The 26-year-old suffered the injury just two minutes after coming on as a substitute in Wednesday's 5-0 victory over Italian champions Inter Milan in the Gamper Trophy in Barcelona.

The three-times African Player of the Year missed a large chunk of last season after injuring his right knee during a Champions League match against Werder Bremen in September 2006.

Doctors initially estimated the injury would keep him out for two to three months but after an operation it took him five months to return to action.

With Barcelona having signed France striker Thierry Henry in the close season and youth team players Giovani dos Santos and Bojan Krkic pushing for places in the first team squad alongside Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Eidur Gudjohnsen, the club has no shortage of attacking players at their disposal.

Barcelona host Athletic Bilbao on Sunday in their first league match at the Nou Camp this season.