Imhotep: The Collective African Blog: Juju Music!

Jimbi Media Sites

AFRICAphonie
AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Bakwerirama
Spotlight on Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Bate Besong
Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Bernard Fonlon
Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
Fonlon-Nichols Award
Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
France Watcher
Purpose of this advocacy site: To aggregate all available information about French terror, exploitation and manipulation of Africa
George Ngwane: Public Intellectual
George Ngwane is a prominent author, activist and intellectual.
Jacob Nguni
Virtuoso guitarist, writer and humorist. Former lead guitarist of Rocafil, led by Prince Nico Mbarga.
Martin Jumbam
The refreshingly, unique, incisive and generally hilarous writings about the foibles of African society and politics by former Cameroon Life Magazine columnist Martin Jumbam.
Nowa Omoigui
Professor of Medicine and interventional cardiologist, Nowa Omoigui is also one of the foremost experts and scholars on the history of the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Civil War. This site contains many of his writings and comments on military subjects and history.
Postwatch Magazine
A UMI (United Media Incorporated) publication. Specializing in well researched investigative reports, it focuses on the Cameroonian scene, particular issues of interest to the former British Southern Cameroons.
Simon Mol
Cameroonian poet, writer, journalist and Human Rights activist living in Warsaw, Poland
Victor Mbarika ICT Weblog
Victor Wacham Agwe Mbarika is one of Africa's foremost experts on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Dr. Mbarika's research interests are in the areas of information infrastructure diffusion in developing countries and multimedia learning.
Tunduzi
A West African in Arusha at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the angst, contradictions and rewards of that process.
Dr Godfrey Tangwa (Gobata)
Renaissance man, philosophy professor, actor and newspaper columnist, Godfrey Tangwa aka Rotcod Gobata touches a wide array of subjects. Always entertaining and eminently readable. Visit for frequent updates.
Francis Nyamnjoh
Prolific writer, social and political commentator, he was a professor at University of Buea and University of Botswana. Currently he is Head of Publications and Dissemination at CODESRIA in Dakar, Senegal. His writings are socially relevant and engaging even to the non specialist.
Ilongo Sphere: Writer and Poet
Novelist and poet Ilongo Fritz Ngalle, long concealed his artist's wings behind the firm exterior of a University administrator and guidance counsellor. No longer. Enjoy his unique poems and glimpses of upcoming novels and short stories.
Scribbles from the Den
The award-winning blog of Dibussi Tande, Cameroon's leading blogger.
Enanga's POV
Rosemary Ekosso, a Cameroonian novelist and blogger who lives and works in Cambodia.
GEF's Outlook
Blog of George Esunge Fominyen, former CRTV journalist and currently Coordinator of the Multi-Media Editorial Unit of the PANOS Institute West Africa (PIWA) in Dakar, Senegal.
The Chia Report
The incisive commentary of Chicago-based former CRTV journalist Chia Innocent
Voice Of The Oppressed
Stephen Neba-Fuh is a political and social critic, human rights activist and poet who lives in Norway.
Bate Besong
Bate Besong, award-winning firebrand poet and playwright.
Up Station Mountain Club
A no holds barred group blog for all things Cameroonian. "Man no run!"
Bakwerirama
Spotlight on the Bakweri Society and Culture. The Bakweri are an indigenous African nation.
Fonlon-Nichols Award
Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
Bernard Fonlon
Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
AFRICAphonie
AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland
Professional translator, freelance writer and a regular contributor to THE POST newspaper. Lives in Douala, Cameroon

By Kangsen Feka Wakai

We danced under a hail of confetti, witnesses to an overdue conception. We heard Zimbabwe scream her way out of Rhodesia’s putrid womb, Her Majesty’s tabooed concubine. We slit the chord, which bound child to mother and mother to child, wiped droplets of melanin and gooey mucus from the baby’s bosom with the ruffled flags of frontline states. We were infants and Namibia was still under occupation.

We drank palmwine and ate kola-nuts at Bob Marley’s wake. Chant Down Babylon! Chant Down Babylon! Who killed Peter Tosh? The harder we cried, the harder they came, those tears, those salty tears of ours. In fact, we learnt the lyrics to We Are The World as Mandela languished in Jail; Biko’s killers ready to strike again. Botha! Ethiopian babies fighting flies, and losing.

We inhaled the debilitating fumes of Amin’s scourge. Western Sahara was annexed on our watch. The king’s grip is choking us went the lullaby. Mother carried us on her back to catch a glimpse of John Paul II. Walking along Boulevard de l’Independence, we heard of Ahidjo’s resignation — an altar boy assumes a flea-infested throne. His smile disarmed our fears as he took us on a joyride across the Alps. Self-annointed heroes, orange-headed lizards, blind visionaries, genuine Pan-Africanists,two-headed dogs, Democratic crusaders, tailless snakes…

A priceless lesson: even tyrants die !

We were building bamboo cars when Shagari came by to bid us farewell, as unceremoniously as he had come, even quieter than a pin hitting the ground.

Kalakuta Republic ! Requiem for the last Kaiser ! Die Aparthied ! Die ! Reagan and Gorbachev. Thatcher, Perestroika, Garang, Sandanistas, Shimon Peres, East Berlin, Ishmael Reed, The Color Purple, Ghadaffi, Tinnamen Square, Jesse Jackson, Rambo, Commando, Mr. Bond, Diana and Charles, Lake Nyos, Samuel Doe, IRA, Arafat, Coup d’etats, Ayatolla, AIDS.

Savimbi, relentless in his mischief. Moi, still a conniving demagogue cum tribal chief. Mazrui’s The Africans. Not yet Uhuru ! Not yet Uhuru !

Biya, Buhari, Eyadema, Doe, Habbrey, Babaginda, Boigny, Diouf, Bongo, Sassou Nguesso, Iran versus Iraq, BBC, Roots, Abu Nidal, Pablo Escobar, Manu Dibango, Thriller, Madonna, Tutu, Panama, Mujaheedan, cocaine, red and blue, crack, VOA.

We remained Frenchified and Anglisized, ingesting the dust particles of La Troisieme Republique’s nuclear ambitions. Where else but in the heart of Africa where men forsake virtue for fortune.
Olympique de Marsielles,Tyson, Maradona, Ben Johnson, Dream Team, Okwaraji, Italia 90, Abedi Pele, George Weah .

What is the IMF? Where was this World Bank located we wondered ? What happened to Samora’s plane ? How can a human being jump that high ? Jordan ! Those Africans can play with juju! Roger Milla !

We are the seeds of la crise economique. We ate the crumbs of structural adjustment programs, economic crisis, devaluation, inflation, unemployment, tension, exile, exile, thousands, millions, exiles.

Lively makossa songs morphed into depressing drones ; l’infidelite est en vogue became the chorus. Swallowing communion with beer we hummed quietly to Prince Nico’s Sweet Mother. Winnie we love you. Winnie we love you. Soyinka ! Pepe Kalle, Ndedi Eyango, Papa Wemba, Lionel Richie, Nkodo Sitony, Khaled, Kassav, Sade, Shabba Ranks and Aurlus Mabele.

Alas, television ! We weren’t sedated, we were too hungry, though entertained by dancing men in glossy space suits. Then we heard gunshots coming from Ouagadougou. Long Live Sankara ! Long Live the revolution ! We were denied the excesses of Marcos’s orgies and fought for Ghaddafi in Ndjamena. Soukous came blowing from the Congo. Beer, beer, more beer.

Ebony Magazine landed on our front porch. Thriller, Purple Rain, Run DMC, Rhythm Nation 1884, Rakim, Technotronic, Snap, Public Enemy, Eddie Murphy, Cosby, Donna Summer, Boney M., Chaka Demus & Pliers, Tupac and Biggie…

Comments

A lyrical journey down Africa's recent history. Great piece!!!

Posted by: Modo | August 27, 2007 at 11:50 PM

hehe,, the smell of Zimbabwe is the greatest memory i got ever! - WOuld love to go back, but meanwhile I am here in the colder atmosphere at the moment, and all i can do is dream...

Check out this from Calabash Music... GREAT music everyday...and LOTS from Zimbabwe. They give out 2 FREE songs every day as well...

FREE SONG today by Prince Enyago here!!

Posted by: Therese | October 04, 2007 at 07:58 AM

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