Dokta Konde: What is wrong with you?
I never asked for your "Koorikullum Vitalis" which you so generously splashed on the pages of Matango House. I have never and will never doubt the authenticity of your "Sense". You are an accomplished "Tchicha"...No ifs No Buts. A boastful individual, you definitely are BUT there is absolutely nothing wrong in "Chest Thumbing". If I had daso half of that ya sense, peepoo will not drink wata here in Matango School. Me, Mishe, I like to boast but I honestly don't have the intellectual acumen and gumption to shove it down the throats of "Air People" like your Paddy man Nanje Makossa Oroko Jackson. Instead of going to school, I spent my youthful years wearing "Pantalons Alpaga Sans Poche, Julienne Loko shirts, Semelle Cuire Salamander shoes with Bout Carres"...to attract young "Ngonderes" in Douala, Yaoundé, Limbe, Garoua, Kribi, Kumba, Nkongsamba, Bafoussam and of course the defacto capital of Cameroon...BAMENDA. The result of that irresponsible Life Style is the "Njim Teteh Faux Plan Sucess du Temps Passes REPE that Mishe Fon has become at the twilight of his Life.
The simple message in my mail to you was that; the topic you raised, as usual was well written BUT unfortunately, you are NOT the first to write on the BUSH FALLER phenomenon. Period. There are about six books out there from equally renown "Researchers" like yourself admirably caressing the same subject matter. You have and will always earn my respects when it comes to "SENSE"...a statement I cannot make about a few frauds who parade Camnet cyber space calling themselves PhD Fellows. You, Dr. Esale, Dr Besong, Dr (in a few months) Ebini Christmas... are the real deal.
Mishe Fon
On Sunday, January 5, 2014 2:40 PM, Emmanuel Konde <ekonde07@yahoo.com> wrote:
Mr. Mishe Fon,
Happy New Year! This is Emmanuel Konde, the Guru, writing. You mis-characterize me as an arrogant chest-thumbing historian. I do not chest-thumb; I write about the obvious. I am not a historian; I am a student of history. Nearly nine years in graduate school could not be expended on studying history. I received graduate training in public administration (1982-83), political philosophy and international relations (1983-84), European history (1984-85), African studies (anthropology, African history, economic history); Comparative Politics; United States foreign relations, European Diplomatic history.
My doctoral comprehensive examination encompassed African studies, European Diplomatic history, Comparative Politics and United States Foreign Relations. I elected to conduct research on women and politics in Cameroon because it was an area of research that had not been adequately explored. I was lucky to be allowed to select what I wanted to study. When my professors were satisfied and convinced of my mastery of the disciplines I had selected, they summoned me to a meeting and told me it was time to leave. I registered for the comprehensive examination, took it and passed (1988); wrote my reserach proposal (1989); went to Cameroon for field research (1989-1990); and composed my dissertation and successfully defended it (1991).
I am not bragging... just presenting you with the raw facts. How can I help it if in my presentation of arguments against ill-thought-out views I come accross as knowledgeable? What exactly do you expect of and from me?
"The problem of power is how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." Robert F. Kennedy
From: Mishe Fon <mishefon@yahoo.com>
To: "camnetwork@yahoogroups.com" <camnetwork@yahoogroups.com>; cameroon politics <cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com>; "ambasbay@googlegroups.com" <ambasbay@googlegroups.com>; "accdf@yahoogroups.com" <accdf@yahoogroups.com>; "creativiews@yahoogroups.com" <creativiews@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 5, 2014 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [camnetwork] Jackson // Re: Mr. Owona // Re: THE BUSHFALLERS, Prologue
To: "camnetwork@yahoogroups.com" <camnetwork@yahoogroups.com>; cameroon politics <cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com>; "ambasbay@googlegroups.com" <ambasbay@googlegroups.com>; "accdf@yahoogroups.com" <accdf@yahoogroups.com>; "creativiews@yahoogroups.com" <creativiews@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 5, 2014 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [camnetwork] Jackson // Re: Mr. Owona // Re: THE BUSHFALLERS, Prologue
Instead of commenting about Toto Guillaume's Elimbi (a very good Makossa Ambassador...in fact one of the best) in the good Dokta's excellent "Bush Fallers" narrative, methinks, we should focus on the merits and demerits of the phenomenon as chronicled by the historian. It is a scholarly article which has exploitable data that could be used as reference for other research topics in understanding Cameroon Social dynamics. As arrogant and chest thumping as the author usually is, I must admit that he has a very brilliant mind, a very witty penmanship and captures the imagination of what common folks like some of us can only have in our fantasies. But I must hasten to remind everyone reading, that many other Authors have written on this same topic like the example here below:
Mishe Fon
FROM DUST TO SNOW
Traveling and living abroad can be a wonderful and rewarding experience, a dream come true for some, but it can also be a horrific and interminable nightmare. "From Dust to Snow: Bush-Faller" chronicles the true-life experiences of (Bush-Fallers) Africans (primarily Cameroonians), in Europe and the United States. Featuring more than twenty accounts from students, asylum seekers and the employed, contributors in this work of 'edutainment' ferry you through their experiences, first-hand, from the moment the idea of traveling overseas was conceived, through departure emotions, first impressions upon arrival, culture shock, hardships, comic moments, high points of each life, and even re-entry shock, including deportation. One way or the other, you should find yourself on one of the pages of this book, either as a foreigner or as a host. Prepare yourself for what is about to happen; Discover the African Dream, a Dream far bigger than Bush-falling.
This book fits into a very special class of its own. The experiences narrated are myriad yet compelling; they are enriching and inspiring. The timing is exquisite, given the craze, dreams and puzzles that adorn the now popular "bush falling" phenomenon in Cameroon and other developing countries. This is such a rare treasure that must be given its legitimate position on all personal, family and school bookshelves. (Peter Shu-Nfor Tangyie)
Go round Europe and the U.S.A. in a few hours by reading this exciting work. Written in simple, colloquial English, this easy to read but also highly educative book amalgamates on-the-spot experiences from people of all ages, walks of life, social class and sex. It is a must read to all African youths, especially UNIVERSITY students. It is worth more than every dime and calorie you spend on it. Ayu'nwi N. Nebafusi (University of Buea, Cameroon.)
The stories all sound like fiction but they are real life experiences; thrilling, funny, sad, too real to be true. FROM DUST TO SNOW is a recommendable reference for all, the young and the old, dying to "fall bush." Mrs Magarate and Dr Chemuta Banda (President of the Human rights Freedoms Commission, Yaounde Cameroon)
About the Author
Dr Wilfred and Lydia Ngwa were born in Cameroon. As Africans living in Europe and the US, they found themselves in a unique position to interact with many internationals (mostly other Africans) coming for studies, asylum and work. This book would not be possible without the willingness and openness of these people to share their experiences, however joyful or painful; foremost thanks go to them. They are the real authors of the stories.
On Sunday, January 5, 2014 11:00 AM, "ngunimicrowave@aol.com" <ngunimicrowave@aol.com> wrote:
Jackson,
I am 100% sure you are terribly mistaken. FYI, Toto G released "Elimbi" was in 1985 under Production TN label. Toto Guillaume's first album was "Dibonga" released in 1977 under Afro Disc label.
Do not confuse when he made name and when he went solo. Some artists release many song before making their first hit. Most people knew Fela R. Kuti after the release of Lady or Shakara whereas Fela had already released songs "Fogo-Fogo", "Njeun Kwoku", etc., many years before "Lady".
Many also believe that "Sweet Mother" was Prince Nico's first album whereas he had already released many SP's and LP's like "I No Go Marry My Papa", Suffer Dey", "Man Don Tire", etc., many years before the release of "Sweet Mother".
It may be surprising to you that "Elimbi" was the sixth release of Toto Guilaume in 1985. Between his first album "Dibonga" and his sixth "Elimbi", Toto released four other albums under Disques Esperance label.
Micro
In a message dated 1/5/2014 9:28:45 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, jacksonnanje@yahoo.com writes:
Sir. George Owona, Even the Great Micro is wrong on this one. Toto Guillaume last appearance on Cameroon"s musical platform was in 1984 with the Album "Elimbi na Ngomo" with songs like "Bato ba" and "Ndome" on it. We cannot and should not argue about this. I remember a schoolmate of mine, now a freshman parliamentarian, Bolive Mbanya, rushing into my hostel, on hearing me blast "Bato Ba" across hall screaming "this guy will kill me, this guy will kill me". He was referring to Toto Guillaume. I thought someone was chasing him. That is the same year, 1984, that he left for high school studies. So the year of Elimbi's release cannot be in 1985 as opined by the Great Pa Jacob, and Professor Konde's recollection date of the song's release is way off mark. www.nanjecreativethinking.blogspot.com www.youtube.com/NanjeMusicProduction www.nexsans.blogspot.com www.orokousa.org www.dideco.org www.nexsa.org "Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that it will kill your enemy" Nelson Madiba Mandela "We must not continue to run away and allow our public opinions and the free expression of them become the enterprise of intolerance and incivility" Christmas Ebini "The Oroko intelligentsia is gifted with an eloquence that does not give blessings to development". Dr. Monica Njanjokuma "If you should know how much money you have in your bank account, then you should consider yourself a poor man" Michael Namaya. "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people" Eleanor Roosevelt. "Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn" Benjamin Franklin " Creditors have better memories than debtors" Benjamin Franklin "If the only thing you have in your hand is a hammer, you tend to see everything else as a nail" Abraham Maslow. "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do" Benjamin Franklin "Freedom granted by the oppressor is never the same as freedom won by the oppressed" Prof. Emmanuel Konde. -------------------------------------------- On Sun, 1/5/14, Owona Georges Jules <ogeorgesjules@yahoo.com> wrote: Subject: Re: [camnetwork] Mr. Owona // Re: THE BUSHFALLERS, Prologue To: "camnetwork@yahoogroups.com" <camnetwork@yahoogroups.com> Cc: "camnetwork@yahoogroups.com" <camnetwork@yahoogroups.com> Date: Sunday, January 5, 2014, 7:30 AM Dear Micro, I don't think Dr Konde made a typing error because he describes that epoch as the "waning years of Ahmadou Ahidjo's Cameroon". Paul Biya was only "appointed" to the presidency in 1982, three years before Toto Guillaume released "Elimbi". Therefore I prefer your second hypothesis, namely that he missed the point. Sent from my iPhone 5S On Jan 5, 2014, at 11:54 AM, ngunimicrowave@aol.com wrote: M. Owona, You are right. I guess Dr. Konde either made a typo error or just missed it. Elimbi Na Ngomo Poso, if that is the song you guys are talking about, by Toto Guillaume was released in 1985 and not 1975. If Dr. Konde was already in the US by 1985, then he must be talking of a different song probably from Les Black Styl, a band that released some Makossa hit songs in the 70's like Mba Na Na with Toto Guillaume on the lead guitar and Nkotti Francois on vocals. Toto Guillaume actually went solo in 1977 and so could not have released any song as a solo artist on or before 1975. I do not know whether Bay Hotel, Victoria, was even still functioning (with a live band) in the 80's as it was in the 70's. In the 70's there were a lot of clubs/bars/hotels with live bands in the former West Cameroon. Victoria had Bay Hotel, Centenary Hotel and Soul Jungle at Half Mile. Tiko had Airport Hotel and Domino Bar Kumba had Lido Bar, Ringo Bar and Gentil Bar Mamfe had Confidence Hotel Bamenda had about 7 live bands at one point. Muyuka, Mutengene, Bali and Mbonge had live bands as well. Micro In a message dated 1/5/2014 3:52:49 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, ogeorgesjules@yahoo.com writes: Dr Konde, Accept praises for the excellent narrative. However, I am a bit sceptical about the fact that you were gyrating to the deafening blast of "Elimbi" by Toto Guillame in Bay Hotel in 1975. My records may not be very correct and I would not like to start an argument with a Professor of History on a historical fact. Were you really dancing "Elimbi", by Toto Guillame in 1975? It seems I danced it much later when it was just released. Sent from my iPhone 5S On Jan 5, 2014, at 8:48 AM, Emmanuel Konde <ekonde07@yahoo.com> wrote: THE BUSHFALLERS ____________________________________ Rise of a New Breed of Cameroonians Emmanuel Konde Prologue A new kind of Cameroonian, either derogatively or approvingly designated as bushfaller in his native land, was conceived in the 1970s by a variety of social forces that intersected and then converged to give social birth to this formidable breed in the early 1990s. These forces, mainly political and economic, also contributed to the inauguration of a quasi-multiparty political system in the erstwhile single-party state of Cameroon, and, accordingly unleashed a new ethos of aggressiveness among Cameroonians hitherto known for their passivity as a people who were always seen but seldom heard. Bushfallers, the human product of these forces of social change, are not only smart, determined, daring, calculating, enterprising, at once assertive and aggressive, but also seemingly unstoppable. There seems to be nothing that this edition of bushfallers cannot accomplish if they set their minds on it. These are the new exports of Cameroon to the world. They are out to make money, the one thing that sets them apart from many generations before, and the one and only thing that compelled them to venture out of the Land of Promise into foreign lands far and wide. Markedly different from their antecedents who traveled abroad for various reasons, the driving force behind this driven breed is money. Again, unlike their antecedents, bushfallers never forget their roots. They are first and foremost Cameroonians, nationalists of sorts, and totally devoid of tribal sentiment; they love their country, eschew tribal affiliations, are determined to make an indelible mark on the history of Cameroon, and to that end are making magic, literally, by their own exertions. This new breed is transforming Cameroon from the coastal town of Limbe through Kumba to the Bamenda hinterlands. Former shanty towns are being remade by the remittances of bushfallers. Here and there marvelous buildings sprout from the soil like the corn crop. Indeed, even in the Bassa quartier Nkong Mondo in Douala, Francophone bushfaller wealth filtering into Cameroon from Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, France, etc., is wreaking wonders there to the utter amazement of Bamileke merchants who once thought of the Nkong Mondo Bassa youths as lazy and un-enterprising. Never before has Cameroon beheld a marvel like the one being wrought almost everywhere in the country by bushfallers. It is improbable that such a breath-taking marvel could again be fashioned in the future; neither shall the country ever again behold a breed in the likeness of bushfallers. This newness, this transformation of the Cameroonian being is novel as it is unique and epochal. Bushfaller wealth is also transforming the lives of many in their respective families, clans, tribes, and the entire country. Because of the special qualities of bushfallers, this breed constitutes the wave of the future of Cameroon. What is not clear at this time, however, is whether this new wave of change represented by bushfallers portends good or ill for Cameroon. Admittedly, the ultimate end of "bushfallerism" in Cameroon is a prognosis too premature to make at this juncture. Time will, however, tell. The emphasis on bushfallers should not be misconstrued as a denigration of non-bushfaller achievements; for, we recognize that bushfallers were assisted by their older brothers and sisters who either preceded them to Mbengue Europa and Mbengue Amerika, or labored in the Fatherland to ensure the advancement of their brethren. But the visible achievements of the Cameroonians who first ventured abroad simply fade into insignificance when compared to those of bushfallers. On this conclusion I stake my reputation as an observer of social change in Cameroon.. I write as a social philosopher and student of history, whose task is to interpret and explain the workings of the social order as accurately as possible. I examine how individuals and groups behave in society; I analyze the actions of individuals and aggregations and draw general conclusions from these about society. From this vantage point, I am able to discern a striking social phenomenon that has been unfolding before our very own eyes during the past 16 years or so. This phenomenon is now taking concrete form. Its locus of incubation is the Fatherland, Cameroon. Although there was in fact a commingling of variables that ushered in this bushfaller phenomenon, I have decided to isolate a few pivotal ones that influenced the making of this new breed. My last teenage escapade in Cameroon happened in Victoria, present-day Limbe, in 1975. We were in Bay Hotel one Sunday afternoon dancing to Makossa during "Tea Time" when a scuffle ensued between one local boy and a military man over a girl. I was inside gyrating to the deafening blast of Toto Guillaume's Elimbi and did not witness the scuffle. The soldier carried a pistol, which he pulled out. He did not fire a single shot. But the mere sight of a small gun sent more than 100 civilians running helter-skelter for dear life. I was one of those civilians, and those were the waning years of Ahmadou Ahidjo's Cameroon when some contemporary bushfallers were either toddlers or yet-to-be-born. Fast forward to 1991, sixteen years later during the teenage years of our bushfallers now come of age. We behold them battling armed soldiers with fists and stones during "Operation Ghost Town" under the auspices of John Fru Ndi. From all apparent indications, a lot had happened in Cameroon that created something of a generational gulf between my teenage years and those of our bushfallers. It is that something, which distinguishes the new breed of Cameroonian, that this work promises to unravel. The years between 1975 and 1991 something happened in Cameroon that transformed the generations after into creatures radically different from the before generations. This work is about the generations after. It traces their development through the prism of Cameroon's political history. As the first generation of Cameroonians born under the United Republic of Cameroon, their character reflects the political changes of their country. They attained maturity with the political maturity of Cameroon. When in the early-1990s Operation Ghost Town released Cameroonians from the dictatorship of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), an offshoot of Ahidjo's Cameroon National Union (CNU), the children of the Unitary State were the foot soldiers of this struggle and contributed to the making of the new epoch President Paul Biya aptly called the "New Deal Society". Born in chains, these children were released from their chains by the promises of Biya's New Deal Society, which opened up the closed society of Ahidjo's "Old Oder" and gave vent to Fru Ndi's "Operation Ghost Town". If Operation Ghost Town provided them freedom domestically, the forces of globalization extended this freedom internationally. By the late 1990s the would-be bushfallers were looking outward to the larger world for those things that the sagging Cameroon economy could not offer them. Once abroad, their intermittent visits to Cameroon, which revealed behaviors, attitudes, and showmanship until them unseen in Cameroon won them the sobriquet bushfallers—those who fall bush (chappia bush), work (plant), and after harvesting come home to show off their newly acquired…. The Bushfallers: Rise of a New Breed of Cameroonians is the story of their origins, growth, and transformative power. As chronicler of the compelling story, that follows, I cannot help it but echo the sentiment of American sociologist C. Wright Mills: "I will try to be objective; I do not claim to be detached," for, I am an offspring of Cameroon and can therefore not pretend detachment by any stretch of the imagination. This exegesis is an exposé of bushfallers cast within the context of some defining moments in the history of Cameroon from 1960 to the present. It does not attempt to pass judgment on this new breed because they defy social conventions and their proper place in the social order is yet to be defined. The narrative style employed in this expose is the motif, drawn from music, whereby certain musical patterns recur time and time again throughout the piece. In the case of this work, instead of musical patterns the focus of emphasis is on ideas, which are reiterated over and over again at different points and in different chapters of this work. This narrative strategy is adopted in order to drive home the significance of the rise of bushfallers and the role that history seems to have pre-determined for them. But, will they defy historical imperative? Emmanuel Konde Albany, Georgia "The problem of power is how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." Robert F. Kennedy <THE BUSHFALLERS - Prologue.docx>
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