Africa 2000
Cameroon
This is the sixth edition of Africa 2000-our special page devoted to introducing each African nation to our wide readership. The republics of Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana,urkina Faso and Burundi have been profiled in the last six issues and we would like to thank all who e-mailed or called to express enthusiastic appreciation of the informative Africa 2000 country profiles. Capital has noted your suggestions, comments, and frank criticisms and shall endeavor to incorporate them in succeeding issues. Readers will have noted that Africa 2000 is a work in progress. It will attain a permanent format after a readership survey is conducted during the first two weeks of May. The survey will be available online on www.capitalethiopia.com and also as a cut-out questionnaire as of the last week of April.
Among the e-mailed comments was one from Torit Johnson,a South Sudanese college student and a fresh returnee from peaceful exile in Ethiopia, who wanted to know why the page was called Africa 2000. Well Torit, you may recall our introduction, which clearly stated that the page is dedicated to linking Africa with the new Ethiopian Millennium. This aim is to assist the efforts of the Ethiopian Millennium Festival organizers and also that of the African Union, which decided at the 8th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State that the great occassion shall also be an African celebration. To this end, Capital chose to profile each African nation in alphabetical order. Africa 2000 aptly describes the continent and Ethiopia’s new millennium. Selam!Jambo!
One country that does not feature frequently on the news is the Republic of Cameroon, unless of course, whenever its mighty soccer team runs over not only rival African teams but even the likes of Brazil and Italy.
It can be argued that soccer (football) did much to raise the profile of Cameroon, an almost self-enfacing country of immense natural wealth and a charismatic population. The Republic of Cameroon has much to interest the National Geographic set. In fact, many popular nature documentaries have been made in the deep interior.
Picture an irregular edged triangle wider on its eastern flank and sort of wedged into place from the Atlantic up to the retreating shores of Lake Chad in the far north. The country’s extensive Atlantic coastline leads to a wide coastal plain and on to the central highlands, an area that has climate akin to Ethiopia’s plateaus. The deep interior is primeval Africa – the pristine tropical jungle where the sun shines true and it rains every day. Although under threat from deforestation due to the lumber industry and illegal logging, Cameroon’s incredibly diverse ecosystems are still among the few remaining tropical forests in Africa.
The most outstanding natural feature apart from the dense forests are the mountains along Cameroon’s western rim.mt. Cameroon at 14,435 ft, is west and central Africa’s highest peak and is large enough to have its own weather system. More ominously, Lake Nso – made tragic history when it released noxious fumes in 2000 killing thousands of villagers.
Cameroon has enjoyed a stability ever since its independence in 1960 that few if any African countries can claim to have had. The nation, although composed of incredible diversity, has maintained peaceful internal unity and is regarded as a good neighbor in the region.
Cameroon’s reliable stability has translated into steady economic progress and rising standards of living not only in urban centers but also in the vast countryside.
Arts and Culture
Cameroon has a colorful tradition in the fine arts. Its musicians are no less gifted than the Indomitable Lions and have set benchmarks in not only African music but also as the pioneers of a distinct form of soul music – The Cameroon Makossa. This development made the Douala of the late 60s and 70 s and the epicenter of experimental African music.
Manu Dibango
Soul and Makossa. "World Music", a two-word universe, was born in the early 70's. For the first time Africa, in the form of Cameroon Makossa, nosed its way into soul, the heir to jazz and rhythm'n blues.
As is often the case, this particular stage in musical evolution, which today is considered as capital, was at the time nearly missed, the b side of a single which should never have got further than the suburbs of Douala. The grandpappy of Makossa Soul, Manu Dibango, plays a key role in our century. Okay, so his work is uneven. That is because he is not after perfection and success every time. Dibango is at least as much a journalist, an anthropologist or a philosopher as he is a musician. Without him, "World Music" would no doubt have existed all the same, but it would have taken at least fifty years longer!
Sax-Player, composer, singer, pianist and
arranger, Manu Dibango is Cameroon's musical superstar. He is arguably Africa’s best known jazz saxophonist, but he has also carried makossa to a world audience .
Beginning his musical career in the 1950s, he travelled the world learning his art. However, it was the release of the worldwide hit “Soul Makossa” which propelled him to the world’s attention Always ahead of his time, Dibango was constantly on the look out for new influences and sounds. Mixing Stax, Tamla, with that unrelenting African percussion, with riffs ala Parker, Junior Walker and King Curtis, this collection begins in 1967, exposing some rare cuts from Dibango and focusing on the period creative heights of this master musician and finishes with the brand new storming dance floor filler DJ Flex mix of “Soul Makossa”.
Message of Condolences
The editorial board and staff of Capital express their heartfelt condolences to the family and compatriots of the late Mbea Mbea Jaen Hileioe, Ambassador to Ethiopia of the Republic of Cameroon who passed away suddenly on March 21,2007 in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I am odd and so are my paintings”:
H E. Post
By Tsion Aklilu
It was only after he retired that Hieronymos E. Post became a full-time painter.
His paintings have power, hooking you immediately in an attempt to understand his intriguing symbols. In 1978, Post left West Germany, retired to East Germany, and bought a house in the hills. It was there that he started to make a living out of his paintings, drawing plants and animal details for an organization, Nature in Pictures (NIP).
“I am a painter, illustrator and a bit of an artist”, says the cheerful Post explaining his work. Three months ago, Post made Ethiopia his destination, bringing with him his tiny tools. His Ethiopian wife Demekech explains: “it brought his tools with him, He spinets most of his time painting what he sees in real life”.
“I am odd and so are my paintings”, says Post. I saw him for the first time in March at the Alliance Ethio-Française, exhibiting his eye-catching paintings with 34 local artists. His weird and cynical paintings attract you to them like magnets and the result of three months in Ethiopia.
Post is not a follower of realism or the abstract, but he gives his subjects an unusual look with his thin, undersized brushes. He prefers using smaller brushes for picking up on the details of insects, animals and plants. Post shuns the term ‘artist’, referring to himself as an ‘illustrator’: “an artist works with thick, large brushes, but not me. I have my tiny brushes.”
However, first impressions leave the viewer uneasy, cluttering a brain which is already exhausted. But they also give much needed homework to a dried mind.
Post has traveled throughout Africa, to Kenya and Namibia, where he saw cell phones being used in rural areas which had no electricity. One of the paintings reflect this scene, showing a black, bald and beautiful girl wearing a hide, staring at the spectators with mobile phones of different brands as the back ground of the painting. He explains this splendidly, “I went to a very rural area where even electricity does not reach, but surprisingly almost all the neighbors have mobile phones. It struck me and here it is in my canvas.”
Post has been in Namibia and Kenya to escape the usual frosty seasons of Germany in the previous years. In his stay in Namibia, he has offered one of his works of art that shows the danger of HIV/AIDS in Africa, particularly in Namibia.
The illustrator plans to spend the rest of his life in Ethiopia. Life is cheaper here than in Germany, where he has to fix heaters to survive the rainy season. But there is a much more pressing reason to move here: his wife. “My wife is Ethiopian,” Post says, “so I love to live here with my dear.”
The Nordic connection...
Selam music was founded in 1997(based in Stockholm, Sweden) and is toady an active world music event promoter, concert arranger, producer, and an intermediary contact and networking partner between organizations in the Nordic countries and other parts of the world.
Selam has started a network project between Sweden and East African countries to increase exchange within the music area between Swedish and East African institutions and organizations on issues like copyright, music education, music development and production. We have made Teshome Wondimu, Founder and Artistic Director of Selam Music, our guest for this week’s art corner.
By Mina Yirga
How did you start Selam? What are your aspirations?
I used to work in the navy as a musician. I studied military conducting for 4 years. Then I went to Sweden and wanted to study about music in depth. In 1996 I attended a course in cultural administration in Sweden. Most foreigners like me don’t know about the cultural situation and system of Sweden. In 1997 Selam was officially established. As a music organization based in Stockholm and Addis Ababa. We arrange and promote festivals, concerts, club nights and forums, presenting a mosaic of global sounds.
The Swedish - East African Music Network (SEAMN) is one of many projects Selam is running at the moment. It’s a three year pilot project supported by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency). The SEAMN is in its last period. SEAMN aims to strengthen the infrastructure within the music sector in East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia).SEAMN have national coordinators in each country and in Ethiopia Selam is registered as an international cultural NGO.
What have you done so far?
We support different projects. For instance we have supported the Ethiopian Musicians Network and the project “Music Critic Forum”. We believe the forum invites everyone form different sectors, the discussion somehow will help for the development of the music industry. The other project we are working with is Addis Ababa Youth Association. We support kids to learn about music. We have provided them with simple instruments and we have hired an instructor to train them on how to play Bass guitar, keyboards and dancing. We have also invited musicians form Sweden to hold master classes with students at Yared School of Music. We believe there are different talents hidden in Ethiopia. These kids should get an outlet to check on their talents. In most cases unless there is a chance to attend schools these kids wont find music classes else where. We want them to benefit out of our project. We also run projects promoting music education in Maseno and Kisumu (Kenya) focusing on traditional and band instruments.
In Uganda we have a project running for 2 years on promotion for music education for secondary and primary schools. With the support of SEAMN “Mbaco Troup” have been working in Mbarara (south west part of Uganda) district in 35 schools. We have also supported Kenyan Association of Musical Arts Educators. They have initiated lobbying activities with the Ministry of Education and Culture in Kenya. Among many things they have fought to introduce music as an examinable subject in technical colleges. We also support a project in Kampala, Hip Hop Canvas, which is a kind of capacity building workshop for Hip Hop artists. At the end of the workshop they produce their own CDs.
How do you describe Ethiopian music comparing it with other African music?
If we try to look at in comparison with the East African countries I can say the development stage is some how the same since the problems are more or less similar. Kenya and Uganda seem to exceed in terms of music development. For that they have different TV and radio stations and they encourage the artists by giving them awards. But the music development is not that much significant. We have very weak international relations even within east Africa. 80% of the education given in Yared School of Music is classical European music. And the remaining 20% accounts to Ethiopian music and you don’t find any African music trainings at the music school. When we organize events in Sweden, the number of artists that are invited are few, I can mention Aster Aweke, Gigi, Tedy Afro…but the rest seem to lack many things like their own agency, booking and professional material and their CDs don’t fit to an international standard.
How do you select the artists? And what are your criteria?
To Selam the main focus is quality. We have contacts every where. We ask who are the top artists. Then we invite them. We ask for the stage performance. In Europe we have agencies that support and facilitate the booking for he artists.
Could you tell us about SEAMN grand event? What are your expectations?
Selam through the Sida supported project are preparing a grand event featuring seminars, workshops and concerts in Addis Ababa between the 25th- 29th of April. In cooperation with the Swedish institute in Stockholm, Selam has also invited Swedish hip hop wonder boy Timbuktu featuring artist Zoro, Chords and Mapei, Dj Johanna and musicians form the live band Damn!. We have 20 guests coming form East Africa and many partners form Addis Ababa coming to participate in a series of seminars. Discussions on topics such as music critique, censorship, associations, education and promotion will be held by invites such as Pearl of Africa Awards, Tanzanian Cultural Trust Fund, Freemuse and Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office. SEAMN delegates from Uganda, Kenya Tanzania and Ethiopia along with invited organizations, artist and musicians will attend the sessions. Concerts will take place at Gaslight on the 25th of April in collaboration with Sheraton Addis and at the Exhibition centre on the 29th of April in collaboration with the Millennium Promotion and Entrainment Enterprise. The workshop will be held at the National theater from the 26th- 27th of April giving hands on experience on mobile studios, rap, DJ skills and new media. We want to make Ethiopia a meeting place. We have collaborated with Rachmaninov College.
Many complain that Hip hop is dominating Ethiopian culture and your event some how focuses on promotion of hip hop. How do you see this point?
We have dealt with similar questions and there have been similar discussion on this issue. This question has been raised in Kenya also. It doesn’t have to be conflicts between traditions and contemporary expressions. You can find traditional roots in hip-hop. Its about cultural identity but we often mix up identity with quality. You can express yourself in different ways for instance there was a discussion in Uganda on how you can express Ugandan uniqueness and Ugandan identity on an international market of music if we don’t find an outlet for what we think its ours we will be swallowed up by the mainstream …its just to express and to make some inspired. What’s more is that to be good with what you are doing and to keep a high quality . We can take Senegal music, it is becoming very popular because it has got a Senegalese touch. Music should be produced in such a way that it fits to the international market. It doesn’t contradict with our culture.
What is your attachments with Isaac Mulindwa?
We have invited a number of guests and one of them is Isaac Mulindwa, Jr, chairman of the PAM Awards, the tycoon of Ugandan Entertainment who won’t let the efforts of young musicians go to waste just because they don’t know how to handle their image or the power of producing a good product. He is the head honcho at communications company One 2 Net and involved in business including Club Silk, the no. 1 club in Uganda, he started the Pearl of Africa Music Awards and lately he added the title of shareholder of East Africa TV and he is the shareholder of Radio Simba, on of the most popular radio stations in Uganda, soon with branches in Nairobi and Dares Salaam. The first Pearl of African Music Awards ( PAM Awards) in 2003 marked the beginning of a new era in which local artists received recognition in Uganda.
‘Witness Rotary Activities’:Exhibition
promoting volunteerism
Rotaract of Keroggie, Addis Ababa in partnership with the Rotary Club is planning to have a three days photo exhibition under the theme: “Witness Rotary Activities”, which will take place from April 27 to 29, 2007 at the National Museum to exhibit works done by the Rotarians and Rotaractors during the past few years and for the purpose of promoting volunteerism.
Though Rotract of Keroggie, (Keroggie is from a Guraghe word ‘Kaere-eze’ which means ‘let peace reign’) took the initiative, the 5 Rotary and six Rotact clubs in Ethiopia have taken part in contributing 60 items from their collection of photo that while under taking different community services.
Rotarians and Rotaractors around the globe put Rotary’s idea of “Service Above Self” into action at the forefront. As volunteers, Rotarians contribute their greatest resources – time and skill– to help improve the quality of life for the vulnerable.
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