“We engage parents in learning processes and change school cultures

”

-Co-founder, Educate a Child in Africa.

ECA, Educate a Child in Africa, Inc. is the brain child of two Co-Founders. Gideon A. Asaah is a co-founder and chief operating officer. He is a Social Entrepreneur with over ten years of experience working with young people in Cameroon. He’s an Ashoka Fellow and a passionate advocate for Education in Africa.
  Divine Gordon Asaah is the second co-founder and Executive Director. He is an American citizen of Cameroonian origin based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, New York. He is a Researcher at Havard School of Education. The Chief Operating Officer Gideon A. Asaah was interviewed in his Limbe office by EDEV’s Francis Ekongang Nzante. His revelations provide interesting reading.

Excerpts:

What pushed Assah Gideon into his present humanitarian activities?

I was inspired by my parents. My dad is an administrator but before being an administrator he was a teacher. My mother has been a primary school teacher for over 30 years and I saw the tireless efforts she put in. It was a kind of education that kids were not given the opportunity get hands on learning. This pushed me to create an association called educate a child in Africa. I did this in collaboration with my elder brother Divine Gordon Assah who’d lived in the US for over ten years and had worked with one of the biggest theatre houses in the world decided to create this organization. In 2010 when our association was created, he resigned from his job just like I had done. He then went to the Havard School of Education after which he threw his weight behind our activities.

What road have you so far covered with Educate a child in Africa?

ECA Mission is a non-profit organization that supports student
achievement and school improvement through Play and Learn games and activities, Family Engagement and Community Engagement. We equally believe that everyone benefits when community members are involved in their children’s education. For our play and learn activities we create games for children as well as spaces in schools and communities where kids learn almost 90% of what they study in school but in the form of play. In these spaces kids learn and coordinate activities and even go as far as creating games. Basically we have been working in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon but our focus more recently has actually been the Southwest Region because of the shaky situation in Cameroon recently. Because of the absence of school due to strike actions we have been creating spaces in communities.

Can you outline the modus operandi of ECA in a much more specific manner?

There is Play and Learn | Leadership. Educate a Child in Africa, Inc.'s Play and Learn | Leadership club activities inspires the passion for consequential formal education; teach children basic lessons on diverse subjects while building their confidence, team building and leadership skills. Children love to have fun. So we incorporate playfulness in education. We make education enjoyable for children by weaving lessons into lively activities. We create original games that help pupils in Science, hTechnology, Engineering and Math.

 ECA's Play and Learn | Leadership club activities fosters lifelong learning opportunities for all children. Family Engagement: Most parents have disengaged themselves from their children's education. We change the culture of public institutions by training teachers on how to intentionally and systematically forge sustainable mutually beneficial partnerships with parents. When schools develop strong partnerships with parents, families and communities, the pupils achieve at a higher level and are better equipped for lifelong success.

Know Your Children: It is a fun-game show between children and their parents/guardians. The goal of this initiative is to assuage the different frictions that exist within families and communities and identify the most essential needs of children. Children ask their parents pertinent questions about them. This lively activity falls in line with Article 18 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states that 'both parents share responsibility for bringing up their child and should always consider what is best for the child'

Gideon A. Asaah

So what is the way forward?

We want to be all over the continent. When we started we did a couple of things in Nigeria but we thought that it wasn’t time for us to scale so we decided to come back and focus on the areas where we started. So in 2017 we will be putting in place a strategy to scale to other African countries.

Any message to some stakeholders?

My message is directed to policy makers, educational authorities and those in decision making positions. I call on the Cameroonian Government to be involved in initiatives like this. This is the case in some West African countries and in Uganda, a country that I visited recently.

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More than 20 Million FCFA raised for development projects in Akum

More than 20 million FCFA has been raised for development projects in Akum. This revelation was made by Pius Nji Tumasang, the1^st Vice President General of the Akum Welfare Association deputising for the President General Donatus Fombarrh unavoidably absent during the 74^th Annual General Meeting of the Association which took place on Saturday April 15 in Akum.

Fon Ndikum George III of Akum and Patron of AWA

The First Vice President General said the contributions that came in from the various branches for development projects in the village were close to 16 million FCFA. “We equally raised close to 6 million FCFA for the Palace Project. So if we have succeeded to raise more than 20.000.000 FCFA for development projects in the village then I think it is a positive point.”

Pius Nji Tumasang: Vice President General Akum Welfare Association

The 74^th Annual Convention he said had been very successful. “Before the convention we had some challenging issues and in the village there was a problem between the Fon and his notables but before the convention, with the directives from my President we were able to convene a meeting between the Fon and the notables and we agreed on the way forward. You must have noticed that the Fon attended the meeting today with his notables meanwhile for the past one year or so the Fon has not been attending meetings with his notables” the vice President explained.

He further explained that in the past AWA was accused of embracing so many projects at a time but that now they had agreed to focus on two main projects; the rehabilitation of the Palace road and the rehabilitation of the Akum Community hall.  

Ntumfor Martin Tumasang, a retired School Principal of GHS Akum and Vice Patron of the Akum Welfare Association AWA said he was very delighted to have seen the way that this day had passed. “There have been a few things worrying the cohesion of this community called Akum. 

Ntumfor Martin Tumasang

You will bear with me that the Fon has just addressed the community and has given a new hope to the people that he is bringing everything under control. Evidence of this is the fact that you have seen all our nobles who for a short while have been at loggerheads with the Fon over a number of issues.” If this is the only thing we have achieved here today, then I think the days ahead are even more promising and come this time next year when we will be celebrating the 75^th anniversary, I think everything shall have been put together for good.”

With regards to very useful suggestions that were made, he said he had already conferred with the Fon and that he was already buying the idea of taking loans for development projects. “By the time the next Central Working Committee meets, we will be putting through these suggestions. It is a thing that we can do and do very well.  My message to the Akum people is that they should remain the united and respectful people that they have always been.”

Hon Chief Paul Nji Tumasang, Member of Parliament at the National Assembly for Mezam South, Santa Special Constituency summarised the AWA convention in the following words. 

Hon Chief Paul Nji Tumasang

 “AWA has been doing much in terms of Community Development and I am very happy that today’s session has been very successful. I have been at the helm of the association for over 12 years. For 6 years I was the Vice President General and about 6 years the President General. You heard the Fon talking about the Palace project which is very dear to us. The Palace was really an eye sore and if you go there now you will see that we have at least modernised the Palace.  This started within my reign and it has continued. There are many other things that we plan to do. You heard the Fon talking about roads. Every quarter in Akum is accessible by roads and we just need to put in a little more effort and these roads will be accessible all the year round.  

I call on the Akum people to continue to stick together due to the love for their village and country. I expect that every time there is a clarion call they should come and put hands together like they have done with the Palace Project and some school projects. That’s my advice to Akum people in the village, in Cameroon and the Diaspora.” 

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NW and SW held hostage by extremists and greedy self interest protectors in Cameroon.

A look at the evolution of the Anglophone crises from its onset till date reveals a sequence of fruitless efforts by two parties each one deliberately refusing to give ground to the other and as the two protagonists occupy centre stage many have failed to see the drummers who are actually dictating the pace of the dance. The victims of this stalemate have been the populations of the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

On the one hand there was the Anglophone Lawyers with very plausible demands related to legal practice in Cameroon. Briefly, they wanted the practice to reflect the two legal systems of the country and they felt that this could be feasible in a two federal state system. Among other things they were protective towards an English Common Law System which they felt was being deliberately adulterated not only by the French Law but also by the French Language which was increasingly being used in the two English speaking Regions; the Northwest and the Southwest. To achieve their requests, they went on strike and have since then kept the courts in English speaking Cameroon empty.

The teachers of the English Educational Sub system eventually joined in with equally plausible demands similar to those of the lawyers and even more and subsequently paralysed the school year in English Schools in Cameroon.

The strikes of these two groups took things nowhere and dialogue void of good fate brought no results and in their frustrations coupled with the arrests of some within their ranks, the two twinned and formed the consortium together with other English speaking Cameroonians home and abroad. The Consortium then pressed on with its demands through the organisation of ghost towns.

Since then, in the absence of sincere dialogue, the banning of the Consortium and the arrests of its leaders and other activists has pushed the requests for secession to take center stage. This request is pushed by extremist secessionists who will stop at nothing short of secession banking their arguments on the fact that requests for a two state federation with equal status has failed.

The leverage that the outlawed Consortium has used is the permanent ghost towns on Mondays and Tuesdays (now reduced to Mondays) and operation dead school campus. While the average Cameroonian in the Northwest and Southwest Region is toiling under the weight of ghost towns and its consequences, instructions are continuously being given by faces behind the scenes dominantly from the Diaspora. The interest group being served here is that of diehard secessionists prepared to listen to nothing else. The questions begging for answers are as follows; -is secession the best choice for Anglophone Cameroonians? Is a two state federation on equal status acceptable in a country where the English speaking segment of the population constitute only two of the ten regions that make up the country? Can’t there be a two or a four state federation with defined conditions that are acceptable to all parties permitting the country to remain as one Cameroon?  

Another interest group that is being served by the suffering masses is the authorities of the Republic of Cameroon and to an extent its French Colonial Masters France who have never really relinquished its hold on its colonies in French Africa.

Just like the extreme secessionists, Cameroonian authorities have responded in ways that demonstrate either a complete misunderstanding of the situation or a deliberate attempt to misunderstand the problems being presented by a segment of the population. Clearly, the interests of this party completely contrast with those of extreme secessionists. Satisfying the needs of the Republic of Cameroon would mean not satisfying the needs of extreme secessionists.

While the two extremes continue to hold their grounds protecting their ultimate interests, myopic political misfits have been playing to the gallery in a bid to protect their own petit and egoistic self interests. Some have carried out peaceful demonstrations dubbed Peace March in Limbe and Kumba maybe with an intention of sending customized signals to certain quarters for personal reasons. Some have even resorted to utterances tailored on tribal lines to send equally customized signals. The Police et al have brutalized, raped and arrested to no avail.

On the other hand, some have master minded the burning of Markets in Bamenda (Nkwen and Food Market), Fundong and Limbe New Market maybe for disobeying the sit down strike action.

All this drama completely misses the point. If attention has to be shifted for one minute from the warring forces and their various interests to the plight of the populations at the receiving end then the desire to end the stalemate should be paramount in the minds of those who truly have Cameroonians at heart. Attention has not yet been shifted to the people and as such no immediate way forward has been prescribed because none of the parties (the secessionists on the one hand and authorities of the Republic of Cameroon on the other hand) truly have Cameroonians at heart for if that were the case then a middle ground should have already been found. For the way forward to be traced, the questions above and many more must be answered. For example; is a centralized system with attempts to decentralize competences like the one in Cameroon at the moment the ideal set up for Cameroon? Is it normal that just prior to the crises in Cameroon there was an attempt to harmonize higher education in Cameroon despite the existence of two sub education systems? Time to stop playing to the gallery is now if Cameroon has to move forward.

2018 SDF Presidential hopeful’s campaign banners vandalized by uniformed men.

Two campaign banners of the 2018 SDF Presidential hopeful, Felix Teche Nyamusa have been torn down from the poles to which they were affixed by uniformed men. The second banner was torn down on Saturday April 8, 2017 according to revelations made during a press briefing organised by the 2018 Presidential hopeful at 10 am on Palm Sunday. Felix Teche Nyamusa revealed that those who brought down the banner on Saturday were identified as Police men by eye witnesses.

Felix Teche Nyamusa

According to a Press release signed by Felix Teche Nyamusa “a truck filled with policemen descended on my campaign material in the North West Region and destroyed them!” According to the Presidential hopeful, such reactions from uniformed men are panic signals from the regime in place. Considering the fact that these campaign banners were paid for at the Bamenda City Council, he is of the opinion that the City Council Agents who mounted the banners were supposed to make sure the banners stayed in place. “We will certainly be calling on the city council or government delegate to account and pay for this criminal action!”

The press release further disclosed that the banner destroyed by the police was placed on Commercial Avenue in Bamenda II and that the material on it was written in both English and French as part of campaigns for internal elections within the Social Democratic Front SDF. The material on the banner ran thus: “Vote Felix Teche Nyamusa, SDF National Chairman. For two states Federal Cameroon! No to Anglophone marginalization! No to Francophone marginalization! May God guide an intergral Cameroon.” “Votez Felix Teche Nyamusa, President National du SDF pour un Cameroun à deux Etats Fédérés. Non à la marginalisation des Francophones. Non à la marginalisation des Anglophones. Vive le Cameroun integral.”

Prior to his becoming the SDF Presidential   Candidate for the 2018 Presidential Elections, Felix Teche Nyamusa is aware that he has the arduous task of winning the internal elections within the party and becoming Chairman of the leading opposition party the Social Democratic Front.

Commenting on the build up to the 2018 Presidential Elections within the Party, Teche Nyamusa said “My party, the SDF’s Elective Convention earlier scheduled for April 2017 has been postponed but campaigns are of course not called off! We SDF have little time for campaigns for the 2018 all important polls.” Complaining that the decision to postpone the elective convention wasn’t strategically very correct he said “campaigns have to be intensified considering the crooked nature of the ruling, ruining CPDM regime whose chairman President Paul Biya in addition to using State funds for campaigns and election bribing, can precipitate the polls! Commenting on the absence of a level playing field for everybody he said “like teachers, lawyers, doctors we will embark on the Cameroonian Constitution as last resort to stamp out CPDM manipulations,” adding that he was ready to lead this revolution cooperating with good willed Cameroonians and genuine political parties.

Cognizant of the fact that the SDF had not yet endorsed the two state federation as the official quest of the party, Felix Teche Nyamusa said his quest for a two state federation within the party could not necessarily be seen as an attempt to create diverse ranks within the party but rather as his own way of making the party and its militants to be aware of the fact that there exist alternative and better choices for the party. This awareness of the possibility of making alternative and better choices he said will certainly make it possible for him to be voted as the next National Chairman of the SDF; a prerequisite for him to stand as the SDF Presidential candidate for 2018.

    

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CPDM 32^nd Anniversary

 Wabane presents need for a special constituency.

The need for a special constituency to enhance development in Wabane in the Lebialem Division was one of the many issues that was addressed during the 32^nd Anniversary of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement CPDM. This need was voiced by His Royal Highness Fon Lekunze N III of Bamumbu during the heavily attended CPDM 32^nd Anniversary at Wabane.

Speaking at the ceremony where most of the speeches concentrated on development, he said the day was a great one and that his impressions were positive. “The people have come out in thousands to give the day the importance it deserves” he said adding that the CPDM Lebialem III Section remains the engine of the party in Lebialem Division and the Southwest Region. “I think the gods of Mundani and the elites here present and the population are testimony to the Head of State and National President of our party President Paul Biya of our complete support.” He promised the Head of State a 100% vote in the upcoming elections.

Drawing attention to the royal setting he said much still needed to be done in the domain of human resources. He harped on the need for elites to be empowered so that they could in turn empower the people. If this were done development would be brought closer to the people he said.

Nembo Ketu Israel: Mayor of Wabane

Nembo Ketu Israel, the Mayor of Wabane Council and Section President for Lebialem III Wabane said he was very happy with the turn out which he said was among the best  in the Southwest and Northwest given the present political situation in the country. This he said proved that something was being done in Wabane. “If we were not meeting up with aspirations of the people and with implementation of the programme of the government, this crowd would not be here today.” He said anyone coming into Wabane today would not understand that the place had gone a long way to be where it was today. Formerly he said, the place had no motor-able roads and could not be reached by vehicle. Now he said the place could easily be reached by car. All that was needed was for the people to continue working with the Government for things to get better. He said electricity was now present thanks to what he referred to as Micro-hydro electricity. He however complained that with the meager finances, the meeting of road construction needs could not be met with. Wabane he conceded still needed much in terms of roads and electricity.

The popularity of the party in Wabane was demonstrated by thousands who thronged the event grounds to grace the occasion with their presence. Elites and youth came from all over the country in a show of solidarity to take part in the anniversary celebrations. The occasion was rendered colourful by traditional dances and multiple cultural displays. 

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Scores of Cameroons Cultural Icons raised to Knighthood.

Scores of Cameroons Cultural Icons have been raised to Knighthood by the Head of State. The decoration of these illustrious Cameroonians took place at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel on Tuesday April 5, 2017.

They were raised to the status of Knights of the National Order of Valour for their contribution towards the preservation and promotion of the Cameroonian Culture.

Ministers Narcisse Mwelle Kombi and Jaques Famme Ndongo with Professor Paul Kwi at the extreme right with red and black traditional wear.

These prestigious medals were placed by the hands of the Cameroonian Minister of Arts and Culture, Professor Narcisse Mwelle Kombi accompanied by the Minister of Higher Education Professor Jaques Famme Ndongo.

Fon Lekunze AN III with Minister of Arts and Culture 

Considering the cultural nature of the event, the minister, Professor Narcisse Mwelle Kombi congratulated the recipients and all cultural stakeholders present. With an intention of making the participants to better understand the cultural colour of Yaounde, the town which was hosting the event, the minister traced the origin of the metropolis to some Agricultural Villages around Nsam Efoulan, Mvolea among others. From these villages he said, Yaounde and the culture had grown and evolved to be what it was today. He further said the putting in place of a Commission for Bilingualism and Multi-culturalism was timely at this time when emphases was being put on the richness of Cameroons cultural heritage adding that there was a strong need to preserve what had been modeled by our imaginations and creativity over time. The Minister grouped Cameroon into four cultural zones namely the Beti-Fang, the Grass field, the Sawa, and the Sahelo-Sudan.

Among the many recipients was His Royal Highness Fon Lekunze Andreas N. III of the First Class Chiefdom of Bamumbu in Wabane Sub Division. He expressed his feelings in the following manner; “to me it was a very great honour. Just the fact that I was recognised by  the powers that be especially the Head of State for working well in the field of culture. It is a great motivation. I think the Head of States policy as far as culture is concerned is very clear and as a local stakeholder he has told me what to do and the road map is clear. I know what I have done already to merit this medal and I am going to triple it. Qualities that can push you to do what we are doing include love because you must love your country first since you can’t love your country without loving your locality. I love my people, Bamumbu, Wabane, Lebialem, I love southwest and I love Cameroon. That is why to realise some of my projects, I dig my hands into my pockets while waiting on elites to come in and while waiting on government to come in.”

Fon Lekunze AN III further talked of a master plan for the new palace that has already been drawn that will renovate the old palace. The palace he said is very large and an antiquity that equally needed to be preserved for the culture of Cameroon. “That is the next major project we have which is that of renovating the ancient and mythical palace of Bamumbu.”

Professor Lisa Aubrey of the Arizona State University in the United States of America and the University of Yaounde I was also another illustrious recipient of the award of the Knight of the National Order of Valour. A recognition from the Head of State and received in the form of a medal at the hands of Professor Narcise Mouelle Kombi, the Minister of Arts and Culture.

“It’s absolutely amazing and it just reoccurred to me that I cannot leave Cameroon. There are so many people doing such incredible work and the Minister is absolutely fantastic in the way that he has conceptualized and also implemented the valorization of not only one Cameroonian Culture but many cultures that make one beautiful whole.

Minister of Higher Education; Professor Jaques Famme Ndongo placing Medal on Professor Lisa Aubrey

Such an event constitutes a huge opening for matters that we did not  know… we did not know how much Cameroon was victimized by Trans-Atlantic Slavery and how people who were free were enslaved by Europeans and taken to over 30 countries that we know of now. They were taken out of Cameroon and Africa to be used by other countries to enrich themselves. Coming to Bimbia and seeing it all was painful but I think it is a blessing to be doing this work. I am so thankful to the Cameroonian government and so many people who have helped and supported me and I ask them to continue because right now we have just touched the tip of the iceberg and there is yet so much to be done. I am looking forward to staying here and working with so many good people.”

The third recipient this reporter caught up with was Professor Paul Kwi a learned personality heavily involved in the cultural issues of his country Cameroon. Commenting on a paper he presented on the cultural inventory of Cameroon he said “what I did in my 15 minutes presentation was the value given to those objects and the need to protect those objects.  And who should be protecting those objects. I think the first people are the owners, the people who created them. The second protector is the Government since they must design a policy that assists those who have them to preserve them and be able to create a market for those cultural objects. For example if you visit museums in…Leipzig, New York Metropolitan Museum where I happen to have visited I saw many artistic particles from Cameroon which were collected many years ago maybe at a time that we did not have the capacity, the skill and the resources to be able to keep them for posterity..I however think that these artifacts should not be brought back into the country if they cannot be taken care of. Take for example the Afoakom which returned to this country afterhuge sums of money had been paid to recover to recover but now the conditions of preservation are not appropriate. Only the Ministry has the capacity to help the owners preserve them.” In such a situation the professor explained, objects should be left where they are since they can be well preserved provided they are labeled to indicate that they are Cameroonian objects.

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