The 13-man Jury of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, on Tuesday, unveiled the nominees list for the 2018 edition. The event which held at the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, had officials of the African Union Commission, Jury members and some stakeholders in attendance. The released nominees list covers the five Regional Categories divided into Female and Male categories as follows: Best Female Artiste in Central Africa; Best Male Artiste in Central Africa; Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Eastern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Southern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Southern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Western Africa and Best Male Artiste in Western Africa.

A total of 79 songs made it to the Regional nominees list. Cameroon takes up four of the eight spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Central Africa, followed by DRC (2), and Angola (2). In the category for Best Male Artiste in Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) takes the lead with five spots followed by Cameroon 2 and Chad 1.

From Eastern Africa, the female category Kenya holds three spots while Uganda takes 2 with Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania occupying one nomination slot respectively. In the male category, Kenya and Tanzania maintain three nominations each Tanzania ties with Ethiopia & Tanzania registering one nomination apiece. The Algerian female artistes have a lead ahead of their male counterparts as they took four out of the six spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa, with Tunisia and Egypt holding one spot each.

The Male category has Moroccan artistes occupying four of the eight spots, Algeria 2, Egypt and Tunisia earning one nomination each. The Southern African region is dominated by South African artistes both in the male and female categories, with a total of nine spots, followed by Zimbabwe- 3, while Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe take 1 spot each. The Western region Male category is having great contenders between Nigeria and Ghana. Holding up 4 spots is Nigeria, closely followed by Ghana (3), while Guinea and Cape Verde hold 1 spot each. The Best Female Artiste in the Western region has Nigeria and Ghana in a tie of 2 spots respectively, with Benin (1), Mali (1), Senegal (1), and Cote d’Ivoire (1).

While providing insights into the process by which the entries were reviewed and graded, the spokesperson for the International Jury of AFRIMA and the Programme Director, Cameroon TV and Radio, CRTV, Mr. Robert Ekukole (representing Eastern Africa) explained that tasked with the responsibility of carefully and mindfully sieving through 8,009 entries submitted by African music professionals within the awards validity period of August 1, 2017 to August 1, 2018, “the jury members have no choice but to be thorough and deliberate about their work because we will be doing artistes and creators of these works a great injustice if we don’t accord them the review their works deserves”, “The AFRIMA Nominees list we arrived at reflects and represents the top-notch creative expressions of music talents and professionals within the relevant regions and validity period. However, we also have a challenge where some artistes failed to enter for the awards and as such missed the opportunity to be evaluated or possibly nominated for AFRIMA”.

The AFRIMA adjudication is carried out electronically via the proprietary AFRIMA Adjudication Software, which was designed by AFRIMA in 2014, has been deployed for use since the 2015 annual adjudication process. When public voting opens on the AFRIMA website on Monday, August 27, both continental and regional nominees in the 38 AFRIMA award categories will compete against one another for the coveted 23.9 carat gold-plated AFRIMA Trophy.

Nominees will now depend on votes from their fans and followers spread across the globe to vote for their songs in an open voting process via the AFRIMA website, www.afrima.org From August 7, when the annual adjudication process began, the 13-man AFRIMA Jury worked painstakingly and tirelessly in assessing and grading the submitted entries which was an astronomical increase of 63% against the 2017 entries received by AFRIMA.

Speaking on the parameters considered by the Jury during the adjudication process, Jury member representing Diaspora (North America), Hadja Kobélé Keita, a music executive with work experience in international music companies like Universal Music Africa and Island Africa, reiterated the AFRIMA objective, which is about rewarding and promoting talents and

www.vanguardngr.com

Dear Guest,

We are delighted to announce the SOBA UK Residential Convention which will take place from 21st to 23rd September 2018. The Gala night will be on Saturday 22nd September 2018 at The Hilton, St George’s Park in Burton Upon Trent. Last year, we had a very successful Convention at Dunchurch Park, Rugby, Warwickshire which continued to set high standards for SOBA UK.

This year we are going to the splendid venue at The Hilton, St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trend. This is the Home of England National Teams befitting of a World Cup year, which saw the England National Football Team make it to the last 4 teams in the World Cup football tournament. We believe that Sobans, their families and guests will have a fantastic time in such a wonderful venue.

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Together We Succeed“, reflecting on the difficult year our association and people have had both in the UK and Cameroon. Our focus will also be on the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions in Cameroon which has led to thousands of people being displaced and significant loss of lives. We will be looking to assist where possible and we look forward to your generous support.

Our tickets have been priced very competitively at £70 for a standard ticket, but there is an early bird discount of £10 which reduces the price to £60 provided, if you purchase your ticket by 23rd August, 2018. There are also limited VIP tickets on a first come first serve basis. Please contact our sales agents for more details from the attached flyer. You can purchase your hotel room directly using the dedicated SOBA UK link attached below at discounted prices up to 23rd August 2018.

On behalf of all Sobans in the UK, we say a big thank you in advance for your continued support and to this end, I commend the 2018 Convention to you and encourage you to buy your tickets and start making plans for this esteemed SOBA UK event. We look forward to welcoming you and your families at The Hilton at St George’s Park.

SOBA:UK Secretariat soba@sobaintheuk.org

Yours sincerely,

Ayuk Akoh-Arrey President SOBA UK

Email: soba@sobaintheuk.org

Nearly a decade after his death, Michael Jackson is out with new music in a guest appearance on the keenly awaited new album by Drake.

The late King of Pop appears in a song on “Scorpion,” the fifth studio album by the Toronto hip-hop star who pulled another surprise by using the release to come clean about his secret child.

True to form for Drake, whose sensibility for catchy beats has made him one of the top-selling artists of recent years, the 25-track album that came out Friday sprawls defiantly, as if resisting the traditional confines of records.

Yet Drake loosely divides “Scorpion” in two — a first “side” in which he hones his rap skills and a second, more unexpected half in which Drake branches further into pop.

“Don’t Matter To Me,” the song with Jackson, belongs firmly to Drake’s pop mode. The 31-year-old proves his bona fides as a singer, his piercing rap delivery giving way to a full-textured silkiness that complements Jackson’s higher ranges.

A dreamy mid-tempo track driven by a synthesized R&B bass, “Don’t Matter To Me” is in line with the adult output of Jackson, whose distinct voice is heard on the chorus.

“All of a sudden you say you don’t want me no more / All of a sudden you say that I closed the door / It don’t matter to me,” Jackson sings.

Drake revealed nothing about the song’s genesis.

But Jackson is known to have left a series of unfinished tracks when he died in 2009. A previous posthumous duet, “Love Never Felt So Good,” came out in 2014 between Jackson and pop star Justin Timberlake.

Like “Don’t Matter To Me,” the Timberlake collaboration was credited in part to the legendary crooner Paul Anka.

Jackson had been working on an album of duets with Anka, the voice behind such classic pop hits as “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” in 1983.

But the project fell by the wayside as the former child star was propelled to fortune with “Thriller,” which went on to become the best-selling album of all time.

Drake, in a rare interview last year, described Jackson as a longtime model and voiced dismay at being pigeon-holed as a rapper.

The song coincidentally comes out little more than a day after the death of Joe Jackson, the King of Pop’s father and manager who guided his children’s careers but was ruthless in his discipline.

– Politics and a secret child –

Jackson is not the only special guest on “Scorpion.” Rap mega-star Jay-Z lends rhymes on “Talk Up” that denounce President Donald Trump — a rare political display for a song by Drake, who while making clear his disdain for Trump has largely preferred apolitical, crowd-pleasing rhythms.

Drake incorporates his recent input into “Scorpion” — “God’s Plan,” an infectious hip-hop track that has spent the longest stretch on the top of the US singles chart this year, and “Nice For What,” a fast-driving dip into New Orleans’ bounce scene.

But while “Scorpion” is full of feel-good vibes — “Ratchet Happy Birthday” seems destined to be played at many a boisterous party — Drake closes on a serious note as he acknowledges he is a father.

Drake admits the substance of a diss track in May by Pusha T who said that Drake had a son with Sophie Brussaux, a French former pornographic actress.

“I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world / I was hiding the world from my kid,” Drake raps in “Emotionless,” which samples Mariah Carey’s “Emotions.”

Later on the album, Drake hints that he has only seen his child once and is embarrassed he is following the footsteps of his divorced parents.

“Always promised the family unit / I wanted it to be different because I’ve been through it / But this is the harsh truth now.”

© 2018 AFP

At least eight women have accused Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman of subjecting them to inappropriate behavior or harassment on film sets or at promotional events, CNN reported on Thursday.

As part of its investigation of the 80-year-old actor, CNN said it had spoken with 16 people, some of whom also alleged inappropriate behavior by Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.

Freeman said in a statement that he was sorry to anyone who had been made to feel uncomfortable or disrespected.

“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” he said. “I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.”

Representatives for Freeman and Revelations Entertainment did not respond to requests for comment beyond the statement. Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the accusations.

Following the CNN report, credit card company Visa said in a statement that it was suspending its “marketing in which the actor is featured.” Freeman has been the longtime voice of Visa television advertisements.

A torrent of accusations of sexual misconduct against male actors, filmmakers and agents have roiled Hollywood since last fall, leading in some cases to resignations and the halting of projects.

Similar accusations have also engulfed powerful men in US politics and business, and inspired a #MeToo social media movement by people publicly sharing their stories of sexual harassment or abuse.

CNN reported that eight people told the network they were victims of what some labeled harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. It said eight others told the network that they witnessed the actor’s alleged misconduct.

CNN also reported that other sources denied having seen any questionable behavior by the actor, and that those sources described him as behaving professionally on set and in the office.

Freeman, whose career has spanned 50 years and more than 100 movies, won a Oscar in 2005 as best supporting actor for his role as a former boxer in “Million Dollar Baby.”

(Source: Reuters)

Southern Cameroonians have always been fed stories about this little Roman Catholic seminarian from Mvomeka’a who eventually became president of the then United Republic on November 6^th 1982.  President Biya is now very far from the image conveyed by his autobiographers- that he was a modest man with a decent lifestyle. The 85 year old dictator has added a rolling fortress to his convoy of expensive cars. This time around, it is a Range Rover Klassen convertible.

Nothing can best represent an immoral and a failed society than the fact that an 85 year old leader is still excited about cars. Paul Biya arrived the 20th May Boulevard in Yaoundé to preside over the civil and military parade of the 46th edition of the so-called national day in armored and customized version of a Range Rover KLASSEN.

The car is extremely long and among the most expensive on the planet. It is also currently the most luxurious, sophisticated and ultra secure automobiles mankind ever produced. President Biya’s new Range Rover has a bulletproof capacity capable of withstanding 7.62 calibers and any violent explosion of approximately 15 kilograms or a DM51 grenade. It has all sought of electronic devices and its special 20-inch alloy wheels allow the vehicle to roll even with flat tires.

The passenger compartment was specially designed at the King’s command and is shielded with 6 pieces of steel. Its price far exceeds 400,000 Euros excluding taxes. All this for the Right Royal President

By Sessekou Asu Isong, London

A Commonwealth Games athlete who went missing during the Gold Coast event this year brazenly posted images of himself while in Melbourne to social media last month.

Cameroonian boxer Fotsala Simplice is one of more than 19 athletes and team staff who went missing from the Games last month and are now seeking asylum in Australia, according to refugee advocates.

Despite threats of detention from Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton should the athletes not comply with their visa conditions, Simplice openly shared images of him smiling and posing while in Melbourne.

Cameroonian boxer Fotsala Simplice has brazenly posted social media images of him in Melbourne after disappearing from this year’s Commonwealth Games. Picture: Facebook.

Simplice is one of at least 19 other athletes who went missing from the Games and are now seeking asylum in Australia. Picture: Facebook.

Initially, it was believed 11 athletes had not returned home, including four other boxers and three wrestlers from Cameroon, two athletes from Uganda and a Rwandan Paralympic powerlifting coach.

This week however, Sydney’s Refugee Advice and Casework Service principal solicitor Sarah Dale said the organisation has helped more than 19 people lodge applications for protection, before their federally approved games visas expired on Tuesday.

“The numbers we have seen have been greater than that (19) and it’s our expectation that there are significantly more people in the community that have sought asylum here in Australia,” she told ABC radio on Wednesday.

Cameroon athletes from left to right, top to bottom: Fokou Arsene, Fotsala Simplice, Matam Matam Olivier Heracles, Ndiang Christelle, Fouodji Arcangeline Sonkbou, Ndzie Tsoye Christian, Yombo Ulrich, Minkoumba Petit David. (Supplied)

“It’s a significant number… It’s certainly more than what’s being reported.”

The competitors are seeking asylum for various reasons and are from several different African countries, Ms Dale confirmed.

The federal government has already said “some” of those who went missing have already seen granted bridging visas to allow them to stay.

The applicants will need to demonstrate they fear persecution, whether it be on religious, race, nationality, social group or political affiliation grounds.

More than 19 Cameroon athletes and team members are believed to be seeking refuge. (AAP)

The Australian Border Force said in a statement that any “visa overstayers” who do not cooperate with authorities to negotiate new visa conditions risk facing “enforcement measures”.

“Some individuals have already applied for other visas, while others will seek to engage Australia’s protection obligations. Those cases will be rigorously assessed in line with standard processes,” a statement said.

“For those who attempt to remain in the community without engaging with authorities, they should be aware that anyone in Australia without a valid visa will be subject to enforcement measures aimed at locating, detaining and removing them from Australia.

“The ABF has stood up a dedicated operation to ensure those that should depart Australia do so. Those who are removed may also face a three year re-entry ban from Australia and may owe a debt to the Australian Government for the cost of their removal.”

Cameroon at Commonwealth Games. (AAP)

Before the expiration of the visas the athletes held to be able to perform in the Commonwealth Games, Mr Dutton also confirmed they would need to leave Australia or risk a detention term.

“If they don’t want to be held in detention or locked up at the local watch house, they’d better jump on a plane before the 15th and comply with their visa’s conditions,” he told Macquarie Radio.

Ms Dale also hosed down suggestions the claimants planned to come to Australia as part of a games team and then stay.

“I would not suggest that there was a group of people that had decided ‘let’s compete in the Commonwealth Games to get to Australia’,” Ms Dale said.

“I think that’s too far of a stretch.”

Culled from www.9news.com

Cameroonian jazz bassist Richard Bona will perform a concert in Tehran in September, the musician has announced in a post on his Facebook page.

“I waited for sooo long and now guess who is coming???  Ninja himself,” he also has written in a Twitter post featuring Iran’s flag.

The Tehran concert, which will be held on September 6, is the last leg of his world tour set to start from Moscow on June 2. He is scheduled to give performances in Latvia, Hungary, Spain, Germany, France and several other countries.

However, no Iranian organizer has so far confirmed Bona’s concert in Tehran.

Bona’s album “Tiki” was nominated for a Grammy in 2007 in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category.

Originally from Cameroon, Bona remains true to his roots, with African rhythms reflected in each of his seven albums.

The first three “Scenes from My Life”, “Reverence” and “Munia” display his unique approach to storytelling through sounds.

Source: Tehran Times

Black Panther, the breakthrough superhero film that has become one of the highest-grossing motion pictures of all time, on Thursday led nominations for the MTV Movie and TV Awards.

The action movie about the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda led with seven nominations including Best Movie for the June 18 awards, which will be decided by public voting.

Placing second with six nominations is “Stranger Things,” the Netflix series about supernatural occurrences in a small town in Indiana.

The MTV Movie and TV Awards, like the channel’s signature MTV Video Music Awards, celebrate pop culture moments and pride themselves on being less stuffy than the industry’s benchmark Oscars and Emmys.

Categories include “Best Kiss” and “Most Frightened Performance.” In another contrast with the industry-led awards, the MTV prizes for the second year will be gender neutral with no separate competitions for men and women.

“Black Panther,” a rare action film to celebrate black culture, has already become the third highest-grossing movie ever in North America since its release in January.

Comedian Tiffany Haddish will serve as the host of the MTV Movie and TV Awards, which hands out statuettes shaped like popcorn boxes.

Haddish stars in the comedy “Girls Trip” which is also up for Best Picture, along with the action flicks “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Wonder Woman” and horror adaptation “It.”

Culled from Africa News

Kenya has banned its first feature film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, accusing it of having “clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya, contrary to the law”.

“We believe adult Kenyans are mature and discerning enough to watch local content but their right has been denied,” she said Friday on Twitter. The director has said in interviews that she had been nervous about the film’s reception in Kenya, but had received some support. In a strange twist, just days prior, the head of the Kenya Film Classification Board [KFCB], Ezekiel Mutua, had praised her work in an interview with a local radio station.

But on Friday, the KFCB said in a statement that the film “contains homosexual scenes that run counter to the law, the culture and the moral values of the Kenyan people”. The board also accused producers of changing the original script that was licensed for production, which they say didn’t have romantic scenes between the female actors.

The board said it met with the director earlier this month and asked her to edit out the film’s “offensive” parts. On Wednesday, the director instead told the board to go ahead and make a ruling, it said.

Moralising the arts

Under British colonial-era laws, homosexuality remains illegal in Kenya. A person caught in the act can face up to 14 years in prison, though activists say that it is rare for people to be prosecuted. Many members of the LGBTI community do face severe harassment and physical threats.

Mutua, the head of the KFCB and a self-described “fervent moral crusader”, has previously sought to ban films, ads and cartoons he deems immoral, often on the grounds that they promote homosexuality.

After the decision was announced, the KFCB Twitter account began to retweet homophobic tweets supporting the ban.

For activist Kevin Mwachiro, the author ofInvisible – Stories From Kenya’s Queer Community, the ban didn’t come as a surprise.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be banned, but this does reflect what is happening in society,” Mwachiro told FRANCE 24. “There are moralists in positions of authority who have blurred the lines between what is faith-based and what isn’t. In a secular nation like ours, they are bringing in personal beliefs to something that shouldn’t be moralised.”

He cited other instances – such as the KFCB’s 2014 decision to ban the Kenyan-made film “Stories of Our Lives”. The film, which told five different stories about LGBTI Kenyans, was shown internationally, including at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“It’s terrible when content made by Kenyans for Kenyans is outlawed,” Mwachiro said. “Now ‘Rafiki’ will only be screened in Western capitals.But for LGBT people in Kenya, seeing these stories on the silver screen would help them in their own journeys.”

A prize-winning story

In Kenya, gay rights activists have quickly raised an outcry to the ban, while the Cannes Film Festival shared Kahiu’s comments on Twitter.

“Rafiki” will premiere at the French festival next month in the “Un Certain Regard” category, earmarked for films with unexpected or marginal themes by emerging directors.

The film is adapted from a story called “Jambula Tree” by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko, who now lives in Nairobi. The main characters, who live in a housing estate in Nairobi, are the daughters of rival politicians.

It won the 2007 Caine Prize, which is awarded to African writers of a short story published in English.

Legal challenges

In a recent interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour, President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed gay rights as being “not of any major importance to the people and the Republic of Kenya”.

However, in reality, the ban on “Rafiki” occurs against a backdrop of a nation struggling to come to terms with the varied sexuality of its people.

Currently, Kenya’s High Court has begun hearing arguments in a case that challenges parts of the penal code seen as targeting the LGBTI community. The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission argues that the sections are in breach of the constitution and deny basic rights by criminalising consensual same-sex relations between adults. The court on Monday is expected to announce a date for its ruling.

This comes on the heels of another small victory for activists when a Court of Appeal in Mombasa ruled that conducting forced anal examinations of people accused of same-sex relations is unconstitutional.

Victories like this make Mwachiro hopeful.

“We aren’t out of the woods yet but a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes,” he said. “We live in a beautiful country with talented people.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)

Congolese music star Koffi Olomide is due back in Kenya to perform for the first time in two years since he was deported from the country on the orders of the police chief Joseph Boinnet.

In July 2016, Kenya detained and subsequently deported the 61-year-old to his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he was slapped with assault charges.

On Friday, he announced that he will be back in Kenya to perform on April 24 at a devolution event, a national conference involving Kenya’s 47 county heads. The event is to be held at Kakamega, he thanked the organizers for inviting him to return to Kenya.

In a video announcing his return to Kenya Olomide said he loved his Kenyan fans so much and had missed them.

In the 2016 incident, a video of him kicking a female dancer in his group went viral on social media sparking outrage. He was at the time scheduled to hold a concert in Nairobi, but was arrested in front of television cameras outside the premises of a television station where he was granting an interview.

He was deported and the schow he was bill to attend went ahead without him. He initially denied the assualt claims and insisted that he was protecting his crew from an unspecified person who was threatening their security.

He has since apologized for the incident and even sang a song praising women and womanhood at a show in Congo Republic. Olomide in August 2012, was slapped with a three-month suspended prison sentence in Kinshasa for assaulting his producer.

Source: Africa News