Legendary artist, Petit Pays has cancelled a concert that was slated for Buea on the 31^st of December by Mayor Ekema Patrick to boost the political image of the 83 year old Cameroonian dictator. The US based manager of the artist; Eyong Eyong Ebot who spoke to Cameroon Concord News by telephone observed that Petit Pays was not properly informed about the prevailing situation in Southern Cameroonians.

We understand the artist was in Buea recently where he made the video of his new album “Peur dans la cite’ and was contacted by the Buea municipal authorities. His manager also revealed that the musician has returned the money that was paid to him for the show.

Pressure actually came from pro Southern Cameroon groups both at home and abroad urging the cancellation of the concert tour in Buea by Petit Pays, whose shows often include many local artists from the South West region.

In a statement issued to a sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report, Eyong Eyong Ebot opined that ”conditions are still not conducive for Petit Pays to stage any show on behalf of any political group.” He added that Petit Pays needs a ‘romantic environment and not a hostile climate.”

Petit Pays is scheduled to play in France, Moscow and Japan beginning on the same date of the pro President Biya activity in Buea. His award-winning Peur dans la cite recording featured a duet with Bate Nico, the voice of Manyu.

Anglophone teachers and lawyers have boycotted talks with the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government to end Francophone-majority rule in Southern Cameroons. They say the negotiations were a CPDM government ploy to remain in power and continue to loot Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The nude photo of a CPDM Mayor of the Douala city council who got caught has created a buzz on the internet.  The local representative had reportedly had a fast one in a hotel with one of his many concubines when his wife stormed the room and took photos of him in Adam and Eve uniform.

Internet users are wondering about the publisher’s interest in releasing on the internet a picture of a man she calls her husband. Many have questioned if is a blackmail that went wrong or an attempt to undermine the image of the deputy mayor?

This phenomenon is increasing in Cameroon despite a new penal code voted into law that prescribes severe punishment on attacks on privacy using the social networks.

Sonne Peter in Douala

The Kassav music concert that was slated between the 16^th and the 22^nd of December 2016 in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé has been postponed until the end of March 2017, Cameroon Concord News has learnt.

The Minister of Arts and Culture made the decision to postpone the Kassav concert without providing any reasons. However, it is widely believed that the nation is divided and events such as a Kassav concert will only add more wounds to injury.

The reprogramming of the concert has been scheduled for the end of March 2017. The ministry in charge of culture was the main sponsor of the cultural event which many fans already had tickets.

By James Fru

The Cameroonian singer, Bate Nico will be on stage in London on the 10^th of December 2016. Nico, who is said to have been consistently consistent with his Manyu folklore fascination, has revealed that the London trip will set the stage for his breakthrough.  The Semi Bantu artist has reportedly sold thousands of copies and has become the best-selling artist from the South West region of Cameroon after the likes of the late Bebe Manga.

The songs he writes are not strictly songs for Cameroon but songs for the whole world that also covers the entire Cross River State of Nigeria. Bate Nico’s well-received appearance at the MECA-USA conventions and in Ireland fulfilled one of his biggest dreams and earned him a slot on the Cameroon’s top music chart. Speaking to journalists recently in Buea, Bate Nico observed that “Sometimes people would say my music is from Manyu Division but that is actually not true,” Bate Nico said. “It has only been popularized in Manyu but it is not Manyu as such. It is everywhere, but its roots are in Manyu.”

The much anticipated arrival of Bate Nico in London, UK is warming up to be the highlight of the Manyu and Cameroonian community in Great Britain in 2016. On the 10th of December it’s all happening in London. Hundreds of Manyu sons and daughters in continental Europe and in the British Isles will be congregating to witness their music idol live on stage.  The venue has been booked and hotel rooms are being reserved for an evening of a lifetime. As one of the best musicians to come out of Manyu Division in the South West Region of Cameroon, it’s a mystery to many that Bate Nico after more than ten years of touring the world hasn’t performed in the United Kingdom.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

Stanley Enow has added an additional feather on his red cap by winning the 3^rd All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA) as best rapper in a ceremony that held in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday November 7^th 2016. One year after winning the prize for best male artist in Central Africa, Stanley Enow won the AFRIMA award beating Daphne, Franko, Locko and Wax Dey.

The renowned Cameroonian artist is loved because of his African American tubes. He won the Afrima Dallas award in 2014 and has many other trophies on the national level. His famous tube “Hein Pere”, launched his career a few years ago.

Sama Ernest

Neighbours have protested against the torrid sexual antics of French football star Paul Pogba and his Cameroonian girlfriend popularly known as Dencia. The sexual activities of the French international and Dencia whose real name is Reprudencia Sonkey, dubbed the African Lady Gaga, as reported by Yahoo ignited so much under-the-table talk around their neighbourhood.

According to Yahoo, the neighbours of the lovers have recently spent sleepless nights because of the erotic noise produced by Lady Dencia during love making. “Between 3am and 4am, there were groans and grunts that could be confused with something else. They do not seem to worry about who could hear. It lasted for eternity. It looked like a porn movie. Repeatedly we heard groans such as “Paul, Baby”, it was very embarrassing. It was impossible not to hear it because it was very loud” revealed a neighbour quoted in the Yahoo report.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Radio Equinoxe based in the economic capital Douala recently reported that a corrupt police officer was made to urinate for almost 53 minutes by a farmer he reportedly collected 500 frs CFA from! The incident occurred in Fongo-Tongo-a locality in Menoua Division in the West region on October 13, 2016. The local farmer was held at a police check point by the said officer who claimed that his old motorcycle was no longer allowed to use the highway.

Despite appeals from some disgruntled villagers to let go the farmer, the police officer insisted that the farmer must dish-out to him the sum of 500 frs CFA. The greedy cop ignored cat calls from members of the Fongo-Tongo community and revealed that the farmer would be allowed to go along with his old motorcycle only if he pays the 500 frs as requested.

The farmer moved away from the check point and brought out a 500 frs note from his underwear and handed it over to the police officer. It was after this gesture that the farmer was allowed to continue his journey. He had not even turned his back when the officer felt the need to urinate.

The officer started to pee without stopping and could no longer participate in controls. His colleague realizing that what was happening was indeed not normal rushed to the village and with the help of some villagers he traced the man with the old motorbike. The farmer ordered the cop to return his 500 frs with immediate effect and gave him a kick on his bum to stop the officer from urinating. The journalist who filed the news item was quoted as saying that the officer kept a pee for 53 minutes.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon-info.net

X-Maleya has announced a series of concerts to mark the group’s ten years of existence. Cameroon Concord News learned that the trio: Roger, Auguste and Haïs, popularly known as X-Maleya will be touring the United States of America in what has been dubbed “USA Dream Tour”.

X-Maleya recorded huge success in Europe including their victory tour of Germany and Olympia-Paris in 2014.  The US X-Maleya tour is expected to last for a month. The “boy band” will float the Cameroonian flag in Uncle Sam and their first stop is scheduled for October 16 at Fillmore Silver Spring, in the State of Maryland. After Silver Spring, the group will jet to Preston Bradley Centre in Chicago on 22 October.

A spokesman for the group recently observed that the conquest of the United States is a new challenge and preparations have taken a serious dimension as regards to synchronization of choreography and development of the directory.

The main ten years ritual will be performed in Cameroon in December although the date has not been disclosed. For the record, X-Maleya came to the lime light in 2006 through the Exile album. Since then, they have not disappeared from the music scene. The small group has made a name in Africa, Europe and are now heading to the US. They have five albums to their credit.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon Tribune

Petit Pays has followed his normal Christmas tradition by announcing a new album to be released on Friday the 28^th of October 2016. The Cameroonian music legend hinted through his US based producer Eyong Eyong Ebot that the album will have 5 main songs including 2 bonus tracks. In the promo handed exclusively to the Cameroon Concord News Group, Le Turbo, Rabbi Rabba, Adonai performed ballads and club-worthy makossa songs for a devoted African and world audience.

Petit Pays has become one of Africa’s most successful artists and has managed to find success deep within the Cameroonian diaspora both in Europe and the US.  Petit Pays released more than ten platinum-selling records in Africa and has sold more than 35 million albums internationally, a feat that helped him eclipse the popularity of Soukous titans like the late Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide and the late Pepe Kale. The new album Effatta includes a duet with popular Manyu solo singer, Bate Nico. A Moh KuKouri Production is an album Africans cannot afford to miss. By Soter Agbaw-Ebai 

Just what ARE they moaning about? Revealed, the humble origins of Cameroon migrants on £44k benefits (44 million FCFA) who’ve rejected three offers of larger homes

• Arnold and Jeanne Mballe Sube have eight children
• Pair used to live in cramped bungalows in Buea, with no running water
• Mrs Sube’s childhood home is near active volcano at end of a mud track
• Mr Sube grew up a five-minute drive away in a wooden bungalow

They have branded their three-bedroom council house the ‘worst place’ they have ever lived. But Arnold and Jeanne Mballe Sube, who have rejected three offers of a bigger taxpayer-funded property, grew up in conditions that make their home look like a palace, the Mail can reveal.

The Cameroon-born couple, who have eight children, spent much of their youth in cramped bungalows with no running water, and only the share of an outside kitchen and toilet with other families.

Cramped: Jeanne Mballe Sube’s family of seven lived in this two-bedroom building, with outdoor shower and toilet in Buea, Cameroon

Basic: The outside cooking area Jeanne Sube’s parents shared with six families

 Beginnings: Buea, South-West Cameroon, where Mr and Mrs Sube lived before migrating

The Cameroon-born couple, who have eight children, spent much of their youth in cramped bungalows with no running water. Mrs Sube’s family of seven squeezed into a two-bedroom home rented for £35 a month – a fraction of the £1,278 monthly bill to taxpayers for the house in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, where she now resides.

Despite not working, she and her husband, who receive an estimated £44,000 a year in state handouts, are sending money back to relatives in Cameroon. Tory MPs have branded the Subes’ demands ‘shameless’ after they insisted their house was too small and spurned three offers of a more spacious home.

Before migrating to Europe in the early 2000s, the couple lived in Buea, South-West Cameroon. Mrs Sube’s childhood home is in the shadow of an active volcano at the end of a mud track, where several families live in a compound of six two-bedroom buildings. Tangled wires are strung across the yard, attached to a broken fascia board on Mrs Sube’s former home – which is built from breeze blocks and corrugated iron.

Tory MPs have branded the Subes’ demands ‘shameless’ after they insisted their house was too small and spurned three offers of a more spacious home

In 2012, Mr and Mrs Sube moved from Paris to Luton after he got a place on a Bedfordshire University nursing course, funded by the NHS. The couple are also believed to receive housing and child benefits, as well as child tax credits. They have branded their three-bedroom council house the ‘worst place’ they have ever lived

The two small bedrooms inside have only a narrow living room between them, with stained stone walls. The outside toilet, shower and kitchen are shared by six families.  Water for the kitchen must be carried from an outdoor tap, with waste water washing into an open drain through the compound. The only utensils are a handful of pots, pans and buckets, and women scrub clothes on a stone block.

The authority said it will offer one more five-bedroom house. If the family reject this, they will be classed as ‘intentionally homeless’ and could face eviction. The wooden door to the shared kitchen has a gaping hole at the bottom. The outside shower has an open entrance without even a curtain for modesty.

Mrs Sube’s father, Zachary Nkwo, was one of Cameroon’s best-known broadcasters, after reporting for the equivalent of the BBC during the country’s first football World Cup in 1982.  But despite his fame, Mr Nkwo said he struggled to support his family. ‘It was tough financially … I got a housing subsidy equivalent to my position in the station, but it often wasn’t enough,’ he said.

The 62-year-old, who lives near the former family home, said his daughter sends about £250 around every three months. He added: ‘They went to Europe to seek greener pastures … My daughter is a hard worker and I know she wants to contribute to society.’ Sylvia Ndahne, who knew Mrs Sube as a child, said: ‘They moved here when Jeanne was about ten and stayed for a very long time. Jeanne had to leave secondary school after falling pregnant.’

She added that ‘all the cooking and washing has to be done in the outhouses because there is no running water in the main property’.

Mr Sube grew up a five-minute drive away in a wooden bungalow at the end of a muddy track. It had no running water in the main home and only an outside toilet, shower and kitchen.  Friends said the family lived in two parallel homes, with Mr Sube and his siblings in one and his parents in the other.

In 2012, Mr and Mrs Sube moved from Paris to Luton after he got a place on a Bedfordshire University nursing course, funded by the NHS. The couple are also believed to receive housing and child benefits, as well as child tax credits.

They have a laptop, a 60in flatscreen TV and Sky HD box, plus a 52in TV in their bedroom. The children, aged three months to 16 years, also have a TV and an Xbox. But last week Mr Sube, who uses one bedroom as a gym and office, insisted he had been ‘neglected’ by Luton council, which is trying to rehouse them.

The authority said it will offer one more five-bedroom house. If the family reject this, they will be classed as ‘intentionally homeless’ and could face eviction. Mr Sube said: ‘My lawyers have told me not to say anything.’

Culled from the Daily Mail