Last Tuesday, Cameroonian parliamentarians and META experts met to proffer ways to protect children from cyberbullying. This was spurred by several cases of minors in the country being exposed to harm on social media.

The most recent case involves the posting of a video recording of two young girls saying they were raped by a police officer in Beau, in the southwestern region of the country.

The girls said the man raped them in a taxi and threatened to harm them if they told anyone. 

It is not clear who recorded the video, but when it was being shared online, attempts were not made to blur or hide the faces of the girls in any way to protect their identities even though they are minors. This has subjected them to even more attacks on social media. Many social media users have been evaluating the victims’ facial expressions, and the grievous nature of the crime committed against them is not getting as much attention.

The young girls have received more insults and attacks online than sympathy and support.

As the case is being followed by civil society actors at the police station in Buea, others took turns on social media to condemn this act, blaming those who filmed the video for deliberately exposing the victims to public scrutiny.

Taryang Tabe, a women’s rights activist, said those who created the content possibly did not understand the implications of showing the faces to these young girls.

“When I saw it on Facebook, I knew it had gone out of control. We must now only use the anger in advocating for the perpetrator to face the law. This may reduce the trauma in both girls when justice is served,” he said.

Children’s agency, UNICEF, says more than a third of young people in 30 countries report being cyberbullied, with 1 in 5 skipping school because of it.

“Children may be victimized through the production, distribution and consumption of sexual abuse material, or they may be groomed for sexual exploitation, with abusers attempting to meet them in person or exhort them for explicit content,” it added.

Similar cases

Some Cameroonian TV stations last year exposed the faces of children who were caught up in a group sexual act in Yaoundé last year. Women’s rights activists condemned the media organisations as well.

Pictures of children who go through domestic violence have been shared often on social media platforms and media outlets as well.

The meeting

The meeting between parliamentarians and META experts on Tuesday was meant to build capacities on best practices of child safety online and seek proper legislation to protect children in Cameroon.

Zondol Hersesse, President of the Committee on Constitutional Law, Human Rights, and Freedoms at the National Assembly said there is a growing need to protect children on the internet.  Children, he said, are the most vulnerable on social media.

META experts present at the meeting said it has become very easy for children to be exploited online and are now trying to put measures in place to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse on the internet.

Source: Humangle media

The American music industry’s Grammy Awards announced on Tuesday that they will be awarding a gramophone to the best African music performance at their next edition, a further sign of their quest for diversity and a consecration for the genre.

The new award covers a wide range of styles, from Afrobeat and Afro-fusion to Kwassa Kwassa and Ndombolo from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana drill, Afro-House and South African hip-hop, said the Recording Academy, which brings together music industry professionals, in a press release.

The category will reward “recordings that use the unique local expressions of the African continent”, the Grammys organisers added.

Long accused of not sufficiently reflecting the diversity and evolution of the music industry, the Grammy Awards have been seeking for years to broaden the range of styles and registers of awards. The category of best soundtrack for a video game was added in 2022.

Musicians from African countries, such as French-Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo (5 wins, 14 nominations) and Nigerian singer Burna Boy (one win, 6 nominations), regularly dominate the Grammy world music categories.

At the 65th edition on 5 February in Los Angeles, a trio led by South African DJ-producer Zakes Bantwini, a pillar of local house music, won thanks to a track in Zulu in the best world music performance category.

The 2024 edition will also honour two other new categories: best alternative jazz album and best dance pop recording. In 2023, 91 awards were presented in as many categories, including pop, rock, classical, hip-hop, gospel and country.

Source: Africa News

Pop icon Celine Dion on Friday cancelled all her remaining shows scheduled for 2023-2024, saying she was not strong enough to tour as she battles a rare neurological disorder.

Last year the 55-year-old Canadian singer revealed that she was suffering from the rare medical condition that was affecting her singing.

“I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again… and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything until I’m really ready to be back on stage,” the My Heart Will Go On songstress tweeted.

“I’m not giving up… and I can’t wait to see you again!” she added.

A statement released by her tour said: “With a sense of tremendous disappointment, Celine Dion’s Courage World Tour today announced the cancellation of all remaining dates currently on sale for 2023 and 2024.”

“I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100%,” the statement quoted Dion as saying.

In December 2022, she posted a tearful video on Instagram to say she had recently been diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome and would not be ready to start a European tour in February as planned.

She said the disorder was causing muscle spasms and was “not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”

The “Courage World Tour” began in 2019, and Dion completed 52 shows before the Covid-19 pandemic put the remainder on hold.

She later cancelled the North American section of the tour due to health problems.

The tour was to have been the Grammy-winning winner’s first global concert tour in a decade and the first without her husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died from cancer in 2016.

Source: AFP

Tina Turner, the American-born singer who left a hardscrabble farming community and abusive relationship to become one of the top recording artists of all time, died on Wednesday at the age of 83. 

She died peacefully after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her representative said.

Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.

In the video for her chart-topping song “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” in which she called love a “second-hand emotion,” Turner epitomized 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.

With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a 1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-era idealism.

Sometimes nicknamed the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me.”

Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.

By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade. The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s.

She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.

“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.

“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.

In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max franchise, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”

Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”

“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.

‘One-horse town’

She was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of Nutbush, which she described in her 1973 song “Nutbush City Limits” as a “quiet little old community, a one-horse town.”

Her father worked as an overseer on a farm and her mother left the family when the singer was 11 years old, according to the singer’s 2018 memoir “My Love Story.” As a teenager, she moved to St. Louis to rejoin her mom.

Ike Turner, whose 1951 song “Rocket 88” has often been called the first rock and roll record, discovered her at age 17 when she grabbed the mic to sing at his club show in St. Louis in 1957.

The band leader later recorded a hit song, “A Fool In Love,” with his protégé and gave her the stage name Tina Turner, before the two married in Tijuana, Mexico.

Tina employed her strong voice and strenuously rehearsed dance routines as lead vocalist in an ensemble called the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. She collaborated with members of rock royalty, including The Who and Phil Spector, in the 1960s and 1970s and appeared on the cover of issue two of Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.

Ike and Tina Turner bounced between record labels, owing much of their commercial success to a relentless touring schedule. Their biggest hit was a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.”

Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummelled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Ike and Tina Turner in 1991, calling them “one of the most formidable live acts in history.” Ike Turner died in 2007.

Europe bound

After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.

In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage her for three decades.  That led to a solo no.1 – “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – and then in 1984 her album “Private Dancer” landed her at the top of the charts.

“Private Dancer” went on to become Turner’s biggest album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell more than 200 million records in total.

In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach who became her long-term partner and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe. She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie “GoldenEye,” and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.

After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of Switzerland.

She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December 2022.

Her name continues to draw audiences years after her retirement. Musical stage show “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” with Adrienne Warren initially acting and singing the star’s life story, was a hit first in London’s West End in 2018, and later on Broadway, and is still running. And in 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life, “Tina.”

She is survived by Bach and two sons of Ike’s that she adopted.

Source: REUTERS

Over 10,000 Hollywood movie and television writers have gone on strike Tuesday due to unstable working conditions and pay, marking the first time US TV and film productions have taken a grinding halt after 15 years of labor peace.

After failed negotiations with studios and streamers, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called for a work stoppage demanding higher pay, minimum guarantees of stable employment, and a larger cut of the profits from the booming streaming industry.

The strike could have catastrophic effects on the US entertainment industry as late-night shows will come to an immediate stop and television series and movies scheduled for later this year will face major delays.

According to WGA statistics, half of TV series writers now make minimum wage, as the average payment for a senior writer has dropped 4 percent over the past decade.

While writers’ pay has decreased, the entertainment industry has paid executives extravagant salaries including a total of one billion dollars to the top twelve media executives in 2021.

The issue of artificial intelligence (AI) is yet another one up for discussion. The WGA wants to put safeguards in place to prevent studios from using AI to create new scripts from existing text. Additionally, writers wish to avoid being asked to revise AI-created draft scripts.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates on behalf of Comcast Corp, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix, and hundreds of production companies, said in a statement that its offer included “generous increases in compensation for writers.”

The studio also stated that it is committed to reaching a fair agreement and is still willing to engage in further talks.

Meanwhile, the union, representing the writers, said in a statement that they had “unanimously voted to strike.”

Other Hollywood labor unions, including the actors’ SAG-AFTRA and the directors’ DGA, have expressed their support for the writers as they plan to hold separate talks with studios this summer.

The WGA stated, “Here is what all writers know: the companies have broken this business.”

“They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy.”

The last WGA strike, in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days while costing the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as a result of production being halted.

Source: Presstv

In Cameroon, hundreds of singers are using their voices to call for a cease-fire between the military and separatist forces in restive western regions. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced 750,000 since 2017.

In the courtyard of the Yaoundé city council, the singers performed songs calling for an end to the killing and destruction of property in the restive Northwest and Southwest regions.

Among the several hundred civilians listening to the singers is Dieudonne Bitam, a 24-year-old university student. Bitam said the songs speak to the conscience of Cameroonians who live in fear and uncertainty.

The peace singers are pulling in crowds because their music includes traditional rhythms from all the regions of Cameroon, he said, so the songs appeal to people of all generations and of different social, cultural, religious and professional backgrounds.

Similar events, organized by Cameroonian Artists for Peace, will take place in towns and villages across the central African state, the organizers say.

In the songs, the artists ask communities in safer localities to accommodate displaced persons. They also request fighters and government troops in conflict areas to observe a cease-fire so peace can return.

The singers say they will not travel to towns and villages prone to regular separatist attacks. They say singers and choral groups in western towns and villages where clashes are ongoing should sing in public squares when possible.

Ateh Francis, board chair of the Cameroon Musical Art Corporation SONACAM, said the singers are tired of the bloodshed, rape, maiming, stealing and abduction for ransom in the two western regions where separatist forces are fighting to set up an English-speaking state.

He said SONACAM assisted the artists in their peace caravan.

“These songs that call for peace and reconciliation are released by artists who are expressing concerns on the sufferings of the people and hoping to touch hearts,” he said. “The artists themselves are living and suffering with the people and decide to put it in song, hoping to touch the hearts of the government [officials] and the boys [fighters] to sit down and solve this problem, which is bringing untold suffering to our people.”

The large-scale appeal for peace by singers in Cameroon is the first since separatist crisis degenerated to an armed conflict in the central African state in 2017.

The peace singers say they rely on personal contributions and assistance from well-wishers to organize the musical peace caravans.

The governors of Cameroon’s restive northwest and southwest regions say they support all efforts to restore peace but insist that fighters who do not surrender and drop their weapons will be killed. Separatists also say they support the initiative, but fighters will continue their struggle for self-determination.

The separatist conflict broke out in 2016 when Anglophone Cameroonians protested what they said was discrimination by the Francophone majority.

The U.N. says fighting has since killed at least 3,500 people and displaced at least three-quarters of a million.

The singers are performing songs in both English and French, hoping to appeal to both sides of the conflict.

Source: VOA

A former president, a world-famous Hollywood director and a rock music icon walk into a restaurant.

It sounds like the setup to a joke, but staff at Amar restaurant in Barcelona witnessed just that on Thursday night.

Employees were left in shock when 44th US president Barack Obama, director Steven Spielberg and musician Bruce Springsteen walked in unannounced.

Chef Rafa Zafra said Amar had been suggested by Spanish-American celebrity restaurateur José Andrés.

“They came recommended by José Andrés, who has a very close relationship with Obama,” Mr Zafra told Spanish radio.

Mr Zafra said José Andrés told him that the booking was important. It was then that he realised that Mr Obama and his wife Michelle were in the city to attend a Springsteen concert, as was Spielberg.

Staff member Pol Perello uploaded a photo of them posing with wait staff and chefs to Instagram with the comment: “The pleasure this job brings you!”

“We gave them oysters, shellfish and fish from Roses, my classic – the caviar bikini – a little bit of everything… and super grateful!” Mr Zafra said.

Accompanied by security detail, the Obamas and Spielberg used Friday to visit some of Barcelona’s most famous sights, such as the Sagrada Familia basilica and the Picasso museum.

Springsteen’s E Street band began their European leg of their tour on Friday at the city’s Olympic Stadium.

The former president first met the rock legend on the presidential campaign trail in 2008. In 2021, they hosted the podcast Renegades: Born in the USA.

Source: BBC

A Cameroonian singer is suing a daughter of the president of the plaintiff’s native African country, alleging in a multimillion- dollar complaint that the defendant and her friend defamed her on the social media in 2021 by accusing her of dealing drugs and being involved in identity theft and fraud.

Singer Dencia, whose real name is Reprudentia Sonkey, brought the Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit on Wednesday against Anastasie Brenda Biya Eyenga, the daughter of Cameroon President Paul Biya, and a friend of Eyenga, Marie Therese Yabit. The complaint also alleges civil harassment and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

“Defendants’ baseless smears succeeded in backlashing at (Dencia) and destroying her professional career,” the suit states.

Dencia seeks at least $75 million in damages. Representatives for Eyenga and Yabit could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit brought Wednesday, which the Thousand Oaks resident filed on her own behalf without an attorney.

In addition to being an entertainer, Dencia has created several skin care and clothing brands, set up various businesses and founded the skin care brand “Whitenicious by Dencia,” of which she was the president and CEO, the suit states.

Her companies flourished due to her reputation as a popular Cameroonian singer and trustworthy entrepreneur in skin care products, the suit states.

In July 2015, Dencia was contacted by Eyenga’s public relations manager, who told the plaintiff that Eyenga, who eventually moved to Beverly Hills, admired her work and wanted her help in producing a photo shoot and in setting up her own brand, the suit states.

“During the years that followed, both (Dencia) and Eyenga maintained a cordial relationship,” the suit states. “They would both make text exchanges on a regularly basis.”

Eyenga returned to Cameroon in 2019 and the two lost contact, the suit states. In June 2021, Dencia was preparing to go to Cameroon the next month in the company of other musicians, including rapper Trey Songz, when a representative for Eyenga allegedly contacted the plaintiff about a birthday engagement and performing at Eyenga’s new hotel.

Eyenga asked Dencia for help getting her Instagram account certified, the suit states. But in a subsequent dispute, Eyenga accused Dencia of creating a fake account and trying to impersonate her, even though the plaintiff explained she was preoccupied with the death of her sister from cancer and could not help Eyenga get her account certified as the plaintiff had hoped, the suit states.

Eyenga, allegedly with Yabit’s help, accused Dencia on social media of identity theft and of being a “scammer” and a “fraudster,” the suit states.

“The news quickly made a media buzz about (Dencia) based on Eyenga’s allegations,” the suit states. “(Dencia’s) reputation was being trampled on by the daughter of the president of the Republic of Cameroon in a totally unjustified way.”

Dencia’s companies suffered losses and the stature she worked hard to establish has been damaged, causing her emotional distress, according to her suit, which further seeks a court order preventing any more allegedly defamatory postings.

Source: City News Service

The world of African cinema is in mourning with the disappearance of Alphonse Béni.

The Cameroonian director and actor died at the age of 77 following illness on Sunday. Born in 1946 in Nkongsamba, he left behind a cinematographic heritage marked by diversity and quality.

Alphonse Béni began his career in the 1970s as an actor. He notably played in French erotic comedies under the name of Alfons Beny and Chris Kelly. But it was as a director that he became known in Cameroon. He shot several auteur films, notably “The Choice of Akissi” in 1975 and “The Two Faces of Life” in 1981.

Alphonse Béni’s works were often marked by a reflection on the human condition and social injustices. He has also explored themes such as love, family, and cultural identity in his films. His work has been praised by many film fans and critics for its quality and originality.

Beyond his work as a director, Alphonse Béni was also a passionate teacher. He has taught cinema at several schools and universities in Africa, helping to train the next generation of African filmmakers.

The death of Alphonse Béni is a huge loss for the African film industry. His cinematographic achievements have influenced and inspired many African filmmakers. It has also paved the way for greater diversity of representation in cinema, thus contributing to the cultural enrichment of the continent.

The world of African cinema and cinema in general is losing a great artist and an important voice. Alphonse Béni will forever be remembered as a talented and committed filmmaker who left an indelible mark on the African film industry.

The disappearance of Alphonse Béni is a great loss for African cinema. He contributed to the creation of a unique cinematographic heritage and inspired many African filmmakers. His contribution to the film industry will never be forgotten, and his work will continue to inspire generations to come.

Source: archyde