Music and the media in Cameroon

Even though written press has freedom of speech and imprisonment of journalists has become rare, self-censorship is a common practice. Public and private universities guarantee the quality of journalism education; however some talented reporters trained on the job deserve great respect as well. Unfortunately cultural journalism is struggling to establish itself.

Radio

Most radio stations don’t offer a wide variety of shows. Therefore, music takes most of the airtime. In 2000, Yaoundé-based CRTV FM 94[i] director Daniel Anicet Noah supposedly threatened his radio hosts: “You can all stop working, I’m sure I’ll have more audience if I only play music all day!” . Former general manager of CRTV (Cameroon Radio Television), Pr Gervais Menzo Ze, set a quota of 60% of Cameroonian music soon after the rise of foreign African music styles such as Congolese rumba and n’dombolo or Ivorian mapouka on the CRTV waves. Nevertheless, radio hosts prefer playing foreign music for many good reasons. First, it is what people want to hear. Second, there will be no suspicion from radio or television promoters of artists bribing radio presenters. Finally, royalty owners stop harassing them for not making payments.

Only CRTV pays a royalty bill of 400 million francs per year. All radio shows are based on a music chart concept. The show names may differ but they all follow the same pattern and are scheduled in the late afternoon or early evening from Monday to Friday or during a weekly competition on Saturday. In the past, gold discs used to be awarded by radio stations. Saint Lazare Amougou was the host of the leading radio show on Saturday from 11am to midday on CRTV. The show was relayed by 10 regional stations and by commercial channels. The original station, Radio Cameroon, was the only genuine music recording studio until the end of the 1980s.

Television

Radio has always been copied by television in Cameroon. Most TV programmes are indeed adaptations of what had basically been created for radio broadcasting, such as music charts. Host Pascal Pierre and director Alain Mani produced the successful show ‘Tube Vision’ on CRTV throughout the 1990s, followed by Nadine Patricia Mengue, who has been as successful since the years 2000. Jocelyne Nankam hosts ‘Canal Hit’ on Canal 2 International[ii], but despite her talent, the show arguably doesn’t live up to the standards usually expected from independent TV channels. The good old days of CRTV are definitely over. There is a section called ‘weekend cultural review’ in the 1pm news on national television, hosted by Christelle Boudjieka and punctuated by song samples.  René Kanebena Bogondo used to host a show called ‘Daddy’s platinum’ every Saturday afternoon. His retirement created an issue as to who would replace him.

Elsewhere, Serge Atangana Bisso and Rachel Malongo both present reports during the news at the weekend. Major artists such as de Manu Dibango, Richard Bona, Sally Nyollo or even Vincent Nguini have been regular guests on the sets.  Unfortunately this type of initiative is seldom and may not resist competition. The best illustration of these dynamics is the last concert of X-Maleya at the Olympia in Paris, France. CRTV, Canal 2 International and even only the new magazine Chap Chap all sent teams to cover the event.

Music is definitely a market that many stations want to tap into, as broadcasting videos does make money. Private channels specialize in promoting live shows, thanks to editing experts who create attractive advertisements and have venues filled in no time. An artist’s appearance on TV can be followed by the release of his concert or tour schedule. Sponsors, who usually live in Europe, watch national channels via satellite. They fly those successful artists in so they can perform on stage for people of the diaspora. It is usually a financial success and the crowd can enjoy their homeland’s music and have a great time. In terms of genres, Makossa is perceived as a musical genre for well-dressed show-offs. Bikutsi, meanwhile, always refers to things below the belt. Some hosts seem to keep going back and forth between television and music. Foly Dirane, Rose Mbolé Epiè and Rosine Ebessa, for example, are singers as well as presenters on national TV. Jason Black, another small-screen celebrity, occasionally sings on Canal 2 International.

Print media

The written press mainly analyses the content of songs and quite many of them are borderline pornography which can be rather disturbing. Piracy, artist recognition and royalties are still major issues to be addressed. Joseph Foumtim’s monthly magazine, Mosaïques[iii], has been published for almost five years now. His columns are quite exhaustive in terms of information and analysis. But how many Cameroonians buy the magazine? Very few! Editor-in-chief Parfait Tabapsi is restless. Thanks to Goethe-Institut he was able to create Cameroon Arts Critics (CAMAC).

Online media

The 2000-seat venue in Paris, France, The Olympia, moved to the performance of X-Maleya on 14 September 2014. The show was a first for the Yaoundé-based Cameroonian band. The most incredible aspect was that the event was only promoted and covered on Facebook. As soon as a picture or a video was published, it would be tweeted and re-tweeted so that fans back in Cameroon could be part of the event. Facebook simply went crazy when Samuel Eto’o came on stage!

Many independent websites are emerging that cover the music of Cameroon. Mboa Pages[iv] is definitely one website to be checked out. It contains musical information and the writing is of professional level. However, the updating is quite slow. Another website worth mentioning is Musiki[v] which focuses on music and its main players with great professionalism, so much that it is trusted by beer brand Mutzig. Musiki is now even published in a printed version. Journal du Cameroun[vi] is a news website that also covers music. Yaoundé Infos[vii], another website, dedicates 80% of its lines to interviewing artists and presenting their albums and live performances. Promoter Ericien Pascal Nguiamba is truly devoted to the website.

Established radio stations and TV channels also post their content online, while newspaper websites are typically more elaborate. The media in Cameroon have helped to erased tribalism in the diffusion of music. In Cameroon, each citizen is more aware of his home region than the rest of the country. But thanks to the press and mostly to television, even people in the English-speaking region of Mamfé dance to Lady Ponce’s or K-tino’s bikutsi and the ‘bottle dance’ of Bamenda is just as popular in the French south.